“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,”
Malachi 1:2 NIV
God said these words to the Israelites. Even though they had returned from the exile and the temple had been rebuilt, their dream based on God’s promise (restoration under their own king and to be revealed to the nations as their God) had not yet taken that complete picture.
It was going there but they were having a hard time seeing that. Their hope for what God had promised was clouded by their own disappointments.
When our expectations are unable to meet our current realities, discouragement strikes. Their discouragement was evident by the inappropriate offerings they were presenting at the altar along with their attitude toward worship.
God decides to take action. This time, he starts his argument reassuring his love for them.
Our God knows when our discouragement needs to be braught into attention with love.
In an effort of demonstrating the faithful love that He has had for Israel; God starts reminding them of how he has dealt against their enemies and assures that they will see deliverance from them.
The only thing that God wanted from them was to walk faithfully in faith and that’s exactly where they were failing.
Perhaps today, in the midst of my own disappointments, I too must make a pause to listen to God’s reassuring love message for me.
He is trying to say: “I have loved you, can’t you see? I’ve been in your favor, I still am and I’ll always be.”
Perhaps, like in Malachi, that affirmation should lead me to the understading that God is not done yet; so that the Love he has showed me may be the fuel for faith in the completion of his promises.
Perhaps, I should concentrate in offering God what he deserves from me. My unconditional faithfulness, the best of what I have is what he desires from me.
