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Where Is God’s True Israel?
311
However, God would not allow His plan to redeem the human
race to be frustrated by any temporary failure of Israel. “From
the rising of the sun to its setting,” the Lord declared through His
messenger, “My name is great among the nations.”
Verse 11
, NRSV.
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Malachi Reveals the Secret of Prosperity
Through transgression, those who once had been spiritual leaders
had become “contemptible and base before all the people.”
Malachi
2:9
. Yet God left none without hope. Malachi’s prophecies of
judgment came with invitations to the unrepentant to make peace
with God. “Return to Me,” the Lord urged, “and I will return to
you.”
Malachi 3:7
. The God of heaven is pleading with His erring
children to cooperate with Him in carrying forward His work on the
earth. The Lord holds out His hand to Israel to help them to the path
of self-sacrifice, to share with Him the heirship as children of God.
Will they recognize their only hope and respond?
How sad that in Malachi’s day the Israelites hesitated to yield
their proud hearts in hearty cooperation! Their self-justification
shows plainly in their response, “In what way shall we return?”
The Lord reveals to His people one of their special sins. “Will a
man rob God?” He asks. “Yet you have robbed Me!” Still uncon-
victed of sin, the disobedient inquire, “In what way have we robbed
You?”
“‘In tithes and offerings... . Bring all the tithes into the store-
house, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’
says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of
heaven and pour out for you such a blessing... . And I will rebuke
the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of
your ground... . And all nations will call you blessed, for you will
be a delightful land,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Verses 7-12
.
God gives the sunshine and the rain; He causes vegetation to
flourish; He gives health and ability to earn income; and He desires
men and women to show their gratitude by returning tithes and
offerings so that His vineyard may not remain a barren wasteland.
They are to reveal an unselfish interest in building up His work in
all the world.