SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/22/2016 11:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Questing God’s Justice
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Malachi 2:17
Message of the verses: “17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say,
"How have we wearied Him?" In that you say, "Everyone who does
evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them," or,
"Where is the God of justice?"”
Before we
begin to look at verse seventeen I want to explain where we are in Dr. Wiersbe’s
outline that we have been following. The
focus “Questing God’s Justice” is actually the first main point in Dr. Wiersbe’s
second chapter of his commentary in which he entitles “THE SINS OF GOD’S
PEOPLE: PART 2.” This chapter has three sub-points in it and
actually covers the remaining chapter in the book of Malachi. The point that I want to make is that we will
be looking at only verse seventeen in this SD which is covered in the first
main point and then in the remaining portions of this we will look at the
different sub-points under this main point.
Now I want
to quote what Dr. Wiersbe has to say in his introductory comments on this
second and last chapter of his commentary which covers 2:17-4:6. “As Malachi continued his message, the people
continued their resistance to God’s truth.
They had already argued with him about God’s love (1:2), God’s name (v.
6), and God’s teaching about marriage and divorce (2:14), and now they would
argue about three other matters: the
justice of God, giving to God and serving God.
People who argue with God rarely receive blessings from God. It’s when our mouth is stopped and we submit
to His will that we can experience the grace of God (Rom. 3:19).
“But
Malachi didn’t stop preaching; he went on to deal with these ‘sins of the
saints.’”
Now as you
begin to look at verse seventeen you may wonder about the first sentence which conveys
to us that God is wearied with the words of this Jewish remnant. God does not
have a body and so He cannot be wearied like people can be wearied. God does grow weary over some of the things
that His people do and say though. “"You
have bought Me not sweet cane with money, Nor have you filled Me with the fat
of your sacrifices; Rather you have burdened Me with your sins, You have wearied Me with your
iniquities (Isaiah 43:24).” The word
wearied in Isaiah 43:24 and Malachi 2:17 are the same Hebrew word: “yaga.” It means to weary, no big mystery.
The Jewish
remnant asked the question “How have we wearied you?” Perhaps they were thinking about all the
things that they did as they came back to the land and they then rebuilt the
city and the temple, but as one looks at the books of Ezra and Nehemiah they
will find that the people did not really want to do this, at least many of them
did not want to do it as they were just satisfied to build their own homes, now
worried about the city or the temple.
These
people were wondering why God has not kept His promises to them, when they
should have been down on their knees asking God to forgive their sins, sins
like marriage and divorce, which is marrying foreign women and divorcing their
Hebrew wives to do that.
Now
remember in past SD’s that we have looked at passages like Deuteronomy 28, a
very long chapter which speaks of the unconditional covenant that God gave to
Israel where God said if you follow my covenant I will bless you and if you do
not follow my covenant I will not bless you.
These people knew this for Ezra had read it to them when he came to
them, or probably their parents.
The answer
to their question given by Malachi to the people is “Where is God’s justice.” People today and back then didn’t want to
look at the justice of God, but today many people only want to look at the love
of God, and the two of these goes together.
God’s love and justice along with His other attributes were seen at the
cross of Jesus Christ.
11/22/2016 11:28 PM
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