Message Notes: September 7th

The Bible was NOT written TO us but it was written FOR us. 

Genesis to Malachi
Creation
Fall
Covenant
Kingdom
Exile
Return

Teaching people to engage the Bible and grow as disciples. 

The Book of Malachi
The People's Claims and God's Disputes

1:2-2:16
3 interactions that expose Israel's corruption

2:17-4:3
3 interactions where the Lord confronts Israel's corruption

Malachi 1:1-5
This is the message that the Lord gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi:

The Lord’s Love for Israel
“I have always loved you,” says the Lord. But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”

And the Lord replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.”

Esau’s descendants in Edom may say, “We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.” But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies replies, “They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again. Their country will be known as ‘The Land of Wickedness,’ and their people will be called ‘The People with Whom the Lord Is Forever Angry.’ When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, ‘Truly, the Lord’s greatness reaches far beyond Israel’s borders!’”

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could "be like gods" -- be their own masters -- invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside of God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history -- money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery -- the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
- C.S. Lewis "Mere Christianity"