7 Even
from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have
not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of
hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye
have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and
offerings. 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this
whole nation. 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there
may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the
devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground;
neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the
LORD of hosts. 12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be
a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. (Mal
3:7-12)
God rebukes those, who claim Him as Lord, for their disobedience from long
past. In fact, that disobedience began with Adam and has continued in his
bloodline of Adam from that time until the present. None are righteous! "There
is none righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10) Do you trust in
your own goodness? Do you claim your vain public babblings to be a gift of God?
God is not the author of confusion, and neither is man righteous in his own
right. If, from the early beginning in the Garden, the heart of man has been
incapable of obedience to the Law, how can we be saved? Only through the
substitute sacrifice of Christ who paid our penalty for sin on the cross! This
has been the case from the Fall of Adam. It was the case with Abraham (who
could not be perfect), it was true of Moses, of Aaron, of David, and all who
follow in the line of Promise made sure by Christ. So why are some accounted
righteous, and others remain steeped in their sins? Because all before Christ
who believed and looked to the Promise of His Coming, were accounted righteous under
the redemptive blood He shed at Calvary. All today who look back upon that
accomplished event, and believe on Him whom they pierced, are likewise under
that redemptive blood that was shed for them. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!
In today's passage, we see the prideful declarations of pelf and arrogance in
the words of those who believe themselves to be righteous. Their sins have
become such an integral part of their souls that they do not recognize sin in
their hearts. They have become calloused to compassion and virtue. 7 "Even
from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have
not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of
hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?" These have gone
astray from God even from the early days of their fathers. So has every man who
lives in sin. They have gone astray from the days of their father, Adam, whose
sin-contaminated blood courses through their veins. Frankly, if our blood is
contaminated with disease, there is only one solution - a blood transfusion
that replaces that diseased blood with pure and wholesome blood. That
transfusion comes by way of the Cross of Christ. It is His blood that washes
away our sins, continually purifies, and makes us righteous before God. The
precise accuracy of Holy Scripture is amazing to me. I never fail to look with
wonder at the manner in which God so concisely and accurately articulates His
Will in it. " Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith
the LORD of hosts." Please note the order of subjects and
verbs in this sentence of Malachi. Why does God command that we return unto
Him, first, rather than His returning to us first? It is because God never
changed His position since the Garden at Eden. It was Adam and Eve who departed
from God. Sin separates us from God, and sin is all of our own works without
God. God is fixed in purpose and will. As we read yesterday, "For I
am the LORD, I change not." (Mal 3:6) If we discover ourselves
separated from God, who do you suppose moved?
There is a story of a young sixteen-year-old Ensign Bearer of the Southern Army
at the Battle of Shiloh (April 1862) in Tennessee during the War Between the
States. The Southern Army was advancing across an open plain exposed to a withering
fire of musketry from an entrenched enemy. As the lines began to waver,
the advancing elements fell to the ground behind a small berm for a respite
from the continuous fusillade of fire that dominated the level terrain. The
Color Bearer was up front and fifty yards ahead of the stymied Southern line.
Those who had taken shelter behind the berm shouted to the Color Barrier who
was approaching the enemy entrenchments, "Come back! Bring the Colors back
to the Line where we are!" to which the young color Bearer responded,
"No, men, you come up to the Colors, for the Colors are fixed and planted
at the forward point of battle." The Ensign of God is fixed and planted as
well. He cannot fall back to our lines of sin and immorality. If we will be
with God, we must move up to that blessed Ensign planted by Christ at Calvary!
" But ye said, Wherein shall we return? The modern
church looks aloofly at those who chastise their sins and light-hearted faith
and say, "Wherein are we amiss? God has blessed us with a splendid edifice
(and that is all it is for it does not define a church). We are well-fed and
proudly serving. Wherein have we failed?" "You are squalid and
without resources! a Holy God declares!" "Who are YOU to correct
us," the church responds. The modern church believes God OWES them
blessings rather than themselves owing God reverence and obeisance. How does
God address the arrogant modern church? "Because
thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked." (Rev 3:17) There is another Church whom God loves
and exonerates - Smyrna. What kind of Church was Smyrna? It was a church
poor in resources, but wealthy in love and truth. "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou
art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are
not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou
shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may
be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life." (Rev
2:9-10)
8 "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." First
of all, we can truly give NOTHING to God. He needs nothing that we own, for we
OWN nothing. All things come from God - the Giver of Life and Father of Lights.
All that we hold in our skinny fingers are on loan from God. The Creation is
His, and every creature belongs to Him. God entrusts us with resources whereby
we may live and share. If we hoard those resources in greed, we shall release
them at the moment of death and our bank account in Heaven will be devoid of treasures.
What are tithes and offerings? God required the first tenth of all of the
increase in crops or harvest. That was the minimum responsibility. Offerings
came at the tug of the spirit in the heart of the compassionate to share even
more of that which God had loaned them in this life to the feeding of widows
and orphans and other needy causes. The point that most forget today, and
forgot in the days of Malachi, is that God demands as well a tithe of our time
and effort. Do we spend a minimum of one-tenth of our daily time in prayer,
worship, and study of the Word? Do we look to the Lord's Day only as our
Sabbath, or do we recognize that seven days per week is the Sabbath of the
Lord? Do we believe that the one, or two hours, we spend per week in church satisfies
the Law of Sabbath and of tithing?
9 "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even
this whole nation." Adam would have settled for the sweets of
the world over the delicacies of Heaven. Therefore the world was cursed! God
said to Adam: "....cursed is the ground for thy sake."
(Gen 3:17) Please note here how an entire nation (even this whole
nation) can be cursed for turning away from God. Woe unto the land
that flows with milk and honey whose God WAS the Lord! American should repent
in sackcloth and ashes as did that Great City of Nineveh! We face not only the
'silence of the lambs', but the silence of the shepherds in America today.
10 "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there
may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it." The Christian
life is not without sacrifice. If you would see the blessing of God on your
life and upon your family, you must step out in courageous faith and bear
"the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" as Mr.
Shakespeare says, in carrying one's cross for Christ. Men are looking for
cheap miracles and signs, today in the comfort of their armchairs, but the
signs and miracles are upon the field of Battle over which the Sun of Righteous
reigns. Do not be puzzled, my fellows, at the immensity of blessings
illustrated here. The "Windows of Heaven" have before been opened
upon the fruited plains and purple mountain majesties of our own beloved land.
Have we kept the legacy? Not at all. We have squandered the blessings of God
Almighty on fleshly and unseemly pursuits. The borders of America were silent
sentinel to more blessings than the land could hold. It was a beacon light to
oppressed people the world over who sought the Liberty and Freedom of the
God-blessed land. But, now what? Old Israel was not unlike modern-day America.
God was their Shield and Protector. He poured out blessings untold on that tiny
nation above all nations of the earth. When they were fat and clothed in silks,
they turned away from the God of their youth and whored after other gods. Satan
is having a heyday in America today, as well. He is devouring our children and
breeching our moral code. Can we be saved?
11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he
shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her
fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts."
Friends, we cannot restore America under the power of our own sails, we must
fill our sails with the Wind of the Holy Spirit, and enjoin the Captain of our
souls to man the helm. He will rebuke the devourer that has been let loose in
our midst. He will restore the fallen walls and ramparts of our beloved land.
He will recover the hearts and souls of our dear children - if we turn to Him
in prayerful repentance. How shall we TRY the Lord? We may do so by
simply being a nation obedient once more to His Laws and His Ways. If we once
again present our hearts as the lambskin of our faith before God, He will
repair and amend them - and our once-great nation. With what result do we turn
to the Lord?
12 "And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be
a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts." If we do those
things that the Lord has commanded from the beginning, we shall be restored to
the land of our forefathers. We will once more be called a
"delightsome land." This comes as the evidence of faith and faithful
living to God. In one hundred years, historians will look upon the landscape of
America and see either a land teeming with the products of honest labor and
faithful dependence upon their God; or, they shall look upon a land and people
destitute of moral strength, weeping in the gutters of her fallen temples. They
will have become, as deserters of their God, a people who have hung their harps,
once the source of Godly hymns, by the Rivers of Babylon. Do not allow this sad
benediction to be pronounced upon the land upon which God has so warmly smiled:
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we
remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For
there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that
wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
(Psalms 137:1-3)
