Malachi is a brief but sobering book. In 4 chapters we are given the immediate state of God's people with a foreboding message for all future generations who follow the same courses of rebellion as the people of Malachi's day.
""Your words have been arrogant against Me," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?' "You have said, 'It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 'So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.'"
A quick tally of all the indictments against "God's people" ought to be a wake up call to people of faith today.
1. Pride causes the "clay" to dare push back against the "Potter." "Thus saith the Lord" is routinely dismissed out of hand today is it not?
2. God's people argue with HIS assessment of their sin.
3. God's people contend it is pointless to live by the Word of the Lord.
4. God's people's rebellion empowered the wicked to continue and increase in their wickedness.