Profit

Today in my Through-the-Bible reading, I read Malachi, thus finishing the reading plan for this year.  On January 1st, I'll start over with Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts.

But today, God has me in Malachi, and it's been a stirring read.  The one place that really hit me the most was the end of chapter 3.  Throughout Malachi, God makes accusations against the people, who then insist on their innocence.  God then gives evidence of their wrongdoing.  At the end of chapter 3, the exchange goes like this:

Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD.  But you say, 'How have we spoken against you?'  Y0u have said, 'It is vain to serve God.  What is the profit of our keeping His charge?'

The people question how it profits them to keep walking with God.  The wicked prosper, and they put God to the test and escape, and the arrogant seem to be blessed.  So what good is it to follow God?  Their complain is just like Asaph's complaint in Psalm 73-- "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!"

Here is God's answer to Malachi and Asaph:

Malachi3:16-17,4:1-2  The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed His name.  "They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares His son who serves them... For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble... But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

Psalm 73:25-28 Whom have I in heaven but You?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  For behold, those who are far from You shall perish; You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You.  But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.

God's answer to the people in Malachi is the same answer that He gave to Asaph-- a reality-check of the coming end of the wicked, and a reminder that the greatest riches of the righteous lie not in things but in God Himself, and that the most important question is not, "What do you own?" but rather, "Who are you owned by?"