Devotional meditation

The oracle from the Lord to Malachi started with a rebuke towards Israel by asking a rhetorical question towards their question of “how have You loved us?”. So God answered them back with reality & facts that had happened in the past to show them the truth by mentioning Jacob & Esau as an example as this is what their forefathers have experienced and they know it by heart. Afterwards the analogy of father and son relationship, slave and master relationship were brought up to help them understand what they have done wrong in their service towards the Lord.

The series of questions and answers in the end boils down to the issues at heart. When the heart is not pure, whatever that flows from it shows what’s inside. The corruption from the priesthood back then was just a manifestation of their hearts that they did not truly worship God in their heart. Historical records shows that the book of Malachi was written after the exile return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord & has completed it. So at this time, just they were starting from zero & all of their resources might have been exhausted in the rebuilding and starting to feel the strain of future expenses & needs. When the heart is in fear, every decision driven by it is due to fear, no longer driven by the love towards God. Then the priests started to accuse God by asking such a question & diverting the fault way from themselves.

This is heartbreaking for God, one can easily see this in relationship, parent & children, spouses, siblings etc… Have you ever love someone so much that you sacrifice so much for someone out of love, but when some circumstances arise or things don’t go the way they wanted, they somehow put that blame on you saying “You don’t love me!” and then the fire of anger started to rise in the heart. That’s how God feel…God has feelings. The point is that God did love them, their destruction was the consequences of the sins of idolatry, wickedness, oppression of the people etc… God has chosen them to be the priestly nation in order that all nations shall know the Lord. God’s love is even extended to those who have yet to know who He is. It’s always about love. So when God hear this from them, as He cares so naturally He respond. Usually when one does not care, then they don’t feel anything, they just let it be. It doesn’t mean that all people are like that, some people are more inward processing where they process inwardly, some outwardly. It’s just to bring out this point “God cares.”

Back to the center of the message of this is that when circumstances become more difficult and hard, it may affect one’s heart on the journey of following the Lord, it truly is a challenge to love the Lord with all our heart. It’s important for believers to always remember how God love us & that He cares about us, He wants the best for us as well. Let us respond to God with our sincerity, we can pray to God, tell Him that how we feel instead of deflecting, then ask our Heavenly Father to help us & to guide us.