“I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.”
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe — Jude appeals to Israel's wilderness generation as the primary historical paradigm for God's judgment of unbelief, reminding the community that rescue and destruction are divine prerogatives and that covenant membership does not guarantee salvation if faith is abandoned. The phrase 'the Lord... at one time delivered... but later destroyed' establishes a pattern that Jude will repeat with other OT examples: election does not nullify accountability, and God's judgment falls on those within the covenant community who reject him. This opening example establishes the thematic arc: those 'called' and 'beloved' remain secure only if they persevere in faith.
Church Fathers on Jude 1:5
For the Lord God, he says, who once delivered a people out of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not; that is, that He might train them through punishment. For they were indeed punished, and they perished on account of those that are saved, until they turn to the Lord. But the angels, he says, that kept not their own pre-eminence, that, namely, which they received through advancement, but left their own habitation, meaning, that is, the heaven and the stars,…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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