Prayer: Father, I can count on You! You are faithful to keep Your promises and Your covenants. I want to know You more. Teach Your servant today! Amen.
Reading: Malachi 3 key: vs. 4-6 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Adonai, as in days of antiquity and years of old. “Then I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers those who extort a worker’s wage, or oppress the widow or an orphan, those who mislead a stranger. They do not fear Me,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “For I am Adonai. I do not change, So you, children of Jacob, are not consumed.” TLV
Attention: The longer you live, one notices that the rules change from year to year. My wife and I just received a call from the local Utilities Company notifying us that beginning next year, we do not qualify for the same senior discount, because we make more on Social Security. Recently, a mutual friend of ours was notified by a government assisted rental agency, that an apartment opening she had waited on for over a year was available. They ran a final check to make sure she qualified and found out she made $18 more a month than allowed on Social Security. She was disqualified. I recall another time in the early eighties, I was going to lunch with my grandmother-in-law. We had decided to have lunch at a national fast food chain restaurant, and she pulled out her senior card which they issued. The attendant looked at it and announced that the card had expired. In amazement I exclaimed, “Is your chain concerned she might get younger?” Why would a company issue a card to a senior once they qualify, that would expire?
Adonai tells us a key piece of information about Himself, “I do not change.” In an era of constant change, this is good news! The rules are the same and will never change. For those who are being taught the character of God from the New Testament only, you are forfeiting the full picture. You are only being given the puzzle pieces which fit a certain incomplete narrative.
Adonai is teaching Malachi about His coming Messenger (vs. 1). His messenger will purify the sons of the Levites.
Without purification, the sons of Levi were not righteous and not able to represent the people’s sacrifice.
The key qualifier is “the fear of the Lord!” This is not an exhaustive list, for there are many more reasons for God’s judgment, just investigate the full gospel, Old and New Testament. God has brought judgment for a plethora of reasons. May we be forewarned, God has not, nor does He change.
Action: I choose to embrace the constancy of God. He does not change.
Yield: I choose to submit to the unwavering consistency of an unchanging God.
Engage: I choose to engage with the Holy Spirit in a lifestyle of humility before God.
Relationship: I choose to live in intimate, obedient relationship with God.
Prayer: Father, You are a never changing constant in my life. Thank You for being a rock, amen.
Memory Verse: Jacob (James) 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” TLV
Music Video: Chris Tomlin—Unchanging https://youtu.be/hjvj29793Kg?si=S5xFS4jblOBYChRs
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”