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4 lines
15 KiB
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<p>We have here God’s controversy with the men of that generation, for deserting his service and robbing him—wicked servants indeed, that not only run away from their Master, but run away with their Master’s goods.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. They had run away from their Master, and quitted the work he gave them to do (<a class="bibleref" title="Mal.3.7" href="/passage/?search=Mal.3.7">Mal. 3:7</a>): <i>You have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them</i>. The ordinances of God’s worship were the business which as servants they must mind, the talents which they must trade with, and the trust which was committed to them to keep; but they went away from them, grew weary of them, and withdrew their neck from that yoke; they deviated from the rule that God had prescribed to them, and betrayed the trust lodged with them. They had revolted from God, not only in worship, but in conversation; they had not <i>kept his ordinances</i>. This disobedience they were chargeable with, and had been guilty of, even <i>from the days of their fathers</i>; either as in the days of their fathers of old, who were sent into captivity for their disobedience, or, “Now, for some generations past, you have fallen off from what you were, when first you came back out of captivity.” Ezra owns it in one particular instance: <i>Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezra.9.7" href="/passage/?search=Ezra.9.7">Ezra 9:7</a>. Now observe, 1. What a gracious invitation God gives them to return and repent: “<i>Return unto me</i>, and to your duty, return to your service, return to your allegiance, return as a traveller that has missed his way, as a soldier that has run his colours, as a treacherous wife that has gone away from her husband; return, thou backsliding Israel, return to me; and then <i>I will return unto you</i> and be reconciled, will remove the judgments you are under and prevent those you fear.” This had been of old the burden of the song (<a class="bibleref" title="Zech.1.3" href="/passage/?search=Zech.1.3">Zech. 1:3</a>), and is still. 2. What a peevish answer they return to this gracious invitation: “<i>But you said</i> with disdain, said it to the prophets that called you, 8000 said it to one another, said it to your own hearts, to stifle the convictions you were under; you said, <i>Wherein shall we return</i>?” Note, God takes notice what returns our hearts make to the calls of his word, what we say and what we think when we have heard a sermon, what answer we give to the message sent us. When God calls us to <i>return</i>, we should answer as those did <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.3.22" href="/passage/?search=Jer.3.22">Jer. 3:22</a>; <i>Behold, we come</i>. But not as these here, <i>Wherein shall we return</i>? (1.) They take it as an affront to be <i>told of their faults</i>, and called upon to amend them; they are ready to say, “What ado do these prophets make about returning and repenting; why are we disgraced and disturbed thus, our own consciences and our neighbours stirred up against us?” It is ill with those who thus count reproofs reproaches, and <i>kick against the pricks</i>. (2.) They are so ignorant of themselves, and of the strictness, extent, and spiritual nature, of the divine law, that they see nothing in themselves to be repented of, or reformed; they are pure in their own eyes, and think they need no repentance. (3.) They are so firmly resolved to go on in sin that they will find a thousand foolish frivolous excuses to shift off their repentance, and turn away the calls that are given them to repent. They seem to speak only as those that wanted something to say; it is a mere evasion, a banter upon the prophet, and a challenge to him to descend to particulars. Note, Many ruin their own souls by baffling the calls that are given them to repent of their sins.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. They had robbed their Master, and embezzled his goods. They had asked, “<i>Wherein shall we return</i>? What have we done amiss?” And he soon tells them. Observe, 1. The prophet’s high charge exhibited, in God’s name, against the people. They stand indicted for robbery, for sacrilege, the worst of robberies: <i>You have robbed me</i>. He expostulates with them upon it: <i>Will a man</i> be so daringly impudent as to <i>rob God</i>? Man, who is a weak creature, and cannot contend with God’s power, will he think to rob him <i>vi et armis—forcibly</i>? Man, who lies open to God’s knowledge, and cannot conceal himself from that, will he think to rob him <i>clam et secreto</i>—<i>privily</i>? Man, who depends upon God, and derives his all from him, will he rob him that is his benefactor? This is ungrateful, unjust, and unkind, indeed; and it is very unwise thus to provoke him from whom our judgment proceeds. <i>Will a man do violence to God</i>? so some read it. <i>Will a man do violence to God</i>? so some read it. <i>Will a man stint or straiten him</i>? so others read it. Robbing God is a heinous crime. 2. The people’s high challenge in answer to that charge: <i>But you say, Wherein have we robbed thee</i>? They plead <i>Not guilty</i>, and put God upon the proof of it. Note, Robbing God is such a heinous crime that those who are guilty of it are not willing to own themselves guilty. They rob God, and know not what they do. They rob him of his honour, rob him of that which is devoted to him, to be employed in his service, rob him of themselves, rob him of sabbath-time, rob him of that which is given for the support of religion, and give him not his dues out of their estates; and yet they ask, <i>Wherein have we robbed thee</i>? 3. The plain proof of the charge, in answer to this challenge; it is <i>in tithes and offerings</i>. Out of these the priests and Levites had maintenance for themselves and their families; but they detained them, defrauded the priests of them, would not pay their tithes, or not in full, or not of the best; they brought not the offerings which God required, or brought the torn, and lame, and sick, which were not fit for use. They were all guilty of this sin, even <i>the whole nation</i>, as if they were in confederacy against God, and all combined to rob him of his dues and to stand by one another in it when they had done. For this they were <i>cursed with a curse</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Mal.3.9" href="/passage/?search=Mal.3.9">Mal. 3:9</a>. God punished them with famine and scarcity, through unseasonable weather, or insects that ate up the fruits of the earth. God had thus punished them for neglecting to build the temple (<a class="bibleref" title="Hag.1.10,Hag.1.11" href="/passage/?search=Hag.1.10,Hag.1.11"><span class="bibleref" title="Hag.1.10">Hag. 1:10</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Hag.1.11">11</span></a>), and now for not maintaining the temple-service. Note, Those that deny God his part of their estates may justly expect a curse upon their own part of them: <i>“You are cursed with a curse</i> for robbing me, and yet you go on to do it.” Note, It is a great aggravation of sin when men persist in it notwithstanding the rebukes of Providence which they are under for it. Nay, it should seem, because God had punished them with scarcity of bread, they made that a pretence for robbing him-that now, being impoverished, they could not afford to bring their tithes and offerings, but must save them, that they might have bread for their families. Note, It argues great perverseness in sin when men make those afflictions excuses for sin which are sent to part between them and their sins. When they had but little they should have done the more good with that little, and that would have been the way to make it more; but it is ill with the patient when that which should cure the disease serves only to palliate it, and prevent its being searched into. 4. An earnest exhortation to reform in this matter, with a promise that if they did the judgments the
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