Most recently, I’ve finished my Read. Write. Pray. journey with the book of Malachi. It’s a short book, only 4 chapters long, but it has a lot to say! If you don’t know what “Read. Write. Pray.” is, read my article about it.
Right at the beginning of it, the LORD tells Israel, his chosen people, how much he loves them. Then he asks them questions to help them see that their love for him has grown cold. Though they think they love and follow him, their actions reveal how far their hearts are from him.
Here are five things that were touched on in these four chapters:
- Despising the LORD’s name: The nation of Israel was skewing how they followed God’s law, following some of it but disregarding other parts. They sacrificed blemished animals instead of offering pure, perfect animals as God had commanded them. They seemed to think that it didn’t really matter how they were doing it, because they were still sacrificing, at least. But it said that what they were really doing was despising the LORD’s name by these actions!
- Being Faithless to their Spouses: They were crying out to God, because things were going wrong. God wasn’t regarding them with favor, and they didn’t know why. God said it was because they were being faithless to their spouses. God had joined them together by covenant, with a part of his Spirit! God says he has a special hand in marriage and he hates divorce, but his people had no regard for this special thing he had given them.
- Skewed Ideas of Good and Evil: It says that they thought people who did evil things were good in God’s sight, and that he delighted in them! They called good evil, and evil good.
- They were robbing God: They didn’t give God their full tithe, instead they brought only portions, or leftovers into God’s house. Again, they didn’t think it really mattered what they did, because at least they were giving him something instead of nothing.
- They spoke against God: It says they didn’t see the profit of following God because they saw evil people prosper, and good people didn’t have an advantage. It says that this was speaking against God! They were probably grumbling and saying that he was unfair or uncaring.
What do these things remind you of? For me, I’m seeing the things our world today struggles with, even in Christianity! We obey him half-heartedly or not at all; we’re having affairs and getting divorces left and right; we’re saying that biblical things are wrong, and that things the bible speaks against are good; we give God a $20 in the offering plate and call it good when that falls so short of 10%; we grumble and say that God is unfair, how can he care and not do anything about the evil in the world?
Right at the end of Malachi, after going through all those things, he said that his people have hope, because in the end he will judge rightly, and evil deeds will be punished, and the righteous will be healed and go out leaping for joy.
