How to Get Exiled #15

Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. 6 “ For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 

We are back in our other core passage, with a little of the following context to get the full thrust. Malachi begins with the evil things that they were doing which deserved judgment and then transitions to the "sins of omission" - those things they were failing to do.  When it came to the widows, fatherless, and sojourners, it was a matter of both.  Some were actively oppressing and taking advantage of them, while for many it was ignoring them and failing to reach out to them in compassion, just like they were failing to give God their offerings and thanksgiving,and recognizing Him as the Owner and Giver of every good thing. Yes, we may be able to say there are terrible evils we have not done (or not!), but we are often guilty of not doing what we should to demonstrate the heart and character of God. As James 1:27 says: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.