That those who respected The LORD is from one of my favorite portions of God’s Word given to God’s old covenant people.

It concludes the Old Testament in Malachi 3 – 4 and gives us immense things of The Kingdom to ponder.

For, we are to walk before The LORD in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And, the kingdom of God is in the Spirit.

The setting is a Chaburah.

“In Jewish practice, a group of friends formed for religious purposes. They often shared a common weekly meal, usually on the eves of sabbaths or holy days. It has been argued that Christ and His disciples formed such a Chaburah and that the Last Supper was a Chaburah meal.”
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

Are we among those who speak highly of The LORD to one another with family, friends and fellow members of the church Messiah Jesus builds?

Malachi 3 here, we see God first encouraging the Jews.

“¹ Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The LORD, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says The LORD of Hosts. ² “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; ³ and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to The LORD offerings in righteousness. ⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to The LORD as in the days of old and as in ancient years.”

Then God tells them He will come near to them to judgment and bring justice and calls to them to return to Him, promising He will return to them.

“⁵ I will come near to you to judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says The LORD of Hosts.

⁶ “For I, The LORD, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. ⁷ From the days of your fathers you have turned 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 say, ‘How shall we return?’

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says The LORD of Hosts, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says The LORD of Hosts. ¹² “All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says The LORD of Hosts.

Again God rebukes them for their words against Him.

“¹³ “Your words have been harsh against me,” says The LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before The LORD of Hosts? ¹⁵ Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

Now, we come to the Chaburah in which God is highly spoke of and He listened and wrote a book of memory and promises them He will spare them.

“¹⁶ Then those who feared The LORD spoke one with another; and The LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared The LORD and who honored his name. ¹⁷ They shall be mine,” says The LORD of Hosts, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸ Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.”

In Malachi 4; we see the end of the wicked and those who fear God.

“¹ “For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,” says The LORD of Hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ² But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. ³ You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says The LORD of Hosts.

⁴ “Remember the Torah of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.

⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of The LORD comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Bible References:

Malachi 3:16 (Exodus 32:32; Esther 6:1; Daniel 12:1)
Malachi 3:17 (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Psalm 135:4; 103:13; Joel 2:18; Zechariah 11:5-6)
Malachi 4:2 (Psalm 37:6; Isaiah 58:8)
Malachi 4:4 (Deuteronomy 4:10,15; 5:2)
Malachi 4:5 (Matthew 11:13-14; Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20)
Malachi 4:6 (Malachi 3:24; Luke 1:17)

Do apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers who stand before us teach such things and encourage such to participate in speaking highly of The LORD with one another?

 

~ Bill Bremer

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Bill Bremer is Founder and Managing Director at Kingdom Relationships Colorado.

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