I love courtroom dramas especially the ones written by John Grisham: The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, Runaway Jury. Then there are the TV shows like Perry Mason, JAG, Judging Amy, Law and Order and so forth. It’s great to see these great legal minds in a battle of wits trying to prove their case. Well, one of the things I’ve picked up in watching these sorts of shows is the first rule of questioning a witness: "Never ask a question to which you don’t know the answer."
Well it’s a shame the Israelites in the 5th century BC hadn’t watched Perry Mason. Because that’s exactly the mistake they make. At the end of ch2 they ask "Where is the God of justice?" As we saw last week they’re upset because it doesn’t look like God’s keeping his promise to bless them. If you look down to v11 you get a hint of what’s been happening to their crops: locusts have been eating them, their vines have failed to bear fruit, the fertile land has become barren. So they think they have something to complain about.
But they should have thought about their question a bit longer before asking it because look at the answer God gives: "You want the God of justice? Well you’re going to get him!"
"See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple." Do you remember I said Malachi means "My messenger"? God has sent his messenger to warn them, but now he promises to send another messenger, not just to warn them but to prepare the way for his coming. There’s an echo here of the parable of the tenants that we read in our first reading, with God sending a series of messengers until he finally sends his son. There’s also a hint of Isaiah 40 isn’t there? That’s certainly the way Mark understands it because he combines this verse with Is 40:3 at the very beginning of his gospel. "A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain." He sees this as a prophecy of John the Baptist coming to prepare the way for Jesus. This messenger God is sending will come to clear away the obstacles that lie in God’s way; only, in this case the obstacles are the Israelites themselves and their leaders.
God is coming to his temple, not to be worshipped but to judge. They want someone to come and judge between them and God, a "messenger of the covenant" is how God puts it, but will they like what they get? Well, no. In fact the opposite will be the case: "Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?"
"He is like a refiner’s fire." [We sing it often enough, but have you ever thought what it is you’re asking when you call on God, as a refiners fire, to make you holy?] What’s a refiners fire like? Well, it’s very hot. That’s obvious. But it’s also slow in the way it works and probably quite painful. The refiner sits there, heating the gold or silver until the impurities rise to the surface, then he scrapes them off. Then he waits a bit longer for the more stubborn impurities to be separated out and he scrapes them off. Then he waits a bit longer and a bit more scum rises to the surface. Have you ever thought about that in your own life? Have you ever wondered in those times when life was particularly difficult whether God was refining you?
I guess everyone has seen the "Footsteps in the Sand" poster or email. You know, where you look back at the footsteps in the sand and most of the time there are two sets of footprints - yours and those of God walking alongside you. And it seems as though at the hardest times in your life there was only one set of footprints, as though God had left you. But God says, no, those are the times I was carrying you on my shoulders.
It’s a nice picture isn’t it? But at the risk of losing a lot of friends can I say that that very sentimental view of life derives much more from Hollywood and Mills and Boon than it does from a real life understanding of what true love is about. Let me read you something of what true love may be like: ’"My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; 6for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts." 7Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children.’ (Heb 12:5-8 NRSV)
So let me suggest an alternative and much less sentimentally appealing explanation of the times when life is hard and you can only see one set of footprints. It could be that those are the times when God was sitting over by the cauldron scraping off the impurities as he refined you into pure gold; as he worked on you to clean up the areas of your life that needed renovation; as he worked to increase your godliness. He certainly hadn’t abandoned you. In fact he was paying extra attention to you as he watched the bubbling metal, waiting to scoop up the bits of impurity that came to the surface.
Well that’s what he says he’s going to do to these people. He’s coming to judge them, not because he’s disowned them or abandoned them, but because he loves them. He’s coming to refine them; to take away the dross, the impurities; to make them pure again. And notice that the reason he needs to refine them is that they’re still doing the things they did before the exile. Look at v5: "I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts."
It’s the age old problem of people trying to mix pagan practices with the worship of the living God; of people being unfaithful to their spouses; of the powerful taking advantage of those who are weak and helpless; all the time forgetting that God is a God to be feared; God is a God who demands our complete devotion, because he is the one and only God, the living God, the Lord of heaven and earth.
So God is coming to the temple, to his throne room on earth to bring judgement on those who’ve broken his covenant. What hope is there for the nation of Israel when that happens? What’s to save them from being totally wiped out as a nation?
Ironically it’s only the fact that it’s the Lord, the God of Israel who’s coming, that will save them. He says: "I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. 7Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts."
Do you remember God’s answer to their question in ch1: "How have you loved us?" By allowing them to remain living in the land God promised them. Here we see just how incredible God’s patience with rebellious humanity is. Over and over again he gives us another chance. As we read in Heb 12, God disciplines us as his beloved children, not because he hates us or wants to hurt us. He does it for our own good.
So all they have to do is turn back to God. But again they’re playing hard to get. They continue their passive aggressive response to God. "How shall we return?", they say; not asking for directions, but pleading ignorance. "What do you mean return to you? We didn’t think we’d left!" But in fact they had, by their attitude to God and his Temple; by thinking that God wasn’t as important as their own well being. "Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me!" "How are we robbing you?", they say. "In your tithes and offerings! 9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me--the whole nation of you!"
They’d found a solution to their lack of prosperity. If their crops were down they’d just cut back on what they gave to God in the form of their tithes. They’d give 5% instead of 10%. If the grape vines failed to bear as well as they hoped they’d still keep the same amount of wine for themselves and God would miss out. After all, if God didn’t give them the promised blessings how could he expect them to keep up their giving?
It’s a terrible attitude isn’t it? To think that these people would try to shortchange God!
We wouldn’t do that would we? We wouldn’t cut back our giving because Christmas is coming up and we need the extra cash to buy Christmas presents for the kids or because we’re going on an expensive holiday and we won’t be here anyway so why should we pay for ministry while we’re away and not getting anything out of it? We wouldn’t cut back our giving because the interest on our mortgage just went up so we have $20 less to spend each week. Or would we?
When I was a church treasurer I had numbers of conversations with people about tithing and it’s amazing how many people assume that we should tithe our income only after we’ve paid our tax and even our house repayments; as though God was collecting our taxes or God owned the bank. No, God says, "Bring the FULL tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test." Don’t try to second guess God. Worse still, don’t show your lack of faith in God by deciding to acquire your own blessings at the expense of his service and then complain that he’s abandoned you. You see their sin was that they didn’t trust God to provide for them. They didn’t believe that he’d give them the blessings they desired. And the result of their unbelief was that they dug a hole for themselves that they couldn’t get out of. Their land was cursed because of their unbelief.
But God’s very gracious. Even as he warns of impending judgement he gives them a way out. "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing."
Now I need to repeat what I pointed out last time. We need to be very careful about the motivation we have here. Giving to God isn’t like putting your money in an investment account, where you do it so it’ll return more than you put in and so you can withdraw it whenever you ask for it. If our motivation is purely that God would bless us, we might have a problem. All through this prophecy the issue is whether or not they’re seeking God’s glory, whether or not they’re remaining faithful to the covenant that God has made with them. Their relationship with God is the primary concern. Bringing the full tithes into the storehouse needs to be motivated not by their desire for blessing but by their recognition that God deserves our worship, and that giving the tithe is a practical, hands on, form of worship. In fact in our world today where money’s become our great god it’s a way of saying "We have only one God, the living God, and we give him the first fruits of what our world considers most precious." We give him the first, the choice bits, not some of what’s left over after we pay for the important bits.
Now I need to say that the tithe, or a tenth was the amount God said his people were to give in Old Testament days. In the New Testament this is modified. Now the standard is generosity. Jesus pointed out the widow who’d given her two pennies as an example of the sort of devotion to God that he was looking for. She’d given everything she had because of her love of God. Paul commends the church in Macedonia for their overflowing generosity in the midst of extreme poverty. He gives the example of Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich (2 Cor 8). So the standard now is no longer 10% but generosity.
Now I know there are lots of people here who’ve been giving like this for many years. And the fruit of that worship can be seen in the way our ministry has flourished here. God is faithful to his promise and he’s blessed us in lots of ways. But we need to continue to give God what belongs to him in the first place. If you’re not giving like that, if you’re not giving your 10%, if you’re not giving in a way that you consider to be generous, then maybe you need to read this passage again. "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing." In God’s kingdom of course blessing takes lots of forms. Listen to what Jesus told his disciples in Mark 10: "29Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age -- houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions -- and in the age to come eternal life."
God is no-one’s debtor. He will keep his promises. He will give us back everything we give to him - with interest, even if for some the reward has to wait until we get to heaven. God can be trusted. We don’t need to hold back what we should be giving to him so we’ll be financially secure. He deserves the full tithes.
Well it seems to me there are 2 main issues that arise for us from this passage. The first is for those who are wondering why God hasn’t blessed them? Are you wishing God would come and bring his blessings with him? Are you longing for God to come nearer to you? Be careful what you long for because sometimes God comes as a refiner of gold, to clean up your impurities, to make you more godly and that can be a painful process. The end result is a good thing. What could bring more blessing than lives that are purified by God? But the process of getting there might be painful.
But the second issue is that of our faith and trust in God. Are we willing to risk giving God a tenth of our precious income? In fact, are we willing to risk giving God more than a tenth because a tenth isn’t even close to generous for many of us, and wait to see whether he’ll bless us in return? Do we trust God so much that we’ll give up something that’s as precious to us as our money, our income, our economic security as part of our worship of him, as part of our acknowledgement that he is the one and only God?
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