LHC Midday Word

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

The Book of MALACHI - Chapter One

1 A prophecy: the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

2 ‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord.

‘But you ask, “How have you loved us?”

‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.’

4 Edom may say, ‘Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.’

But this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, “Great is the Lord – even beyond the borders of Israel!”

6 ‘A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?’ says the Lord Almighty.

‘It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

‘But you ask, “How have we shown contempt for your name?”

7 ‘By offering defiled food on my altar.

‘But you ask, “How have we defiled you?”

‘By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?’ says the Lord Almighty.

9 ‘Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?’– says the Lord Almighty.

10 ‘Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,’ says the Lord Almighty.

12 ‘But you profane it by saying, “The Lord’s table is defiled,” and, “Its food is contemptible.” 13 And you say, “What a burden!” and you sniff at it contemptuously,’ says the Lord Almighty.

‘When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and my name is to be feared among the nations.

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READINGS

The Book of MALACHI

Chapter One

Read by Sir David Suchet

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OVERVIEW

The Book of MALACHI

- Overview -

The Bible Project

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STUDY - LINKS

The Book of MALACHI

David Pawson

Part One

Part Two

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https://insight.org/resources/bible/the-minor-prophets/malachi

Tuesday, 26 September 2023

The Book of OBADIAH - Chapter One

The Book of OBADiAH

- Overview -

The Bible Project

1 The vision of Obadiah.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom –
We have heard a message from the Lord:
an envoy was sent to the nations to say,
‘Rise, let us go against her for battle’–

2
‘See, I will make you small among the nations;
  you will be utterly despised.
3
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
  you who live in the clefts of the rocks
  and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
  “Who can bring me down to the ground?”
4
Though you soar like the eagle
  and make your nest among the stars,
  from there I will bring you down,’
declares the Lord.
5
‘If thieves came to you,
  if robbers in the night –
oh, what a disaster awaits you –
  would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
  would they not leave a few grapes?
6
But how Esau will be ransacked,
  his hidden treasures pillaged!
7
All your allies will force you to the border;
  your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,
  but you will not detect it.
8
‘In that day,’ declares the Lord,
  ‘will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
  those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
9
Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
  and everyone in Esau’s mountains
  will be cut down in the slaughter.
10
Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
  you will be covered with shame;
  you will be destroyed for ever.
11
On the day you stood aloof
  while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
  and cast lots for Jerusalem,
  you were like one of them.
12
You should not gloat over your brother
  in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
  in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
  in the day of their trouble.
13
You should not march through the gates of my people
  in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over them in their calamity
  in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
  in the day of their disaster.
14
You should not wait at the crossroads
  to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
  in the day of their trouble.
15
‘The day of the Lord is near
  for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
  your deeds will return upon your own head.
16
Just as you drank on my holy hill,
  so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
  and be as if they had never been.
17
But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
  it will be holy,
  and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
18
Jacob will be a fire
  and Joseph a flame;
Esau will be stubble,
  and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors
  from Esau.’
The Lord has spoken.
19
People from the Negev will occupy
  the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
  the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
  and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20
This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
  will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
  will possess the towns of the Negev.
21
Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion
  to govern the mountains of Esau.
  And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.