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Breaking Covenant Through Injustice (continued)
3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith
the LORD of hosts.
3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall
stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire,
and like fullers' soap:
3:3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold
and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in
righteousness.
3:4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be
pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in
former years.
3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be
a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the
fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right,
and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
Breaking Covenant by
Withholding Tithes
3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed.
3:7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away
from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto
me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But
ye said, Wherein shall we return?
3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
3:9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even
this whole nation.
3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith,
saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not
be room enough to receive it.
3:11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he
shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall
your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith
the LORD of hosts.
3:12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall
be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.
Israel Speaks Arrogantly
Against God
3:13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD.
Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
3:14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit
is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have
walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
3:15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work
wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even
delivered.
The Faithful Remnant
3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to
another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that feared the
LORD, and that thought upon his name.
3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in
that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as
a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the
righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and
him that serveth him not. |
Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
