It's 2024 and some people still think the angel Gabriel had a bloody fight with satan over the body of Moses. Most people had the privilege of sitting in Sunday school growing up, so they know the body of Moses represents the law but was this a physical battle? Who was the devil that dared fight against the angel Michael? Actually, who is angel Michael? Why was the devil interested in having the body of Moses?
Let's get into it
Jud 1:9 But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did
not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
This scripture seems to paint the picture that the corpse of Moses was what was in contention here. Let's examine the text.
Who is angel Michael?
Let’s start with angel Michael – angel Michael is described as the archangel and it means principal, chief, the first. So Michael is the chief of the angels; the chief messenger. The Hebrew word for Michael is – "he who is like God". That suggests that angel Michael is Jesus Christ himself and we see this from the scripture below:
Rev 12:7 Then a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
Angel Michael leads the troops, we can agree that the person in the bible book of Jude battling for the body of Moses is Jesus himself. If we’ve established the it was Jesus that was the archangel here, who then was the devil? We must also know who the devil was. The reason we need to agree is that, if Jesus was the archangel on God’s side, it suggests that heaven sent their best, this also means the devil was the “archdevil” on the other side!
Defining the devil
In order to define who the devil was in the book of Jude, we must first examine other occurences in the scriptures where the angel Michael was also in play and who the adversary was. Let's start our studies from the book of Daniel 12, which called Michael the great Prince, who we know is Christ: same angel Michael in the book of Jude.
Dan 12:1
Dan 12:1 “At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning of nations until that time. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be
delivered.
Again, angel Michael here was defined as a prince, and then a little further in Daniel 10:13, another prince was introduced, the prince of Persia who was an opposition to angel/prince Michael.
Dan 10:13 However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then
Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Dan 10:21 But first I will tell you what is inscribed in the Book of Truth. Yet no one has the courage to
support me against these, except Michael your prince.
As we progress in this study, it is useful to ask questions: if God sent an angel on an errand, can a demon can restrict that angel? It sounds weird because even us as mere men, God has given us the power to cast our demons and we learn that from Isaiah 54.
So let's proceed to define who the prince that battled angel Michael is; the prince of this world.
2Cor 4:3
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
2Cor 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Eph 2:1-2
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Eph 2:2
In which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the
power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
The scriptures above are quite interesting; the spirit works in the children of disobedience. What this tells us is that the devil can only work through people.
The prince of Persia was an individual who wanted to stop what Daniel was asking for.
Daniel was an old man and had been in a fast for 21 days. What was Daniel asking for? The rebuilding of Jerusalem, it was during the reign of King Cyrus.
So who is this prince?
We'll answer this question in a moment. Scriptural interpretation requires you to pick out references across the bible to make sense of words - because the bible must be able to explain the bible.
Num 7:11 And the LORD said to Moses, “Each day one prince is to present his offering for the
dedication of the altar.”
Num 7:18 On the second day Nethanel son of Zuar, the prince of Issachar, drew near.
Basically, all through to verse 78, the prince of each tribe offers the sacrifice. In the bible, princes refers
to people.
2Sa 3:38 Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great prince has fallen today in
Israel?
Dan 9:26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the
people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a
flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
From the book of Numbers, all the leaders are princes,
- Daniel 9: the prince is General Titus who came in and destroyed Jerusalem in AD70.
- 2 Samuel: Abner was referred to as the prince.
- Dan 10:20 : The prince of Grecia was Alexander the great who wanted to destroy Persia.
If we have established all of these, who then is the prince of Persia? The king Cyrus is the prince of Persia! If you start reading from Isaiah 44: 24, it starts with "thus saith the Lord" and there were a lot of proclamations by God and in verse 28, God says King Cyrus is His annointed!
So who was actually resisting Daniel?
It was King Cyrus who was not willing to support the rebuilding of the wall. Essentially, Daniel’s prayer
after the period of fasting was for the rebuilding of the city, and King Cyrus was not prepared to make the decree, and that was where Jesus had to come and inspire him from behind the scene.
The book of Ezra chapter 1 shows us that even when the temple’s work started, they had to stop at a time because of persecution. I submit to you that the prince of Persia is the king Cyrus of Persia; a person, not a spirit.
So when we revisit Daniel 12:1, who is the prince of the Jews? – Jesus Christ!
The Lord rebuke you
In Jude 1:9, it says archangel Michael said The Lord rebuke you. What does this mean?
Zech 3:1-2 tells us about Joshua who was the high priest, and proceeds to share how satan wanted to bring an accusation against him.
Zec 3:1 Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with
Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
Zec 3:2 And the LORD said to Satan: “The LORD rebukes you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD, who has chosen
Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a firebrand snatched from the fire?”
The same statement in Zech 3 is the same in Jude 1:9.
If it was warfare between Jesus and satan, why will Jesus (who we have now established as the archangel) transfer authority from Himself to God and ask God to do the job? Why will Jesus ask God to rebuke satan when He had all the power? Was Jesus not powerful enough for satan?
These questions pop up only because we have a wrong understanding of that scripture. The Lord rebuke you means simply the Lord correct you! There was no bloody battle going on there.
The Jerusalem bible translates this as "The Lord correct you", the NLT explains it: this took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses' body. What we are seeing here is a legal battle, not a pysical battle, not one where swords were drawn. How did we arrive at this? The body of Moses was never found but we'll get there soon. Jesus rebuked Peter in Matthew 16:23 when he said he will go to Jerusalem and die. It's the same thing happening in the book of Jude, Peter was reminding Him that he is the Messiah, but Jesus simply corrected him and said he will receive understanding.
The physical body of Moses
Now unto the body of moses, what happened to the natural body of Moses?
Deu 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which
faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead as far as Dan,
Deu 34:2 all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western
Sea,
Deu 34:3 the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar.
Deu 34:4 And the LORD said to him, “This is the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you will not
cross into it.”
Deu 34:5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, as the LORD had said.
Deu 34:6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day
knows the location of his grave.
God buried him by himself, there is no way Jude was talking about the physical body of Moses. No man
knows where God buried Moses. So back to Jude 1:9
Jud 1:9 But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did
not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
When you read the synopsis of Zohar or the Apocriphas, the Jews don’t even accept you speaking
against wicked spirits, it was a Jewish culture so “the Lord rebuke you” was about correction, as they are
bound by culture not to even bring accusations against wicked spirits.
To rebuke means to admonish, this agrees with the Jerusalem translation and the message translation
that used the word “correct thee” and that’s because they believe that regardless of the wickedness of
the spirit, you don’t bring accusation or wrong words against the spirit.
The body of Jesus
Ephesians 1:18 - The body of Christ is the church
Eph 1:18 I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His
calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the
working of His mighty strength,
Eph 1:20 which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right
hand in the heavenly realms,
Eph 1:21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only
in the present age but also in the one to come.
Eph 1:22 And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,
Eph 1:23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Eph 4:4 – there is just one body
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
1 cor 12:12 – Christ
ESV For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many,
are one body, so it is with Christ.
NIV Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
So the body of Christ is the church, and the body of Moses is the church that was in the wilderness.
Moses was the head of the church in the wilderness. So why was the devil dragging for the body of
Moses? This definitely wasn’t the physical body of Moses but the church that was in the wilderness.
Rom 8:2 – the body of Christ functions on the law of life, while the body of Moses functions on the law
of sin and death.
Rom 8:2 For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 6:14
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Gal 5:18
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Romans 8 says we are under the spirit of life.
What makes up the body of Moses? – its all the laws that Moses gave. All the devil was struggling for
was that the law should remain, he doesn’t want the law to come to an end…because that’s where he
has his own power to function. 1 cor 15:54
1 Co 15:54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with
immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in
victory.”
1Co 15:55 “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
1Co 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
As far as you are in Christ, you have victory over the law and that is victory over death, what the devil
was saying in Jude 1:9 is that he doesn’t want death to be abolished, he doesn’t want immortality to be
introduced. We are susceptible to laws, Adam and Eve ate from the tree because there were laws, our
curiosity kicks in the more laws we make. So the devil loves laws, so he can gain victims who he can
accuse, and legally, if you break a law, it becomes legal for the accusations to stand true against you. But
thanks be to God (1 cor 15:57) who gives us victory through Jesus Christ and Roms 8:1 says There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
It is our turn to correct (rebuke) the devil and say the era of the law is over, the devil can’t hold the laws
over us because Jesus has given us the victory, not just over sin but over death and poverty. So we
posess everything Jesus died for.
