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The Failure of Israel

Malachi 3:5-12

The LORD will be coming again to judge His people, Israel. This will happen after the Tribulation, when the Lord Jesus returns to earth to deliver the remnant of the Jews from their enemies.

He will be a swift witness against:

• Sorcerers: at the time this was written, the heathen women in mixed marriages brought with them idols, sorcery, the occult and demon worship. Unfortunately false religion was almost a constant in Jewish history, and was the main cause of their losing their homeland and for their exile for many centuries. Since then, they returned to nominal worship of the true God, but as a nation rejected the Messiah sent by God. They will be purged by the Tribulation, but the remnant will be judged by Him. This reminds us that the world is turning to the occult today, to fill the great spiritual vacuum left by atheism and humanism.

• Adulterers: in its strictest sense, adultery is infidelity to one's wife or husband, but it has a wider meaning of sexual promiscuity; in a spiritual sense idolatry, covetousness, and apostasy are spoken of as adultery (Jeremiah 3:6, 8, 9; Ezekiel 16:32; Hosea 1:2, 3; Rev 2:22). Apostate Israel was called an adulteress (Isaiah 1:21; Ezekiel 23:4, 7, 37), and the Jews were called "an adulterous generation" by Christ (Matthew 12:39).

• Perjurers: strictly speaking, those who give false testimony of others, but it has a wider meaning to embrace all liars. Lies are emphatically condemned in Scripture (John 8:44; 1 Timothy 1:9, 10; Revelation 21:27; 22:15).

• Exploiters of wage earners, and widows and orphans: one of the complaints against the Jews over the centuries has been their love of money, expressed in the exploitation of those who are in distress for their own personal gain. "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:10).

• The unjust to Gentiles: the Jews were being devious in the way they dealt with those of other nations. As God's chosen people they were not witnessing for God, and the others actually turned from God because of the way they were being treated. "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).

It is those who do not fear God who do these things, for which they will be judged.

The preservation of the Jews among the nations of the world - the "sons of Jacob" - is due to the fact that the LORD is the unchanging One. God's patience seems endless! Throughout history, his people have disobeyed, even scorned, his laws, but he has always been willing to accept them back.

God is a God of judgement, and that is a terror to the wicked. But He also never changes in reference to His grace, and that is a comfort to anyone who will accept the grace of God. God is ready to receive us if we return to him in repentance.

The reason the Israelites were not obliterated like the Edomites was because of His grace, in line with the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God also promises: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand" John 10:27-29.

The people are urged to stop holding back their tithes, to stop keeping from God what was rightfully His. The tithing system began during the time of Moses (Leviticus 27:30-34; Deuteronomy 14:22). The Israelites were required to give a tenth of all produce and livestock to the Lord (or they could redeem it with money and add a fifth part). The tithes were in addition to numerous offerings, and were an acknowledgement that everything belonged to God and the He was the Giver of all possessions.

The Levites received some of the tithe because they could not possess land of their own (Numbers 18:20, 21). If the people were not giving tithes, the Levites had to earn their living by doing some work which prevented them from giving all the time they needed to care for the temple and for the service of worship.

The reward for faithful tithing in the nation of Israel was material wealth; the reward for faithful stewardship in the church of Christ is spiritual riches and His approval before His judgement seat after its rapture.

Everything we have is from God, and we are to employ it as stewards who will one day have to give an account of how it has been invested. Believers are to give to the Lord's work systematically, liberally, cheerfully and in proportion with the manner in which the Lord has prospered them.

There are many believers with very little income for whom a tenth would be too much to give. There are others whom God has blessed in such a wonderful way that they could easily give even as much as or more than the government takes in income tax. The tithe was a substitute income tax in the nation of Israel, but is not a yardstick for Christian giving today.

The storehouse was a part of the temple. There were many buildings around the temple which were storerooms. When people brought their tithe, it was stored away in these storerooms. When Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem (sometime before the time of Malachi), he found Tobiah, the enemy of God, living in one of the storerooms that had been cleaned out. It had only been cleaned out because the people were not giving generously, and they had made an apartment out of it for Tobiah! Nehemiah took Tobiah's things and pitched them out the window and sent him away. Then the people began to bring their offerings to fill up the storeroom again (see Nehemiah 13:4-9).

There is an idea in some places that the local church is the Christian believer's storehouse. However, just as the tithe is not for the church today, neither is the storehouse and there is no such thing today as that which is called "storehouse giving". Israel's giving was in the form of produce, the fruit of the land. The meat of animals offered as sacrifices was boiled or roasted and eaten straight away by the priests. Only the other produce was stored until it was needed, whereas money was placed in boxes and bags at the entrance to the temple.

When they were generous in giving the tithes from their harvest, God promised to "open up the heavens and pour out a blessing, and to rebuke the devourer." The farmers depended on the rain for a good harvest, and "the devourer" evidently meant the locust. Many of the plagues came to Israel through the locust, but now God said that He would prevent it from coming over their fields. The reward for giving the tithes would be a good harvest during the next season, making the nations round them admit that they were blessed.

When Israel was right with God, they became a blessing to the other nations of the world. Honesty with God, which is a result of holiness, was the thing that made them a blessing to all nations. In Zechariah 8:13 it is prophesied: "it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong.'" This looks forward to a future day, but God said at that time that He would make them a blessing to the nations. When Israel is serving God, it becomes a blessing to the other nations.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 And I will come near you for judgement; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien - because they do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.

6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

7 Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you said, 'In what way shall we return?'

8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.

9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," says the LORD of hosts;

12 "And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says the LORD of hosts.