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Who Does Michael Represent When He Contended with Satan?

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Hi C____,

Thank you for your questions:  1) “Who does Michael represent in this situation?”, and 2) “Why did Satan want the body of Moses?”

Here is your very concise e-mail:

The short answer to both of your questions is that “the body of Moses” is the type of “the body of Christ”, and the dispute between Michael and Satan is the anti-type of the dispute between the apostle Paul (Christ) and those who believe that circumcision and obedience to “the law of Moses”, aka “the body of Moses” are essential to our salvation:

Act 15:1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Act 15:2  When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, [Michael disputing with the devil about the body of Moses] they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

That contention between Michael and Satan continues down to our time.

Look at the very next verse here in the book of Jude:

Jud 1:10 But these [who dispute with Michael about the body of Moses] speak evil of those things which they know not [the body and doctrines of the words of Christ]: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

Let’s continue to read about those who “dispute about the body of Moses”:

Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Jud 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Jud 1:13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Jud 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
Jud 1:15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Jud 1:16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

Here is a quote from Black’s Law Dictionary, demonstrating how we speak of “the body of laws” until this day:

(The Law Dictionary Organization: Body of Laws)

All the words Christ spoke are referred to as “the law of Christ”, and He poses the question:

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Gal 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

The devil could not withstand the words of Michael because Michael was speaking the words of “the law of Christ”, which Christ Himself refers to as “My body”:

Joh 6:51  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh [“My body”], which I will give for the life of the world.

1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

We are all eating either the body of Christ in the New Testament, or we are eating the body of Moses in the carnal commandments of the Old Testament.

Those who continue until this very day to insist on a two-part ‘body of Christ’ are those who want, as does the devil, to cling to “the body of Moses” and to nullify the revelation that God is in Christ “making of two one new man”. This is what Satan disputed with Michael about at that time, and this is what he is still disputing with Michael about until this very day:

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

Not one minister or priest or Rabbi in a thousand believes those words. They almost all think that “those who are called circumcision” are still the Lord’s elect, and that “the son of the bondwoman… Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children” will yet “be made heir with the son of the freewoman”, as ‘the body of Moses’ dictates:

Deu 26:19 And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.

Deu 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law [“Dispute with Michael about the body [of the law] of Moses”], do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. [The law of Moses was given at Mount Sinai which “answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”]
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we [Gentile Galatians], brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Who Does Michael Represent?

Michael, in this situation in Jude, represents the same person he is presented to be in all situations:

Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Dan 10:14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
Dan 10:15 And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb.
Dan 10:16  And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.

“Thy people” are “the children of promise” of Galatians 4:28.  From these words it is clear that it is the Lord Himself who is speaking to Daniel… “one like the similitude of the sons of men”, the very phrase Christ used most often in reference to Himself:

Mat 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Mat 20:18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,

Christ is telling Daniel that the prince of Persia withstood Him “one and twenty days” until “Michael, one of the chief princes came to help [Him]”, and now the Lord Himself, “one like the similitude of the sons of men”, is now here “to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days”.

In verse 21 of this same chapter of Daniel, Michael is referred to as “…your prince”:

Dan 10:21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.

So, Michael is “one of the chief princes” of the spirit realm who assists Christ in carrying out His Father’s will as it pertains to the Lord’s chosen people. Christ is the very most “chief… Prince of Peace” through whom the Father is working all things after the counsel of His own will”:

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

“The prince of Persia” is a spiritual ‘prince’. He could be Satan or ‘one of his princes’. His function is to be an adversary to Christ. Satan himself is called “the prince of the power of the air”, of whose ‘body’ we are all first a part:

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

The word “conversation” is an old English way of saying ‘way of life’. We all first have our own ‘way of life… by nature [being] the children of wrath’. What that means is that we are all first of “the body of Moses… made of a woman, made under the law… for the lawless”. That is where Satan works to keep all men:

Mat 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Being “under the law” is being “in bondage under the elements of the world”. “But in the fullness of time” we are “redeemed [from being] under the law… of the lawless, [and we become] the sons of the freewoman, [no longer] under the elements of the world… the law of Moses… the law… for the lawless”.

“Made under the law” is to be “under… the body of Moses” about which Satan and Michael disputed. Here is another verse which cannot even be seen by those who still subscribe to “the body of Moses… the law of Moses”:

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
1Ti 1:11  According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

“The body of Moses… the law [of Moses] is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless… murderers… whoremongers… thieves… liars… and… any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine”.

Satan knows what the ministers of his Babylonian religious system do not know. “The law [of Moses] is for the lawless and disobedient”, who would have us all to remain “under the law… shut up unto the faith [of Jesus Christ] which should afterward be revealed”:

Gal 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gal 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal 3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith [of Christ] is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster [the body of the law of Moses].

That was and is the contention between Michael, who helps Christ and His Christ, and Satan, who wants to keep all men under “the body of [the law] of Moses”. All Michael had to do was to quote Galatians 3-4 and Ephesians 2, and in so doing he was saying, “The Lord rebuke thee Satan.”

I hope this helps you to better understand the contention that exists until this very day between “Michael, the prince of your people… the church which is His body [Christ’s body, with Christ’s doctrines], versus Satan, who wants to keep us all “under the curse… of the law for the lawless… the body of Moses”, with all of his “carnal commandments”:

Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Heb 7:15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
Heb 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

For a much more in-depth look into this subject take the time to read the lengthy paper entitled:

The Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit

Your brother in “the body of Christ” as opposed to “the body of Moses”,
Mike

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