Malachi 3:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Malachi 3:7

Comments

Again, a further charge is brought and a remedial course of action required, and again there is a denial of the charge. This is about their lack of consecration. From the very beginning of their existence as a nation, they have gone away from his ordinances. This is not something connected with their return from Babylon or their current circumstances, but a long-standing grievance of God against the nation. ‘Return to me’, says the Lord, and since God expects them to understand this instruction, it is obvious that they should have known in what respect they were to return. But instead they prevaricate. It is as if they hope that the full extent of their failing has not been noticed by the Lord, so they will feign ignorance. They hope he will not be able to trace all they have done to cover their tracks. But of course God knows us better than we know ourselves. Perhaps they have not connected the two things in their own minds as clearly as they should, but as soon as the Lord says it, it becomes obvious and undeniable.All our dealings with the Lord must be honest and true. We can hide nothing from him. We must search our hearts and ask him to search our hearts. Any dialogue we have with the Lord in which we are denying what we know to be true is guaranteed to provoke further exposure of our sin. They should have responded by saying, Yes, we will return to the Lord, and that means bringing the whole of our tithes and offering which we are well aware we have kept back. By doing so they had robbed, or, as Moore prefers, defrauded God. Why was that? Because he was entitled to tithes and offerings which they had been taught by Moses to give to the Lord. The tithes are listed by Moore as, 1. a tenth of all that remained after firstfruits, and was to be given to the Levites (Leviticus 27:30); 2. a tenth of this tithe to be given by the Levites to the priests (Numbers 18:26); 3. a tenth of vows and offerings presented at the tabernacle to be paid by the people to the Levites (Deuteronomy 12:18); 4. a tithe every 3^rd year for the Levites, the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows (Deuteronomy 14:28). The offerings were all those ordained in Leviticus.

Application

Why would they defraud God of these things? Because their hearts had grown cold and faithless. They no longer took seriously his blessing or his requirements of them. They no longer connected the two. In the same way we can shorten or skip our daily devotions, or not really engage with the Lord. We can come in a formal way and repeat words liturgically without thinking about them. We can stoop attending the church Prayer Meeting, or the Bible Study, or limit Sunday worship to one service. We can shorten the sermon and make little effort to reach the unconverted adults or children. We can do all this because we convince ourselves that God does not see or care. At other times in our lives, we may have done these things with great feeling and earnestness, and they were a source of joy to us.

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Malachi 3:7 Commentary and Bible Study