Fear God, Don’t Envy The Evil Ones

Malachi 3:13-18

The People Complain Harshly

13 "Your words have been harsh against Me,"
Says the LORD,
"Yet you say,
'What have we spoken against You?'

14 You have said,
'It is useless to serve God;
What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,
And that we have walked as mourners
Before the LORD of hosts?

15 So now we call the proud blessed,
For those who do wickedness are raised up;
They even tempt God and go free.'"

A Book of Remembrance

16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another,
And the LORD listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the LORD
And who meditate on His name.

17 "They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts,
"On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him."

18 Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.

The people of God became critical of God because the ungodly were not being punished swiftly.  God addressed this with them as harsh complaints against His sovereign providence which He worked in His own time and not as we would imagine or even demand.  In Psalm 73:2-3, 17, 27, King David saw the end of the wicked and accepted the working of God in His ways and according to His timing in the end at the final judgment instead of being jealous or distressed as he ima God was being unfair to the righteous who feared the LORD.  It is never useless to serve God just because others oppose Him and seem to prosper in this life.  The proud are not really blessed in the eternal scheme of things and they do not go free when tempting or opposing the Almighty.  They answer according to the divine timing of eternal justice.  So why be sad or feel bad when we do not seem to have what others possess so transitorily?  The LORD reminded His own through Malachi that He had their names written in His book to remember them because they feared and thought often of His name in meditation presumably on His word which shows His grace and goodness of His divine character.  Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life to be remembered for eternity as His special chosen people in Christ (1 Peter 2:9).  We are united together with these who believed and feared the LORD as His valued jewels of infinite value because we are made in His image, trust His word, and rest in His sovereign grace of providence and predestined calling (Romans 8:29-30).  He has spared us the just judgment we owe (Romans 3:23, 6:23) by His work for all of us written in His book of remembrance by His choosing us and making us righteous in Christ.  He spares us to serve Him in worship with our lives (Romans 12:1) as acceptable service and we can join with that remnant of Israel who discern between the wicked and the righteous as we serve Him and observe those who reject and refuse to serve Him.  They will meet their deserved end and we will be ushered into our undeserved eternity with Him by the grace of God in Christ as it is written in His Book.  Praise Him and do not envy those who seem to have it all in this life but are eternally destitute.  Pray for their deliverance and live in fear and trust of Him who has guaranteed our eternal riches in Him.  Our call then is to rest in knowing He knows those who are His (2 Timothy 2:19) and live in holy and joyful obedience by following His word.  Our reward is eternally better!