“The LORD of hosts”
promised to refine, purify and purge the nation of Israel and its
priests that their offerings of worship might be pleasant unto Him as
in former days. His cleansing would be against sorcerers, adulterers,
false swearers, those who oppressed their workers, widows and
orphans, and any who turned strangers from the right way and did not
fear the Lord. The Lord said, “I change not”, and because
this was so, the children of Israel were not consumed. In Malachi
chapter three and verse seven we see the Lord indict the nation of
Israel for going away from His ordinances, and asking them to
“return” to Him where we read:
Even from the days of
your fathers you are gone away from my ordinances, and have not kept
them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the
LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
The
verse begins, “Even from the days of your fathers you are
gone away from my ordinances, and have not kept them.”
As a further reference to the
nation of Israel's apostasy, “the LORD of hosts”
reminds them “from the days of your fathers”
which was “the time when their founders, patrons, or fore-fathers
were around” “you are gone away”
which means “to cause to turn aside, depart, remove, take
away, put away, or depose” “from my ordinances” or
“statute, limit, something prescribed, or due”. He further
emphasized “and have not kept them”
which means “guarded, observed or taken heed” to the Lord's ways.
The
verse goes on to say, “Return unto me, and I will return unto
you, says the LORD of hosts.” In a pathos filled appeal “the
LORD of hosts” pleads, “Return unto me, and I will return
unto you” which in Hebrew is “shuwb shuwb” and means “turn
back, be restored, be brought back to me, and I will turn back to
you”. If we use our imaginations we can almost hear the Lord
appealing and soliciting the nation of Israel to turn from their
pernicious ways and “return” to Him.
Finally
the verse says, “But you said, Wherein shall we return?” Even
though the Lord brings the indictments against them and appeals for
their return, the nation of Israel's question and answer is once
again the Hebrew word “shuwb” as if to say, “huh, what do you
mean return to you”? The people of the nation of Israel were so
blinded to their spiritual condition that even when the Lord brought
charges against them for being away from Him, they did not know what
He was saying.
As we
think about these words, perhaps we know people who seem so distant
from the Lord that even when they are shown their spiritual condition
they refute it. They may act as though they don't even know about
what we are saying. “Shuwb?” would be their answer in Hebrew as
they questioned what the Lord had against them. Perhaps there are
ways about us in which the Lord would make an appeal for us to
“return unto Him”, and if we have them, let us hear the
voice of His Holy Spirit saying, “turn back to Him”, and find
that He is ever ready to receive us when we do.
Next
time we see the Lord charge the people with robbing Him,
so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.
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