The first prophetic words that Israel heard from the prophet Malachi are, "I have loved you", says the Lord. God loved them despite the many offenses for which Malachi indicts them. Israel had broken their covenant with God by bringing blind, lame and diseased animals to sacrifice on the altar. The priests had no reverence for God and had caused many of the people to stumble because of their false teachings. Malachi accuses Judah because they have married women who worship foreign Gods. Men have been unfaithful to the wife of their youth. The nation was guilty of not bringing their whole tithe into the storehouse. In summary Malachi says, “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 3:5.  Despite the unfaithfulness of Israel and Judah God still let them know that he loved them.

God loves everyone even when we have sinned. He never stops loving us. There is so much about God that I do not understand.  He is so great that his ways are beyond our understanding. He is sovereign, but I cannot grasp the magnitude of what that really means.  God does or allows many rhings that by man’s reasoning are deemed unfair. I will never understand why bad things happen to those whom we consider to be good people. I don’t understand why God’s judgement for the cruel things that people do is slow in coming or apparently never comes at all.  By faith I have to believe that God is in control and that his love is beyond what we deserve no matter what happens in this world. He is God. Because he is God we should hold to the standard that he has set for us by living in a way that honors him.