Study Desk

The Lord said, "I love you people." But you said, "What shows you love us?" The Lord said, "Esau was Jacob's brother, but I chose Jacob.

The people of Edom might say, "We were destroyed, but we will go back and rebuild our cities." But the Lord All-Powerful says, "If they rebuild their cities, I will destroy them again." That is why people say Edom is an evil country—a nation the Lord hates forever.

The Lord All-Powerful said, "Children honor their fathers. Servants honor their masters. I am your Father, so why don't you honor me? I am your master, so why don't you respect me? You priests don't respect my name. "But you say, ‘What have we done that shows we don't respect your name?'

"You bring unclean bread to my altar. "But you ask, ‘What makes that bread unclean?' "It is unclean because you show no respect for the altar of the Lord .

"Now try asking God to be good to you. But he will not listen to you, and it is all your fault." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

"But you people show that you don't respect my name. You say that the Lord's altar is unclean. And you don't like the food from that altar.

You smell the food and refuse to eat it. You say it is bad. Then you bring sick, crippled, and hurt animals to me. You try to give sick animals to me as sacrifices, but I will not accept them." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

"Some people have good, male animals that they could give as sacrifices, but don't. Some people bring good animals and promise to give those healthy animals to me. But then they secretly exchange those good animals and give me sick animals instead. Bad things will happen to those people. I am the Great King and people all around the world respect me!" This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

Listen to me! Pay attention to what I say. Show honor to my name. If you don't respect my name, bad things will happen to you. You will say blessings, but they will become curses. I will make bad things happen because you don't show respect for my name." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

"Look, I will punish your descendants. During the festivals, you priests offer sacrifices to me. You take the dung and inside parts from the dead animals and throw them away. But I will smear the dung on your faces, and you will be thrown away with it!

"But you priests stopped following me! You used the teachings to make people do wrong. You ruined the agreement with Levi." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

The people of Judah cheated other people. People in Jerusalem and Israel did terrible things. God loves the Temple, but the people in Judah didn't respect the Lord 's holy Temple. The people of Judah began to worship a foreign goddess.

The Lord will remove them from Judah's family. They might bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful—but it will not help.

You can cry and cover the Lord 's altar with tears, but the Lord will not accept your gifts. He will not be pleased with the things you bring to him.

You have taught wrong things, and it makes the Lord very sad. People were doing evil things, but you said that this pleased the Lord and that he accepted those things. And you taught that God does not punish people for the evil they do.

But you never obeyed my laws. Even your ancestors stopped following me. Come back to me, and I will come back to you." This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. "You say, ‘How can we come back?'

"People should not steal things from God, but you stole things from me. "You say, ‘What did we steal from you?' "You should have given me one-tenth of your things. You should have given me special gifts.

The Lord says, "You said cruel things to me." But you ask, "What did we say about you?"

You said, "It is useless to worship God. We did what the Lord All-Powerful told us, but we didn't gain anything. We cried like people at a funeral to show we were sorry for our sins, but it didn't help.

"But, for my followers, goodness will shine on you like the rising sun. And it will bring healing power like the sun's rays. You will be free and happy, like calves freed from their stalls.