"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE ABOUT COMING BACK TO THE LORD"
Malachi 3:7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the LORD of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’
Some explanatory thoughts, application, and a prayer:
1. The Lord wanted His people to return to Him. That's what the verse says, Mal 3:7b Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the LORD of hosts. The word return, means, to turn back, or to repent, to restore, to recover. This was God's desire for His people.
2. They and their forefathers had been doing two things that describe why they needed to return. Malachi 3:7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. So, the entire population, both at the time of Malachi's ministry, and previously had both gone away from the ordinances, or the laws of God.
They had scorned God's Laws, and they had failed to obey them. In other words, they had removed themselves from God's laws, they had turned aside from God's laws, and they had put the law of God aside. And, naturally they were not obeying God.
3. So, with all that said, here we have God calling them back to Himself, Come back to me, is basically what He was saying, and if you come back to me God says, I will come back to You. I want you back, and I want to be back with you is the idea. God was interested in restoring the people back into a right relationship with Himself. He did not want them to continue living apart from Him.
4. You may know someone who is living this way. Away from God. You may be that person. Or you may remember a time when You lived that way, and the Lord has restored You, You have come back to God, and what did He do, well, He came back to You. That's the way the Lord is.
5. Interesting, to note, that the phrase, LORD of hosts, is also translated, LORD ALMIGHTY. God is all powerful. That's who He is, and He is able to restore His people. He wanted to, and wants to today, to restore His people. Sad to say, that the people at this time were not really very humble and broken about their condition.
They responded to this gracious invitation by a kind of cynical, less then sorrowful attitude, ( and by actually denying that they had gone away ) by asking the LORD in what way, or how can we returen, and in what way have we not been obeying You. Even though they had this attitude, God was faithful to answer their question. Here is God's answer to them.
Mal 3:7b-8 “But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’
Mal 3:8 “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.
6. Someone has said, the point of return, always starts with the point of departure. In other words, go back to where you left, and start again at that point. In this case, the people had been robbing God, by not giving Him, what belonged to Him, and that was His tithe, and the offerings that belonged to Him. So, the Lord was answering their question by showing them how they had departed, and what they ought to do, in order to get back, and be rightly restored to the Lord. Stop stealing from God was the basic idea here.
Mal 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
7. The rest of the chapter, is an encouragement for the people to return to their God, and to stop stealing from Him, and begin once again worshipping Him in the ways that He had prescribed for them, and He promised to bless them.
May I encourage You, if You feel that this situation fits your life, it describes You, then, You can return to God, and come to Him on His terms, not Your own. Or if You know people that You love and care for, pray for them, and ask God to bring conviction upon them. He wants them back. They, deep down in their hearts are suffering greatly by being away from God.
A prayer:
Father, thank You for being a God who desires restoration. Thank You that You would even speak to those who are stealing from You and say, Come back, and I'll come back to You. But, Lord that's who You are, and that's what You said in plain, can't argue with them words. You are God ALMIGHTY. You don't lie, and You are faithful. So, we pray for ourselves if this shoe fits us, and we pray for those in the body we know that also fit into this shoe. But, Lord, may we find ourselves in different shoes as it were. May we find ourselves coming back to You, and repenting of our sins, and showing our faith in You by practical obedience to Your ways.
In Jesus name. Amen
Pastor Bob Grenier.
Calvary Chapel Visalia.
