Malachi 3:1-4:1-6 Chap­ter 3 Look! I am send­ing my - TopicsExpress



          

Malachi 3:1-4:1-6 Chap­ter 3 Look! I am send­ing my mes­sen­ger, and he will pre­pare the way be­fore me. Then the Lord you are seek­ing will sud­denly come to his Tem­ple. The mes­sen­ger of the covenant, whom you look for so ea­gerly, is surely com­ing, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. [2] But who will be able to en­dure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he ap­pears? For he will be like a blaz­ing fire that re­fines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. [3] He will sit like a re­finer of sil­ver, burn­ing away the dross. He will pu­rify the Levites, re­fin­ing them like gold and sil­ver, so that they may once again offer ac­cept­able sac­ri­fices to the Lord. [4] Then once more the Lord will ac­cept the of­fer­ings brought to him by the peo­ple of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past. [5] At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to wit­ness against all sor­cer­ers and adul­ter­ers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat em­ploy­ees of their wages, who op­press wid­ows and or­phans, or who de­prive the for­eign­ers liv­ing among you of jus­tice, for these peo­ple do not fear me, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. [6] I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you de­scen­dants of Jacob are not al­ready de­stroyed. [7] Ever since the days of your an­ces­tors, you have scorned my de­crees and failed to obey them. Now re­turn to me, and I will re­turn to you, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. But you ask, How can we re­turn when we have never gone away? [8] Should peo­ple cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! But you ask, What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You have cheated me of the tithes and of­fer­ings due to me. [9] You are under a curse, for your whole na­tion has been cheat­ing me. [10] Bring all the tithes into the store­house so there will be enough food in my Tem­ple. If you do, says the Lord of Heavens Armies, I will open the win­dows of heaven for you. I will pour out a bless­ing so great you wont have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! [11] Your crops will be abun­dant, for I will guard them from in­sects and dis­ease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine be­fore they are ripe, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. [12] Then all na­tions will call you blessed, for your land will be such a de­light, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. [13] You have said ter­ri­ble things about me, says the Lord. But you say, What do you mean? What have we said against you? [14] You have said, Whats the use of serv­ing God? What have we gained by obey­ing his com­mands or by try­ing to show the Lord of Heavens Armies that we are sorry for our sins? [15] From now on we will call the ar­ro­gant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to pun­ish them suf­fer no harm. [16] Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord lis­tened to what they said. In his pres­ence, a scroll of re­mem­brance was writ­ten to record the names of those who feared him and al­ways thought about the honor of his name. [17] They will be my peo­ple, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. On the day when I act in judg­ment, they will be my own spe­cial trea­sure. I will spare them as a fa­ther spares an obe­di­ent child. [18] Then you will again see the dif­fer­ence be­tween the right­eous and the wicked, be­tween those who serve God and those who do not. Chap­ter 4 The Lord of Heavens Armies says, The day of judg­ment is com­ing, burn­ing like a fur­nace. On that day the ar­ro­gant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be con­sumed-roots, branches, and all. [2] But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Right­eous­ness will rise with heal­ing in his wings. And you will go free, leap­ing with joy like calves let out to pas­ture. [3] On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet, says the Lord of Heavens Armies. [4] Re­mem­ber to obey the Law of Moses, my ser­vant-all the de­crees and reg­u­la­tions that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Is­rael. [5] Look, I am send­ing you the prophet Eli­jah be­fore the great and dread­ful day of the Lord ar­rives. [6] His preach­ing will turn the hearts of fa­thers to their chil­dren, and the hearts of chil­dren to their fa­thers. Oth­er­wise I will come and strike the land with a curse.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 12:21:07 +0000

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