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Prophets and Kings
God blesses the work of men’s hands, that they may return to Him
His portion. He gives them the sunshine and the rain; He causes
vegetation to flourish; He gives health and ability to acquire means.
Every blessing comes from His bountiful hand, and He desires men
and women to show their gratitude by returning Him a portion in tithes
[708]
and offerings—in thank offerings, in freewill offerings, in trespass
offerings. They are to devote their means to His service, that His
vineyard may not remain a barren waste. They are to study what the
Lord would do were He in their place. They are to take all difficult
matters to Him in prayer. They are to reveal an unselfish interest in
the building up of His work in all parts of the world.
Through messages such as those borne by Malachi, the last of
the Old Testament prophets, as well as through oppression from hea-
then foes, the Israelites finally learned the lesson that true prosperity
depends upon obedience to the law of God. But with many of the
people, obedience was not the outflow of faith and love. Their motives
were selfish. Outward service was rendered as a means of attaining
to national greatness. The chosen people did not become the light of
the world, but shut themselves away from the world as a safeguard
against being seduced into idolatry. The restrictions which God had
given, forbidding intermarriage between His people and the heathen,
and prohibiting Israel from joining in the idolatrous practices of sur-
rounding nations, were so perverted as to build up a wall of partition
between the Israelites and all other peoples, thus shutting from others
the very blessings which God had commissioned Israel to give to the
world.
At the same time the Jews were, by their sins, separating them-
selves from God. They were unable to discern the deep spiritual
significance of their symbolic service. In their self-righteousness they
trusted to their own works, to the sacrifices and ordinances themselves,
instead of relying upon the merits of Him to whom all these things
[709]
pointed. Thus “going about to establish their own righteousness” (
Ro-
mans 10:3
), they built themselves up in a self-sufficient formalism.
Wanting the Spirit and grace of God, they tried to make up for the
lack by a rigorous observance of religious ceremonies and rites. Not
content with the ordinances which God Himself had appointed, they
encumbered the divine commands with countless exactions of their