WHAT REALLY TICKS GOD OFF

Malachi 3: ⁵     And I will come near you for judgment;

     I will be a swift witness

     Against sorcerers,

     Against adulterers,

     Against perjurers,

     Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans,

     And against those who turn away an alien—

     Because they do not fear Me,”

     Says the Lord of hosts.

⁶     “For I am the Lord, I do not change; 

Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

It irritates me to hear televangelists redacting God's Word and pointing to the 1 to 3 sins that most bother them personally as the sole reason for every catastrophe in the world. 

Now, don't misunderstand me.  Sin is real.  Sometimes God really does use disasters as judgment against sin, like warning shots to get our attention. 

But, if we were honest about what really pisses God off, we'd be way more introspective and humble and way less prone to blame "those people" for everything. 

Case in point.  Malachi chapter 3.

In Malachi 3: 5, God says, And I will come near you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers.

O.K.  Yeah, "those people" are evil.  They shouldn't do that stuff.

I agree.  All that stuff is wrong because God said so.  But keep reading.  In the same verse God goes on to say that His judgment falls not just for those sins, but also because He has witnessed some other sins that don't make the usual televangelistic list of abominations.

God says that He is equally against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien.

Yeah, that alien as in legal/ illegal alien.

Those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans and turn away aliens don't get to claim that they do it to protect our Christian heritage because God says they actually do it  because they DO NOT fear Me.

And this isn’t my political bias, this is what says the Lord of hosts.

Oh, and before you dismiss this as having no bearing on modern America and only applying to the particular cultural context of Old Testament Israel, the very next sentence in Malachi says

For I am the Lord; I do not change.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

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