I think it is safe to say these rhetorical questions have angrily or bitterly come from our lips more than once in our lives:  What am I doing wrong, why won’t this work?   Why won’t life work for me? Why do I feel this way about myself?  Why am I grumping to those around me?  Why does God seem so far away?  Why can’t I hear him?  Why do others treat me with hate in their hearts?  What did I do to them?  What will make life work for me and not against me? 

“How have we wronged you, God?”  “How do we come back to you?”

“Glad you asked”, says Malachi with words directly from God.  God tells His people through Malachi exactly what they are doing wrong with how to correct it.  God addresses their disobedient behavior by reminding them that HE never changed but they have.  “Return to Me, so I can return to you.” –God  

And then God tells them how.   

Malachi 3, The Message

The Master You’ve Been Looking For

“Look! I’m sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you’ve been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you’ve been waiting for. Look! He’s on his way!” A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^2-4 But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?

He’ll be like white-hot fire from the smelter’s furnace. He’ll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He’ll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He’ll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they’re fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.

* * *

⁵ “Yes, I’m on my way to visit you with Judgment. I’ll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn’t honor me.” A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

* * *

^6-7 “I am God—yes, I Am. I haven’t changed. And because I haven’t changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven’t been destroyed. You have a long history of ignoring my commands. You haven’t done a thing I’ve told you. Return to me so I can return to you,” says God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

“You ask, ‘But how do we return?’

^8-11 “Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day.

“You ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’

“The tithe and the offering—that’s how! And now you’re under a curse—the whole lot of you—because you’re robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers.” The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

¹² “You’ll be voted ‘Happiest Nation.’ You’ll experience what it’s like to be a country of grace.” God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.

The Difference Between Serving God and Not Serving Him

¹³ God says, “You have spoken hard, rude words to me.

“You ask, ‘When did we ever do that?’

^14-15 “When you said, ‘It doesn’t pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it? When we did what he said and went around with long faces, serious about God-of-the-Angel-Armies, what difference did it make? Those who take life into their own hands are the lucky ones. They break all the rules and get ahead anyway. They push God to the limit and get by with it.’”

¹⁶ Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God’s presence and minutes were taken of the meeting, with the names of the God-fearers written down, all the names of those who honored God’s name.

^17-18 God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, “They’re mine, all mine. They’ll get special treatment when I go into action. I treat them with the same consideration and kindness that parents give the child who honors them. Once more you’ll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the right thing and one who doesn’t, between serving God and not serving him.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?  Glad you asked…

God condemned Israel’s complacent and contemptuous attitude toward him. The priests withheld their best animals from the sacrifice, and the people got tired of waiting for the Messiah.  We can learn the most from God when we give him our undivided attention.  God will give us all the answers to our questions when we lay down our agendas, be still before Him, let go of all that is bothering or distracting us and just listen.

When we wonder why God seems far away, we must pause to realize who changed.  God does not change.  Who moved?  God is always present.  Mm, must be us.

Warren Wiersbe comments,

“The first prophecy in the first paragraph refers to our Lord’s first coming in grace and mercy, but the prophecy speaks of His Second Coming in judgment. When He comes, He will prove that God is just by purifying his people and judging rebellious sinners. Jesus Christ is the “messenger of the covenant” in that He fulfilled all the demands of the covenant in his life, suffered the penalties in His death, and rose from the dead to usher in a new covenant of grace.” 

John the Baptist ministry is foretold…

The name Malachi means “My messenger,” and the messenger referred to in this statement is John the Baptist. Speaking of him, Jesus said, “this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You’ ” (Matthew 11:10; see Mark 1:2 and Luke 7:27). The image is of people preparing a way for the king to come, leveling the roads and removing the obstacles so that the king might enjoy an easy and comfortable trip. John prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus by preaching the Word to the crowds, urging them to repent of their sins, baptizing them, and then introducing them to Jesus.

In the Law of Moses, God had provided three ways for people and things to be cleansed and made acceptable to God: water, fire, and blood. Jesus blood paid for our sins forever.  And He will come back to claim His own who believes and follows Him.

God does not tolerate the abuse and humiliation of His created by His created.

Since God made and owns everything, He doesn’t need anything that we can bring Him. But He is pleased when we obey His Word and bring our gifts as an act of worship with grateful hearts.  “Paul taught grace giving in 2 Corinthians 8–9, which is certainly beyond 10 percent. Many Christians feel that if believers under the old covenant brought their tithes, how could Christians under the new covenant begin with anything less?” –Wiersbe 

Give generously and gratefully.  “Bring ye all the tithes” and offerings into the storehouse so others may benefit from our collective giving.”  Give often without hesitating to think what you will get from giving.  Give with no strings attached.  Give because God gave His Son to save us. 

What can we possible give that God does not already have?  Ourselves.  “Test Me in this…” says the God of all, over all, and in all.  Our giving is growing us to be all that God requires of us as stated by Micah, the prophet…

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 

When we act, love, and walk with God we become more generous givers like God, we think more like Jesus while relying of the power of His Holy Spirit living in us.  Everyone who believes benefits from God’s Spirit reproducing His character in us which bears His holy fruits of righteousness…see Galatians 5.  We cannot do life with Jesus who changes everything!

“…you’ll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the right thing and one who doesn’t, between serving God and not serving him.”

Lord,

My desire is to be who you created me to be and do what you say.  May the power of your Holy Spirit teach me, lead me, challenge, and convict me to do what you say with gratitude in my heart.  I choose to follow you.  I love you because you first loved me!  There is no one like you, God.  I trust in you alone!  Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh and feed my soul, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within me.  I know you are not finished with me yet!

In Jesus Name, Amen