How Have We Spoken Against You?

Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Malachi 3:11-18 NIV

11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe," says the LORD Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty. 13 "You have spoken arrogantly against me," says the LORD. "Yet you ask, 'What have we said against you?' 14 "You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.' " 16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. 17 "On the day when I act," says the LORD Almighty, "they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) After entreating His people to return to Him, what will the Lord do for those who return and how will other nations react to His obedient people? (v.11-12)
2) What does the Lord accuse His people of doing against Him and saying about evildoers? (v.13-15)
3) Who will be the Lord's "treasured possession" and how will He treat them? Why? (v.16-18)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Have you ever thought, or said, that it is futile to serve the Lord? If so, why?

LIFE LESSONS
5) The Lord is against the disobedient and rebellious, but blesses those revere Him.