A Promise and a Reproof

Click here to read Malachi 3.

This chapter records the third oracle, which is a denouncement of their corrupting the ordinances concerning the sovereignty of God. This belief was, for all practical purposes, atheism. It wasn't that they denied the existence of God; it was that they believed that He was one of them. They had insisted so many times that they were justified in doing the evil that they were doing, that they felt vindicated. They represented God as a God who was weary of doing good and willing to lay His efforts for good aside and become one of them. This apostasy could be forgiven if they would return to the Lord and ask for His mercy. Promised in the first 5 verses of Chapter 3 is the coming of the Messiah and also His forerunner, John the Baptist. Comfort is promised to the righteous and reproof to the wicked.

Also this chapter records the fourth oracle, which is a denouncement of the failure of the people to give their tithes and offerings to the Temple. Tithing is the least we can give to the Lord. It was commanded in the Law and is recommended in the Gospel.

Recorded for us in this chapter is the fifth oracle, which is a denouncement of the popular belief that there is little reason or profit in obeying the laws of God. It appears that at this time, as it will be in the end times, there was an organized effort against religion, even by those who enjoyed the blessings of God. There were those who had a form of religion but denied the power of it just as is prophesied to be in the end times.

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