Numbers 14:29-35
Numbers 26:64-65
Hebrews 3:17
Verse 17. But with whom was he grieved forty years? With whom was he angry? Heb 3:10. Was it not with them that had sinned? That had sinned in various ways --by rebellion, murmuring, in belief. As God was angry with them for their sins, we have the same reason to apprehend that he will be angry with us if we sin; and we should, therefore, be on our guard against that unbelief which would lead us to depart from him, Heb 3:12. Whose carcases fell, Nu 14:29. That is, they all died, and were left on the sands of the desert. The whole generation was strewed along in the way to Canaan. All of those who had seen the wonders that God had done in the land of Ham---who had been rescued in so remarkable a manner from oppression--were thus cut down, and died in the deserts through which they were passing, Nu 26:64,65. Such an example of the effects of revolt against God, and of unbelief, was well fitted to admonish Christians in the time of the apostle, and is fitted to admonish us now, of the danger of the sin of unbelief. We are not to suppose that all of those who thus died were excluded from heaven. Moses and Aaron were among the number of those who were not permitted to enter the promised land, but of their piety there can be no doubt. Beyond all question, also, there were many others of that generation who were truly pious. But, at different times, they seem all to have partaken of the prevalent feelings of discontent, and were all involved in the sweeping condemnation that they should die in the wilderness. (b) "carcases" Nu 26:64,65, Jude 1:5 Jude 5
Verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance. "To show you what must be the doom of such men, I will call certain facts to your recollection, with which you are familiar, respecting the Divine treatment of the wicked in times past." Though ye once knew this. That is, you were formerly made acquainted with these things, though they may not be now fresh in your recollection. On the different significations affixed to the word once in this place, see Bloomfield, Crit. Digest, in loc. The thing which seems to have been in the mind of the apostle was an intention to call to their recollection, as bearing on the case before him, facts with which they had formerly been familiar, and about which there was no doubt. It was the thing which we often endeavour to do in argument--to remind a person of some fact which he once knew very well, and which bears directly on the case. How that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt. 1Cor 10:6-12. The bearing of this fact on the case, before the mind of Jude, seems to have been this--that, as those who had been delivered from Egypt were afterward destroyed for their unbelief, or as the mere fact of their being rescued did not prevent destruction from coming on them, so the fact that these persons seemed to be delivered from sin, and had become professed followers of God, would not prevent their being destroyed if they led wicked lives. It might rather be inferred from the example of the Israelites that they would be. Afterward. τοδευτερον the second; that is, the second thing in order, or again. The expression is unusual in this sense, but the apostle seems to have fixed his mind on this event as a second great and important fact in regard to them. The first was that they were delivered; the second, that they were destroyed. Destroyed them that believed not. That is, on account of their unbelief. They were not permitted to enter the promised land, but were cut off in the wilderness. Heb 3:16-19. (a) "Lord" 1Cor 10:5-12 (b) "destroyed" Nu 14:29,37, Heb 3:16-19
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