Malachi - Week 5 - Day 4

A Land of Delight 

READ 

Malachi 3:11-12 

11 “Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 

God promised Israel physical prosperity if the people honored Him by keeping His commandments. Their land would be particularly blessed if they honored God. Lack of abundance of the crops was seen as the discipline of God for disobedient people. Their land promises went back to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3.  

REFLECT 

Do you realize that God has not given land promises to the church? His riches for you are seen in different ways. 

RESPOND 

Today some teach that the promises made to Israel are now fulfilled in the church. This is known as “Replacement theology.” But God has never promised those during the church age to have a special land as He promised Abraham and his descendants. For those who think that Israel is no longer in the mind and plan of God, they should read Romans 9, 10 and 11. See Romans 9:1-5 that introduces these three chapters.