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September 30th
The bible reading today is in Malachi chapters 1-4.
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi were the three post-exilic prophets to Judah in and around the time of rebuilding the Temple and the wall of Jerusalem.
We don't know much more about Malachi besides the fact that he was the last messenger from God to the people of God’s promise...1000 years after Moses and 400 years before the coming of the Messiah, the Christ child. After Malachi, there would be the 400 years of silence...where God chose not to speak to His people until the ministry of John the Baptist...preparing the way of and to Jesus.
So who did God target for the message from Malachi? The priests first, and then the people of Israel.
The people in Israel did have personal responsibility to follow the Lord. But so did the priests, only with a higher accountability to God.
Oh, friends, God blessed Israel with the Levitical priesthood for a purpose...to lead the nation in their reasonable service of worship to the one and only God, Elohim Yahweh...the Great I Am...and they would come to know Him as Jesus, one day. God blesses his church with “God called” Pastors on purpose. To shepherd the disciples of Christ under their charge toward their reasonable service of worship of their Savior God...the Great I Am, Jesus Christ.
Satan took aim and attacked the priests in Israel. Many fell to the temptations of the old serpent. And Israel lost spiritual leadership along the way. Satan is doing the same thing in our day, taking aim at our pastors with the intent of taking them down too.
None of the priests were perfect and none of our pastors are. Israelites of faith were responsible to pray for their spiritual leaders. And so are we. Friends, let us not forget to pray for our pastors.
So what did God require of His Temple priests and the nation? Let’s listen to God through His messenger...“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from “my” statutes and have “not” kept them.
You have turned aside from My word, so you have turned aside from Me...“friends, remember the words of Jesus?... “
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,”
