TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) Practical application: Honor God with your tithe, continue to serve him – even when evil seems to prosper.
Find the original NIV Version of Malachi 3.
1“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says theLord Almighty.
God promises to send a messenger. Not sure if this is supposed to be Jesus or someone else.
2 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.3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
God will test and put to trials in order to refine his people. After you are refined you will be able to bring offerings in righteousness. Righteous offerings will be acceptable to God.
5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
If you’re blatantly sinning God will put you on Trial. Do the opposite of these people. Practice loyalty and love, be fair, keep your promises, love the widowed and father, be just, and fear God.
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors 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.
God does not change. God loves us – that’s not going to change. I love that there is one thing in the universe that does not change. There is one thing that stays constant. God promises if I return to him he will return to me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 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 there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
I believe the way God has developed the system of the church and for my heart is the tithing process. One way we can return to God is to give our best tithe to him. As a human – my flaw is that the nature of system of feedback has a lag time. I need to remember to continue doing good and God will bless me.
13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’”
16 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.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
I’ll be honest, I’ve felt this way some times. When this happens I try to remember God will show me that by listening and obeying him – at the end if I continue to live more like Christ everyday he will bless me.
Malachi 1 Commentary by Hoo Kang
Malachi 2 Commentary by Hoo Kang
Malachi 3 Commentary by Hoo Kang
Malachi 4 Commentary by Hoo Kang
Do you have some insight to add or did I make a mistake? Please share your insights in the comments below.
