Malachi
Chapter 3: 6-18
Robbing God
6 "I
the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 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?'
8
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In tithes and offerings. 9
You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, 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. 11 I will prevent pests from
devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says
the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call
you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
13
"You have said harsh things against me," says the LORD.
"Yet you ask, 'What have we said against you?'
14
"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? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers
prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.' "
16 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.
17
"They will be mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up my
treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who
serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between
the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
