There was so much in today’s OYB readings. They read like a beautiful symphony complementing one another in turn.
Malachi reminded us of the ugliness of serving God with a heart filled with hypocrisy.
The actions of the priests and the people made it clear that their professions of love for God were empty and meaningless. Instead of leading people to God, they turned the hearts of would be worshipers aside by putting stumbling blocks in their way. Instead of honoring God’s name, they despised it by their actions.
Revelation Chapter 21 stands in stark contrast. John speaks here of the true temple in the New Jerusalem.
But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.—Revelation 21:22-27
The true people of God here on earth worship God from the heart in Spirit and in truth. Their love for Him is reflected in their words and their deeds. They are the over-comers described in Revelation 21:7 who will inherit all things. John follows this up in verse 8 with a description of the people who were overcome by sin and whose destiny is not heaven but hell.
“He who overcomes shall inherit all things,fn and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving,abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”—Revelation 21:7-8
Finally Psalm 149 describes both the temporal and the eternal spiritual beauty of the one who has faith in Jesus. Earthly beauty always ends...spiritual beauty is eternal.
For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation.—Psalm 149:4
The Lord beautifies His true worshippers with salvation. As we behold His beauty, we become beautiful ourselves because we become like Him and reflect His beauty to those around us.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.—2 Corinthians 3:18
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.—1 John 3:2
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”—Isaiah 61:3
Beloved, all that we do and all that we say that has meaning both temporally and eternally will flow out from a heart that worships God in Spirit and in truth. Without Him we can do nothing good. Which brings us back to the book of Malachi.
Awake, O north wind,
And come, O south!
Blow upon my garden,
That its spices may flow out.
Let my beloved come to his garden
And eat its pleasant fruits.—Song of Songs 4:16
May the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands.
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