You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?” – Malachi 2:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 29, 2014): Malachi 2

I recently read a list of the most evil people in history, and ranking number three on the list was Justin Bieber. Okay, the list was at least partially tongue in cheek and written by someone who does not understand Biebermania, and Bieber’s music isn’t that bad, but it does highlight the musician’s growing reputation. And we all seem to like to kick people when they are down. Or maybe it is all just jumping on the band wagon, but earlier this month Bieber and his entourage were detained when the musician flew into Los Angeles, and the message that the singer received from the airport officials was that this is the treatment the singer should expect from now on whenever he flies into the United States. His reputation has preceded him.

Having said all of that, we are incredibly forgiving people. The problem with Justin is that publicly he just does not seem to get it. Everyone around him seems to understand the problem, but Justin himself seems to just want to explain the behavior away as normal. It is like he can’t figure out what all of the fuss is about. As far as Justin is concerned, everything that he is doing is good and worthy of honor.

Malachi says that God has become wearied by the words of Israel. And the exact words that Malachi uses are that we do evil, but we try to pass it off as good. We misbehave, but somehow we think that our misbehavior is normal. It is the game that we seem to like to play. Nothing is ever our fault; fault always seem to belong to the other person.

But it is not that God is looking for perfect behavior from us. As forgiving as we can be, God is even more so. His grace extends to all of us – and his love and his forgiveness covers us. But none of this phenomenal grace is available to us unless we can stand up and accept responsibility for what we have done. If we can stop playing the game, then we are able to receive grace, but if all we want to do is to play the game, if we only want to pretend that the evil we do is good, then all we can expect from God is his justice. What we receive from God is totally up to us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Malachi 3 & 4