Levi (Troy)

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3:13-16 Your Words Have Been Harsh Against Me

Throughout the book of Malachi, the prophet has uncovered the pretense of religiosity amongst the Jews that covered their hard hearts. The Jews did not realize that their disbelief was speaking louder than their surface obedience.

3:16-18 They Shall Be Mine

This confrontation of the sin of the Jews was effective. Many of these people truly feared the Lord, despite their sinful behavior, and repented. And the Lord listened carefully to this and recorded it in his book of remembrance. They returned their focus to the Lord (meditating on his name), worshipping him. And he took them as his treasure and put his blessing on them.

4:1-3 A Day Is Coming

The Day of the Lord is foretold throughout Scripture. There have been many mini-days of the Lord throughout world history. But the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was the culmination of all of them. Here Malachi describes both the judgment and the vindication that this day will bring.

4:4-6 Elijah Is Coming

The book of Malachi is the New Testament in miniature. God sends his prophet to confront the sin of the people and to preach the forgiveness of sins. Some hear the prophet and repent. Others harden their hearts as the day of judgment comes.

But then again, this is actually our lives in miniature. We live in the church and it is very easy for our hearts to grow hard, all while we walk through the motions of worship. Malachi preaches a warning for hypocrites. But Malachi also preaches a Gospel for hypocrites.

And one of the great blessings of this kind of repentance is the way it restores fathers to sons and sons to fathers. Gods blessings are best on display in successive generations.

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The Text

Malachi 3:6–12

3:6 Great Is Thy Faithfulness

God identifies himself here with his covenant name – the Lord. In Leviticus 19, God taught the Israelites that the obedience that he required of them resonated with who he was, with his holy name. But now we learn that on top of being holy, God is constant – he does not change. And this constancy of God is, surprisingly, the foundation of his mercy. It is because he is always the same that you are not consumed.

3:7 Return

It is deeply ironic that God now tells the Jews that what they really need to do is “return.” Had they not already done just that? These were the people who had given up everything to return to Israel. And yet God says that their heart, which is what he really wanted, was far from him. But if they would return to him, he would return to them. And he had been saying this to them for some time (Zech. 1:3).

3:8-10 Test Me

The return to Jerusalem also meant a return to funding the temple system (Neh. 10:35-39). When we think of giving to God the way we would filing our taxes, we find that we are actually robbing ourselves.

God says, “test me.” There is a kind of testing God that we are not supposed to do (Deut. 6:16). But here we find that there is a kind of testing God that we are supposed to do. These actually correspond to two different ways that we can be tested. But God wants his steadfast lovingkindness to be proven, to be displayed. That is what this kind of testing does.

Tithing is meant to be an act of faith, as obedience before God and not man (Luke 21:1-4, Mat. 6:1-4). Your approach to tithes and offerings reveals something fundamental about where your heart is (Mat. 6:19-24). When your eye is on God, you will be generous and you will live under God’s blessing. But if your eye is on the blessing, you will be neither generous nor blessed.

In this passage, we see that God is zealous for his house. Does that make him a great “me monster”? God’s zeal for his own holiness and glory is his supreme gift to you.

3:11-12 The Fruit of the Land

The motivation to hold back the tithe is to hold on to your wealth for yourself. But ironically, we see that this holding back is exactly why they are struggling. Remember that God has been saying that his name will be great amongst all the nations (1:11). But now we see that that when we magnify God’s name, he magnifies us.

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