Today's Verse: Malachi 3:16 (ESV)
The Book of Remembrance
Then those who feared the Lord mspoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and na book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.
m [Deut. 6:6, 7]
n See Ex. 32:32
The last of the Old Testament Prophets, Malachi, wrote during the period of apostasy in Judah, after the completion of the second temple (516 B.C.). He prophesied against the priesthood, which had become corrupt, worship, which had become routine, widespread divorce, neglect of social justice, and failure to tithe.
Today's Comments: Proverbs 1:7 reminds us that: the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. What fools we have been for so long a time, over and over! No sooner does the Temple in Jerusalem get rebuilt than another period of apostasy sets in, and God has to send his prophet Malachi to try and fix things. But today we do not have the prophets; we have the written Word of God, the Bible. But then again, who cared about the prophets? Who cares today about the Bible? To most of those lived during 460 to 430 B.C. (when Malachi actually ministered), the words of the prophet did not matter. Only a few listened, and they are listed in the prophet's book of remembrance. And today? The same issues of apostasy still exist. The Bible is ignored; and worse yet, the Bible is deliberately misinterpreted so that corrupted behaviors are viewed as "normal" or "natural." Will our temple someday come crashing down upon us, like it did in AD 70, because God's people just didn't get it? Although the prophets did not specifically write for our time, their words have meaning that we should try to understand. There are lessons for us in the Old Testament, and we should not ignore them.
The Book of Remembrance
Then those who feared the Lord mspoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and na book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.
m [Deut. 6:6, 7]
n See Ex. 32:32
The last of the Old Testament Prophets, Malachi, wrote during the period of apostasy in Judah, after the completion of the second temple (516 B.C.). He prophesied against the priesthood, which had become corrupt, worship, which had become routine, widespread divorce, neglect of social justice, and failure to tithe.
Today's Comments: Proverbs 1:7 reminds us that: the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. What fools we have been for so long a time, over and over! No sooner does the Temple in Jerusalem get rebuilt than another period of apostasy sets in, and God has to send his prophet Malachi to try and fix things. But today we do not have the prophets; we have the written Word of God, the Bible. But then again, who cared about the prophets? Who cares today about the Bible? To most of those lived during 460 to 430 B.C. (when Malachi actually ministered), the words of the prophet did not matter. Only a few listened, and they are listed in the prophet's book of remembrance. And today? The same issues of apostasy still exist. The Bible is ignored; and worse yet, the Bible is deliberately misinterpreted so that corrupted behaviors are viewed as "normal" or "natural." Will our temple someday come crashing down upon us, like it did in AD 70, because God's people just didn't get it? Although the prophets did not specifically write for our time, their words have meaning that we should try to understand. There are lessons for us in the Old Testament, and we should not ignore them.
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