Today’s Reading
Isaiah 10
Malachi 3-4
10 1-4 Doom to you who legislate evil,
Isaiah 10:1-4 MSG
who make laws that make victims—
Laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
What good will your money do you?
A sorry sight you’ll be then, huddled with the prisoners,
or just some corpses stacked in the street.
Even after all this, God is still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.
The Spirit of the Lord says,
I have made the desert. And I have made the jackals. I have provided for them, yet they mock Me. I have made a way for them, yet they snub Me. The jackals will be banished to the desert I have made. They will scrape and scratch to get by. Even in the desert I will provide for them. But they will be sent to a barren place, to a lonely place, to a desolate place, because of what they have chosen. I have even, and I will even provide for the jackals the desert of My own making.
2-4 But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance? He’ll be like white-hot fire from the smelter’s furnace. He’ll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He’ll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He’ll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they’re fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.
Malachi 3:2-7 MSG
5 “Yes, I’m on my way to visit you with Judgment. I’ll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn’t honor me.” A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
6-7 “I am God—yes, I Am. I haven’t changed. And because I haven’t changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven’t been destroyed. You have a long history of ignoring my commands. You haven’t done a thing I’ve told you. Return to me so I can return to you,” says God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
“You ask, ‘But how do we return?’
A tent is set up for you in what was once the resting place of jackals. A tent of David has been erected in the place where jackals once dwelt. Worship and longing, praise and hunger go out from this tent that has been erected in the place where the jackals once dwelt. Bring all of your worship, your longings, your need. Bring Me the incense of your praise and the broken and contrite hearts. Bring them into the place where My glory dwells. Bring them into the place I have provided, the place that has been erected where the jackals once roamed and occupied. They occupy no longer. Your worship cleanses the air, cleanses the atmosphere and brings to it the feeling of the cleansing after a spring rain. You are the changers of atmosphere. You hold the keys to shift and occupy the atmosphere that was once filled with darkness and thick darkness.
8-11 “Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day.
Malachi 3:8-4:3 MSG
“You ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’
“The tithe and the offering—that’s how! And now you’re under a curse—the whole lot of you—because you’re robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers.” The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
12 “You’ll be voted ‘Happiest Nation.’ You’ll experience what it’s like to be a country of grace.” God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.
13 God says, “You have spoken hard, rude words to me.
“You ask, ‘When did we ever do that?’
14-15 “When you said, ‘It doesn’t pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it? When we did what he said and went around with long faces, serious about God-of-the-Angel-Armies, what difference did it make? Those who take life into their own hands are the lucky ones. They break all the rules and get ahead anyway. They push God to the limit and get by with it.’”
16 Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God’s presence and minutes were taken of the meeting, with the names of the God-fearers written down, all the names of those who honored God’s name.
17-18 God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, “They’re mine, all mine. They’ll get special treatment when I go into action. I treat them with the same consideration and kindness that parents give the child who honors them. Once more you’ll see the difference it makes between being a person who does the right thing and one who doesn’t, between serving God and not serving him.”
4 1-3 “Count on it: The day is coming, raging like a forest fire. All the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like stove wood, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash—a black day. But for you, sunrise! The sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings. You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking. And you’ll tromp on the wicked. They’ll be nothing but ashes under your feet on that Day.” God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.
These are days of justice. These are days of the tables turning, of the seats swapping, of the oppressors becoming the oppressed and the bond servants and slaves becoming the ones who rule. This is a great overturning. This is a day of salvation. The Lord is among us. They will say, they will know, the Lord is indeed among us. He has fought for us, and He has won.
How to Respond
- Trust the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
- Pray, Lord we need You. Thank You that You see us in our condition and in our need. Thank You that You hear our prayers and know our deep longings. Lord, the foundations of Your throne are righteousness and justice. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Turn the tables and bring a great reckoning to the wicked and to darkness itself. Let us see the justice of the Lord and a mighty recompense for Your people. Thank You Lord. We love You and we worship You with abandon.
- Declare, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
- Decree, I will worship the Lord with abandon. I will shift the atmosphere with repentance, praise and decrees of the Word of the Lord. I will see the justice, the reckoning and the recompense of the Lord my God. The tables will turn on the jackals, and the worshippers will occupy in their place.
For more encouragement from Glory & the New Wine, check out the post from this day in 2022: The Lord Will Soon Transplant You
And in 2021: You Are Marked by the Love of the Lord
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