Malachi 2:2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, said the LORD of hosts… There is a text which is the counterpart of this, "I will turn the curse into a blessing." God does not willingly afflict. He never takes a blessing away without bestowing a better one in its place, unless any of His blessings have been abused, and then, when His love has been trampled on, when in their headstrong wickedness His creatures turn against Him and abuse His blessings, then He puts a curse upon them. Consider some illustrations — 1. What the world calls wealth, goods. There is a solemn irony in that word "goods." By what men call "goods," they do not mean truth, things spiritual and eternal, but they mean boxes, bales, and bundles of things kept in stores. We need not disparage wealth. It is not a sin for man to toil for it, to plan for it; and yet though it be a blessing, how easily can God blast it. How easily the Lord can plant thorns in the rich man's pathway. 2. Home and domestic relations. No sweeter blessing on earth than the encompass-meat of love. Yet how many miserable homes there are. Just one prodigal son will spoil it: just one vicious habit: some stain of sin: some skeleton of disgrace. 3. The blessings of the Gospel. This Gospel comes to be the savour of death unto death unless we obey God's laws, and follow Him in humble love. (P. S. Henson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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