GOODNESS is The Virtue of The Written Word of God

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Topic: Fruit of the Holy Spirit & God’s Promises for All Our Every Needs

Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples,

Pastor Elias Aguilar Busuego Jr PhD DTM

Founding Pastor – Home Fellowship Churches – https://homefellowshipchurches.org

The Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT

Podcast Episode: The Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT – GOODNESS #5

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL. There is no law against these things.” [Galatians 5:22-23 NLT]

We need to understand that love is the first characteristic of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is well placed at the head of the list, for it permeates all the rest of the attributes. Somehow, if we live a life of love, the other virtues will attend us all the days of our lives. Love is the key that unlocks the entire fruit basket of Galatians 5:22-23, as well as permeating 1 Corinthians 13.

Baruch Reads the Lord’s Messages

In Jeremiah 36:1-7 NLT says, “1 During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: 2 “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. 3 Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things, I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings.” 4 So Jeremiah sent for Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated all the prophecies that the Lord had given him, Baruch wrote them on a scroll. 5 Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, “I am a prisoner here and unable to go to the Temple. 6 So you go to the Temple on the next day of fasting, and read the messages from the Lord that I have had you write on this scroll. Read them so the people who are there from all over Judah will hear them. 7 Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the Lord’s forgiveness before it is too late. For the Lord has threatened them with His terrible anger.”

This happened in the summer of 605 B.C., shortly after Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over the Egyptian army at Carchemish, before the events recorded in Jeremiah Chapters 34 and 35.

Most people in ancient times could neither read nor write, so those who could were highly esteemed. These men, called scribes or teachers, held positions of great importance and were very respected for their knowledge. Baruch was Jeremiah’s scribe. Writing was often done on vellum or papyrus sheets that were sewn or glued together and stored in long rolls called scrolls. After the Exile, scribes became teachers of the law. In New Testament times, the scribes formed a powerful political party.

God told Jeremiah to write His words on a scroll. Because he was not allowed to go to the Temple, Jeremiah asked his scribe, Baruch, to whom he had dictated the scroll to read it to the people gathered there. Baruch then read it to the officials, and finally Jehudi read it to the king himself. Although the king burned the scroll, he could not destroy the Word of God.

While some of the officials were concerned about the impending judgment, when the king heard the words, he threw the scroll into the fire. The king’s disrespectful acts led to judgment from God.

We would not know who God is without the Word of God. The Word is God’s revelation of Himself to humankind. We would not know what righteousness is without the Word. The Word defines righteousness. We would not know the fullest definition of sin without the Word. We would know neither of our origin nor of our destiny without the Word.

God’s plan for the ages would never be ours without the Word of God. God’s Word is always meant to teach us God’s requirements. The Word of God is alive and powerful, and it is set in our midst to inform us of what God wants with our lives. One of those things is the presence of genuine goodness. The Word of God exists not just to make us better than we might have been, but it exists to elevate us to the level of goodness that God requires of His children.

Today many people try to put God’s Word aside or say that it contains errors and therefore cannot be trusted. People may reject God’s Word, but they cannot destroy it. God’s Word will stand forever (Psalms 119:89). Amen!

Promised Special Rest for God’s People

In Hebrews 4:7-13 NLT says, “7 So God set another time for entering His rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.” 8 Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. 9 So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. 12 For the Word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.”

Humanity did not lose its chance for salvation with Israel’s failure, but the writer again warned his readers not to harden their hearts.

The word so indicates that the following is a logical conclusion from what has preceded. The words special rest are one word in the Greek, occurring only here in the entire Greek Bible. The kind of rest the author described is different from what the Israelites expected. This rest refers to what God did when He completed creation.

Genesis 2:2 records that on the seventh day after creating the universe, God rested, not because He was tired, but to indicate the completion of creation. The world was perfect, and God was satisfied with it, so He rested. This does not mean that God became idle. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught that God still works (John 5:17). God’s rest is both present peace with God and future eternal joy when creation will be renewed, every mark of sin removed, and the world made perfect again. Those who believe will join God in His rest and one day be restored to a perfect condition. Our rest in our Lord Jesus Christ begins when we trust Him to complete His good and perfect work in us.

The author has shown that the rest remains for the people of God – the Born-Again Christians (Hebrews 4:6, 9). That rest remains and people will find rest from their labors. Does this “rest from labors” begin now, or do believers have to wait for heaven?

Some suggest that it begins after death, citing Revelation 14:13. Most likely, however, believers do experience God’s rest in this present life, but will receive it completely and fully after death when they arrive in heaven. The “labors” from which believers can rest do not mean inactivity. After all, believers have much work to do in this world in order to advance God’s Kingdom.

“Labors,” therefore, may refer to ceasing from trying to work for salvation. Many of these Jewish readers had been brought up under the Pharisees’ system of strict laws and rule keeping. These Jewish Christians could rest from those labors, resting instead on what our Lord Jesus Christ had done. The promised rest for believers is the same as God’s rest, and just as certain; it will be just as God rested after creating the world (see Hebrews 4:4).

This rest is still waiting. It has not been fulfilled, as the author has explained above. Why would this special rest have been so important to the readers of this book? The readers, Jewish Christians, had two important reasons to look forward to rest.

(1) Jewish history was filled with wanderings and political turmoil. To finally rest in the full and realized promises of God would be great comfort.

(2) Christians in the first century often faced deprivation and hardships, the animosity of Satan’s agents, and the carrying of one’s “Cross” – identifying with our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who turned from the Jewish faith to Christianity often incurred the wrath of other Jews (facing excommunication) and of their families (being disowned). To enter God’s promised rest was a great promise – struggle will be done and pain will be over.

Yet this rest remains only for the people of God. Although the Jewish people who were originally offered the rest had refused it, God’s plan could not be thwarted; God offered it to others – both Jews and Gentiles who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. (This teaching is similar to our Lord Jesus Christ’s parable of the great banquet recorded in Luke 14:15-24.)

The phrase, God set another time, means that the time of rest will come, indeed it has come, for the time is today (Labor Day!). At the time of the writing of Psalm 95, partially quoted in this verse, no one had entered God’s complete rest. Many Jewish people may have believed that they had already received God’s rest by inhabiting the land of Canaan. But the writer argues that it cannot be so. Joshua and the Israelites did settle Canaan and did achieve periods of peace and prosperity. Yet, if this had been God’s promised rest, God would not have spoken later about another day of rest. In other words, there would have been no need for this renewal of the promise recorded here from the Psalms written by David. If God only intended an earthly kingdom, God would not have promised “another day.” Therefore, the rest was not in the land, but in God’s eternal Kingdom. Amen!

In Hebrews Chapter 4, Verse 11 describes an intentional paradox: let us do our best to enter that place of rest. We need to strive to obtain what is ours by promise but not yet ours by experience. The children of Israel had been promised the good land, but it wasn’t theirs until they possessed it. All believers must diligently work out their faith, seeking to obey our Lord Jesus Christ day by day, drawing closer to God through experiences in life (Philippians 2:12). There is no time while living on earth at which a Christian “arrives” at spirituality. Each day God’s people are making a choice either to grow closer to Him or to drift away.

Nevertheless, the message here is a warning to people who would be lazy in their spiritual life. Laziness can cause a person to fall into disobedience, and anyone who disobeys God . . . will fall. Today’s pressures make it easy to ignore or forget the lessons of the past. But the author cautions readers to remember the lessons the Israelites learned about God so they will avoid repeating the Israelites’ errors.

How is it that the Word of God creates goodness in our lives? It reckons life deep within us – down where the soul and spirit and the joints and marrow come together. It is at this deep level within us that it judges our thoughts and our intents. And down inside us, where none can see but God, it reprimands and congratulates, indicts and blesses, and we are re-created at the deepest possible level of who we are.

God will discern whether or not we make every effort (Hebrews 4:11) and whether or not we have truly come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; nothing in all creation can hide from Him. We may fool ourselves or other Christians with our spiritual lives, but we cannot deceive God. He knows who we really are because the Word of God is full of living power. The Word of God cannot be taken for granted or disobeyed. The Israelites who rebelled learned the hard way that when God speaks, they must listen. Going against God means facing judgment and death.

The Word of God is living, life-changing, and dynamic as it works in us. The demands of the Word of God require decisions. We not only listen to it, we let it shape our lives. Because the Word of God is living, it applied to these first-century Jewish Christians, and it applies as well as to Christians today. Most books may appear to be dusty artifacts just sitting on a shelf, but the Word of God collected in Scripture vibrates with life.

The Word of God penetrates through our outer facade and reveals what lies deep inside. The metaphor of the sharpest knife pictures the Word of God cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires, revealing what we really are on the inside. Nothing can be hidden from God; neither can we hide from ourselves if we sincerely study the Word of God. It reaches deep past our outer life as a knife passes through skin.

Two thoughts are presented by the phrase, everything is naked and exposed before His eyes.

(1) We cannot give excuses, justifications, or reasons – everything is seen for exactly what it is. No one can deceive God.

(2) We are exposed, powerless, and defenseless before God. The Word refers to the paralyzing grip of a wrestler in a choke hold.

The Word of God penetrates like a sword, exposing us to God Himself to whom we must explain all that we have done. All people must give an account to God, but without trappings and rationalizations. These Words give warning that believers must be careful not to drift away, but to obey God wholeheartedly. God is the final Judge.

This Verse 12 paves the way for the following section describing our Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest. With our lives laid bare before God, we would be hopelessly lost without our Lord Jesus Christ. Because He took our judgment and serves as our advocate with God, we can rest secure with God. Amen!

Our Lord Jesus Christ Taught with Real Authority

In Mark 1:21-22 NLT says, “21 Jesus and His companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, He went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at His teaching, for He taught with real authority – quite unlike the teachers of religious law.”

Capernaum, located on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, was the largest of the many fishing towns surrounding the lake. Our Lord Jesus Christ had recently moved to Capernaum from Nazareth (Matthew 4:12-13). Capernaum was a thriving town with great wealth as well as great sin and decadence. Because it was the headquarters for many Roman troops, heathen influences from all over the Roman Empire were pervasive.

The Temple in Jerusalem was too far for many Jews to travel for regular worship, so many towns had synagogues serving both as places of worship and as schools. Beginning in the days of Ezra, about 450 B.C., a group of ten Jewish families could start a synagogue. There, during the week, Jewish boys were taught the Old Testament law and Jewish religion (girls could not attend). Each Saturday, the Sabbath, the Jewish men would gather to hear prayers, the Scriptures read, and an interpretation from a teacher. Because there was no permanent teacher, it was customary for the synagogue leader to ask visiting teachers to speak. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ often spoke in the synagogues in the towns He visited.

The people were completely amazed by our Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching. The Jewish teachers of religious law often quoted from well-known rabbis to give their words more authority. But our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t have that need. Because our Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He knew exactly what the Scriptures said and meant. He was the ultimate authority. The people had never heard such teaching. The teachers of religious law were the legal specialists in our Lord Jesus Christ’s day. They interpreted the law but were especially concerned about the halakah or “rules” for life that came to be as binding as God’s written law in the Torah. Their self-assured authority, in fact, became a stumbling block for them, for they denied our Lord Jesus Christ’s authority to reinterpret the law, and they rejected our Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah because He did not agree with nor obey all of their traditions.

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught with authority. When He spoke of goodness, where did this authority come from? Did it come from His long study on morality? Had He completed His Ph.D. in Ethics? No. His authority came from who He was and what He was, namely, the Son of God, the seven “I AM”, sinless and holy. If we are going to speak with authority on goodness, we need to be pretty good. Our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect and perfectly qualified to speak on the subject. The authority of our Lord Jesus Christ is the authority we all long for when we seek religious affiliation.

After all, there are so many false teachers claiming to have the last word from God. They all seem so sincere. They all seem to be well educated. They all seem to know the truth. We all hunger for someone to say convincingly to us, “This is the absolute truth. This you may depend on.” Our Lord Jesus Christ could do just that!

Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was a teacher steeped or dear in the Word of God. From His knowledge of the Word came His incontrovertible, undeniable, or unquestionable authority.

Our Lord Jesus Christ knew the Word, but, more than that, He was the Word – the Word made flesh (see John 1:1, 14). When God wanted to speak in the past, He spoke through the prophets, but when He wanted to speak to our day, He spoke to us through His Son, “whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word” (Hebrews 1:2-3).

Now, if our Lord Jesus Christ, being the eternal Word, teaches that the written Word is important for our instruction, perhaps we should allow the written Word to form the basis of our goodness. It is by knowing the written Word that our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, is made sure. Amen!

Jabez is Other Descendant of Judah

In 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NLT says, “9 There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. 10 He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.”

Jabez is remembered for a prayer request rather than a heroic act. In his prayer, he asked God to (1) bless him, (2) help him in his work (“extend my lands”), (3) be with him in all he did, and (4) keep him from trouble and pain. Jabez acknowledged God as the true center of his work.

When we pray for God’s blessing, we should also ask him to take his rightful position as Lord over our work, our family time, and our recreation. Obeying Him in daily responsibilities is heroic living.

The church/fellowship has always sought out good, moral examples. Goodness matters. Goodness is the seedbed of reputation. Reputation either draws all to our Lord Jesus Christ or causes would be believers to back away from hypocrites that proclaim more goodness than they possess.

In our day, the church/fellowship is ever counting on people of reputation to have an effective ministry. The goodness that is the basis of our reputation must come from the Bible.

And, as we know, becoming good is the foreword to becoming holy. Our goodness will be alight to others and lead them closer to God. How do we become good? The Word will guide us. Psalm 119:11 (NIV) “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:13-14 (NIV) “With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” Psalm 119:34 (NIV) “Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.”

This Word-saturated disciple is a person of reputation. This is the kind of person God seeks to be a servant to others. Amen!

Psalm Chapter 119 is the Longest Chapter in the Bible – God is Good, All the Time, God is So Good

In Psalm 119:65-68 NLT says, “65 You have done many good things for me, Lord, just as you promised. 66 I believe in Your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge. 67 I used to wander off until You disciplined me; but now I closely follow Your Word. 68 You are good and do only good; teach me Your decrees.”

This is both the longest Psalms and the longest chapter in the Bible. It may have been written by Ezra after the Temple was rebuilt (Ezra 6:14-15) as a repetitive meditation on the beauty of God’s Word and how it helps us stay pure and grow in faith.

Psalms 119 has 22 carefully constructed sections, each corresponding to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet and each verse beginning with the letter of its section. Almost every verse mentions God’s Word. Such repetition was common in the Hebrew culture. People did not have personal copies of the Scriptures to read as we do, so God’s people memorized His Word and passed it along orally. The structure of this Psalms allowed for easy memorization. Remember, God’s Word, the Bible, is the only sure guide for living a pure life. Amen!

In this Psalm, the longest chapter in the Bible is the psalmist’s plea to God for goodness: “You are good, and what you do is good: teach me your decrees.” We ought to pray to be good and learn goodness from its source – God. For when we are good, our personal worship will have its own altar of being – incised with holiness – and we will speak with God because we will be like Him.

“Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands,” cries the psalmist. Psalm 119 is dedicated to the Word of God. This theme pervades the entire Psalm, for God desired that we never forget the importance of His Word to our lives.

The most wonderful aspect of goodness especially the goodness that produces holiness – is experiencing forgiveness, which brings the elation of feeling washed and clean. Goodness comes when God scrubs us up. But sometimes we are like the child who runs from the bathtub because of some childish agenda. But scarlet sins that are washed away leave us white as snow. Amen!

Now, let’s talk about “Prayer and “Salvation”.

Prayer is the key that unlocks and reveals faith. Effective prayer needs both an attitude of complete dependence and the action of asking. Prayer demonstrates complete reliance on God. Thus, there is no substitute for prayer, especially in situations that seem impossible.

So, let our hearts and minds in tune with God, in the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Let’s continuously and persistently pray for God’s perfect will be done. We as Born-Again Christians have been tried and cleansed, we have moved freely into a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ that is more powerful than it was before our trials. We are at home in the presence and fellowship of God, for we are heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ, more like Him that we could ever have dreamed possible. So, let’s continuously and persistently pray for God’s perfect will be done. Amen!

The principle is that no one has anything of value to bring to God in order to deserve salvation, mercy, justification, or even a second glance from God. The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored. Acceptance before God cannot be achieved by good deeds, piety, or any amount of self-proclaimed righteousness.

Let’s never get over the effect of God’s saving transformation on people’s lives. People who were lost in sin, filled with anger and bitterness, give up their hatred and become approachable as we have studied and learned last time. That is, of course, why we minister to others. Those of us who minister are not people to whom (fruit of the Holy Spirit) love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control comes naturally. We are people who have been remodeled by grace. We thankfully leave our old natures far behind as we embrace the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, the first of the list > agape love of God, and in our treatment of others. Amen!

Sunday by Sunday as we come to worship, let me encourage our brothers – and sisters-in-Christ, and I want my readers and listeners to be both strong in the faith and sensitive to others’ needs. Because all, we as Born-Again Christian believers are strong in certain areas and weak in others. We constantly need to monitor the effects of our behavior on others.

In these GOODNESS Series of Podcast, we will learn the following PURPOSES of this fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT:

• We learned to care how God feels about our morality
• Received and to have the desire for holiness
• Knew that God implanted righteousness into our lives through our Lord Jesus Christ
• Learned to imitate Christ
• Learned and Knew the Virtue of the Written Word of God
• To be contented with God’s commandments

On every Podcast, I always have three (3) questions we can answer from only these two (2) Sources: The Bible and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. The following are:

First is about our > Observation: What do these passages or Scriptures say to you?

Second is about our own > Interpretation: What do these passages or Scriptures mean to you?

Third is about how we can apply > Application: How do the meaning of these passages or Scriptures apply to you or to your situation?

If you are not sure that you are Born-Again Christian believer or you have relatives, loved ones, friends, neighbors, and people in your circle of influence, please take a look and/or guide them to one of our ministries, “An Invitation to Meet Our Lord Jesus Christ” at https://homefellowshipchurches.org/an-invitation-to-meet-our-lord-jesus-christ/

Let’s give an opportunity for the lost souls to experience on being Born-Again Christian as explained by our Lord Jesus Christ in the book of John 3 in the New Testament of the Bible.

It is as simple as A, B, & C > Admit, Believe, & Confess. All Born-Again Christian believers prayed this simple prayer, we called “Sinner’s Prayer”

“Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I acknowledge and admit that I am a sinner and I need a Savior. I believe and have faith in Jesus Christ who was born of Virgin Mary, died on the Cross for the penalty of my sins, and rose again that I may have the eternal life. I confess and declare Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord of my life. Please comfort, guide, and help me Holy Spirit to live and grow in my spiritual life according to Your Words, purpose, and perfect will of God, in my Lord Jesus Christ name, Amen!”

If you prayed this, “Sinner’s Prayer” sincerely in your heart, you are Born-Again Christian believer. However, you are a spiritual baby who needs to grow up. (See 1 Peter 2:2). You need to find a church or fellowship to grow spiritually. We are glad to establish or bring the fellowship to your own home if it is safer.

Now, let me pray for all of you:

Father God, we come into your presence in our Lord Jesus Christ name, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ for Your agape love and forgiveness you have done on the Cross of Calvary, and continue to intercede for us in prayer. Thank you, Holy Spirit as our Helper and Comforter. Thank you for the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage and strength. We cling, yield, plug-in and tune-in to you Holy Spirit to help us understand God’s Words, obey them, receive Your divine revelation, know the Truth that sets us free, and apply them in our lives, in our Lord Jesus Christ name, Amen!”

Let’s praise and worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Give all thanks to God for all answered prayers.

Please send your > Praise Reports (answered prayers) and New Prayer Requests via email to: trinityblessings@homefellowshipchurches.org. God bless you all and our families!

A Message to be Blessed:

A Call to Repentance and Be Blessed

In Malachi 3:7-15 AMPC says, “7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’ 8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it”, says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” [Malachi 2:2.] 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer (insects and plagues) for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruits before the time in the field,” says the Lord of hosts. 12 “And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight”, says the Lord of hosts.

If the people would obey God, giving as they should, God would flood His people with blessings. There would be an overabundance of God’s blessing if He was given what He requested.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse – See 2 Chronicles 31:11; cf. 1 Chronicles 26:20; Nehemiah 10:38; 13:5, 12. If the temple storehouses were empty, it was the people’s fault. God had already blessed them with enough to give a little back to Him.

Instead of destroying our crops (blessings), God would make them come in greater abundance than we had ever imagined possible (Amos 4:9; Haggai 2:19; Zechariah 8:12). The devourer – probably referring to locusts, though the word here is general in meaning (Baldwin). In the Near East, locust swarms are known for their ability to damage huge tracts of agricultural land (see note on Joel 1:4).

A delightsome land – All of the blessings promised to Jacob would come to pass if the people would obey God (Deuteronomy 33:29; Zechariah 8:13). Their land would be a delight to all who saw it (Daniel 8:9).

The problem in Malachi 3:7-12 was the people’s departure from God as reflected by their neglect of tithes and offerings. Two annual tithes were required according to Israelite law – one for the Levites (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21), and one to be used in worship at the annual feasts in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:22). A tithe was required every three years to provide for the needs of the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29). There is debate as to whether this tithe for the poor was in addition to or served as a substitute for the tithe used in worship.

The New Testament pattern for tithing is proportionate giving – a person is to give “in relation to what you have earned” (1 Corinthians 16:2). Certainly a tithe should be given proportionate to one’s wealth, but not all proportionate giving is a tithe.

The anticipation of blessing for obedience to God’s command to tithe was based on the Mosaic covenant, which promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (Malachi 3:10; cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Generally, God will meet the needs of His own people (Psalm 34:9-10; Philippians 4:19), but that is not an unconditional guarantee. There certainly were and are exceptions. Yet, where God chooses not to provide physically, He gives sufficient grace to go without (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The problem in Malachi 3:14-15 was that the people were guilty of arrogant words against God. They were saying, “There is no prophet who is serving God,” and “God is not concerned about justice.” God responded by showing that He did distinguish between the wicked and the righteous. The righteous would be blessed, and the wicked would be judged.