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Feb 25, 2023 06:00am

The Proving Ground

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Trust is the foundation for healthy relationships.

We are taught this concept throughout our relationship with God. It begins with a trust in Him for salvation and is an ongoing exercise into a deeper and deeper relationship with God. It seems as children of God we sometimes stray from this exercise and begin to act as if we did something to earn our salvation or as if God is trusting US to contribute something to His kingdom. Living by faith means remembering we are completely sustained by God, and our continued existence is an extravagant act of mercy on His part.

Malachi 3 lays out the ways God places His love on us. It begins with a prophecy of Jesus coming to redeem His people. Verse 2 poses this question, “who can stand when He appears?” This question reminds us of the truth found in Romans 3, “none are righteous.” Therefore, none are able to stand before a Holy God. To approach God in our raw sinfulness would surely bring His wrath upon us. Because of this, God sent His Son, Jesus, to purify us through His sacrifice and make us righteous before Him.

The work of God in us doesn’t end there. In verse 3, Malachi tells us God not only places His righteousness on us, but He continues to cleanse us through His Word and His Holy Spirit, purifying us like gold and silver.

This purification process is often painful. It may mean enduring hardship for God to grow our patience. It may mean that to obey Him we must sacrifice something we want. Sometimes it means we must act in faith and trust that whatever comes of the situation is God’s will for us so that we display His power, love, and glory.

It’s important to understand God’s purification of us is not so we can just continue in unrighteous living or be satisfied within ourselves. Everything we are and do is for God’s glory and therefore, Malachi tells us, we are made pure so we can not only be in His presence without perishing but also so we may bring an offering to Him that is pleasing. In verse 5 of chapter 3, God is very clear on what brings His judgment on the people: Those who do not fear Him. He also lists indicative behavior of those who do not fear Him. That list includes divination (i.e.-fortune-telling, witchcraft, etc.), adultery, those who break promises,
those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, and those who refuse to help the resident foreigner.

He is not saying that you earn good favor with God; He is saying that when God’s Spirit is working in you, God changes your heart, and these things are no longer fulfilling. (Rom. 8:1-7)

At this point in Malachi 3, God reminds us that He is unchanging and He keeps His promises because that is who He is. By the way, that is why those whose hearts have been transformed by the Spirit of God also keep their promises. He lets us know that His faithfulness is why they have not perished already.

God then launches complaints against His people in an effort to sanctify them by giving them two things, of which, they need to repent. First, God says the people have robbed Him. How can we rob God, you say? That is how the people of God responded as well.

The problem with our thinking is we often assume all our money and possessions are ours, but this simply is not true. All we have is a provision from God and therefore belongs to Him. I do not believe God gives us something just to restrict use of it for our needs, but it’s reasonable He would expect us to use a portion of it to offer back to His service as an act of gratitude and trust.

Gratitude acknowledges Him as the One who provides for us and giving back to Him is an act of faith that He will continue to provide in the future. In fact, in verse 8, God encourages us to test, try, and prove His trustworthiness with the promise that He will pour out blessings beyond what we can contain. This simple act of trust moves God to stop plagues and bless their crops to the point that other nations call them blessed.

The sin of God’s people in withholding their offerings is one of selfishness, and they refused to turn. Because of their refusal to repent, God declares them cursed.

God’s second complaint is that His people have spoken against Him. Of course, they denied this, but God’s indictment is that they questioned whether it was worthwhile to serve God and wondered about its benefits. They complained that they were walking around like mourners rather than happy. Their view was that the arrogant people were happy, the evil ones prospered, and those who challenged God went unpunished. The irony of this is that they were not actually trusting and obeying God. And so God was not blessing them, nor was He defending them. They were trusting in themselves alone. The children of God had forgotten who gave them favor with other nations, forgotten who controlled the fruitfulness of their crops, forgotten who protected them, and forgotten whom they could trust for literally everything they needed.

God called them back to repentance and to step out in faith to prove once again that He is the
Lord Almighty! God is calling us to the same act of faith. The remainder of this chapter is an
interaction between God and the faithful few that remained among His people. He promised
them He would put them in a “book of remembrance” so that when God chose to punish those
who “did not fear Him”, He would not “turn away their payer, nor His mercy.” (Ps.66 :20)

Faith in God brings this same promise for us today.