The Study of Malachi | Lesson 6

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So, Malekai chapter three starting with verse six, that's where we are this week. It says, "For I the Lord do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return?

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"Well, man, rob God, yet you are robbing me, but you say, how have we robbed you? In your tithes and your contributions, you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you blessing until there is no more need, I will rebuke the devourer before you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all the nations will call you blessed,

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for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord, but you say, how have we spoken against you?

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You have said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed, evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. And so that's our passage. And we're gonna look at closely at some of those verses, pull out some truths, but let's go to the Lord first in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much, God, for your word. Thank you for these women. Thank you for just a time to gather, to open up your book and allow you to speak into our lives. I just pray that you're our teacher today, that you show us things as we talk about these verses, Lord, as I discuss some of the truths that you've shown me. I just pray that you open the hearts of the ladies that are here to listen or those that will listen later on podcast. I just pray, Father, that you will help them, Lord, to see you, your love, your devotion, your faithfulness to your people, Lord, and how you say to these people, return to me. That's the big lesson today, return to me. Who is out there wandering away from you? Who is being pulled by other things in this world or other people or circumstances? Lord, who's wrestling for attention of your children, Lord? Today is a day you're calling us to return to you. That's the kind of God you are. You have an open heart and a willingness to allow others, no matter how they have been against you and how they've turned aside, you always call them back. And I pray we begin to see that in a whole new way today as we look at this passage. We love you, we praise you, in Jesus' name, amen.

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Okay, so I love that, return to me. That is the big theme out of this passage in Malachi.

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Other than its subtitle and some of yours may be robbing God. Does anybody have that on there, robbing God? That is in this ESV version of my Bible. That's one of the subtitles. But the whole theme is about returning to God.

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So the first part of Malachi 3, 6 through 7,

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God introduces a big truth about himself, a big attribute about his character. It says, "For I, the Lord, do not change. "Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. "For from the days of your fathers, "you have turned aside from my statutes and not kept them. "Return to me and I will return to you," says the Lord of hosts. So truth number one, God reveals about himself this truth. He does not change.

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Now that is a big truth about our God.

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Does anybody know anyone or anything

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that you can think of that doesn't change other than him?

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Everything is changing around us. We are, as a creation, we are ever changing. We are always seeking. We are always wanting to be better. We are always trying to do things, and we are always changing. So what does it mean that God does not change? I don't think we should just not talk about this. This is the big truth about who he is. Well, the verse tells us that the reason these people are not destroyed is because of that truth. So that's a big truth for us. It's God's immutability. That is what it's showing here. This means that God will never change or cannot be changed. He will never change and he cannot be changed. In the doctrines of God, the author Herman Bavanek says, "The doctrine of God's immutability "is of the highest significance for religion. "The contrast between being and becoming "marks the difference between the creator and his creation.

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"Every creature is continually becoming.

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"It is changeable, constantly striving, "seeking rest and satisfaction, "and finds this rest in God and him alone, "for only he is pure being and not becoming.

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"Hence the scripture God is often called is the rock."

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So I love that, and I wanted to share that quote with you because it definitely shows the difference between the creator and his creation is this attribute about himself, his immutability.

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So when I think about that God is a never-changing God, he is immutable. It makes me think of Moses, and when he encounters God in the burning bush.

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If you can remember when God was about to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and he goes to Moses and he speaks to Moses in a burning bush, this is who he refers to himself. It says in Exodus 3.13, it says, "Moses said to God, after God commanded him "to go to the people, go to Pharaoh "and tell him to let the people go, "he says, Moses said, suppose I go to the Israelites "and say to them, the God of your fathers "has sent me to you, and they ask me what is his name, "what shall I tell them?" Moses is speaking to God. This is God's response. God said to Moses, "I am who I am."

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And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, "I am has sent you, I am." I am is the ultimate statement of self-sufficiency, self-existence and immediate presence.

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God's existence is not contingent upon anything or anyone else. His plans are not contingent upon any circumstances.

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His promises that he will be what he will be. That's what he's saying in that verse. I am who I am, I will be who I will be. That is, he will be the eternal, constant God. He stands ever-present and unchangeable, completely sufficient in himself to do what he wills to do and to accomplish what he wills to accomplish.

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In James 1, 17, it says, "Every good gift "and every perfect gift is from above, "coming down from the father of lights "with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." This is a beautiful truth about our God, that he is immutable, that he doesn't change. In Numbers 23, 19, it says, "God is not man, "that he should lie or a son of man, "that he should change his," what?

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Mind. Has he said and will it not do, and will he not do it or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?

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So there are a few places in scripture though

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that people may wrestle with. Is it that God doesn't change? Or does God change his mind? Because there's definitely some references in scripture that people wrestle with about this, but the truth that I want us to take away is what God says about himself and that he says that he does not change. That's the truth. So if we wrestle with scripture, then that's okay. God wants us to, but there's something deeper that he wants us to see about him. So some people may say, or verses may come to mind where it talks about God changing or looking as if God is changing. Is in Genesis 6.6, the Lord was grieved.

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It says that he made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. Some may say that this grief in his heart was a regret as if he made a mistake in creating mankind. But we know that God is all knowing, right? We know this about our God. He knows what will take place before it takes place.

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He's omniscient, right? That's that word, that big word that means all knowing. He can't make a mistake.

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He is perfect and he is without flaw. So that verse cannot mean that he made a mistake by creating mankind. It can't mean that. In Jonah 3.10 is another place that people may reference that God is changing. And they may say, when God saw what they did, how they turn from their evil way, that God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it. So everybody probably has heard about Jonah and the whale and that story. And when Jonah was called to go to Nineveh to preach the gospel, he does it eventually, not without wrestling with God and being in the belly of a fish for three days and then vomited out. And then he finally obeyed. It took a little bit, but he obeyed. And when he did obey, what happened? He preached the gospel. And what happened after that? The people repented and God relented.

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This doesn't mean that God changed his mind, right?

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However, through his prophet, God told Nineveh he would destroy the city in 40 days. However, Nineveh repented of their sin. And in response to the Assyrians repentance, God relented. In verse 10 of Jonah chapter three, it says, "He had compassion and did not bring upon them "the destruction he had threatened." So these examples is what's called anthropopathism. I'm gonna spell that for y'all, it's a big word. It's A-N-T-H-R-O-P-O-P-A-T-H-I-S-M. (Laughing)

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I won't use it in a sentence unless I have it right here in my face. But that's what it's an example of. It's a figure of speech that is used to help us finite humans to understand the infinite God, to begin to start to try to understand the infinite God. It's a way to help us understand God's work from a human perspective.

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So God is entirely consistent. In his holiness, God was going to judge Nineveh. Okay, can we all agree on that? In his holiness, he was gonna judge Nineveh. However, Nineveh repented and changed its ways. As a result, God in his holiness had mercy on Nineveh and spared them. So the change of mind, some might say, is entirely consistent with his character. His holiness did not waver in Nineveh. The fact that God changes his treatment of us in response to our choices has nothing to do with his character. It has more to do with what we have discussed before when we taught the covenant. Do you remember when we talked about the covenant? We talked about conditional and unconditional, didn't we? In other words, when God said, "I will destroy Nineveh in 40 days," he was speaking conditionally upon the Assyrians' response. We know this because the Assyrians repented and God did not, in fact, send judgment upon the people. God did not change his mind. Rather, his message to Nineveh was a warning meant to provoke repentance. And his warning was successful. So here, I brought you that because people will say things like that and they'll say, "Well, God does change. Look at this story in Jonah. Look at this story in creation." But it's not that he changes.

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It's showing us examples of his character of conditional responses based off of our repentance, he relents. In Malachi 3, 6-7, where he says, "For I, the Lord, do not change."

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The reason why they're not destroyed

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is because he relents.

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He is honoring his covenant. "From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you." So truth number one is that God, what? He does not change. Truth number two, that he gives this command of return to me. So I do not change, therefore return to me. That's the command that's right here in Malachi.

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I love this part of scripture because as we've discussed Malachi and looked at Malachi, I mean, a God that would say to a people that completely rebel against him, doubt his love, they bring blemished offerings, they keep the better for themselves, they are leading people astray, they are divorcing the wives of their youth and marrying foreign women.

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I mean, the list goes on and on. How is it that a God could say, "Return to me." That is a type of love that is almost unexplainable. The word itself return means to go again.

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When I looked it up in the blue letter Bible, it says in parentheses, back comma home.

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Back comma home, return to me is what he says. Come home is what he's saying. Have you ever gone on a long trip?

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Many of us have taken vacations before. Some are good and some are not so good, right? We've had some ups and downs on vacation sometimes. Sometimes we're desperate to get home, especially if it's a crazy, chaotic vacation. But other times, you know, we're enjoying it for a few days and it could be the most luxurious vacation that you've ever been on. It could be like paradise, stepping out into paradise on that beach. But what is the one thing that all of us wanna do eventually after a few days?

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We wanna go back home. There's something about home. I wanna tell you like, it's about day four. I'm like, seven day vacation, too long. About day four, I'm ready. And the moment I come home and I open that door, just being in the presence of my home, the comfort of my home, my family, where they reside, where we're all together, where we meet together and live together, being able to sleep in my own bed. All of the comforts of that. As God is saying, "Return to me, come home." It's almost like a cry for them to have comfort again, right, because they are going through the hardest time, probably, of their life right now. They were, as priests, kicked out of the worship of serving God in the temple, had to resort to being farmers, and they can't even produce the fields, the fruits of their ground when they're trying to work in the field. And so they're weeping and groaning and crying upon God's altar. And God's like, "For I, the Lord, do not change.

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"Therefore, you're not destroyed. "But come back to me, come back home."

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I love that part of scripture, of the imagery that he gives us about he is their home.

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So God is telling them, "Go again and come back to me, "not a place," like we think of home, we think of a place, but where is home, really, where your people are?

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He says, "Return to a person," which is him. Not a place, but a person. This is even far greater than any comfort that you and I could possibly think of.

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To go back to a person who never changes, a person who is constant. In 2 Corinthians 1, 3-4, it says, "Praise be to the God "and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort."

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Who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

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So even in the trials and the tribulations of life,

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just as he ministers to us and comforts us, he wants us to turn around and minister to someone else who is walking through difficulty too. So just as he comforts us, we are to comfort others. That's what that verse is talking about. But I want us to focus on, who does he refer to himself? I am the God of comfort. I am home. In Matthew 11, 28 through 30, it says, we all know this one, Jesus is saying, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, "and I will give you rest.

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"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, "for I am gentle and lowly in heart, "and you will find rest for your souls, "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

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God desires to bless these people again.

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They're under a curse because of their disobedience, but his desire is to honor the part of the covenant of blessing. He wants to bless them.

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But God still desires, even though they rebel against him, he still desires blessing. But in order for them to be blessed, they have to turn their heart.

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They have to turn their heart back to him. So then you have in the next part, so we have God say that truth about himself that he does not change, therefore you're not destroyed.

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But I want you to return. So he says all those things, and then this is what they do. Malachi 3, eight through nine says, "But how shall we return?"

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And God answers them. Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, "How have we robbed you? "And your tithes and your contributions? "You are cursed with the curse for you are robbing me, "the whole nation of you."

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I think it's interesting that the way the Lord shows that they need to return is by looking at the way they invest their time, their energy, their talents, and their money.

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In Matthew 6, 19 through 21, it says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth "where moth and rust destroy, "and where thieves break in and steal, "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, "where neither moth nor rust destroys, "and where thieves do not break in and steal. "For where your treasure is," what does it say?

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"There your heart will be also." So wherever your heart is, that is where you'll spend all of your energy, your time, your money,

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your investing, your giving, your nurturing, your planning, where is your heart? That's where all your energy will go.

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In Matthew 6, 24, it says, "No one can serve two masters."

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It says, "For either he will hate the one "and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one "and despise the other." You cannot serve God and money.

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So God says, "Return to me," and they say, "How?" He says, "In your tithes and your contributions.

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"You are cursed with a curse, because you are robbing me, "the whole nation of you. "The Israelites in Malachi's day were devoted to the one," like that verse that I just talked about, you're gonna be devoted to the one and despise the other. The devotion is to themselves

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and their money.

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The one that they despise is God. Do you notice that, Malachi? They call God evil. They were like, "Where is the God of justice? "How have you loved us, God?" And they're walking around weeping and moaning and crying to the Lord, and their heart is completely backwards.

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Because what did they have? They had a male in their flock, and they vowed it, and brought to the Lord what is blemished. So they kept the better for themselves and gave God the leftovers. That's their heart. So this is exactly Matthew 6.24 lived out, because they're devoted to the one, and the one, their number one, is self.

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And they despise the other, which is God.

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Their actions showed who they loved.

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Truth number three, in this part of the passage, God tells them to test him.

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Test me. I think it's interesting, because doesn't the Bible say don't test God?

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So he's saying test me. In Deuteronomy 6.16, it says, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, "as you tested him at Massah."

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And in Matthew 4.7, it says, "Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, "you shall not put the Lord God to the test."

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You're not to put God to the test, but God says, "I want you to test me."

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He says, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, "that there may be food in my house, "and thereby put me to the test." Says the Lord of Host, "If I will not open the windows of heaven for you, "and pour down for you blessing, "until there is no more need, "I will rebuke the devourer for you, "so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, "and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear," says the Lord of Host.

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Truth number four, God desires to bless them,

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and bless others through them.

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So it's just not one thing that he wants to accomplish here. He wants to honor the covenant of blessing on the people,

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but not just for them only. This is to extend beyond them, and beyond the borders of Israel.

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In Malachi 3, 12 through 15, it says,

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"Then all the nations will call you blessed, "for you will be a land of delight," says the Lord of Host.

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So here, you see the same theme all through scripture. At the very beginning of creation, God is like, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. "Go make more image bearers of me." And he chose the nation of Israel to be a light to all the people, so that other people could be drawn to him. He wants everyone to experience him. That's what kind of loving God that we serve.

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He is perfect, he is holy, he is just, he is good, he is all loving, he is faithful, he is immutable, he's unchanging.

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I am so thankful that I have one person that I can know will be there without a shadow of a doubt, will take care of me, take care of my children, that will never change, never leave me or forsake me. As much as we want to rely on other people, we can't, not fully like you can God, because what is it? The moment that you buck someone or go against someone, their pride in them turns against you.

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Even the most people that you love the most,

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you can have that confrontation with. The only constant in this entire world is God.

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He is the only one that is the rock.

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And he says that I'm gonna rebuke the devour for you, so the fields will bear fruit, right?

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And then guess what'll happen? That means you can come back in the temple. You can come back in the temple, and you can lead the people rightly,

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and then other nations will see,

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and they will desire what you have because of the blessing that I've bestowed on you.

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Could you imagine what that would look like in our day?

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I remember just that short stint of time that we didn't get to gather as a church during COVID, and how empty this place was. Could you imagine the tithe not being brought in to the point that your own pastor and all the ministerial staff couldn't be here because they had to go out and work outside of the church instead of do the work of the church, and then no one could come?

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That is what it would look like in Malachi's day.

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And it says Malachi 3, 12 through 15, it says in verse 13, "Your words have been hard against me," says the Lord.

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"But you say, how have we spoken against you?

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You said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed, evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape."

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So this is my thought.

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If you're able to say it is vain to serve God,

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then you are serving out of the wrong heart motive anyway.

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If you say it is vain to serve God, that means you're expecting something in return, doesn't it?

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It's not worth it. That means they're wanting something from God. But if you serve not expecting something in return, that changes everything. It's mere love and devotion, and that's truly serving out of the right heart motive.

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You know, when God says, "Return to me and I will return to you," he says, "I'm the God that does not change." In other words, he's saying, "I haven't gone anywhere.

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I've always been here.

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The only one that's gone is you." And they've turned aside from the way, and they've called many to stumble by their instruction, and they corrupted the covenant of Levi.

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So I just love how God is speaking to them because his desire is to bestow his love and blessing on them.

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But they were just going through the motion, and they were just bringing blemished offerings and doing all the things that they were doing. And then when they didn't see what they thought they should have saw, then in their heart, they're like, "It's not even worth it, God."

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I noticed a big difference in myself, and I'll just use an earthly example, a big difference in myself when I, you know, I've been married for 24 years, and the very beginning of my marriage,

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I was that person that kind of kept a list of, a rolling list in my mind of things that I do, and then another list in my mind of things he didn't do.

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And I would, I remember moments,

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and when it, I was almost like a revelation, like God just helped me to see

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how I was looking at things so wrongly.

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And I was at that kitchen sink, and I was listening to my girls, and they were laughing with their dad in the living room and things like that, and I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, "I just made dinner,

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and I am sitting here washing these dishes,

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and they're in there just having a good time." And then it just, God just helped me to see in that moment, who are you serving?

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Because for so many years, I served my husband expecting something in return. I may not have admitted it verbally, but that list, why did that list roll in my mind like that? It's because I expected something in return.

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And I served my children expecting something in return.

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But when I came to the realization, don't think I don't struggle with it even now, to serve God?

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He owes me nothing.

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So as I serve my husband, I'm really serving God.

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And I think that that helps so much of seeing where our heart is.

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When we serve the Lord, where is our heart? Are we doing it out of love and devotion for Him?

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Are we doing it for other people? Are we doing it for praise?

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Like, because if we're doing it for praise, or if we're doing it for a blessing,

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it's in vain.

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So that's what they were doing in Malachi's day, and therefore, they said, "It's vain to serve God." Because they weren't getting what they thought they should have gotten.

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So notice the order, "Return to me results in God returning to you."

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And I just mentioned as to why. I think the Lord doesn't go anywhere. We know that He doesn't change. So we are the ones that leave Him and turn our hearts away from Him. The Lord, His return though is instantaneously because He never left.

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So the moment that we have that repentance, that moment that we have that call back to Him to come back home when we do, He's there. Y'all looked at that prodigal son in your lesson today, and that is the kind of love that our Father gives us.

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So I just wanna close in prayer, and just have a moment, just of silence of us before the Lord,

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because this message is even for us today. There are so many things that are distracting us and trying to pull us away from God.

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Anybody struggle with the things going on in this world that pull our attention away from God?

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Every moment of every day, I have to fight to stay focused, keep my eyes fixed on you, Jesus.

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The moment a phone call comes that you don't wanna hear what's on the other end of that phone call, it can change everything, right? And take your heart and your mind and your focus off of God and onto something else. You can turn on the television, turn on the radio, and hear something you didn't wanna hear.

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I mean, literally the moment that our head comes off of that pillow, even sometimes before,

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in the war within your mind,

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that's where the battle takes place, is in the mind. And you have even thoughts that are wrestling for your attention and lies circling in your head about you, about God, about the people around you. So we're in a spiritual war, even in that bed, but then it even grows greater when you step out and you start seeing all the other things happen. So I just wanna take a moment just to pray, because just like God said, "Return to me, "I will return to you." If any of us have pulled away,

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he's right there and he's ready and he's willing with the open arms, just like that father, with that prodigal son calling you home, calling you home, he's the greatest comfort.

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No home can give you the comfort that he can give.

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Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this word. Thank you for this message, Lord and Malachi. You are so good.

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These people, nor do we, deserve that kind of love, where we blatantly disobey you and we sin against you. Sometimes we're so callous to our sin, we don't even recognize it anymore.

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And we're living in a disobedience to you, God, but you never leave us, you never forsake us, because you don't change. You're immutable. You are the great I am. You tell them I am sent you is what you told Moses, because you're unchangeable and that is such a beautiful truth to know.

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And the reason why we aren't destroyed for our sins is because what you've done on the cross for us and demonstrated that love for us.

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And so Jesus asked us, those who are weary come to him, those who are heavy laden come to him, so that he's where people find rest. Help us, Lord, as women of faith to find rest in you, to find hope in you, to find a home in you. We love you, we praise you in Jesus' name, amen.