Jan Mikael (8
May 2008)
"Can you find us here ? - Malachi Chapter 3: 1-18.v."
Malachi 3: 1-18.v.
3:1 "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before
me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the
messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!" says Yahweh of
Armies.
3:2 "But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will
stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like launderer's
soap;
3:3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he
will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall
offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.
3:4 Then the offering of
Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh, as in the days of old, and as in
ancient years.
3:5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a
swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the
perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow,
and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don't fear
me," says Yahweh of Armies.
3:6 "For I, Yahweh, don't change; therefore
you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
3:7 From the days of your fathers
you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me,
and I will return to you," says Yahweh of Armies. "But you say, 'How shall we
return?'
3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, 'How have
we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings.
3:9 You are cursed with the
curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.
3:10 Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now
in this," says Yahweh of Armies, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.
3:11 I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy
the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its
time in the field," says Yahweh of Armies.
3:12 "All nations shall call
you blessed, for you will be a delightful land," says Yahweh of Armies.
3:13 "Your words have been stout against me," says Yahweh. "Yet you say,
'What have we spoken against you?'
3:14 You have said, 'It is vain to
serve God;' and 'What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and
that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies?
3:15 Now we call
the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt
God, and escape.'
3:16 Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with
another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before
him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.
3:17 They
shall be mine," says Yahweh of Armies, "my own possession in the day that I
make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
3:18 Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn't serve him.