What does God mean when He says, "Return to Me, and I will return to you" (Malachi 3:7)?

Commencing with the seventh verse, the state of the people is again dealt with. And what a bill of indictment is brought against them! "Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them." This, in one sentence, is the summary of the history of Israel under law. Their fathers had said, when standing at the foot of Sinai, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" Ex. 19); but ere ever the tables of the covenant had reached the camp they had been false to their promise, and had apostatized from Jehovah. Judgment after judgment was visited upon them during their wanderings in the desert, but they would not keep the ordinances of the Lord. It was the same in the land both under judges and kings. Through all their history indeed they went "astray like lost sheep, and turned every one to his own way." Still, according to the proclamation of the name of Jehovah to Moses, He was "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Ex. 34:6-7.) Mercy and truth met together in His government of His people; and His name, as so unfolded to Moses, was abundantly exemplified in all His dealings with them. Here it is mercy that rejoiceth against judgment; for the invitation goes forth, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord." He had been compelled to depart from them because of their iniquity, but His heart was still towards them (Cp. Hosea 5:14-15); and thus He cries, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts." The reply to this gracious invitation is one with which we are familiar in this book, and one which betrays the hardness as well as the corruption. of their hearts, "Wherein shall we return?" They did not even know that they had departed from God, so wonderful is the deceitfulness of sin; for how could it be possible, that those who had known what it was to be walking in the enjoyment of the light of God's countenance should be unaware that they had passed out of it into the chill and death of moral night? And yet so it was, as it still often is. Samson, for example, wist not that the Lord had departed from him; and the path of backsliding, and even apostacy, is often so gradual that the soul, occupied now with other objects and interests, is unconscious, lulled to rest also by the artifices of Satan, of the change that is taking place. Nothing can be sadder or more dangerous than ignorance of our true spiritual condition.

It is to awake His people, if possible, that the Lord proceeds to bring a specific proof of their departure from Him. He would fain open their eyes, and compel them to see; and thus He says, "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me" Then comes the usual rejoinder of this misguided and deceived people, "Wherein have we robbed thee?" The answer is clear and distinct, "In tithes and offerings." (vv. 7, 8.) It was impossible for them to evade the truth of such a charge; for the Lord through Moses had laid down the most minute directions concerning tithes and offerings, and they could not but know whether they had complied with them. (See Lev. 23; Num. 15, 28; Deut. 14:22-29, 26, etc.) They knew precisely, therefore, what was required of them, and they had no excuse for their disobedience. They might indeed have argued within themselves that it was a matter of no consequence, but their thoughts were not the thoughts of God; for He tells them, "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." (v. 9.)

Thus the remnant are not only charged with their low condition, but warned as to the judgment it entails. God, however, is not only a God of judgment, He is also a God of mercy, and hence it is ever His way to grant grace for repentance before the judgment falls. Again, all God's dealings, whether in judgment or mercy, are founded upon the immutability of His nature. For this reason we have the formal declaration of the unchanging character of God before the call to repentance. "I am the Lord," we read, "I change not … therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (verse 6). God does not change in holiness, and therefore He must chasten His people when they sin. Neither does God change in His purposes of grace and blessing, and therefore His people are not consumed.

Having thus sounded the note of warning, God next, in accordance with His unchanging principles of acting, calls His people to repentance. "Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts" (verse 7). Furthermore the Lord encourages them to return, by unfolding the blessings that will follow repentance. (1) They themselves would be enriched; the windows of heaven would be opened, and blessing, beyond their capacity to retain, would be poured upon them. (2) They would become a witness to the Lord before the world, "All nations shall call you blessed" (verses 7-12).

In addition to calling to repentance the Lord also shows the way. It is well to face our low condition, to confess it before the Lord; but occupation with our own evil will not in itself lead to recovery. It is not the badness of man but the goodness of God that leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4).

The next verse contains a principle of the utmost importance. "Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts." (v. 3.) "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29); and thus He never gives up the purposes of His grace whatever the practical condition of His people. Their sin may bring down His chastening hand upon them, but He does not break off His relationship with them on this account. As He Himself hath said, "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." (Mal. 3:6.) The unchanging character of His relationships in grace with His people lies, indeed, at the basis of all His dealings with them; and hence, because He is a faithful God, He can send such a message as this before us — "Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you." Being what He is, He could not sanction their transgressions and iniquities, and He thus reminds them that the condition of His presence with them, of His actings on their behalf, is that they turn unto Him. As James says, "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8; compare 2 Chronicles 15:2.) It is so now. The Lord can say that He will never leave nor forsake His people, that having loved His own that are in the world, He loves them unto the end, but, at the same time, He will never walk with them, or minister to them the consolations of His presence, in their backslidings and sins. The maintenance of dependence and obedience, of communion with Him, is the secret of all blessing. (Compare John 14:21-23.) The reader will remark the solemn sanctions appended to this exhortation. Three times are the words "The Lord of hosts" repeated, seeking in this way to reach the consciences of the people, and to remind them of the power and majesty of their covenant God.

Although His judgments had become necessary, He wanted to realize His counsels of grace toward the people. The prophecy does not merely consist of a series of words of the Lord to the guilty people to awaken the conscience and to announce the judgments that would come over them, but it has also as purpose to encourage the heart of the faithful ones by making known to them what God will do for them. “Return to Me,” we read in these verses, “and I will return to you.” That goes much farther than the principle of the law. During the dispensation of grace these words are just as true as they were then, and we too ought to pay them serious attention.

“Return to Me, and I will return to you.” What have we done with the testimony the Lord has entrusted to us? Is there much difference between our decline and that of Judah’s fathers? Did we keep what God has given in our hands? There is no doubt about the answer. Did we labour on the house of the Lord, or have we built our own houses, the thing of which Haggai accused the nation? Alas, just like those who had returned from Babel, so we have sought to make ourselves comfortable in the world. What are we to do now? Return to Him! The way is open. Is it then entirely impossible to judge ourselves and to take up again that of which we should never have let go? If we heed this call we will receive a reward: “I will return to you, says Jehovah of hosts.” If the search for our own interests has caused us to lose fellowship with the Lord, it is essential that we seek it again. If, due to our failure to look after the Lord’s interests our hearts have become dry through the world’s influence; if we have given entrance to “idols,” then let us judge are ways and return to Him. Then He will return to us and we will once again enjoy the riches we did despise.

Then the call to return met with an unreasonable and rebellious reply: "Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." Jehovah takes them on the lowest possible ground. "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says Jehovah of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed." Such will be the case in the millennium: they will prove the Lord thus. They will humble themselves; they will trust Him; and all nations shall call them blessed. "For ye shall be a delightsome land" — which they have never been since this was written. On the contrary, "Your words have been stout against me, says Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered."

Here again we find the Lord's first coming connected with the full result of the second. John the Baptist is announced as His messenger to prepare the way before Him; and then, the Angel of the covenant, whom they so earnestly desired, should come; but it would be in judgment, to purge the people and take away all their dross. Then should their offering in Jerusalem be acceptable to Jehovah, an offering in righteousness. But all the evil-doers should be judged; for God was unchangeable, both in righteousness and grace. It was this which, after all, secured the existence of Israel, happen what might. Let Israel then return unto Jehovah, and Jehovah would return unto them. But the pride of Israel is excited by this, and they say, "Wherein shall we return?" Their sins with respect to the offerings and the ordinances are then shewn. But grace again displays itself in prospect of the people's return from their practical alienation from God. They had but to return and prove the goodness of God.

We can rephrase this challenge by borrowing Malachi's words. Instead of asking "Wherein shall we return?" we should count and act upon the promise "Return unto Me, and I will return unto you" (Mal. 3:7).

Zechariah's message to Israel begins abruptly: the Lord has been greatly displeased with their fathers. How could Israel boast in their lineage when this was true? They had become accustomed to the sins their fathers had allowed, and lacked the exercise that Josiah had (2 Kings 22:10-13) when he heard Scripture read to him and realized how far his fathers had departed from its precepts. Well might the Lord tell Israel to return to Him, with the promise that, if so, He would return to them.

God challenged the returned Jews to be faithful to Him, and they should have such a blessing that they would not have room enough to contain it. When called upon to return to Jehovah they are still unconscious of their condition, and ask, "Wherein shall we return?" and "Wherein have we robbed thee?" "What have we spoken so much against thee?" They had said it was in vain to serve the Lord; they had called the proud happy; the wicked were built up, and they that tempted God were delivered.

"Return to Me … saith the Lord of Hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?" (Mal. 3:7).