iv been wanting to blog again for some time, but have found nothing pressed upon my heart to write. until this morning. normally things come to me in the shower, but this morning it was while i enjoyed my waffles and bacon with a cup of oj.
for the last several weeks i have been working on a lesson for one of my classes. i have been studying a passage in the book of Malachi, and it has been fascinating studying the historical and spiritual context of the people in this book. the main focus i am teaching on has to do with blessing and repentance, but something else came to mind as i sat and thought about the passage at breakfast this morning. something i will not be teaching on this time, so i thought a blog would be good.
my passage of choice is Malachi 3:6-18, and there is an interesting thing that we find in this passage that i believe shows us the hearts of the people. we find here God calling the people of Israel back to repentance, to fully rely on Him and follow the commands He has given them. in return, God promises to bless them incredibly (10b). now, these people have time and time again been called back to repentance and fallen away again. but here we find God calling the people out on specific sins, specifically tithing, and their speaking against God. lets look at the first situation:
7b"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
8Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'"
the people of Malachi's day were not new to this. they knew the commands of the LORD, and yet again they choose to disobey. and here we find God confronting them, calling them out in their sin. did you notice how they responded? as if they were in shock and have no idea what God is talking about. we see it again in the second situation:
13"You have said harsh things against me," says the LORD.
"Yet you ask, 'what have we said against you?'"
yet again we find them playing dumb. here i believe we see the hearts of the people. prideful, arrogant, and self-righteous people who denied and question God's accusations of their sin. i think of the times when i have and do sin still, and how do i act when i am confronted with it. do i play dumb? do i let my selfish pride and self-righteousness get in the way, and stop me from being humbled and repenting? sadly, i must say yes. i think many of us do. it is funny, at least for me, how i can look at the people of the Bible, and be so judgmental and condescending in my thoughts towards them. "wow, were they blind? that seems so easy! why couldn't they just do it???" and yet, i am no different than they were. i am just as sinful, and just as spiritually dumb a lot of the time. i am just as self-righteous and prideful and arrogant as the people of the Bible. and yet, we are called to be much more than that. or perhaps, it would be better put to say much less than that. to be humble. to be repentant.
it makes me think of the psalm of David after Nathan the prophet confronted him of his adulterous act with Bathsheba. in Psalm 51 he writes,
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
we do not see this at first with the people in Malachi's day. their hearts were prideful and arrogant, full of self-righteousness. we are called to be as David was when his sin was found out; broken, humbled and repentant before the throne of God.
next time you are confronted with sin in your life, how will you react? will it be in a way similar to the Israelite's of Malachi's day? or will it be like that of David? and this isn't just with God directly, but with the people He places in our paths as well. what would it look like if the next time you get in an argument with your spouse, you went back to them and apologized? or when you make fun of that kid at school, you tell them you are sorry? what would it look like, what would it be like, if those were not just words that spilled out of our mouths as involuntary reactions, but were instead intentionally filled with humility, love and repentance? God wants more than empty words. He wants repentance, and obedience.
