Malachi 3-4 (August 26)
Malachi 3-4
What Is Justice?
(August 26)
Ref: Malachi 2:17 (NIV)
“You have wearied the LORD with your words.
"How have we wearied Him?" you ask.
By saying,
"All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and He is pleased with them"
or
"Where is the God of justice?"”
Are you questioning God's justice in your life?
Has your sense of fairness been violated by His perspective?
How does He respond to our doubt and fear?
Ref: Malachi 3:1 (CEV)
"I, the LORD All-Powerful, will send My messenger to prepare the way for Me.
Then suddenly the Lord you are looking for will appear in His temple.
The messenger you desire is coming with My promise, and he is on his way.”
Jesus is the ultimate statement and expression of God's justice.
His arrival and mission (to be heralded by John the Baptist) is foretold here.
The Jews are implicitly instructed to expectantly await the arrival of the Messiah.
We are given the same marching orders.
Ref: Luke 21:34-36 (MSG) [Jesus]
“But be on your guard.
Don't let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping.
Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap,
for it's going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once.
So, whatever you do, don't go to sleep at the switch.
Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that's coming
and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.”
Ref: Revelation 22:20b (NASB) [Jesus speaking to John and John's reply]
“"Yes, I am coming quickly"
Amen Come, Lord Jesus.”
We must be prepared for His arrival.
What can we expect through His arrival (what were/are the Jews expecting?)
What have we gained by His life, death, and resurrection? What will we gain from His return?
Ref: Malachi 3:2 (NIV)
“But who can endure the day of His coming?
Who can stand when He appears?
For He will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.”
Who can stand?
Only Jesus will stand in the end!
Our fate is unalteringly tied to His destiny,
and we have been cleaned/prepared/sanctified by His Spirit for the time of His fulfillment
(not according to our own sensibilities, but according to His infinite and ultimate wisdom).
How can we prepare ?
How has God prepared or provided for us?
Repent of Stealing and Have Faith that God Will Bless Us
Ref: Malachi 3:6-12 (NIV)
“"I the LORD do not change.
So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from My decrees
and have not kept them.
Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
"Will a man rob God?
Yet you rob Me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In tithes and offerings.
You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house.
Test Me in this," says the LORD Almighty,
"and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing
that you will not have room enough for it.
I will prevent pests from devouring your crops,
and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty.
"Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,"
says the LORD Almighty.”
Are you withholding something from God?
Our physical tithe is the most obvious,
but are there other parts of our lives that we're keeping (hoarding) for ourselves?
Malachi gives us encouragement in this well-known verse:
Ref: Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house.
Test Me in this," says the LORD Almighty,
"and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing
that you will not have room enough for it.”
This verse sums up God's justice for us wonderfully.
If we will simply repent of our “secrets” that we're hiding/keeping from God
and faithfully follow His direction,
He will “open the floodgates”.
Is this passage about percentages or about obedience to God's Law?
If we will turn from our attitude of stealing from Him what He bought on the cross (our very lives),
He will bless us.
Repent of False Testimony/Witness and Have Faith that God Will Spare Us
Ref: Malachi 3:13-18 (NIV)
“"You have said harsh things against Me," says the LORD.
"Yet you ask, 'What have we said against You?'
"You have said, 'It is futile to serve God.
What did we gain by carrying out His requirements
and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty?
But now we call the arrogant blessed.
Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.' "
Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard.
A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence
concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.
"They will be Mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up My treasured possession.
I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him.
And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked,
between those who serve God and those who do not.”
What should our testimony be?
Romans 10:9 (NLT)
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.”
What is false testimony/witness?
Ref: Malachi 3:15 (NIV)
“But now we call the arrogant blessed.
Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.' "”
If we see consequences and circumstances in this world as more important or more powerful than Him, we are guilty of false testimony/witness.
Conclusion
Malachi 4 completes the Old Testament and shines a light forward to the New Testament.
We are given a warning and an encouragement.
The Warning-
Ref: Malachi 4:1 (NIV)
“"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace.
All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble,
and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty.
"Not a root or a branch will be left to them."”
The Encouragement-
Ref: Malachi 4:2 (NIV)
“But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.
And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.”
Malachi 4:5-6 closes the book by prophesying again of John the Baptist and Jesus.
God calls us (as we await His return) to share freely with Him (as He has shared freely with us)
and to speak rightly of Him (as He will speak rightly of us at the Judgment).
This is His sense of justice.
