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###### Cause: Decline in the Worship of God

{Since the Heavenly Trade Is the Best Trade…

Exhortation and Counsel to Earthly Traders

Counsel Three: Search for the Cause of Your Afflictions

Cause: Decline in the Worship of God}

When the worship of God declines, it has been followed with decline in people’s earthly concerns (Malachi 1:8–9).1202 Israel brought corrupt things to God, the blind, lame, and sick; they were the worst of the flocks and herds, and this was contrary to God’s ordinances and the Lord brought a curse on them. “‘If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart’” (Malachi 2:2 NASB). Cocceius said that “Honor and worship are due to God. They had corrupted God’s worship, and God corrupted their offspring.” “Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it” (Malachi 2:3 ESV). Cocceius thinks that God would destroy their fruit before they were ripe, something he thought fulfilled in the days of Claudius, as mentioned in Acts 11:28.1203 They had treated God’s service as something contemptible (Malachi 1:7)1204 and God made them contemptible. “Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base Before all the people, Because you have not kept My ways But have shown partiality in the law” (Malachi 2:9 NKJV). In Malachi 2:3, above, God compares corrupt worship to dung, and promises to return it to their faces instead of food. The dung of their solemn feasts will be defilement to overcome and ruin them. Due to these corruptions in God’s worship, God stretched His hand over Israel and diminished their ordinary food and delivered them to the will of those who hated them. “Behold now, I have stretched out My hand against you and diminished your rations. And I delivered you up to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd conduct” (Ezekiel 16:26–27 NASB). God’s worship is a reflection on His name, His glory, by which He is known and distinguished from all idols (Exodus 20:4; Romans 1:22–23).1205 To corrupt His worship is to defile the place of His throne (Ezekiel 43:7),1206 and to cheat Him out of His tribute and revenues from earth. And it is thus no wonder if God blasts their trade who adulterate His treasure.

1202“‘And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?’ Says the Lord of hosts. ‘But now entreat God’s favor, That He may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, Will He accept you favorably?’ Says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:8–9 NKJV).

1203“Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar” (Acts 11:28 NKJV).

1204“You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible’” (Malachi 1:7 NKJV).

1205“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4 NASB). “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:22–23 ESV).

1206“And He said to me, ‘Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places’” (Ezekiel 43:7 NKJV).

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