Bible Discussion Thread

Verse 9; Why did the devil want Moses body? I read that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The soul leaves the body, yet I cannot understand what and why the devil wanted Moses body. A person can kill the body, but not the soul. Can someone give me some positive feedback. Thank you and God bless you.

Hi Marie. The essence of Jude verse 9 is that Michael, the Archangel, dared not bring a railing accusation against the devil. We know this because of Jude's earlier warnings of wicked men (verse 4) who crept into the Church, teaching wrong doctrine & turning God's Grace into lasciviousness (unrestrained sexual behaviour). And these same 'filthy dreamers' (v 8) despise dominion & speak evil of dignities. And so Jude gives the example of Michael who dared not rail accusations against the Devil, though he had every right to do so, rather said "The Lord rebuke thee".

So that's all we know from this Book: Jude's warning to the readers of his epistle to be aware of such wickedness entering the Church. Re the occasion of the body of Moses, we know nothing about this event: what was the problem here, what was the accusation or what was reason for even bringing it up? Was it to do with the fact that God (by His angel?) buried Moses rather than being done by man ( Deuteronomy 34:1-8), or maybe Moses wasn't buried at all since his grave is unknown, or some other reason that the Devil brought up? So from this verse, we can't assume that the Devil was wanting Moses' body - we are not told what the contention (argument) was about.

If we believe what the Scripture says about Moses' body, then he was buried but he was still in spirit form when he appeared, along with Elijah, at Jesus' transfiguration ( Matthew 17:1-4). It could well be that his body was in the grave awaiting the resurrection, just as Abraham was in Luke 16:19-31. And in like manner, those who have now died believing in Christ Jesus, their spirits have been released to return to God, but their remains on the Earth will be reconstructed to rise in the resurrection, being given glorified bodies ( 1 John 3:2).