I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Malachi 1-4.

    Through His messenger (Malachi translates as “my messenger) God condemns the people of Israel for offering defiled sacrifices. He tells them that when they give blind or maimed animals, rather than perfect specimens, as sacrifices they are offering defiled sacrifices. I have given a lot of thought to how this applies to us today. The best comparison I can imagine is when we give second hand clothes or other goods to charity and count that as helping the poor. There is nothing wrong with giving items that still have use in them to others who may make use of them rather than throwing them away, but let us not mistake this for the charity which God demands of us. When we do that all we are doing is finding a way to dispose of goods which we no longer desire, things which no longer have value to us. That is not charity. God’s messenger goes on to condemn the religious leaders who instruct people contrary to God’s commands. I find it interesting that here he contrasts the priests teaching and behavior with that of the Levites. The Levites are praised for remaining faithful but the priests condemned for leading people into sin. Perhaps I am seeing something more than intended, but this appears to be similar to the way in which today many of those with a formal education to teach God’s Word teach contrary to it and those leaders who most reliably call people to follow God’s commands are those with no official position or training.

    We often complain because God does not seem to accept our worship or respond to our pleas. However, we fail to recognize the seriousness of sexual immorality and adultery. When we have sex outside of marriage, or are unfaithful to our spouses, we are being unfaithful to God. God’s messenger tells us that God hates divorce. He transitions from warning us against adultery to condemning us for calling those who do evil good and those who do good evil. In the same way, a society will transition from accepting adultery to accepting all manner of evil behavior. The time is soon coming when God will purify those who speak in His name the way that a smith purifies silver in the crucible. He will burn away the dross leaving only the pure behind. I believe this represents both people and parts of our lives. The Day of God’s Judgment is coming and the arrogant will be burned up like straw, but those who humbly fear the Lord will go free with joy.