What does our offering look like? (Malachi)

1:8, 10, 13

There was obviously a problem with the Israelites sacrificing impure, lame, sick animals to the Lord. "And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts." For us, we do not offer animal sacrifices. What do we sacrifice? Here's a few:

• A broken heart and contrite spirit.

• Time and energy and effort.

• Money.

The question is: Are we offering the best that we have? Or are we offering lame and sick offerings? For example:

• Are we serving half-heartedly?

• Do we try to subtract as much as possible from our tithing?

• Do we attend church on Sunday and then mostly forget about religion during the week?

• Do we study the gospel infrequently?

I can honestly say that much of my life has been about offering lame and sick offerings.

I think it's interesting that Malachi asks if the people would make the same offering to their governor. It is something to think about. Am I more concerned with the service I give to a boss than to the Lord? Am I more concerned with how I appear to the neighbor than to God? Something to think about.

The Lord doesn't enjoy halfway offerings. "I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand." Of course, the Lord doesn't need our offering. He is attempting to help us build our discipleship. He's attempting to limit our selfishness. He's helping us keep our priorities straight.

We sometimes save our energy to impress those around us. We have the energy to perform our duties at work but are exhausted when it comes to volunteering. "Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord."

This very week, I am opening a new studio. The other night, I was at the studio until 2:00 am. I slept for four hours and had to be back at the studio. I was very committed to having a good grand opening. However, there wasn't time to study the scriptures. My prayers this week have been infrequent and brief. My priority shifted. This can be dangerous if this pattern continues.

I am grateful for the scriptures that seem to provide the exact right message at the right time. :)

1:13

"Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord." Some people have left the Church out of weariness. They see activity as part of the busyness of their life. They see their membership as an element of their life that demands time.

They view their calling as a burden. Membership takes away their time and their energy and their days off. They can't even go boating on Sunday!

Of course, this is a inaccurate view of the purpose of the Lord's Church. Instead of being a burden, it is a:

• Way to be a part of something greater and outside of ourselves.

• Opportunity to serve others.

• Method for building selflessness.

• Chance to be active in fostering the spiritual growth in others.

• Way to receive strength from others when we need it - and vice versa.

• Path to learning more about the gospel.

• Way to build empathy for others - on the path to developing true charity.

• Opportunity to teach.

We should not "snuff at (or belittle) it." Having an incorrect view of church activity can put it into a box that is easily put away. If it's just a time-and-energy-commitment, it's very easily set aside when life gets stressful.

2:2

"If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart." The important thing is that we give glory to God's name. What if we don't give glory and credit our blessings to some other source - including ourselves? This verse says "I will curse your blessings."

What does it mean to curse blessings? I think it could mean two things:

1. Our blessings will be taken away. Instead of being blessed, we will be cursed.

2. Our blessings can literally work against us. If we are blessed to be attractive, and not give glory to God, how much will our appearance affect our pride? How much trouble could we possibly get in? If we are rich and don't give glory to God - the same problems occur. Our pride may increase and our teachability may decrease.

Strengths can often become weaknesses. I sometimes worry about high school students who are extremely good looking, or smart, or athletic, or popular. If their perspective about giving glory to God isn't healthy, it is much easier for those blessings to become cursings for them.

We must follow the pattern of giving glory to God for ALL of our blessings if we are to avoid those very blessings becoming cursings!

2:7

"For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." To me, this means that someone who is preaching the gospel should seek knowledge because others will be looking for answers from him or her.

If he is in authority, he is a representative of the Lord and has the responsibility of learning doctrine. He shouldn't 'wing it.'

We all should be students. When we speak, it should be based on basic doctrine. Our opinions aren't going to help someone in need. Our wise words and clever thoughts aren't usually helpful to others. In Moroni 3:3, we read, "In the name of Jesus Christ I ordain you to be a priest (or if he be a teacher, I ordain you to be a teacher) to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end. Amen."

Let's learn all that we can about the basic principles of Christ's gospel.

2:17

"Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?" When we philosophize about what is right and wrong based on the whims of our conscience, it wearies the Lord. It must be exhausting for him to hear 'love is love' or 'if it's between two consenting adults...' or 'my body, my choice.'

It would truly be exhausting for me to listen to my chosen people, who I have given so much revelation to, pontificate incorrectly about what is right and wrong. It's one thing for the ignorant to be misled - it's another for Israel.

We are not unlike them. The modern day word for this is rationalization. We all are guilty of some form of it. We should take a hard look at any sins that are our favorite to the point that we rationalize until we feel comfortable.

3:2-3

"But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Two different things that Christ is compared to:

1. Refiner's fire. This is a burning, heating-up process of purifying metal. Our lives are like a furnace where our impurities are burned away. The silver cannot simply purify itself!

1. Fuller's soap. This is used to whiten wool. As we know, Christ can whiten our garments even though our sin has made them as scarlet. Jesus Christ and his gospel allows is the cleansing agent. No matter how hard you rub dirty wool together, the stain doesn't come out. It requires a solvent. There has to be an outside force that allows it to whiten.

Once we are purified, we "may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." We do not need to be perfect. But, through Christ, we can offer a truly broken heart and contrite spirit. Without being refined and cleaned, we cannot offer this ultimate sacrifice. We can never truly submit fully and give up our own will and replace it with the Lord's without going through this process.

Life is hard but it's meant to be that way.

3:7-11

If I give you everything and then say "return to me, and I will return unto you," what does that mean? In the context of this chapter, it appears to mean that we should return some of what we are given. But this isn't about giving up what is ours. We are RETURNING - not gifting, sacrificing, giving up. If we understand that all things come from God, we see that any donation is returning. The good news is that, even in returning what is already God's, he gives us more. He returns back to us.

Many have decided to, instead of returning a tithe to God, they'll keep it. Because we are retaining what is God's and what he's asked for, we are robbing God. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." If we don't understand the nature of who owns what, we may think that our tithes are ours to give. If we realize that we are returning what is already God's, we clearly see, if we retain it, we are robbing God.

"Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." Does God literally curse us? I'm not sure. I think the curse is inherent in us not receiving the blessings of giving up something that we want for the Lord.

The Lord isn't uninvolved in the success of our lives. He blesses. Those blessings are connected to our faithfulness. In verse 10, God literally invites us to prove him. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." I don't think this is necessarily temporal blessings. I think it could be the natural blessings that come from putting God over ourselves.

However, it does sound like that God does grant temporal blessings when we pay tithing. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts." The people of this time relied on planting and harvesting to survive. In our day, the Lord might promise a whole other set of temporal blessings. What would examples be for you in your life?

3:14-15

"Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?" There are those who say it is pointless to serve God. They don't see an immediate cause and effect between obedience and blessings.

In fact, they see the opposite. "And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered." We see wicked people today enjoy extreme levels of material success.

I'm sure that there are many who pay tithing expecting to see the immediate return on their investment. Paying tithing in this way is reduced to a transaction. God becomes a vending machine. If we are just making a purchase of blessings, those blessings are withheld. The withholding becomes a curse.

This is an exercise in faith and demonstrating our devotion to God. It is an opportunity to NOT allow this temporal world to dominate our lives. If done in the right spirit, we shall be blessed - spiritually and temporally.

4:1

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." I've often heard of tithing referred to as 'fire insurance.' As if paying tithing will prevent us from being burned. However, verse 1 doesn't refer to tithing. It is talking about the proud and all that do wickedly.

Sure, this could be connected to tithing. Tithing likely prevents us from being too proud as we subordinate our wills to God's. It helps our perspective about the purpose of life and prevents us from doing wickedly. Tithing serves many purposes. It could be considered a preventative measure. It helps ensure that we don't stray from the covenants we have made. I venture to say that there are not too many apostates who were paying tithing throughout their drifting from the Church.

4:5-6

This verse is very well known. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." I've always heard this verse in connection with family history and temple work. That make sense.

I think it may have a grander meaning. It may mean that children will have greater respect and understanding of the lessons learned by previous generations. They will revere their parents and understand that they have much to learn. They will not see their ancestors' religion as naive and simple. They will respect their religion.

Parents heart's will turn to their children. Just as our Heavenly Father's work is our immortality and eternal life, our main purpose will be to ensure that the rising generation understands the purpose of life. Our priority will be the spiritual development of those who are learning.

It's a broadening of perspective. It's an eternal perspective. If we are conscious of the purpose of life, we will look to the past and prepare for the future.

Family history and temple work are an essential element of the gospel. It truly is about being interested in previous generations and doing for them what they cannot do themselves. Part of learning from the past is knowing about our ancestors.

However, I haven't understood why "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children" had anything to do with family history or temple work. So, this is why I think it has a broader meaning. If you understand how this part of the verse relates to FH or the temple, let me know in the comments! :)