Malachi 3 - Scrub Behind You Ears
Sometimes God's Word hurts, but even so it ultimately brings comfort.
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17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
But you say, “How have we wearied him?”
By saying,
“Everyone who does evil
is good in the sight of the Lord,
and he delights in them.”
Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
Malachi 3 (ESV)
1 “Behold,
I send my messenger,
and he will prepare the way before me.
And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple;
and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
2 But
who can endure the day of his coming,
and who can stand when he appears?
For he is
like a refiner’s fire
and like fullers’ soap.
3 He
will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and he will
purify the sons of Levi and
refine them like gold and silver,
and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord
as in the days of old and as in former years.
5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment.
I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers,
against the adulterers,
against those who swear falsely,
against those who oppress
the hired worker in his wages,
the widow and the fatherless,
against those
who thrust aside the sojourner,
and do not fear me,
says the Lord of hosts.
6 “For I the Lord do not change;
therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers
you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.
Return to me,
and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8 Will man rob God?
Yet you are robbing me.
But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’
In your tithes and contributions.
9 You are cursed with a curse,
for you are robbing me,
the whole nation of you.
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house.
And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts,
if I will not
open the windows of heaven for you
and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you,
so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil,
and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed,
for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
13 “Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord.
But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’
14 You have said,
‘It is vain to serve God.
What is the profit
of our