Useless Supplication
“and this is another thing you do; covering the altar of YHWH with tears, with weeping and groaning; because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.” Malachi 2:13
Weeping and Groaning – Is God without compassion? As Paul would say, “May it never be!” God reveals Himself filled with compassion. But compassion has a statute of limitation. When His people refuse to live according to His instructions, when His servants mislead and deceive His children, God’s ear is deaf to their pleas. Come to the altar and weep. Come to the altar and groan. It’s useless. Get life in order first! Go and make things right. Then God’s ear attends to your every whisper.
Does this seem too harsh? Don’t we expect that God will overlook our disregard of His Torah and see the longing of our hearts? Perhaps we need to take one sweeping look at the relationship between obedience and worship. What did God say to Cain? “If you do right, will you not be lifted up?” In other words, “Go and do what I have asked. Then come back with your offering and it will be accepted. Then you will receive the blessing you are looking for.” What did Cain do? He refused to obey.
When Yeshua instructed His disciples concerning worship, what did He say? “If you come to the altar and remember that someone has something against you, leave your offering and go make it right. Then come back and your offering will accomplish its purpose.”
From Genesis to Matthew, the instructions are the same. First get your life in order. Then come to the altar for worship. There is no point in weeping and groaning over God’s lack of response until you have done what you are supposed to do. In Hebrew, be-kiy (weeping) and ‘anaqah (groaning) are certainly emotionally charged words. They express our distress when we deeply desire God’s attention but find ourselves under a leaden sky. Malachi offers a solution. Look to yourself! See if disobedience, rejection or refusal is contributing to compassion’s limitation. Make it right. Then come back.
Does Malachi’s condemnation imply God’s rejection? “May it never be!” God does not reject us forever, but He does chastise in order to bring us to repentance. Silence is one form of chastisement. When we need God’s favor, when we weep and groan for lack of divine guidance, God sometimes speaks to us in silence. He reminds us that there are issues we must settle before He can act with favor. Are you listening?
Topical Index: weeping, groaning, be-kiy, ‘anaqah, compassion, Malachi 2:13
40 years in the wilderness;
Multiple plagues;
Time of the Judges;
A split kingdom;
Destroyed Temples;
Forced Exiles;
and on an on and on!
Clearly The LORD’s compassion towards us is not unlimited but rather bound by HIS own righteousness!
Ultimately only the remnant that is Israel will receive HIS mercy and forgiveness … in the meantime most of us should gladly accept our chastisement in the form of silence from The LORD as opposed to many of the rebukings that were placed upon the ancestors!
As for today? May our supplications rise to the throne as a sweet savour unto The LORD!
Shalom
When Yeshua instructed His disciples concerning worship, what did He say? “If you come to
the altar and remember that someone has something against you, leave your offering and go
make it right. Then come back and your offering will accomplish its purpose.”
I can understand self examination, logs and splinters, a little. But this? How is it that I look at someone who may be totally irrational, unwilling to reconcile, and be responsible before Father for that reconciliation or HE won’t hear me? How do I do this?
Let me make it personal here.
My employer told me last April he was closing my store; it didn’t make enough money for him to keep it open. In July he offered to let me buy everything for way too much money, including debt from which Father delivered me ; not going back there, by grace. In October, two hours after I signed a lease, he offered me a job at another store. Lots of serendipitous circumstance converged to allow me to believe Father is blessing my endeavors to do this without the former folks and their database (it’s a seasonal biz).
He/they haven’t spoken to me since. Wouldn’t negotiate (return phone call, initiate phone call) any other price [their history said any alternate contract had to be on my terms as they rarely even pay utility bills, much less rent and vendors during the business season.]
I considered him a brother; have taught that Father cares more about relationship than anything else, especially within His precious Son’s Body. It’s possible I could offer him money and have them speak to me again but legally that’s a problem. Faith kind of ignores legal IMO when Father says to do something….HE makes ALL things work for my good and His glory. Given that he’s raised the purchase price of the other stores on the buyers 3 times since, it’s unlikely even if I came up with his initial amount that he’d remember it as such. I’d be happy to give him a tenth that much and figure twenty percent is outrageously generous. But not sure that would restore anything.
I am surmising he has “ought against” me. Is it the accuser? Is it me knowing how I’d feel if things had been reversed? Yes.
What does that mean with respect to my communication with Father?
Is the purpose of my offering to honor Him? to be a praise to Him? [I think so.] HE won’t receive praise from me if someone else has some imagined grievance against me because I disagreed with them?
How do I apply all this?
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5.16)
And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. (Job 42.10)
Prayer can do anything G-d can do and G-d can do anything.
We learn to pray by praying.
I’m a relatively “old” person. I say relatively because all things are “relative. I’m “old” to those who are young and I’m young to those who are (ahem..) old. I dwell in “no-man’s land”, the land of “no-respect!”- (Too old to be young and yet too young to be old). As the saying goes.. “it is what it is..” That’s the saying but the question is “what is it?” In “relation” to the clock- “what time is it?” How much of my life has been “spent” and how much remains? G-d knows the hour of my “departure.”
I’m in a good position today. (in Christ!) I’m ready to go and I’m ready to stay. “It’s all good.” But, if I remain, how will I spend my time today! What is the absolute best use of my “time?” (helpful household hint- hit the “power off” button on the remote control!). Spend some time “praying.” – Have you ever done this?
-If you will allow me a little “foolishness”.. “It seems like such a “waste of time”.. To which I reply- “exactly”. Sometimes we “waste time” with G-d. It’s okay. Just “go and sit” and “be with Him”. Don’t ask for anything, don’t say anything- just “draw near.” – I know, I know- what a simpleton, -“wasting time” with G-d. Friends.. -no. No, no and no. Time spend with G-d is never wasted. None. Ever. Not a drop. Those who have preceded us (and there are quite a few who have “paved the way”) would refer to this “waste of time” as “otium sanctum” or “holy leisure.”
Remember (back in the day!) when you were in love with that cute little red-haired girl down the street? How delightful it was just to “waste the day” with her. Just to be near her and have her near to you. It was enough, was it not? The “nearness” of G-d. “Draw near unto G-d and He will (He will) draw near unto you.” (James 4.8) Leave your “shopping list” and even your “Bible study”, drop your pen, put down your paper, close your mouth, “pray secretly, silently and above all, “listen.” In a word.. “it works!”. (I know.. -that’s two words!..lol!)
There are “so many” blessings to occur by and through our praying. Prayer is “Jacob’s ladder” between heaven and earth. I could proceed further concerning prayer and books would be written. (there are a few already on the market- what we need to do is stop reading about prayer and pray!–lol!)
Let me “describe” cherry pie to you. Let me “explain cherry pie” to you by my words. Better yet.. why don’t you just go get yourself a slice and sink your chompers into it! -Pray. Try it!!- “you’ll like it!” We were formed and fashioned for this. Folks,- prayer fits. We were “born for this.”
One Saturday morning years ago, as I was praying and thinking about the next day’s church service, the Lord brought to my mind that there was someone who (rightfully) held a grudge against me, and that it was pointless to participate in a public worship service until I had genuinely made amends. At that moment, I was so convicted that I promised the Lord I would not even attend a service until I did so. I could not make contact until Monday, but between those two days, I had to get on my face and confess WHY I had not corrected this situation for two years (during which time I was justifying my behavior in my own heart), and confess His Word about my own sin in this instance, asking Him to totally cleanse me from all of it and make my heart right again. On Monday morning, I was able to go to the other person and confess why it took me so long to be sorry for this sin, and how wrong my behavior was to cause pain to others. His Word and His Law shows us The Way. Hallelujah for the cleansing power of the blood!
Perhaps God does not only mean by him you will be blessed, when you do right. Maybe by doing what he tells us will cause things to be right. Maybe by doing wrong we fall into a pit of our own making, and He wants us to know that in order to get out of the “pit” we have to dig ourselves out by doing what is right? I think this because He also says He causes the sun to rise on the evil as well as the good, in Matthew 5:45. I know that he most likely is trying to reach the lost ones by doing this, but maybe He is also trying to tell us that He can’t help us no more if we are going to keep getting ourselves in a pickle by not doing what he tells us will keep us out of it? It’s kind of like what we do to our children. You can only help your children so much, but when they become adults, you must set them free and see if they will remember what you have taught them, and make good decisions. If they do not do what you have instructed them to do for a better liofe, you cannot keep bailing them out, or they do not learn from those mistakes.
I’m going to try to better explain my point above. If we continously do what is wrong after God bails us out of the consequences it brings, what have we learned? Repeated offenders have not learned the lesson yet, or they would not be doing the wrong again. Sometimes God teaches us best by letting us learn by our mistakes. I don’t beleive that God causes the bad in our lives. I beleive that we do by refusing to listen to what He said is better to do. When he told Cain, “If you do right, will you not be lifted up?”, maybe he was telling him if you stay on the right path and do what is right, everything will be right for you. If you fall off that safe path, you will experience the dangers of your own making. Until you get back on the path, we will continue to suffer the consequences of our own choice.
God does bless us ALL. He does good to ALL. It is we who refuse to listen and make the choice to do it our own way. In the end, we suffer the consequences of poor choices we make and ask God, where were you? He was always there, waiting and wanting to help you. All your moaning and groaning is useless if you are running in the wrong direction. How can he just let us do all the wrong we do and expect Him to fix it when we break it? We make the choices.
If we do what is right, will we not be lifted up? Because you heard his voice and obeyed, all will be well for you, no matter what. That is how we are blessed most of the time, because we listen to God and do what he instructs us to do.
If you excerise and eat right you will be healthy. If you don’t and eat junk food, you will get sick and obese. If you change your oil and service your car, it will have a long life. If you don’t and abuse it, you will be left walking. “Preventative Maintenance” is necessary, in every case. If you apply “Preventative Maintenance” to your life by doing God’s will, will you not be lifted up?