In so much of the Old Testament, we often see the faithful followers of God in the minority, working to convince other Israelites to stop worshipping Baal or Ashtoreth. No matter how many times God's prophets demonstrated that God is the only true god, many of the rulers and people continued to worship whichever gods pleased them. We sometimes come to the conclusion that the fall of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms and the Exile into Babylon were God's responses to this pervasive sin of idolatry. The religious leaders of Jesus' day went further, wanting to make sure the people never again strayed, whether into idolatry or into violation of any of the rest of the Commandments.

But Malachi writes for us that God saw these sins differently. Yes, there obviously was worship of multiple pagan gods in the land of Judah, but God's word to Malachi was more concerned with why the people chose to recognize multiple gods than it was with the specific sin of idolatry. The answer to that question sounds quite modern.

The sinful people's response to the worship of God was, in short, "what's in it for me?"

One strong enticement of these pagan gods was the opportunity for humanity to influence and modify the god's behavior. Some rituals performed for certain gods were to produce good crops, other rituals were to have many children, especially male offspring. Other rituals would grant victory in battle. It seemed simple for a chieftain to achieve whatever he wanted, if he just made the right offerings to the right gods, so he could be sure the gods worked for him.

So, in that culture, if one god wasn't working for a person, they might try another. In our culture, we mostly are too intelligent to put our trust in pagan deities. However, we do put our trust in investment opportunities, self-help gurus, fad diet and exercise programs, and a usually overblown faith in our ability to be anything we want to be. It is as easy for us to dismiss God from our life as it was in Malachi's day if we feel that religion "just isn't working for us."

Malachi draws an eternally important contrast between those who complain that God will not conform to humanity's wishes, and those who conform their will to the wishes of God. Furthermore, the contrast is between those who demand that God act in their time, and those who are obedient in waiting until God's time.

God promises that those who wait for God's time will not be disappointed. The wonders that God promised these reverent followers surpassed anything requested by the impatient ones. God made it clear that it is not a question of God's power, or God's justice, or God's concern—but it is all about reverence for God, about getting the relationship between humanity and God in the proper order.