The Day of Judgment
17 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?"
Just a quick word here: The final verse of chapter 2 best fits with chapter 3, so we will consider
it further with the comments here. V17 begins the fourth dispute between God and His people recorded in Malachi.
1 "See, 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 the LORD Almighty.
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.
5 "So I will come near to you for judgment. 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 aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
Robbing God
6 "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
God declares that He is wearied by the words of the people. That’s an anthropomorphic
description of God in order to help us empathize and sympathize with our own actions. Of course, God
doesn’t get weary or tired, but when we read of Him being wearied by our words, we can understand that
in light of how we might feel when others weary us with words. The people hypothetically respond with
an unbelieving “Yeah, right. How is that?” When they say (or even think) that God is pleased with evildoers,
or when they question His justice, those sentiments weary the Lord. Of course, He is not pleased by evildoers
and their actions! Of course, He is a God of perfect justice! How can they even question those things about
Him? But it is a valid and age-old question (Psalm 73) that every generation asks at some level. So let’s
consider the answer.
Is God just? Is God fair? Is He to blame for the condition of humanity in this fallen world? There are
many ways to pose the question, and certainly there are numerous practical predicaments that come to
mind when considering how to ask the question. What about the island tribe that has never heard the
gospel? Or the infant who dies before some predetermined age of accountability? Why is there so much
suffering, when a just and fair God could and should do something to rectify the particular situation
for a certain person’s life? That’s the question of the final verse in chapter 2. And the answer is
revealed in the first verses of chapter 3. God’s justice is vindicated in both judgment and salvation.
To show His perfect justice and abundant mercy, God sends His messenger to prepare the way for Him to come.
That’s John the Baptist, the prophesied Elijah, coming to prepare the hearts of the people to receive God
Himself, Immanuel, Jesus Christ, the Elisha who follows to bring both judgment and salvation, and it’s
glorious. The picture is that of God coming into His Temple, which is a precious thing in the sight of
a people wandering in the wilderness. The presence of God brings power and peace to an otherwise hopeless
group. Jesus comes as the Messenger of the covenant, referring to His first appearing, which is to declare
the arrival of the Kingdom of God and welcome all who will repent of their sins to be cleansed and enter in.
That’s Malachi 3:1.
When we come to v2-5, it’s a prophecy of the second coming of Jesus, which will be swift for judgment.
No one will be able to stand before Him in their own righteousness at that time. He will come to refine
and purify and cleanse. Many will succumb to the process and be burned up in the fire of judgment, like
the tares that refuse to bow in the wind. But the sanctification process takes effect for those experiencing
salvation with His coming, like the wheat that bows in the wind.
In v6, the Lord declares that He does not change. And this verse fits with both the passage we are considering
now (2:17 – 3:6), as well as the next passage (3:6-12). It’s like a hinge that carries the full weight of the
door. God’s justice and salvation is good news for all time, because God does not change. His purposes and
promises stand today the same as they did 2500 years ago, and they will remain until the end of time.
Robbing God
6 "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
7 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?'
8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse-the whole nation of you-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 you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
This passage begins with the strong hinge verse that holds the weight of the previous passage,
where God promises and provides judgment and salvation due to His unchanging nature, and the weight of this
passage, where again God makes a bold promise for His people to test Him in their generous giving in order
to receive the manifold blessings of God. God’s unchanging nature guarantees His own faithfulness and welcomes
people to repent out of a genuine relationship with Him. Despite our disobedience and faithlessness, God
maintains His merciful and gracious stance. It’s more than changing your mind, and it’s more than changing
your behavior. It’s more personal, an invitation to draw near relationally to God, which brings both the
change of mind and behavioral change in conjunction. The best picture of this reality is in giving. We give,
because God’s love in us overflows out of us.
That’s where the fifth dispute of Malachi comes, with God’s call to the people to repent and return to Him in
faithful obedience, namely by tithing – giving the appropriate offerings out of genuine love for God. The
people hypothetically respond by wondering why they need to return when they don’t perceive themselves as
having gone away. But God shows how they’ve left, and how they are to return, by pointing to their offerings
– or lack thereof. It’s not that the people weren’t giving to God. It’s that they weren’t giving rightly,
fully, selflessly, joyfully, sacrificially, trusting in God’s abundant provision, rather than clinging to
their own, which would never satisfy.
The people, presumably individually but notably corporately (v9), were generally robbing God by not giving
adequately, which is described above. Generous giving reveals our delight in the Lord, and the people had
neither generous giving habits nor delight in the Lord. They go hand-in-hand! Furthermore, keeping the
Lord’s statutes will not only avert God’s wrath but also lead to God’s blessing.
Briefly, let’s comment on tithing. Tithe means tenth, or 10%, and it refers usually to the first fruits
of any income. This could be crops or livestock or dollars or even time. We find the concept before the
law was given, in Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel, as well as later with Abraham tithing to Melchizedek,
and Jacob promising a tenth to the Lord for His blessing. Those all appear voluntary, but the Old Testament
law of Moses required numerous offerings, which likely consisted of approximately 20-25% of any given
person’s income. New Testament believers are not under the law, so we are free to give whatever the Lord
impresses upon us to give. The idea is that our increasing generosity, willing sacrificial love for others,
and glad giving habits reveal our ever-growing joy in the Lord.
Finally, we recognize that God does not need our gifts. He wants our gifts, because He gives back to us
through the fruit of our giving. Our pleasure is not to be found in the abundance of our possessions,
but in the Lord. Live simply, so others can simply live.
13 "You have said harsh things 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 did 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 the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.' "
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 "They will be mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. [1] I will spare them, just as in compassion a man 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.
The sixth and final dispute in Malachi hearkens back to the fourth one regarding God’s justice
and fairness. Once again, God instigates the dialog by claiming that the people have spoken arrogantly against
Him. The people wonder how that is the case, and God reveals their words, whether literal or hypothetical based
on their thoughts and attitudes. Without softening their hearts to God’s criticism, they cynically say that
serving God is a waste of time. It’s a similar complaint to that of Malachi 2:17, and God’s answer here is
similar to that answer back in Malachi 3:1-5. Judgment and salvation are God’s answers to whether it’s a waste
of time or not to serve Him.
Specifically, serving God in reverence of His name spares you from condemnation and brings eternal joy as His
treasured possessions, while rejecting God in this age brings eternal misery in constant, conscious torment
and punishment in righteous judgment. The cynical, weary people of Malachi’s day forgot about the Day of Judgment,
which is covered in a bit more detail with the text of chapter 4.
Footnotes
- 3:17 Or Almighty, "my treasured possession, in the day when I act
Bible text from
Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society.