Malachi
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Malachi Chapter 3
Here we see a double prophecy. The messenger that came before the Lord's first coming was John the Baptist.
We in verse 10 in Matthew 11 Jesus referring to what was written beforehand speaking of John the Baptist.
In Luke 1:76 we see a prophesy given by the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias concerning the purpose for his newborn son, John.
We see that John the Baptist was sent before the first coming of Jesus and there will be another who will come just before the Second coming. There are scriptures that John didn't fulfill and also Jesus has not yet fulfilled but it will be fulfilled at His second coming to redeem Israel. Sometimes in bible prophecy the 1st and 2nd coming seems as one event even though there is over 2000 years between the two events. They saw it as one event and in the mind of God it would seem as one event because 1000 years is the same as one day to God. In this same manner many think the 2nd coming and the rapture of the church is the same event when it could occur at different times. Most would agree that the above verse about the Lord coming to His temple refers to the time Jesus entered the temple and cast out the money changers and I agree in part but I believe the 1st half of verse 1 refers to John the Baptist but the 2nd half plus verses 2 and 3 is speaking of the 2nd coming. In fact the 1st half of verse 1 could refer to John the Baptist and also the Elijah that comes before the 2nd coming of Christ.
This is exactly what will occur at the return of Jesus to set up His kingdom. He will cleanse the house of David.
How beautiful that verse is. A fountain provided by the shed blood, death and resurrection of the Messiah whom we now know as Jesus the Christ.
He seems to start with Levi because they are supposed to be the spiritual leaders and will influence the rest of Israel. The book of Malachi is actually meant to be a message of warning to the priests of the tribe of Levi.
Israel will be cleansed and brought back to the Lord at the second coming or just before the second coming of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the 7 years of tribulation or the time of Jacob's trouble is to bring Israel back to God and cleanse her from her sins. After that is done the nations which persecuted Israel and Gentile believers in Jesus will be judged by the plagues mentioned in Revelation.
Just as those that receive Christ now are pardoned from all their iniquities that will also happen to Israel as a nation in the future.
There will be none of the former sins going on in the time of the reign of Christ. In order for Christ to cleanse from sin, one has to be willing to forsake that sin and allow the Holy Spirit to enter into his or her life. The Holy Spirit will sanctify the vessel and cleanse from all sin.
The duty of the priesthood and all Israel was to teach and turn people from sin. They had to offer sacrifices and do the service they were instructed to do in the law of God that was first given to Moses and then to Israel. We see here that after they had returned from Babylon captivity and went for a while doing the service of the Lord, they were starting to go astray once again. The priests were robbing God in the way they were not distributing the tithes as instructed in the law. The Levites were chosen of God to do the service of the priesthood. They were not to live as others in Israel. They were to give up their own life as one would normally live and make their living by the service of the temple. They needed tithes and offerings from the rest of the nation to keep the Lord's service going. The priests also were not to hoard all the tithes but they had to give to the poor and pay others for their service. It was an excellent system if all people would do their part. If they did not do their part, the service of the Lord would lack funds. The priests would not be paid and the poor would not be fed. Some believe the whole nation was robbing God from the reference in Malachi 3:9, other interpret that verse to mean the priests were robbing God and the whole nation. No matter which way we interpret that; the law of tithing was good. The other tribes were to tithe their increase to support the Levites who had no land of their own but were scattered within the other tribes to do service and religious duties as instructed in the law. They had to have support. If all are faithful it is a good system though and that is probably why the church took this as an example and used tithing to support the church. While tithing is not a requirement for the church, it is a good system and a perfect way to support our local churches and care for the pastor and his family so that he doesn't have to take time away from his duty of seeking the Lord to work a secular job. Freewill offerings are fine but most people unless they set up a regular system of giving, will not give enough to keep things going. As a result churches eventually have to close down and pastors have to get secular jobs. However, we must be careful not to teach this as a commandment for the church using the verses in Malachi. They apply to Israel, not the church. There are scriptures in the New Testament on giving by Paul the apostle. We are to give as we purpose in our heart. To give generously will bring us a blessing from God. Jesus also said, "Give and it shall be given to you." So many television evangelists and mega pastors have gotten so rich and fancy that people are turning off tithing and giving. Unfortunately this will hurt the small struggling churches that barely have enough to pay the bills and support a pastor. It is a shame. In the New Testament we now are under the law of love and we can tithe and give because we love and not because of fearing a curse or desiring an increase in salary. For some reason God always takes care of a faithful giver. That doesn't mean they will get rich and it doesn't meant that they should give to get. I also hate to see people tithe because they fear they will be cursed financially if they don't. To learn to give in love is a joy. It is a form of worship. It can actually be fun. When we meet and worship in a local assembly knowing that this is our place of worship and we are helping to keep it going, is a joy that so many of us rob ourselves of because we are busy trying to prove that tithing is not a New Testament teaching and that we don't have to tithe. Okay so I don't have to tithe. That makes it even more fun. I can give simply because I love to give. I don't have to be afraid of a curse or desire to get rich. I can give because I love my pastor, I love my local church and I love the work of God. He uses local churches to disciple His people so that they can go forth from us and start other churches and disciple more people. It should be an ongoing process but when the funds dry up, it will eventually stop and that is just what the devil wants. Some say, "That money should be given to the poor." I agree but if people do not give to a local church, how are they going to have any money to give to the poor? I heard a pastor say once that if you just give to the poor yourself, then you become their source but if you give to the church and the church in turn gives to the poor, God will become their source. That doesn't mean that we can't just decide to go down the street and give money to a poor family but we also have a responsibility to support those that have given up their life in this world to serve God by preaching or pastoring a church. Also giving to a local church will help them to have funds to give to Missionary work. When I choose a church to worship with other believers, I pick those that support the missions.
Notice that Paul uses the Old Testament law to teach us that we should support those who labor in the gospel. If Paul uses the Old Testament then it must not have been wrong to do so. I choose not to spend a lot of time trying to prove whether tithing for or not for today. Who cares? We should love God's work and desire to be part of it, not because we have to but because we want to see the gospel spread and the local church thrive in such a way as to influence their community and make disciples for the Lord.
As we study Malachi though there is more to it than a teaching on tithing. To major on that is to miss the other things the Lord warned the priests about.
God did promise them a blessing if they were faithful in tithing and giving. If we follow this example and apply it to the church, will He not also take care of us? We don't have to do this to make heaven. We are not under the law but we rob ourselves if we do not give to support our local church. We actually rob ourselves of the joy of giving and showing love to the local body of believers that God places us in. No, we don't want to make the pastor rich and live high above his congregation but we do want to see our churches get their bills paid, support their pastors and then be able to give to missions and the poor. For every rich church that we see, there are probably 5 or 6 that are struggling and ready to close. Instead of assuming they are spiritually dead, why not pray for them to be revived and become the houses of prayer, worship and making disciples that God has ordained that them should be. When I drive down the road and see a church building. (I don't care what denomination it is). If I'm alone, I sometimes will pray for the people that attend there and pray for a revival and a harvest of souls. I pray that they become the church God wants them to be. Instead of tearing them down with our complaints, why not start praying for them to be revived, preach the truth of God's word and start influencing their community for the cause of Christ. I've been praying lately for the Methodist churches to be revived and become what God originially had John Wesley start.
If they were stingy and held back on their giving, their very grounds would not yield an increase. That was their livelihood. This curse was on the priests who held back from giving God their best as well as the whole nation. A stingy person is usually unhappy and never seems to have enough. He lives in fear of losing what he does have. What joy it is to trust God and realize that all we have is just borrowed anyway. Our real treasure is in heaven if we have received God's gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, so it really doesn't matter what we have in this life, we can't take it with us.
Those who give are the happiest people in the world. Although the movie, "A Christmas Carol" is fiction, it did show in the end how happy old Scrooge was when he changed his heart and started giving to the poor. True biblical giving will make the giver very happy when he starts to give cheerfully and willingly and does not do it out of guilt or because people will think he is stingy if he does not give. We should never give to be seen of men anyway. If Israel would have obeyed God and kept all His commandments, the nations surrounding them would be delighted in them instead of hating them. This is not an excuse to hate Israel. Even if Israel deserves to be corrected, God will judge any nation that comes against them. The promise to Abraham concerning Israel is still in effect. He deals with them because of their sin but we that judge them will be judged for any action we make against them. True New Testament giving:
Here is a warning from Jesus:
These words of Jesus mean much more than just giving to the poor. It means giving to the poor but it reaches far beyond that meaning. It means those that are bringing the gospel also because they are the brethren of Christ as well as His natural brothers. Verse 40 says Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. This also is Jesus judging the nations in relation to how they treated the nation of Israel which were His brethren but also those that brought the gospel. Did they treat those that obeyed the Lord by spreading the gospel well, or did they persecute them? I'm not talking here of the rich charlatans that fleece the flock and devour widows houses. I'm talking of those that labor in the word and the gospel faithfully pastoring a church or going into the mission field. Some small church pastors can make much more money by quitting and getting a secular job. Some already have had to do that. Some might say, "Well they should just trust the Lord to provide and if He doesn't provide then maybe God is not blessing them." That is stupid. Yes we trust the Lord but the Lord uses us to bless them and give to them what they need. If we do not allow God to use us, then the need will not be fulfilled and our churches will have to close down. God doesn't just throw money down from the sky, He uses us. We learn this from this chapter. We do not learn that we are still under the law of Moses and should be forced to pay tithes. No. That would rob us of the blessing of giving by love. We do see here that God gave the law to Moses to set up a perfect financial system to support the Levites who were chosen to serve the temple and teach the people. We see here that when the Priests robbed God by not using what they received the way the law instructed and also the people robbed God by withdrawing their support, the work of God suffered and the people began to backslide. This will happen in the church also. The Old Testament was given to us to learn from. Tithing is a good system. After all, God thought of it so it must be something good and not evil. The point I'm trying to make is that under the New Covenant we receive forgiveness of sins and are given the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we do not have to live under the law and in fear but can now learn to live in the law of love. We now serve God because we love Him and care about His word getting out and souls being saved. True love for God will involve our finances.
I believe very strongly that those scriptures above in the book of Matthew, about Jesus being hungry does concern His natural brethren, the Jews also along with the poor and Gentile believers. Nations will be judged by how they treated the natural people that God chose to bring His Son into the world. Those scriptures may very well be the judgment of nations as well as individuals.
This describes our attitudes today. We tend to think it is no profit to serve God and that He is blessing those that do not serve Him. That is a false lie that Satan wants us to believe. True blessings are spiritual. The true riches are those given by the Holy Spirit. There is such joy in the deep things of God that we sometimes barely tap into.
Here we see the final promise to Israel
and it applies to adopted into Israel (Gentile believers in Jesus
Christ). Those that feared the Lord both in the Old Testament times
and the New Testament times, will be remembered by God. Our names
are in the book of life. We who think upon His name and believe His
words will be part of the jewels He will make up. We have a hope that we will be part of
that kingdom. Jesus Christ brings us into this hope. DC |
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