KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Saturday, October 01, 2016
Chapters: The Book of Malachi
Message: Giving God Our Very Best
Hello My Friend,
The Book of Malachi contains four chapters, the author is Malachi, and it was written to Israel. The timeline for these events took place approximately between 440BC and 410BC. The purpose of the book was to call Israel to repentance and return to righteousness in order to restore the nation, calling great emphasis on the Levites. What we are to learn from the book is that we must love God wholeheartedly. “If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.” – Malachi 2:2.
We want God to bless us, and give us His very best, but far too often we struggle to get it because we lack to give God our very best. Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets, he would be the last person to hear God speak to him for over four hundred years. When the Jews in Babylon chose to return to Jerusalem they were expecting to return to prosperity, but what they got was poverty. They begin questioning God’s judgment, but through Malachi, God tells them exactly why the city is in such a mess and had questions for them, first He begins with the priests and their polluted offerings.
“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.” – Malachi 1:6-8,11-12.
“will he be pleased with thee,” Think about it, when you work for a boss or was asked to do something for the governor, would you do the very best job you could? Most of us would, no matter how much we despised our leader. God wants our very best, not just for our own selfish motives, but for others, and especially Him. If all we are going to do is complain to Him and not make any effort to give Him our very best, we cannot expect Him to give us His very best. “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” – James 4:2-3.
Now, after God fusses at the priests for their unfaithful and quite appalling sacrifices He moves on to Judah, the one tribe He set aside from all the rest, they too were not giving their very best to God and were questioning Him, and this what His response.
“Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” – Malachi 2:11-15.
“The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this,” God often refers to His people as His bride, after all, we create a marriage with Him when we believe in Him and receive Him as our Saviour. You cannot cry and seek help from God if you have other gods in your life, a god is any person or thing that is worshiped over Him. If we want to see God give His very best, we must only worship Him. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” – James 4:7-10.
We must understand that while God did deal with His people in different ways in how they were redeemed, He is still the same God, He always despises sin, the punishment for sin has always been hell, and redemption has always required a sacrifice. God continues reproving them, reminding them that He never changes.
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.” – Malachi 3:6-12
“therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” It is by the mercies of God that we are not consumed, and this earth is not gone right now. It is by the grace of God that His people are not saved by their works, but by their faith. While we are under the law of grace right now, salvation has always been given to all through His grace, which was why a person who repented immediately was saved, no matter what they had done in the past. However, it was Jesus who made our redemption permanent by becoming our sacrifice once and for all. If we never receive anything from God on this earth again we are still blessed because our names are written in His book of life, also known as the book or remembrance.
“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” – Malachi 3:16-18.
“in that day when I make up my jewels;” More precious to God than jewels are the souls of man, which is why He made one way for all who truly want Him in their lives to be saved. Through Malachi, God reminds them of the day that all the earth will be gone and the only ones to survive are those written in the book of remembrance.
“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” – Malachi 4:1-2,5-6.
“I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming” This is John the Baptist, he was the first prophet to speak God’s Word, but had a particular message, the coming of Christ. People look to men and women who know God for guidance and direction, but when they are not following Christ themselves all they are doing is deceiving those who are truly trying to live for God. Heads up to those religions who use other books as God’s Word, if churches do not encourage you to read the Bible or read from the Bible in the church service then they are deceiving you. A good sign that you are not hearing the true Word of God is how they preach the Gospel (the death burial and resurrection for the remission of sin).
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” – Galatians 1:8-12.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” – Malachi 3:1.
Today’s Prayer: God, We can live in such a way that our limitations define us and guide us in all that we think, do, and say to the point that we do not give You our very best. Lord, we recognize the true freedom that comes when You accomplish Your will in our lives as when we humbly serve You with the very best of our abilities. The constraints we place on ourselves can be lifted by the power of Your Holy Spirit as we wholeheartedly devote ourselves to You and Your service. When we give You our very best, that is when You give us Yours. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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