God’s Old Testament people didn’t feel loved by Him. When He told them He loved them, He knew they were skeptical. Do you feel the same way when God’s word tells you that He loves you? Let’s understand the proof God offered them of His love so that we can believe that God truly loved them despite His continual judgment. Edom was perhaps Israel’s most bitter enemy. As God pronounced judgment on all the people in the known (to Israel) world, His dispute with Edom was their hatred for Israel. That He would judge a descendant of Abraham, whom He had previously forbidden Israel to confront, as harshly and thoroughly as He did was proof of His love for Israel. Would you feel loved to know that God destroyed your enemy because of that person’s hatred for you? Further, recall that Israel was also judged by God; but the end of their judgment was restoration. There was no restoration for Edom; destruction was their end.
We may suffer in ways that make us doubt that God loves us. Please understand that doubt in God is a tactic the enemy uses to attempt to drive a wedge in the relationship between God and each one of us. It needs to be shaken off! What would God offer to you as proof of His love for you? If you are struggling with doubt, please ask Him that question! To get you started, though, let me remind you He has offered each one of us proof of His love in providing His Son as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins, so that He can enjoy intimacy with us. It’s not a matter of “I love you so much that I would do this for you,” but “I love you so much that I have done this for you.”
Recall that there was nothing in the Law to prevent them from divorcing their wives, but God was offended anyway that they were divorcing their wives, because He hates divorce. Isn’t it interesting that God didn’t impose laws against everything He hates? So even if His Old Testament people checked off all the boxes of obedience to the Law, they could still offend Him. How much more so can we, since we haven’t been given the Law as part of the terms of the New Covenant we have with God. He wants us to share His heart, love what He loves and hate what He hates, because that is what fosters intimacy with Him.
God’s Old Testament people didn’t believe what He told them about other things in addition to His love for them. It’s not that they told God they didn’t believe Him, but He knew it by their actions. Even their spiritual leaders didn’t believe God. What do you suppose God knows about His people today that we don’t believe? Do you suppose He is revealing our own hearts to us, but we are refusing to believe Him as His Old Testament people did?
- They were not honoring God in their worship, to the point that God wished they simply wouldn’t offer their worship. Would He say the same of our worship of Him?
- Have we committed spiritual adultery by loving something else or someone else more than we love God?
- Are we overlooking sin in our lives?
- Are we robbing God?
- Do we indicate by what we approve that serving God is futile?
- Do we justify what we do, thinking that we can convince God that these actions don’t indicate a lack of love and honor for Him? That very attempt to justify indicates a lack of love and honor, and He is not fooled, nor will He lower His standards for us because of our refusal to accept that we have failed to meet them.
The coming one of whom Malachi spoke is, of course, Messiah. God’s final word to His Old Testament people was to remind them that He hadn’t forgotten His promise to send Messiah. The work of Messiah mentioned here is that of refining, so that all of the hindrances to intimacy with God that people couldn’t seem to master, or refused to acknowledge, would be removed from His people like dross is removed from the metal during the refining process. That’s a good thing, right? But understand that the refining process requires heat intense enough to liquefy the metal. Will you be burned up in the process as stubble, or removed as dross, or found genuine and refined through the process? Self-evaluation is vital, as demonstrated by the repeated falling away of God’s Old Testament people, but self-evaluation without seeking God’s opinion (and expecting Him to answer) is futile, because we can be as fooled as His Old Testament people were about their own actions and what they revealed about their hearts. When we talk about Messiah’s coming at Christmastime, we talk about peace and joy; do we truly appreciate the refining necessary to enjoy intimacy with God?