With such adversaries, growing in the fear of the Lord will not be a smooth process. Instead, it will be the path of warfare. We must hate the evil and ungodly assumptions of the world, we must hate our own sinful nature, and we must hate Satan. To accomplish these tasks demands the most powerful resources we have: The Word, the Spirit, and the body of Christ.
Edward Welch

Malachi

Malachi

{1:1} The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi. {1:2}I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou lovedus? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother, saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob;{1:3} but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave]his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. {1:4} Whereas Edomsaith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the wasteplaces; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build, but I will throwdown; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The peopleagainst whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever. {1:5} And your eyesshall see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond the border ofIsrael. {1:6} A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: ifthen I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where ismy fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise myname. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? {1:7} Ye offerpolluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we pollutedthee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. {1:8} Andwhen ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is no evil! and when ye offerthe lame and sick, it is no evil! Present it now unto thy governor;will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saithJehovah of hosts. {1:9} And now, I pray you, entreat the favor of God,that he may be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will heaccept any of your persons? saith Jehovah of hosts. {1:10} Oh thatthere were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might notkindle [fire on] mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saithJehovah of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.{1:11} For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of thesame my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every placeincense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for myname [shall be] great among the Gentiles, saith Jehovah of hosts.{1:12} But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of Jehovah ispolluted, and the fruit thereof, even its food, is contemptible. {1:13}Ye say also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it,saith Jehovah of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken byviolence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering:should I accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah. {1:14} But cursed bethe deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificethunto the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King, saith Jehovahof hosts, and my name is terrible among the Gentiles.

{2:1} And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. {2:2} Ifye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give gloryunto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I send the curse uponyou, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already,because ye do not lay it to heart. {2:3} Behold, I will rebuke yourseed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of yourfeasts; and ye shall be taken away with it. {2:4} And ye shall knowthat I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may bewith Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. {2:5} My covenant was with him oflife and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and hefeared me, and stood in awe of my name. {2:6} The law of truth was inhis mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walkedwith me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.{2:7} For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seekthe law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.{2:8} But ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many tostumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saithJehovah of hosts. {2:9} Therefore have I also made you contemptible andbase before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, buthave had respect of persons in the law. {2:10} Have we not all onefather? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously everyman against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? {2:11}Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed inIsrael and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness ofJehovah which he loveth, and hath married the daughter of a foreigngod. {2:12} Jehovah will cut off, to the man that doeth this, him thatwaketh and him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him thatoffereth an offering unto Jehovah of hosts. {2:13} And this again yedo: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and withsighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, neitherreceiveth it with good will at your hand. {2:14} Yet ye say, Wherefore?Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thyyouth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, though she is thycompanion, and the wife of thy covenant. {2:15} And did he not makeone, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? Hesought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let nonedeal treacherously against the wife of his youth. {2:16} For I hateputting away, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him that coverethhis garment with violence, saith Jehovah of hosts: therefore take heedto your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. {2:17} Ye have weariedJehovah with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? Inthat ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah,and he delighteth in them; or where is the God of justice?

{3:1} Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the waybefore me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to histemple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, hecometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. {3:2} But who can abide the day of hiscoming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like arefiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap: {3:3} and he will sit as arefiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi,and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovahofferings in righteousness. {3:4} Then shall the offering of Judah andJerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as inancient years. {3:5} And I will come near to you to judgment; and Iwill be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against theadulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those thatoppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, andthat turn aside the sojourner [from his right], and fear not me, saithJehovah of hosts. {3:6} For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, Osons of Jacob, are not consumed. {3:7} From the days of your fathers yehave turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Returnunto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But yesay, Wherein shall we return? {3:8} Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me.But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. {3:9}Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation.{3:10} Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may befood in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, ifI will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,that there shall not be room enough [to receive it]. {3:11} And I willrebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruitsof your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the timein the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. {3:12} And all nations shall callyou happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.{3:13} Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet yesay, What have we spoken against thee? {3:14} Ye have said, It is vainto serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, andthat we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? {3:15} And nowwe call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up;yea, they tempt God, and escape. {3:16} Then they that feared Jehovahspake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book ofremembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, andthat thought upon his name. {3:17} And they shall be mine, saithJehovah of hosts, [even] mine own possession, in the day that I make;and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.{3:18} Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and thewicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

{4:1} For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and allthe proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the daythat cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shallleave them neither root nor branch. {4:2} But unto you that fear myname shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings;and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. {4:3} And yeshall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles ofyour feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts. {4:4}Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him inHoreb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. {4:5} Behold, Iwill send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day ofJehovah come. {4:6} And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to thechildren, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I comeand smite the earth with a curse.

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