EXPOSITION:

Apostle Jude once again saw the false teachers who had become apostates “raging waves of the sea” and wandering stars in the night. Obviously, raging waves do carry some power as taught by mariners, Jude used the raging waves not because of their power, but because of their pride and arrogant speech which echoes in our ears. He equates the lips of these false teachers with a mouth that speaks great swelling words like the swelling of the sea, they make a lot of noise but produce only rubbish and garbage.

A walk along the beach in the morning after a storm greets you with the ugly refuse that has been deposited on the shore. Jude perhaps had Isaiah 57:20 in mind and from the Message Bible- “But the wicked are storm-battered seas that can’t quiet down. The waves stir up garbage and mud.”

These false teachers are also wandering stars in the night. Note Jude was not referring to fixed stars, planets, or comets, because they have definite positions and orbits. He was referring to meteors and falling stars that suddenly appear and then vanish into the darkness, never to be seen again.

Our Lord Jesus is even compared to a star (Rev. 2:28; 22:16), and Christians are to shine as stars in this dark world (Phil 2:15). Fixed stars can be depended on to guide the traveler through the darkness, but wandering stars can only lead him astray. The true teacher of the Word brings up the treasures of the deep, but the false teacher produces only refuse and wanderings in the night.