Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

I will come near to you to judgement. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says the LORD of Armies.
Malachi 3:5 (emphasis added)

This is not a clear ‘do not fear’ commandment verse. The words don’t appear in it. It only shows up on the list of ‘fear’ verses because of the word fear, but in this instance it is referring to the reverence or awe of the Lord that we should all hold dear in our hearts. What is the context? Well, it is a bit of a prophetic chapter. One that had a local or more immediate fulfilment and also one talking about our future, the final coming of the Lord and the judgment that will accompany it.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says Yahweh of Armies. “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in ancient years” (Malachi 3:1-4). These are the verses leading up to today’s verse.

“For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for. I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says Yahweh of Armies. “All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says Yahweh of Armies” (Malachi 3:6-12). These are the verses after today’s verse.

We have the Lord coming swiftly and unexpectedly. He comes to purify us, refining us into His righteousness. We will end up righteous before the Lord. He will come in judgment (which is part of purification) and He will require both obedience and kindness to our fellow citizens of this world. Because the Lord doesn’t change. He has been calling people to live with generosity and blessing toward one another, taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves since the beginning. He will require us to return to worship of the Lord so that the Lord can return to blessing us.

We’re called to make sure to remember our tithe. This isn’t just money, but it includes money. He doesn’t call us to judge the leaders of the church. He calls us to tithe to Himself. Give where you are being fed. Give to your local church. Give to where the Lord leads your heart. But give. Not a prescribed percentage amount, but what the Lord lays on your heart. There can be benefit to giving the exact percentage scripture mentions, but we are not under the Law and it is not a requirement. What IS a requirement is that we give. We bless because we are blessed. We give because we have been given to. The Lord asks for our obedience and our honour. Part of honouring Him is to tithe. We tithe our firstfruits, not our leftovers. It can be money. It can be time. It can be acts of service. It can be anything that the Lord lays on your heart. But give. Because it is good for the lower to give honour and tithe to the greater. Just like it is good for the greater to bless the lower. God Most High deserves His offering. Thoughtfully, joyfully, eager to give to the Lord who has given us so much.

So. A lot of commands. A lot of warnings. How is this not fearing? Because this is not a call to the faithful. This is a call to those who are not doing as they should. To people who have fallen away. Gotten complacent. Allowed other things to come between them and Yahweh God Almighty. To people who have looked to the promises of the Lord and said ‘They are not coming to pass. What good is following Him if nothing ever comes of it?’ “But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). The Lord exists outside of time. He sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). We can feel that He isn’t moving, or He isn’t coming, or He isn’t doing anything, but our perspective as people inside of time on He who is outside of time is mismatched. We need to hold to His promises, not get hung up on when they will come to pass.

Malachi was writing to people who had thought that when their captivity was over and they returned to the Promised Land that things would be different. That the children of God would have an established kingdom. That they would have prosperity and riches. That they would have a king ruling over them and the world. That all the promises of the Old Testament would be coming to pass. The problem was that many of the promises they were expecting to come to pass weren’t promises to the Israel of their day, but Messianic promises that are still in the future. They got discouraged about the reality of their lives. The work they were doing. The lack they were feeling. They stopped putting God first and let things lapse. Why stay faithful if what they were staying faithful for wasn’t happening? Why bother following rules when people who totally rejected God were doing just fine?

It is a problem that every believer has had forever. It won’t go away. You cannot serve a timeless God who lives outside of time and space and the reality that we know, the Creator of everything, and expect that God to do things according to our schedule, understanding, and agendas. God has no requirement to conform to what we want. Or how we want it. God has no requirement to conform to what we as a society says is acceptable. The onus is on US to conform to Him. If He says this or that is acceptable behaviour, then it is. If He says this or that is unacceptable, then it is. It is hard to deny that the Lord has a set moral structure. It is hard to get the parameters of that structure wrong. None of it stands alone. Throughout the bible it talks about it, shows examples of it, and even shows the need for it. There are times that we don’t like it or it rubs us the wrong way. The problem is US and not HIM. By putting the Word in front of our eyes and into our hearts on a daily basis, we are letting Him transform our thinking from US to HIM. We WILL be renewed to His way of thinking (Romans 12:1-2).

We live in a world that fights against the Lord. That fights and screams and kicks to have their own way. To wallow in their filth while proclaiming it glorious. The world doesn’t care what institution or societal ‘norm’ is changed or abolished. Anything that is sacrificed for the altar of ‘feeling freedoms’ is worth it to them. Lives, liberty, and their ultimate happiness are destroyed in service to the idea that feelings determine reality. It doesn’t matter if something makes logical sense and it doesn’t matter if other people are affected by it. Any single individual can get the weight of the courts behind them to have things run their way based solely on their feelings. It is an absolute platform of absurdity. Courts are no longer places of justice. They have reduced themselves to creators and upholders of legalism. That doesn’t mean that we should treat others badly based on their beliefs or feelings. I don’t have to agree with your feelings to respect you as an individual. You don’t have to agree with mine. But to craft a society where basic human rights are determined by how a particular group ‘feels’ at any given time is madness.

The answer for humanity – all humanity – is the Lord. His ways are just and fair. Yes, our ‘feelings’ will not always align with how He says things should be, but that is because we have fallen flesh. If we dedicate ourselves to falling in love with the Word with the same dedication we chase after our feelings, our whole world will change. We won’t be deprived of anything, we will be eager to have more of God. We don’t miss out, have to deny who we are, or lie to ourselves. We will be able to be 100% true to ourselves – it is just that our selves will change. Jesus didn’t live a life of terrible restriction. He didn’t mope about because He couldn’t do this or that. He was a man of joy. Of peace. Of contentment with who He had been created to be – remember He was fully man and that would take some adjustment for the one who made the universe. Jesus lived a loving, joyful, rich, amazing, abundant life. We can too. Every day becoming more like Jesus and more like how Jesus has always seen that we can be.

We do it by reverencing the Lord. Placing Him first and foremost in our minds and in our hearts. Giving Him the honour He deserves and showing Him that we mean it. Conforming to His Word. Reading it with the intent to submit to what we find there. To give Him the difficult passages, learning about them, praying about them, thinking on them, and studying them until the heart of the Lord gets revealed to us. Until understanding of them comes to our hearts and we are able to walk in them. Worshipping Him with our whole hearts. Living to Him, in Him, and by Him.

Malachi chapter 3 closes with verses 16-18: “Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared Yahweh and who honored his name. They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.” Here is the fear not. All that judgment coming. That swift return of the Lord. The witness against all that is being done against His moral structure. But guess what? Safe and secure will be those who love and reverence the Lord. Without fear on that day of the Lord. Spared and set apart. Those who listen to the voice of the Lord in order to be obedient to it are His beloved children. Why should we fear? We love the Lord. We honour the Lord. We are obedient to the Lord. The justice and judgment of the Lord is coming against those who do NOT fear the Lord. That is not us. That will never be us.

Oh, but I sin you might say. I’m not always putting God first. Maybe not. We all have selfish flesh. Flesh that sins and wants to sin. It’s our big fight as we live on this earth. “For I delight in God’s law after the inward person, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?” (Romans 7:22-24). Jesus! The answer is always Jesus. He renews us. He gives us His Spirit. Most of all? He forgives us. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). If we sin (it is a choice), we can repent and be forgiven. Remember that repentance is not a feeling. It is a choice in the same way that sin is a choice. We don’t have to do them. Repentance is choosing to accept what God says about a situation, learning what He says about a situation, and then choosing that behaviour or thinking when in that situation. Always and forever. Working hard at it.

Don’t be afraid? Yes, don’t be afraid. Get into the Word and abide in Jesus. Choose life, not death. Choose love, not hate. Choose to repent and be corrected when the Holy Spirit reveals an opportunity to. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us every day, all day long. Learn to listen. Learn to listen with the intent to submit to what He says. Remember, we are told to test what we hear. To check it out in the Word. The Lord will never contradict Himself.

We have the opportunity to not only share the Good News of the Lord, but to be a witness to how our lives remain firm and stable no matter what is happening around us. For our neighbours, coworkers, friends, and even passersby to ask us what our secret is. How we manage to stay so calm and unaffected in a crisis. What an opportunity to introduce them to the Lord. Who watches over us and saves us like dear children. Don’t fear. Instead, rejoice as you get near to the Lord for He will in turn get near to you.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Psalm 102:27

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Ever heard that or something like it? There are famous movie lines, quotes from literature, and many, many examples in our daily lives – especially in bureaucracy. There is a need in humanity to find new things. To adapt and alter our circumstances. To streamline and improve things. Ever better. Ever new. It is such a deep seated need because we have broken our connection with our Creator. The Lord is a constant we can rely on. But the Lord is ever renewed. He has more dimensions than we can imagine. We will spend eternity getting to know Him and walking with Him and we’ll run out of time before we run out of things to discover about our God. He goes on forever and invites us on the journey. The more complex we make our lives, the more constant He wants to be. So that we have a firm footing as we walk along. So that we can be confident that our feet will not slip. As we stare at technology that has advanced beyond our ability to understand. As we learn to email instead of fax. As we juggle the slippery slope of inclusivity and the societal shenanigans of who and what goes where and how, we can relax into the peace of God. It is beyond our understanding. It never wears out. It never gets old. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Not old fashioned. Not an ancient world tribal deity. Not a man-made God from an outdated elite we’re stuck with. The Living God with a Living Word. Signed, sealed, and blessed with His seal. A Word that sustains us. Provides for us. Secures us. Saves us. He is our bedrock, foundation, and all in all. Our world might change, but He remains there as a solid rock to keep us whole and healthy. His beloved children.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.