Just A Thought...

Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.

-Malachi 2:3 (ESV)

Harsh, right? Well, God doesn't mess around. But before you are like "What! Dung...on someone's face! What kind of God could He possibly be?" look at what's going on here. Back in the Old Testament days, before Jesus came to die for our sins, people were required to offer sacrifices in order to be forgiven and made right with God. In this particular instance there were these priests were who completely disrespecting God by offering unworthy sacrifices, like blind and crippled and sick animals. They were priests for goodness sake, they were supposed to be setting an example and they knew better. They were supposed to be leading people along the righteous path, but they themselves were not even following God! This was causing others to fall into sin and stumble in their understanding and relationship with God.

So wasn't it almost like these people who throwing crap is God's face? Telling Him they didn't think he was worthy of the "good" sacrifices, or they didn't really need to obey all the laws. God just wanted these people to come back to Him, obey him, stop making excuses and stop trying to "pull one over" on Him. But, if they continued to refuse, then they would be thrown out along with their worthless offerings.

I also think we have to remember that the Bible in its entirety is not meant to be taken literally, I mean some things, yes, but just use your own judgment and common sense; if you still have no clue, pray about it, ask God to show you what the heck He means. I'm not the witty, scholarly type by any means and sometimes it is hard to wrap my mind around what I am reading, but God's plan isn't to confuse us, so keep looking, keep asking, keep questioning.