Doubting God
Malachi 3:13-18
Imagine a sail ship whose crew slowly turns against its own captain, not because he failed them, but because they convinced each other he had. That’s what happened aboard the HMS Bounty in 1789. A handful of sailors, who resented their captain’s rigorous expectations and desired an easier life, began whispering half‑truths and exaggerations about Captain Bligh to one another. The more they repeated their stories, the more the crew believed them.
Before long, the captain’s real character didn’t matter because the talk among the crew had taken over. Their words became stronger than his authority, and in the end, they staged a mutiny. They pointed bayonets at Bligh in the middle of the night, forced him on deck, and ordered him and 18 loyal men aboard the ship’s launch Royal Museums Greenwich. Bligh and his men were then cast adrift in a small boat, navigating over 3,600 nautical miles to safety.
This is the sixth and final time in this book – which is a conversation between God and the people of Israel – that he has told the people they were violating their covenant with him. Like the other five times, they act surprised and ask God to prove what he is saying.
God hears when we speak negatively about him.
Here God makes a new claim to the people of Israel. “‘Your words have been harsh against me,’ says the Lord.” The words translated “harsh against me” can mean a variety of things like “speaking harshly or strongly against someone” or “overruling someone.”
This resembles what happened with the mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Sailors were not speaking harsh or strong words to their captain, they were speaking negative things about him and overruling him by what they said about him to each other.
The people responded to this claim by acting surprised. “How have we spoken against you?” With this response, they understood that God was implying they had said things which resembled some of their notorious, wicked enemies.
So, the people wanted to know how it was that they had spoken against God like their notorious enemies had done. Had they misheard God? Surely, they were not like Nebuchadnezzar or the Edomites, but God answered their question clearly and quickly:
“You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts?’ So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’” (Mal 3:14-15)
As you can see, their answer had two parts. The first part was what they were saying about God and the second was what they were saying about wicked people.
When we conclude it is unprofitable to serve him…
The first thing they were telling each other about God is this:
“It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts?” (Mal 3:14)
Here they describe their relationship with God as one of service and conclude that serving God is useless and unprofitable. They had made some kind of attempts to do what the covenant called for them to do but did not receive the financial, material, temporal benefits they had hoped to receive in return.
They were handling their relationship with God in a pragmatic way as if it were a vending machine – “if we do this thing, we’ll get this other thing in return.” In politics, we call this “pay to play,” in business, “quid pro quo,” in marriage, “conditional love,” a “transactional relationship,” or “using someone.” In church, we call it a “consumer mindset.”
Now, apart from this being a self-centered, wrong view of our relationship with God, it also naturally and eventually brings us to a disenchanted, disillusioned view of God.
To be disenchanted or disillusioned means to feel that someone or something you once hoped in and trusted doesn’t meet your expectations. Disenchantment can arise because something truly fails you, or else because your expectations were wrong to begin with.
If you go to McDonalds expecting a 3-star Michelin experience, you’ll be disappointed, but it won’t be McD’s fault because that’s not the kind of restaurant advertise: you had the wrong expectations. But if you go to McD’s for an affordable, fast, and savory meal and you get a large bill, slow service, and dry, lukewarm food, you’ll also be disappointed and it will be McD’s fault since you expected them to be what they advertise.
When people are disenchanted or disillusioned with God, it is never because God has failed them but because they had the wrong expectations, as the people of Israel did. We form wrong expectations when we grade the value of serving God in measurable ways. These measurable ways include the following:
To be clear, God does intend to bless his children in measurable, material ways. Sometimes, even often, today he does so in the present, in this life to some degree. Consider how Jesus himself said that God responds to his children who make generous financial and material investments into his kingdom:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Lk 6:38)
Also consider the timeless promise God gives to people who honor their parents well:
“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Eph 6:2-3)
If you give generously to God’s kingdom, he says he will bless you through the generosity of others. And if you honor your father and mother, he may bless you with a healthy and long life in this world. But sometimes God provides these blessings at a later time than we want him to or in another form than we assumed them to be, and he may even defer these blessings to eternity beyond the grave. Even so, God does what he says he will do.
God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num 23:19)
One man who struggled with this challenge of looking and waiting for God’s blessing as he was faithfully serving God was the prophet, Isaiah. Notice how he wondered whether his service to God had been worthwhile, because people didn’t generally respond to his message and ministry in a positive, receptive way:
Then I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, and my work with my God.” (Isaiah 49:3)
But when he expressed his question to God, he quickly pivoted to a God-focused perspective. He chose to trust the outcome of his service for God to God. But that’s not how the people of Israel responded to a similar question. Instead, they turned their eyes away from God and concluded that a worldly life was better than a life of serving God.
When we conclude a worldly life is better …
The second thing they were telling each other about God is this:
“Now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.” (Mal 3:15)
Since they weren’t getting the benefits they wanted from God when they wanted them, they looked around and saw arrogant and evil people living godless, worldly lifestyles. These people actively, even intentionally, opposed God. But the irony was that they seemed to enjoy the blessings, stability, and freedom that the people of Israel wanted.
When they saw this paradox, an apparent contradiction, they reached what seemed to be a logical, rational conclusion. If people who serve God receive lower- or slower-than-expected material and tangible blessings, and if people who don’t serve God receive more immediate, measurable material blessings, then it made better sense not to serve God.
But this is like a teacher trying to prove that sugar makes students smarter. So, she gives a group of students a full-size candy bar before a test, and that group scores higher than another group gets no candy scores lower. It would be easy to say, “See, sugar helps students do better!” But that conclusion would be faulty, because there may be other reasons for the difference in student performance.
Perhaps the first group had more sleep, studied more carefully, or simply came to class better prepared. Without taking those things into account, the conclusion sounds logical, but it is reliable because it lacked proper controls. In the same way, the people of Israel looked at their lives and concluded that serving God seemed empty and unprofitable, while those who ignored God seemed to flourish. But they were judging too soon. They were not factoring in God’s patience and wisdom, the difference between temporary ease and true, eternal blessing, or the certainty that God will make all things right in the end.
Psalm 73:1-3 expresses a similar struggle, only in this case, the person struggling with this was self-aware and repented of his wrong perspective.
Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Do you ever feel this way? That serving God is costly, inconvenient, and not worth your effort and time? Would you rather do things which have more immediate material and tangible returns?
God hears when we express our loyalty to him.
At this point in the conversation God was having with Israel, some of the people chose to let go of the popular talking points against God and band together over a shared faith and trust in God. These were genuine believers and followers of God who had been drawn in by the peer pressure prevailing talking points of their community and culture at that time. But because of their genuine faith, they corrected their course and rejected that thinking.
They “feared the Lord” (2x) and “thought much and highly of his name” (Mal 3:16). This means that they decided to dismiss the faulty conclusions of the majority, namely that it was more profitable and useful not to serve God than it was to serve him. They decided to broaden their perspective account for everything they knew about God.
To fear God means to take seriously everything you know about him and live in a way that respects and responds well to who he is, no matter what the immediate benefits may or may not be. In this case, as it usually does, it meant that the people chose to serve him no matter how low or slow their material, tangible, and temporal blessings seemed to be. We’re familiar with these two competing underlying motives, transactional or devotion.
In marriage, some are loving for comfort, security, or affection, but others are faithful because they’re devoted to their spouse. At work, some labor for pay, praise, or promotion, but others work with integrity because they believe in the mission of the company. In friendship, some stay close because the relationship is useful, but others do so because they truly care. In parent-child relationships, some children obey only for allowance or privileges, while others obey out of love and respect. And in church involvement, some participate for encouragement, help, or social benefits, while others do because they love God and want to worship him no matter what – they fear him.
When immediate benefits slow down or disappear, transactional motives are exposed, but devotion remains steady. And God responds to genuine devotion in a devoted way. He expresses this devotion in Malachi 3:16-18 in four ways.
He remembers those who serve him.
Malachi described how a “book of remembrance” was written before God (3:16). This book could be several things. Some people believe this refers to something called “the Book of Life” elsewhere in the Bible. Others believe it refers to a special book created by God for this specific moment and group of people. Still others believe it refers to a book that people – possibly Malachi himself – created at this moment to write down the names of the people who chose to follow God by faith even when material blessings were thin.
Esther 6 is a good example of this practice. There the Persian king, Ahasuerus, could not sleep, so he ordered the official records to be read to him and realized that a Jewish man named Mordecai had once exposed a plot against his life. That act of loyalty had been written down, preserved, and then brought back to the king’s attention at the right time so he could reward it properly. In this case, he honored and promoted Mordecai, executed Mordecai’s enemy, Haman, and protected Mordecai’s people Israel from destruction.
In the same way, Malachi uses the image of a “book of remembrance” to show that God does not overlook those who fear him. The thief on the cross used the same language, hen he asked Christ to “remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42).
God remembers both disloyalty and loyalty, selfish motives and devotion, and will respond to each in his time. Though immediate blessings may seem few, when the time is right, he will bless, exalt, and reward those who fear him.
He treasures those who serve him.
Not only does God remember those who serve him, but he treasures them. The phrase “make them my jewels” means something like “make them my special treasure” and refers to God choosing some people out of many into a special, unique place of recognition and relationship with him.
In Exo 19:5, at Mount Sinai, when God formed the Hebrew descendants of Abraham into the special nation of Israel, he used the same language to describe all the people of Israel from an ethnic, national standpoint.
If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
Now here, about 1,000 years later, God uses the same language but narrows the scope from all who are born into Israel to all who serve him, fear him, and meditate on his name.
“Possession” is a technical expression of the people of YHWH as His treasure or property, one rightly His by virtue of redemption. (Eugene Merrill)
“Like a shepherd coming to claim his lost sheep and like a bridegroom coming for his bride, God will come to claim his people who are prepared to meet him.” (Taylor & Clendenen)
Think of the many stuffed animals scattered throughout your bedroom (when you were a kid). One or two are clearly your favorite – do you know its name? Anyone can tell which ones they are because they are the most worn. The fur is matted, a seam may be loose, an arm, eye, or leg may be missioned, and all because have been carried, hugged, played with, cried on, and slept with far more than the others. The wear does not make them less valuable to the child; it proves they are especially treasured.
Which is best, to receive treasure from God or be treasured by God? And if earthly, temporal blessings seem thin and if your life of following God seems hard now, which is better – an immediate outpouring of material blessings or hearing and knowing more deeply that God treasures you more than anything else in the world? The cure to disenchantment and disillusionment with God is not more immediate, material blessings from God but a deeper, more personal realization that God treasures you.
He spares those who serve him.
Not only does God remember and treasure those who serve him, but he spares them, too. And here, Malachi leans firmly into this promise to spare them. He does this by repeating the statement twice, one after the other. In the study of biblical Hebrew translation, we call this “telescoping” – it describes how a concept is introduced in one statement, then repeated and expanded from that point more emphatically in the next.
Here, God says he will “spare them” in the first statement, then he says he will “spare them” a second time in the next statement but describes it in an even more special way than the generic statement that came before. So, how does a father spare “his own son who serves him”? Douglas Stewart explains this very helpfully:
“The son who serves his father (or, more neutrally, the child who serves a parent) is twice beloved. He enjoys the love of the father automatically because he is his child, and beyond that he has pleased the father by faithful service. The father’s favor is both natural and earned, both instinctive and merited.”
This special promise explains how God would treat those people of Israel who served him in genuine faith and devotion, not merely for immediate, material blessings. When he finally judged the world in a full and decisive way, he would spare totally spare them from his wrath and judgment – not just a little, but completely.
The word “spare” itself means to show compassion or mercy and speaks of treating someone in a special way that they don’t deserve. And this can only refer to a person who accepts and understands that they are a sinner who deserves God’s judgment, not a good or neutral person who deserves God’s blessing.
And this is one of evidence or symptoms of a transactional relationship with God, one motivated primarily by potential blessings rather than by a deep respect for God himself. This evidence may be called “entitlement,” which is the mindset that God owes you blessing, comfort, and reward – that you inherently deserve these things.
But a heart of genuine faith and devotion to God is not marked by an entitled attitude. It is marked by a humble, repentant attitude that is deeply persuaded you do not deserve his blessing and are amazed that he would remember, treasure, and spare you at all.
He separates those who serve him.
Finally, God not only remembers, treasures, and spares those who are faithfully devoted to him, he separates them, too. Why is this important? To help us understand the purpose for this promise, we should pay attention to the word “again” (Mal 3:18). With this word in mind, we should compare the beginnings of God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai with the people of Israel 1,000 years later after they returned from captivity in Assyria and compare it to how planting a garden works.
When a person plants a garden, it’s easy to tell the difference between the garden and the rest of the countryside around it. This distinction becomes more difficult to see, though, after the onset of weeds. As weeds grow and spread and the garden becomes indistinguishable from the countryside, it becomes necessary to either weed the garden by separating and removing the weeds.
When God established his covenant with Israel at Sinai, it was easy to tell the difference between the people of Israel and the unbelieving people of the world. But as years wore on, the nation became increasingly populated by people who were following God for immediate, material, temporal benefits only. So, at the end of time, God will separate from those who genuinely believe on him from those who do not. Today, that may not immediately be clear, but it will be perfectly clear on that day.
Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. (Mal 3:18)
Jesus taught more about this future time of judgement and separation (Mt 13:41-43):
The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
At this time, the consequences of your motivations for following God will be more crucial than anything you can desire or value in this immediate, material, and temporal life. God will not separate people the way our present world does, by measurable, tangible factors: age group, stage of life, IQ, tax filing status, ethnicity, nationality, professional titles, credit score, gender, marital status, political party, social class, income bracket, and more.
Instead, he will separate and categorize us by one thing – whether or not be believed on Christ, feared God, and served him with genuine, devoted, loyal faith that endured, even in difficult times when material, temporal, immediate blessings were low and slow.
So, in Malachi 3:13-18, we see that the real crisis in Israel wasn’t their difficult, uncomfortable circumstances but their attitude towards God. They had allowed disappointment, delay, and comparison to change their theology. They spoke harshly about God, not with raised fists but with quiet, cynical conversations that spoke of him like we do when we leave 1- and 2-star reviews on Google or Yelp for a business or service-provider who provided unsatisfactory care.
God revealed their transactional motives and contrasted them with a smaller number among them who feared him, meditated his name, and served him even when blessings were low and slow. And God promised that he remembers, treasures, spares, and will one day separate those who truly belong to him. The question Malachi leaves ringing in our ears is not whether God is faithful, but whether we will trust God’s devotion when the immediate rewards are hard to see.
The call for us is clear: believe on Christ, fear God, and serve him with a loyal heart. Let his character and his Word, not your circumstances, shape your conclusions about God, about life, and about the people around you. Examine your motives honestly before him.
Are you following Christ because he is worthy, or because you hope he will make life easier for you today? Are you serving Him for who he is, or for what you hope he will give you? The God who remembers, treasures, spares, and separates his people is looking and listening for hearts that are wholly his, hearts that will follow Christ at any cost, even when blessings are delayed, disguised, or deferred to eternity.
Let us reject the consumer mindset that whispers, “What does it profit to follow Christ?” Today is a good day to realign your heart with the fear of the Lord and renew your loyalty to him, regardless of your circumstances.
A gardener once planted two trees side by side. One grew quickly into a tree that was tall, leafy, and impressive see. The other grew slowly into a tree that was small, sturdy, and unimpressive. Neighbors praised the fast-growing tree, but the gardener kept tending the slow one with careful love and a green thumb.
Years later, a violent storm swept through. The tall tree snapped in half, but the small tree stood firm because its roots had grown slow but deep. Though this surprised many, they didn’t realize that the fast-growing tree had a shallow root system and a fragile trunk.
In the same way, don’t be enamored by or feel entitled to the material blessings this temporal world can offer. Though God can and does bless his people in these ways today, we should be sure not to demand those things from him but rather devote ourselves to serving him because he is worthy. God is not impressed by the quick, comfortable, flashy lifestyles of material success. He treasures the quiet, steady devotion of those who fear him in any circumstance and serve him even when the winds of difficulty and trial blow.
May we at Brookdale be a group of committed believers who are like that tree, rooted, faithful, and standing firm in the end because we know that we don’t deserve God’s blessings and because we believe, fear, and serve him no matter what.
Discussion Questions
Imagine a sail ship whose crew slowly turns against its own captain, not because he failed them, but because they convinced each other he had. That’s what happened aboard the HMS Bounty in 1789. A handful of sailors, who resented their captain’s rigorous expectations and desired an easier life, began whispering half‑truths and exaggerations about Captain Bligh to one another. The more they repeated their stories, the more the crew believed them.
Before long, the captain’s real character didn’t matter because the talk among the crew had taken over. Their words became stronger than his authority, and in the end, they staged a mutiny. They pointed bayonets at Bligh in the middle of the night, forced him on deck, and ordered him and 18 loyal men aboard the ship’s launch Royal Museums Greenwich. Bligh and his men were then cast adrift in a small boat, navigating over 3,600 nautical miles to safety.
This is the sixth and final time in this book – which is a conversation between God and the people of Israel – that he has told the people they were violating their covenant with him. Like the other five times, they act surprised and ask God to prove what he is saying.
God hears when we speak negatively about him.
Here God makes a new claim to the people of Israel. “‘Your words have been harsh against me,’ says the Lord.” The words translated “harsh against me” can mean a variety of things like “speaking harshly or strongly against someone” or “overruling someone.”
This resembles what happened with the mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Sailors were not speaking harsh or strong words to their captain, they were speaking negative things about him and overruling him by what they said about him to each other.
The people responded to this claim by acting surprised. “How have we spoken against you?” With this response, they understood that God was implying they had said things which resembled some of their notorious, wicked enemies.
- The messengers of the Assyrian king Sennacherib “spoke … against the LORD God” and “wrote letters insulting the LORD, the God of Israel,” saying he was unable to protect Jerusalem (2 Chr 32:16-17).
- The Edomites “boasted against [God] and spoke against [him] without restraint” (Ezk 35:13). The prophet Hosea tells us what God said about them: “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak lies against me” (Hos 7:13).
- After he saw the miracle of the fiery furnace, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar sided with God and decreed that “the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble” (Dan 3:29).
So, the people wanted to know how it was that they had spoken against God like their notorious enemies had done. Had they misheard God? Surely, they were not like Nebuchadnezzar or the Edomites, but God answered their question clearly and quickly:
“You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts?’ So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’” (Mal 3:14-15)
As you can see, their answer had two parts. The first part was what they were saying about God and the second was what they were saying about wicked people.
When we conclude it is unprofitable to serve him…
The first thing they were telling each other about God is this:
“It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts?” (Mal 3:14)
Here they describe their relationship with God as one of service and conclude that serving God is useless and unprofitable. They had made some kind of attempts to do what the covenant called for them to do but did not receive the financial, material, temporal benefits they had hoped to receive in return.
They were handling their relationship with God in a pragmatic way as if it were a vending machine – “if we do this thing, we’ll get this other thing in return.” In politics, we call this “pay to play,” in business, “quid pro quo,” in marriage, “conditional love,” a “transactional relationship,” or “using someone.” In church, we call it a “consumer mindset.”
Now, apart from this being a self-centered, wrong view of our relationship with God, it also naturally and eventually brings us to a disenchanted, disillusioned view of God.
To be disenchanted or disillusioned means to feel that someone or something you once hoped in and trusted doesn’t meet your expectations. Disenchantment can arise because something truly fails you, or else because your expectations were wrong to begin with.
If you go to McDonalds expecting a 3-star Michelin experience, you’ll be disappointed, but it won’t be McD’s fault because that’s not the kind of restaurant advertise: you had the wrong expectations. But if you go to McD’s for an affordable, fast, and savory meal and you get a large bill, slow service, and dry, lukewarm food, you’ll also be disappointed and it will be McD’s fault since you expected them to be what they advertise.
When people are disenchanted or disillusioned with God, it is never because God has failed them but because they had the wrong expectations, as the people of Israel did. We form wrong expectations when we grade the value of serving God in measurable ways. These measurable ways include the following:
- Measuring Time: grading how soon favorable, positive things happen to us
- Measuring Wealth: grading how our net worth increases
- Measuring Success: grading how much our difficulties and suffering decrease and how much our accomplishments and recognition increase
To be clear, God does intend to bless his children in measurable, material ways. Sometimes, even often, today he does so in the present, in this life to some degree. Consider how Jesus himself said that God responds to his children who make generous financial and material investments into his kingdom:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Lk 6:38)
Also consider the timeless promise God gives to people who honor their parents well:
“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Eph 6:2-3)
If you give generously to God’s kingdom, he says he will bless you through the generosity of others. And if you honor your father and mother, he may bless you with a healthy and long life in this world. But sometimes God provides these blessings at a later time than we want him to or in another form than we assumed them to be, and he may even defer these blessings to eternity beyond the grave. Even so, God does what he says he will do.
God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Num 23:19)
One man who struggled with this challenge of looking and waiting for God’s blessing as he was faithfully serving God was the prophet, Isaiah. Notice how he wondered whether his service to God had been worthwhile, because people didn’t generally respond to his message and ministry in a positive, receptive way:
Then I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, and my work with my God.” (Isaiah 49:3)
But when he expressed his question to God, he quickly pivoted to a God-focused perspective. He chose to trust the outcome of his service for God to God. But that’s not how the people of Israel responded to a similar question. Instead, they turned their eyes away from God and concluded that a worldly life was better than a life of serving God.
When we conclude a worldly life is better …
The second thing they were telling each other about God is this:
“Now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.” (Mal 3:15)
Since they weren’t getting the benefits they wanted from God when they wanted them, they looked around and saw arrogant and evil people living godless, worldly lifestyles. These people actively, even intentionally, opposed God. But the irony was that they seemed to enjoy the blessings, stability, and freedom that the people of Israel wanted.
When they saw this paradox, an apparent contradiction, they reached what seemed to be a logical, rational conclusion. If people who serve God receive lower- or slower-than-expected material and tangible blessings, and if people who don’t serve God receive more immediate, measurable material blessings, then it made better sense not to serve God.
But this is like a teacher trying to prove that sugar makes students smarter. So, she gives a group of students a full-size candy bar before a test, and that group scores higher than another group gets no candy scores lower. It would be easy to say, “See, sugar helps students do better!” But that conclusion would be faulty, because there may be other reasons for the difference in student performance.
Perhaps the first group had more sleep, studied more carefully, or simply came to class better prepared. Without taking those things into account, the conclusion sounds logical, but it is reliable because it lacked proper controls. In the same way, the people of Israel looked at their lives and concluded that serving God seemed empty and unprofitable, while those who ignored God seemed to flourish. But they were judging too soon. They were not factoring in God’s patience and wisdom, the difference between temporary ease and true, eternal blessing, or the certainty that God will make all things right in the end.
Psalm 73:1-3 expresses a similar struggle, only in this case, the person struggling with this was self-aware and repented of his wrong perspective.
Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Do you ever feel this way? That serving God is costly, inconvenient, and not worth your effort and time? Would you rather do things which have more immediate material and tangible returns?
God hears when we express our loyalty to him.
At this point in the conversation God was having with Israel, some of the people chose to let go of the popular talking points against God and band together over a shared faith and trust in God. These were genuine believers and followers of God who had been drawn in by the peer pressure prevailing talking points of their community and culture at that time. But because of their genuine faith, they corrected their course and rejected that thinking.
They “feared the Lord” (2x) and “thought much and highly of his name” (Mal 3:16). This means that they decided to dismiss the faulty conclusions of the majority, namely that it was more profitable and useful not to serve God than it was to serve him. They decided to broaden their perspective account for everything they knew about God.
To fear God means to take seriously everything you know about him and live in a way that respects and responds well to who he is, no matter what the immediate benefits may or may not be. In this case, as it usually does, it meant that the people chose to serve him no matter how low or slow their material, tangible, and temporal blessings seemed to be. We’re familiar with these two competing underlying motives, transactional or devotion.
In marriage, some are loving for comfort, security, or affection, but others are faithful because they’re devoted to their spouse. At work, some labor for pay, praise, or promotion, but others work with integrity because they believe in the mission of the company. In friendship, some stay close because the relationship is useful, but others do so because they truly care. In parent-child relationships, some children obey only for allowance or privileges, while others obey out of love and respect. And in church involvement, some participate for encouragement, help, or social benefits, while others do because they love God and want to worship him no matter what – they fear him.
When immediate benefits slow down or disappear, transactional motives are exposed, but devotion remains steady. And God responds to genuine devotion in a devoted way. He expresses this devotion in Malachi 3:16-18 in four ways.
He remembers those who serve him.
Malachi described how a “book of remembrance” was written before God (3:16). This book could be several things. Some people believe this refers to something called “the Book of Life” elsewhere in the Bible. Others believe it refers to a special book created by God for this specific moment and group of people. Still others believe it refers to a book that people – possibly Malachi himself – created at this moment to write down the names of the people who chose to follow God by faith even when material blessings were thin.
Esther 6 is a good example of this practice. There the Persian king, Ahasuerus, could not sleep, so he ordered the official records to be read to him and realized that a Jewish man named Mordecai had once exposed a plot against his life. That act of loyalty had been written down, preserved, and then brought back to the king’s attention at the right time so he could reward it properly. In this case, he honored and promoted Mordecai, executed Mordecai’s enemy, Haman, and protected Mordecai’s people Israel from destruction.
In the same way, Malachi uses the image of a “book of remembrance” to show that God does not overlook those who fear him. The thief on the cross used the same language, hen he asked Christ to “remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42).
God remembers both disloyalty and loyalty, selfish motives and devotion, and will respond to each in his time. Though immediate blessings may seem few, when the time is right, he will bless, exalt, and reward those who fear him.
He treasures those who serve him.
Not only does God remember those who serve him, but he treasures them. The phrase “make them my jewels” means something like “make them my special treasure” and refers to God choosing some people out of many into a special, unique place of recognition and relationship with him.
In Exo 19:5, at Mount Sinai, when God formed the Hebrew descendants of Abraham into the special nation of Israel, he used the same language to describe all the people of Israel from an ethnic, national standpoint.
If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
Now here, about 1,000 years later, God uses the same language but narrows the scope from all who are born into Israel to all who serve him, fear him, and meditate on his name.
“Possession” is a technical expression of the people of YHWH as His treasure or property, one rightly His by virtue of redemption. (Eugene Merrill)
“Like a shepherd coming to claim his lost sheep and like a bridegroom coming for his bride, God will come to claim his people who are prepared to meet him.” (Taylor & Clendenen)
Think of the many stuffed animals scattered throughout your bedroom (when you were a kid). One or two are clearly your favorite – do you know its name? Anyone can tell which ones they are because they are the most worn. The fur is matted, a seam may be loose, an arm, eye, or leg may be missioned, and all because have been carried, hugged, played with, cried on, and slept with far more than the others. The wear does not make them less valuable to the child; it proves they are especially treasured.
Which is best, to receive treasure from God or be treasured by God? And if earthly, temporal blessings seem thin and if your life of following God seems hard now, which is better – an immediate outpouring of material blessings or hearing and knowing more deeply that God treasures you more than anything else in the world? The cure to disenchantment and disillusionment with God is not more immediate, material blessings from God but a deeper, more personal realization that God treasures you.
He spares those who serve him.
Not only does God remember and treasure those who serve him, but he spares them, too. And here, Malachi leans firmly into this promise to spare them. He does this by repeating the statement twice, one after the other. In the study of biblical Hebrew translation, we call this “telescoping” – it describes how a concept is introduced in one statement, then repeated and expanded from that point more emphatically in the next.
Here, God says he will “spare them” in the first statement, then he says he will “spare them” a second time in the next statement but describes it in an even more special way than the generic statement that came before. So, how does a father spare “his own son who serves him”? Douglas Stewart explains this very helpfully:
“The son who serves his father (or, more neutrally, the child who serves a parent) is twice beloved. He enjoys the love of the father automatically because he is his child, and beyond that he has pleased the father by faithful service. The father’s favor is both natural and earned, both instinctive and merited.”
This special promise explains how God would treat those people of Israel who served him in genuine faith and devotion, not merely for immediate, material blessings. When he finally judged the world in a full and decisive way, he would spare totally spare them from his wrath and judgment – not just a little, but completely.
The word “spare” itself means to show compassion or mercy and speaks of treating someone in a special way that they don’t deserve. And this can only refer to a person who accepts and understands that they are a sinner who deserves God’s judgment, not a good or neutral person who deserves God’s blessing.
And this is one of evidence or symptoms of a transactional relationship with God, one motivated primarily by potential blessings rather than by a deep respect for God himself. This evidence may be called “entitlement,” which is the mindset that God owes you blessing, comfort, and reward – that you inherently deserve these things.
But a heart of genuine faith and devotion to God is not marked by an entitled attitude. It is marked by a humble, repentant attitude that is deeply persuaded you do not deserve his blessing and are amazed that he would remember, treasure, and spare you at all.
He separates those who serve him.
Finally, God not only remembers, treasures, and spares those who are faithfully devoted to him, he separates them, too. Why is this important? To help us understand the purpose for this promise, we should pay attention to the word “again” (Mal 3:18). With this word in mind, we should compare the beginnings of God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai with the people of Israel 1,000 years later after they returned from captivity in Assyria and compare it to how planting a garden works.
When a person plants a garden, it’s easy to tell the difference between the garden and the rest of the countryside around it. This distinction becomes more difficult to see, though, after the onset of weeds. As weeds grow and spread and the garden becomes indistinguishable from the countryside, it becomes necessary to either weed the garden by separating and removing the weeds.
When God established his covenant with Israel at Sinai, it was easy to tell the difference between the people of Israel and the unbelieving people of the world. But as years wore on, the nation became increasingly populated by people who were following God for immediate, material, temporal benefits only. So, at the end of time, God will separate from those who genuinely believe on him from those who do not. Today, that may not immediately be clear, but it will be perfectly clear on that day.
Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. (Mal 3:18)
Jesus taught more about this future time of judgement and separation (Mt 13:41-43):
The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
At this time, the consequences of your motivations for following God will be more crucial than anything you can desire or value in this immediate, material, and temporal life. God will not separate people the way our present world does, by measurable, tangible factors: age group, stage of life, IQ, tax filing status, ethnicity, nationality, professional titles, credit score, gender, marital status, political party, social class, income bracket, and more.
Instead, he will separate and categorize us by one thing – whether or not be believed on Christ, feared God, and served him with genuine, devoted, loyal faith that endured, even in difficult times when material, temporal, immediate blessings were low and slow.
So, in Malachi 3:13-18, we see that the real crisis in Israel wasn’t their difficult, uncomfortable circumstances but their attitude towards God. They had allowed disappointment, delay, and comparison to change their theology. They spoke harshly about God, not with raised fists but with quiet, cynical conversations that spoke of him like we do when we leave 1- and 2-star reviews on Google or Yelp for a business or service-provider who provided unsatisfactory care.
God revealed their transactional motives and contrasted them with a smaller number among them who feared him, meditated his name, and served him even when blessings were low and slow. And God promised that he remembers, treasures, spares, and will one day separate those who truly belong to him. The question Malachi leaves ringing in our ears is not whether God is faithful, but whether we will trust God’s devotion when the immediate rewards are hard to see.
The call for us is clear: believe on Christ, fear God, and serve him with a loyal heart. Let his character and his Word, not your circumstances, shape your conclusions about God, about life, and about the people around you. Examine your motives honestly before him.
Are you following Christ because he is worthy, or because you hope he will make life easier for you today? Are you serving Him for who he is, or for what you hope he will give you? The God who remembers, treasures, spares, and separates his people is looking and listening for hearts that are wholly his, hearts that will follow Christ at any cost, even when blessings are delayed, disguised, or deferred to eternity.
Let us reject the consumer mindset that whispers, “What does it profit to follow Christ?” Today is a good day to realign your heart with the fear of the Lord and renew your loyalty to him, regardless of your circumstances.
A gardener once planted two trees side by side. One grew quickly into a tree that was tall, leafy, and impressive see. The other grew slowly into a tree that was small, sturdy, and unimpressive. Neighbors praised the fast-growing tree, but the gardener kept tending the slow one with careful love and a green thumb.
Years later, a violent storm swept through. The tall tree snapped in half, but the small tree stood firm because its roots had grown slow but deep. Though this surprised many, they didn’t realize that the fast-growing tree had a shallow root system and a fragile trunk.
In the same way, don’t be enamored by or feel entitled to the material blessings this temporal world can offer. Though God can and does bless his people in these ways today, we should be sure not to demand those things from him but rather devote ourselves to serving him because he is worthy. God is not impressed by the quick, comfortable, flashy lifestyles of material success. He treasures the quiet, steady devotion of those who fear him in any circumstance and serve him even when the winds of difficulty and trial blow.
May we at Brookdale be a group of committed believers who are like that tree, rooted, faithful, and standing firm in the end because we know that we don’t deserve God’s blessings and because we believe, fear, and serve him no matter what.
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think we discount the effect of negative speech, like the speech of the HMS Bounty or the people of Israel?
- How do we operate on a “transactional” (quid quo pro/pay-to-play) basis in our ministry at church? In our prayer lives?
- What are some practical ways that we can maintain proper expectations of God’s blessings to those who serve him?
- What could be some positive aspects to material, tangible blessings being low and slow?
- How is an attitude of humility and repentance an antidote to entitlement?
- What do you desire most during times of disenchantment?
- How can faith in the future separation of those who serve God from those who do not impact our desires during those times?
Posted in Sermon Manuscript
Posted in Forever Faithful, Malachi, Old Testament, Minor Prophets, Devotion
Posted in Forever Faithful, Malachi, Old Testament, Minor Prophets, Devotion
Recent
Archive
2026
February
March
April
May
June
2025
January
February
March
June
August
2024
January
No Comments