IF GOD'S LOVE IS IN QUESTION

INTRODUCTION

The issue that the text presents is of a people who through the process of time have lost track of the reality of God's covenant love for them. The situation is complicated by the fact that they are expectations of a better day was delayed. The Lord would take issue with his people and correct their wrong thinking through his messenger Malachi. the first thing he needed to do was to set the record straight about how he felt about them. He instructs the prophet to tell them that in spite of what they may believe, “I have loved you”.

let's bring this text into proper context: Malachi is thought to have ministered to Israel /Judah in or around the times of Haggai, Ezra, and Zechariah. This would have been between 500 through 400 BCE. This means that the people of Israel had already returned to their homeland and much of the reconstruction of the Temple and religious structure had been completed. However, the full promise of restoration had not been actualized and the people had become insolent and blamed their plight on the belief that God was against them. Why do people always default to blaming God for their problems.

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 43: Blaming God

In Christianity Today Philip Yancey writes:

When Princess Diana died, I got a phone call from a television producer. “Can you appear on our show?” he asked. “We want you to explain how God could possibly allow such a terrible accident.…”

At the 1994 Winter Olympics, when speed skater Dan Jansen’s hand scraped the ice, causing him to lose the 500-meter race, his wife, Robin, cried out, “Why, God, again? God can’t be that cruel!”

A young woman wrote James Dobson this letter: “Four years ago, I was dating a man and became pregnant. I was devastated! I asked God, ‘Why have You allowed this to happen to me?’ ”

In a professional bout, boxer Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini slammed his Korean opponent with a hard right, causing a massive cerebral hemorrhage. At a press conference after the Korean’s death, Mancini said, “Sometimes I wonder why God does the things he does.”

Susan Smith, who pushed her two sons into a lake to drown and then blamed a black carjacker for the deed, wrote in her official confession: “I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me. I took off running and screaming, ‘Oh God! Oh God, no! What have I done? Why did you let this happen?’ ”

I once watched a television interview with a famous Hollywood actress whose lover had rolled off a yacht in a drunken stupor and drowned. The actress, who probably had not thought about God in months, looked at the camera, her lovely face contorted by grief, and asked, bizarrely, “How could a loving God let this happen?” Perhaps something similar lay behind the television producer’s question.… Exposed as frail and mortal, we lash out against someone who is not: God.

ILLUSTRATION

APPLICATION

INVITATION