Mal. 1-2
God is not one you just throw a bone to now and then. He does not want our token offerings. He is not looking to simply be appeased. The Israelites were giving as offerings to God things that were of little use to them. They were not respecting God as their Father and their Master. They were faithless to God and to each other and were declaring their own ways as acceptable before God. There is nothing in any of that behavior that demonstrates a genuine, reverent love for the God who is above all yet is merciful and good.
At the very least, we should respect God with reverent fear because of who He is. There will come a day when everybody will recognize God for who and what He is and will fall down and worship Him whether they want to or not. God is awesome beyond our comprehension. We need to take that in and respond to it appropriately. But fortunately for us, God desires more than that. This awesome God loves us purely and completely. When we truly understand that, we won’t throw our cast-offs to Him, declaring them offerings, and we won’t care about pleasing ourselves and trying to pass off our own desires as His. We will love Him in a way that shows in everything we say and do.
Rev. 21
Hmmm….there’s a symbolic representation I had never connected before. Revelation 21 describes the New Jerusalem as the Bride of Christ. We know from other references in the Bible that the Church is Christ’s bride. So it seems that Jerusalem is a symbolic representation (of which the Bible is chock full) of the Church. An interesting thought. I have no idea how all the symbolism plays out in that representation, but it is food for thought. Perhaps as I read through the Bible again next year I will start to see some of the relevance in it.