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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Malachi 3:7 - 3:12
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The People Rebuked
v. 7. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from Mine ordinances and have not kept them, this being the reason why He has withheld the fullness of His blessing and salvation from them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, His appeal being made in all Sincerity, since He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But ye said, still blind toward their transgressions, Wherein shall we return? They did not realize that the real service of Jehovah must be a growth from within, from a heart which lives in His fear. Therefore the prophet asks, in turn, in order to arouse them to a consciousness of the true meaning of worship,
v. 8. Will a man rob God, defraud Him? Is not the very idea preposterous and revolting?. Yet ye have robbed Me, actually trying to defraud Jehovah of the service which He rightly expected. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? And the answer is, In tithes and offerings, for these the people had deliberately withheld, thus making a mockery of their worship of Jehovah.
v. 9. Ye are cursed with a curse, as a consequence of such behavior; for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation, for the practice rebuked was general among the people. Therefore He admonishes them with great solemnity:
v. 10. Bring ye all the tithes, the entire tithes, not only a part, into the storehouse, not keeping back a part, as heretofore, that there may be meat in Mine house, as food for His servants, Num_18:24; and prove Me now herewith, to find out whether He is not still the same righteous and holy God as of old, salth the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, in plentiful harvests, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, their prosperity being practically limitless.
v. 11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, not permitting the locusts to devour the crops, to ravage the land, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, all the ordinary field-crops; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts, that is, the grapes would not fall before they had matured.
v. 12. And all nations shall call you blessed, praising them for the obvious blessings which they enjoyed as a gift of Jehovah; for ye shall be a delightsome land, an object of pleasure, saith the Lord of hosts. Even today the Lord often rewards a life sincerely led in agreement with His Word with outward gifts of His goodness.