SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/17/2016 9:38 PM
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: PT-4 Dishonoring God’s Name
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Malachi 2:6-9
Message of the verses: “6 “True instruction was in his mouth and
unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and
uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. 7 “For the lips of a priest
should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for
he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 8 “But as for you, you have turned
aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you
have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts. 9 "So I
also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are
not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.”
We have
been looking at sins that the priests have committed, and we look today at the
third sin which is that the priests turned away from God’s Law as these verses
will show us. Now as we look at verses
6-7 we see a description of a perfect servant of God as they have truth on
their lips and their walk in obedience to the Lord and they also turn away from
iniquity. Verse seven goes on to talk
more about this kind of servant and what they do as they preserve knowledge,
they don’t do anything that goes against the Law as these unjust priest were
doing as they took great liberty against the Law.
We move on
to verse eight which speaks of the unholy priests and what they were
doing. They have gone their own way and
not followed what was written by the Lord to make a covenant with Levi the
father of the priests as they came through Aaron who was a descendent of
Levi. Let us look at Jeremiah 5:31 for
some insight “The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own
authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?” Now remember that Jeremiah was prophesying at
this time against the prophets and priests before the fall of Jerusalem.
As we look
more at verse eight we see that not only were the priests sinning but they were
causing others to sin too. There is a
verse at the end of Romans chapter one that I am thinking about that seems to
go pretty well with this thought “and although they know the ordinance of God,
that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the
same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (Romans 1:32).”
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “God caused these hypocritical priests to be ‘despised and humiliated
before all the people’ (Matt. 2:9 NIV).
The priests wanted to be popular and even twisted the Law to gain
friends, but the people had no respect for them. Leaders with integrity and character will
have their enemies, but they will still gain the respect of the people. The recent religious television scandals in America
have proved that unsaved people expect church leaders to practice what they
preach.” 11/17/2016 9:55 PM
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