Return

Malachi 3:6-18 "I the Lord do not Change. So you, o descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," Says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, 'How are we to return?' Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, How do we rob you? In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse - the whole nation of you - because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the store house, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty. And see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit. Says the Lord Almighty, then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. You have said harsh things against me. says the Lord. Yet you ask, what have we said against you? You have said, it is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape. Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. They will be mine. Says the Lord Almighty. in the day when I make up my treasured possessions. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."

'I the Lord do not change.' This is an amazing and beautiful promise. Unlike everything in this world, the Lord, the maker of this world, is unchanging. This seems a strange concept. We may not like change, but we are surrounded by it. Whether it is the slow mark of time which weakens and ages this world, or the onward march of technology, everything is changing constantly. We set our schedules, we get used to a certain order of events day in and day out. But our days never go exactly to plan. Change comes: in blaring sudden harsh reality or in a slow almost obscured slightness.

The unchanging Lord is what we can cling too. In fact it is given as the reason that the people of Jacob have not been destroyed. The promise of an unchangeable Lord, is a promise that his character is well known. It has been proven and over and over again. All of Malachi up to this point has reminded the people that the Lord is their God. He called Abraham. He called Moses and David. His promises will come true.

However the Lord like any good parent, can let his children continue to live on in sin and hatefulness. He begs them. Return to me and I will return to you. This idea of return is very beautiful. And yet so often, we don't realize that we have left. How are we to return? We ask. How do we come back to the unchanging, unchangable Lord?

We are given two real ways in which to return. The first is through giving of tithes and the second is to believe in the justice of the Lord. It might be strange that the Lord choice to single out money and our sense of justice. Yet these are two of the deepest ways that we refuse to give God the glory and proper place in our lives.

How often do we think of our pay check as all ours? After all we are the ones that worked for that money, we deserve it. How often to we question God's justice while we see injustice in the world? How often to we judge those around us harshly picking out the speck in their eyes, while we have a log jam in ours?

By pointing out how we use and think about our possessions, God is reminding us that all things come first from him. It is by his grace that we can work to make money. When we tithe, its not for the church or even for God, its so that we remember that all things Belong to God. By pointing out that we are to fear God and believe in his justice, God reminds us that he holds all things in his hands. He feeds the birds of the air. He see all the deeds of men, even those we can not see. He reads our hearts. He is the perfect judge, because he is the only one who can know all the facts in the case.

God is to be first in our lives. Ourselves and our things are first his, and for his use. Our sense of justice is based on his character and love. We return to God, by remembering to put God and ourselves in the proper place (God first, then us).

When we get the order right. When God is first. When we offer him the first of ourselves: we are promised an abundance that overflows our expectations. When we fear the Lord, when we seek his rightness, we are promised his compassion. We are promised rightness with him. When we seek to be right with God, to return to him. He opens himself to us. He offer himself to us. There is no greater gift.