Saturday, November 19, 2016

Hypocrisy (Mal. 2:12-13)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2016 6:26 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  Hypocrisy

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Malachi 2:12-13

            Message of the verses:  “12 "As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts. 13 "This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.”

            In our last SD we talked about men who had married heathen wives, something that was against the Law of Moses.  Some may think that this is an odd law, but when you think of the ministry that God had given to Israel then you should be able to understand what God had this in His Law.  When we look back at David’s life and how through the work of the Lord conquered much of the Promised Land that was to be given to Israel by God we see that these were perhaps the best days of Israel’s history, and it even extended to the days of Solomon, but when you look at the life of Solomon you see that after he had been in power for a while that he began to marry wives from the kingdoms around Israel in order to keep the peace with them.  He married a wife from Egypt, which I believe was the first foreign wife he married.  I believe that this was not only sinful, but I believe that God was upset with Solomon because Solomon was not putting his trust in the Lord for protection, but in the nations around them.  I believe that we in the United States are to pray for our leaders, but have our faith in the Lord to care for us, and this should be true of all nations, but sadly it is not.  Once the children of Israel began this practice as Solomon did their wives would bring their religious beliefs into their bedroom where they could begin to break down their husbands so that they would begin to worship foreign gods, and once the leaders did this then it would only be a matter of time before the people would do it, which is what happened to Israel when God brought them into captivity in Babylon.  Israel did not learn their lesson and even earlier we saw from the book of Ezra that he made the men give up their foreign wives, and not it is happening again.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section by writing “In matters of ethics and morals, there are many things in society that are legal but are not biblical.  Brides and grooms must remember that God is an unseen witness at every wedding (Mal. 2:14), and He also witnesses those who live together who aren’t married.  One day there will come a terrible harvest from the seeds being planted today by those who despise God’s laws and the principles He has built into nature.”  I have to add an Amen to that quote.

11/19/2016 6:53 PM

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