LESSON XII.—SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1899.
FRUITS OF RIGHT AND WRONG DOING.
13 "Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord. 14 Yet ye say, Wherein have we spoken against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully before 15 the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, 16 and are delivered. Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared 17 the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure; and I will spare them, as a man 18 spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. 1 "For, behold, the day cometh; it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the 2 Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and 3 gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in 4 the day that I do make, saith the Lord of hosts. "Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded 5 unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and 6 judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. 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." Golden Text: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal. 6:7. SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What is the object and where is the application of the book of Malachi? Note 1. (2) What charge does the Lord bring against His people? What do the people reply? V. 13. Note 2. (3) What had they said by their acts? V. 14, 15. (4) How do the true servants of God do? V. 16. (5) How does the Lord regard it? (6) What does the Lord promise them? V. 17. (7) What will be discerned in the judgment?15V. 18. Note 3. (8) What shall be the harvest of the wicked? V. 1. Note 4. (9) What promise is left for the righteous? Vs. 2, 3. Note 5. (10) What are God's people told to remember? V. 4. Note 6. (11) Who will be sent as a forerunner of the great day of God? V. 5. (12) What will be the work of the forerunner? V. 6. Note 7. 1. Malachi means "My messenger." The prophet bears a great twofold message to God's people in both dispensations. It had a local and limited and specific application to the Jews previous to Christ's first advent, when formalism had replaced vital godliness, and tradition was hiding God's commandments. Malachi predicts the preparatory message for both Christ's first and second advent. Both comings are presented in Mal. 3:1, 2. All could "abide" Christ's coming to die. Only the good can abide the day of His coming to judgment. His first coming was a great day; but only His second coming could be called "the great and terrible day of the Lord." Read the first part of chapter 3, and connect with this lesson. 2. Against Me.—They murmured against God. They did righteousness for pay, and said: "What profit is it? The wicked is regarded of God as better than we." The only true, acceptable righteousness before God is righteousness for righteousness' sake, whatever may come. When it looks dark, the true servants will still believe, cheer one another, and comfort themselves in the fact that God's name is Faithful and True. 3. Then.—In the judgment, in the great and terrible day of the Lord. Now when acts seem the same, motives can not be discerned. The judgment of God will uncover motive, and will show whether the deed is done for self or God. 4. The day cometh.—The great and terrible day that only the righteous can abide. See 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 14:9-12; 18:8; Matt. 3:12; 2 Peter 3. Then will the wicked, those who will not have Christ's living presence within them now, perish in the glory of His revealed presence,—root, Satan, and branch, the wicked. All sin and all that is identified with sin will perish forever, and God's universe will be clean. 5. Fear My name.—Who choose God's character. Sun of Righteousness.—Jesus Christ, the healer, as sunlight is a disease destroyer and builder up. Tread down the wicked.—Not in anger; but after God has destroyed them, and made all things new. Dust shall return to dust; the wicked as organized beings will not be. Ps. 37:9-11. Thus "the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner." 6. The law of Moses.—As the end approaches, the types of the law of Moses will meet their fulfilment. Christ's work as priest is there shown to be almost finished; the great antitypical day of atonement almost at an end, the judgment impending; the rule of the judgment, God's holy law; the down-trodden Sabbath again lifted up. All these are revealed in what we are told to remember. 7. Turn the heart of the fathers with the children. Read as in the margin, "with" instead of "to." The thought is that the last reformation will be such that there must be a general turning to God, or God will smite the earth with a curse, with "utter destruction," as rendered by some. Would we escape? Then let us turn to the Lord with all our hearts. See Zeph. 2:1-3.