Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Saturday after the Last Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
Leave a comment

Scripture: Malachi 3:7-18 (NKJV)

7 “Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone 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 said, ‘In what way shall we return?’

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.

9 “You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.

10 “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the LORD of hosts;

12 “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.

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 useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts?

15 “So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free.'”

16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.

17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”

18 Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

Devotion

The Israelites in Malachi’s day had robbed God of His tithes and offerings. They had also robbed God of His honor by saying “it is vain to serve God.” These Israelites did not see any point in giving the best of their produce and animals to the temple for sacrifices and the maintenance of the ministry. They saw the heathen living better lives and decided to forsake the ways of the Lord. They decided that there was no profit in serving the Lord and that walking in the ways of the world would suit them better.

It often seems as if that were true. In our day the proud are called blessed so much so that they are awarded with wealth and positions of power over others. We live in a society that raises up and exalts those who do wickedness, some of that wickedness we even televise to exalt it! Today, those who purposefully tempt God by denying His existence or natural law seem to go free. When we see how evil is called good and rewarded, we are tempted to be envious of the wicked as Asaph was in the seventy-third Psalm.

Though the world exalts the wicked, the Lord will bring them low when He comes again to judge the quick and the dead. He will discern between the righteous and wicked, between those who serve God with a true and lively faith and those who serve themselves. Today the Church Year ends and a new year begins tomorrow. As we contemplate Christ’s return in judgment, let it be a reminder to us to remain steadfast in the Christian faith which was given to us through the Gospel so that we may look forward to that Day.

We pray: Lord, keep us steadfast in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.

Leave a Comment