Malachi 3:13-15
“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
Tag: Don’t Worship Evildoers
A passage very similar to the above is found in Psalm 73:
Psalms 73:3-17
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek. ...
... Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence. ....
Like Aspah in this Psalm wrote, it was dangerous to envy the wicked. He understood that when he got face to face with God. As we read in Malachi, God’s people were in the same plight. They actually developed a “beatitude” to repeat to each other:
“And now we call the arrogant blessed.” Yet, Malachi had just written, a verse before, that God had said the nations (the arrogant) would call them blessed:
Malachi 3:12
Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
The nation had not seen the visible vantages of serving the God of the universe. Like most of us today we have to have immediate gratification when serving God and if not, He is not that real to us. God was working a plan in their lives and they could not see the benefits of serving God. How are we just like that. When God does not come through to us, what do we do? We envy the wicked. They have no pains and no struggles, as we observe their life. We see no fruit of our faithfulness to God and think it is not worth serving Him. But, note what Asaph writes later in his chapter:
Psalm 73:17
... But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
When he struggled to understand all this he had to put it into perspective. He realized that his current life, despite service to God, was not the point. He had to look at God’s bigger plan and realize that God would, one day, redeem him and NOT them. The end of the wicked is forever separated from God and tormented day and night for eternity. The end of Aspah’s life and the nation of Israel (should they believe in Christ) and all of us today is that we will have a blessed eternity with God. This life might be hard. It most naturally will be since it has no love for God and we do (supposedly). When we love something no one else loves we will suffer and struggle. God is working His plan. It is not the arrogant who will be blessed, however. When Jesus came on the scene He mocked this beatitude. He spoke His own:
Matthew 5:3-11
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
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