Mal 3:7-8 | KingComments | STEP | The fact that God will fulfill His plans in spite of the unfaithfulness of His people does not release the people from the obligation to repent. God’s plans and man’s responsibility do not exclude each other, but complement each other. Malachi tells the people for how long they have deviated from God’s ordinances and have not lived up to them. All generations before them have been unfaithful, and those who are a new generation follow the same path. The LORD calls them to return to Him. Then He will return to them. He has had to turn away from them because of their sins, but He will turn to them again when they confess their sins and stop doing them. But the people see no reason to return for the simple reason that they feel they have not deviated. They have an answer again. It sounds cheeky again: ‘Returning? How shall we return? Surely we are neat, careful members of your people, aren’t we? What a fuss Your prophets make of repentance and conversion. Why have we fallen into disgrace? The people answer the confrontation with their error by evasive questions. They also insult the prophet or challenge him to be a bit clearer, to mention some more details. This is how people react when they do not intend to face the truth. The call to return stirs their pride and brings them to the question how they should return. It proves how dull they are in their sense of what sin is. The answer comes in the following verses.

‏ Malachi 3:7-8

Call to Return and the Response

The fact that God will fulfill His plans in spite of the unfaithfulness of His people does not release the people from the obligation to repent. God’s plans and man’s responsibility do not exclude each other, but complement each other. Malachi tells the people for how long they have deviated from God’s ordinances and have not lived up to them.

All generations before them have been unfaithful, and those who are a new generation follow the same path. The LORD calls them to return to Him. Then He will return to them. He has had to turn away from them because of their sins, but He will turn to them again when they confess their sins and stop doing them.

But the people see no reason to return for the simple reason that they feel they have not deviated. They have an answer again. It sounds cheeky again: ‘Returning? How shall we return? Surely we are neat, careful members of your people, aren’t we? What a fuss Your prophets make of repentance and conversion. Why have we fallen into disgrace?

The people answer the confrontation with their error by evasive questions. They also insult the prophet or challenge him to be a bit clearer, to mention some more details. This is how people react when they do not intend to face the truth. The call to return stirs their pride and brings them to the question how they should return. It proves how dull they are in their sense of what sin is. The answer comes in the following verses.

Robbing God

God answers their question in which they must return with a question in which the answer is included (Mal 3:8). The answer is that it is of course impossible to rob God. Yet God asks that question, because He wants to draw their attention and make them think about it. In a certain sense they do rob God, and that is by withholding something from Him. With great emphasis He says: “Yet you are robbing Me!“

Again, the brutal reaction is to substantiate this accusation. God needs to prove how they have robbed Him. Immediately the answer comes. They rob Him “in tithes and offerings”. They disobey what He said about it in His Word. He often speaks about giving the tithes, of which there are also different kinds (Lev 27:30-33; Num 18:26-28; Deu 12:18 ; Deu 14:28-29).

If the people do not give the tithes, the Levites and priests, who live on the tithes, cannot do their work either and have to look for other work for their income (Neh 13:10-13). The offerings are also part of the priest’s food (Exo 29:27-28; Lev 7:34 ; Lev 10:14-15; Num 5:9). If the offerings are not brought, they lack food.

When the Levites, due to lack of income, have to do other work, it is also at the expense of their service to God. God is thus deprived of their service. Failure to bring the tithes also affects the widows and orphans. God has decreed that they must receive of the tithes for their livelihood (Deu 26:12). Whoever robs God, that is, whoever withholds Him what He is entitled to, causes a lot of evil.

He who robs God does not receive a blessing either, but a curse (Mal 3:9). The people are miserable. They sigh under the curse (Mal 2:2). Here God indicates the cause of it. They rob Him and they continue to do so. And it is not just a single person who does that. No, “the whole nation of them” is guilty of it. But they refuse to understand that the curse that afflicts them is their own fault.