![]() First of all, He says, “I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing.” I’ve pointed out already that only God can open the windows of heaven. Let’s look at what the blessings are that God promises on this basis. And He reminds them of one of the great basic conditions which He had laid down which was that they would bring their tithes and their contributions to Him. So God takes stock, He reviews Israel’s history, and He points out to them that they’ve failed to meet His conditions and so to enjoy His blessings. ‘And all the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightsome land,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (NAS) But God says, “If you’ll do the simple thing on earth that I require of you, if you’ll bring all the tithes into the storehouse, then I’ll do the thing in heaven that you can’t do, I’ll open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing until there is no more need.” Verse 11: “‘Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,’ says the Lord of hosts. We don’t have any way to reach up to heaven and open the windows, so that’s something only God can do. When God speaks about opening the windows of heaven, it’s clear, I think, that the windows of heaven are under God’s sole control. So God says: “‘You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! ‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord.’ ‘.test 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 a blessing until there is no more need.’” (NAS)Įvery need is to be met. ![]() Obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings curse. It’s either blessing or curse, there isn’t much in between. And I want to point out to you that in most cases it’s one or the other. The result: instead of a blessing was a curse. And, in specific terms, Israel had been robbing God by withholding their tithes and their contributions. So, not to give God His due out of our finances is to rob Him. But you say, `How shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and contributions.” (NAS) Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts. We’re going to read now Malachi 3:7-12: “‘From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. In the verses that we’re going to read now, He points out one particular way in which they failed to meet His conditions. Now, in the book of Malachi God sort of sums up 1,200 years of the history of Israel and, unfortunately, on the whole it’s rather discouraging as a summary because he points out that, for the most part, they’ve failed to meet His conditions and therefore to enjoy the blessings of the provision that He wanted to make available to them. He also warned them that if they did not keep His conditions and His commandments, then they would suffer the opposite they would suffer loss and harm and defeat and poverty. Approximately 1,200 years earlier, God through Moses had brought His people into the promised land and given them a way of life and promised them that if they would keep that way of life and obey His commandments, they would be blessed and would prosper as no other nation ever had known blessing and prosperity. Malachi is the last prophet of the Old Testament. We need to understand briefly the background of the book of Malachi. The first passage of Scripture that we’ll look at today is in Malachi 3:7-12. Today I’m going to look at some other promises of blessing and prosperity which have one particular scriptural condition attached to them. Yesterday we looked at the absolutely general and all-inclusive promise of prosperity given to us in Psalm 1:1-3. It’s good to be with you again today as we continue to explore together the limitless inheritance which God has provided for us in the promises of His Word.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |