I would like to take some time to put together a better representation of my question but I really don't have the time.
So, for now, I am going to quote a post I made on another forum.
The issue I was dealing with was someones comment that the writings of Nehemiah concerning Tobiah were about "laymen" running the church.
The issue I am really presenting here is how the knowledge that Nehemiah and Malachi were contemporaries affects the message that was being put forth in
Malachi 3:8 etc.
Here is a portion of the post.
The issue wasn't that Tobiah was a "layman" (Wherever that term comes from)
The issue was that Tobiah was an Ammonite and when the word was read in the midst of the congregation the congregation heard from the word "that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever"
Not only were ammonites & moabites in the congregation but Tobiah (an Ammonite) was living in the storehouse that was supposed to hold the meat offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil.
The priests were not supposed to be receiving the tithe. The Levites were. The Levites were supposed to be giving the priests their portion but the priests had taken over the distribution of the tithe and there had been a total departure from God's law concerning the handling of the tithe. (Now that would preach all day all by itself.)
There was another OT writer that lived in the time of Nehemiah. You know him as Malachi.
In
Malachi 2:1 he begins a scathing chastisement of the priests which continues through the end of the book and also includes
Malachi 3:8.
Malachi 3:8 was written about the actions of the priests during the time of Malachi.
Quote:
Mal 3:7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept [them]. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
Mal 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Mal 3:9 Ye [are] cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, [even] this whole nation.
|
He says here that they have gone away from God's ordinances and Nehemiah certainly did confirm that during this same space in time there was a great departure from God's law of the tithe by the priesthood.
He went on to say that they had robbed God... even the whole nation.
Quote:
|
Mal 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD 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].
|
Remember what was in the storehouse in Nehemiah? An Ammonite and there were no meat offerings, no corn, no oil. Malachi is challenging them to bring the tithe into the storehouse. I have no idea where the tithe had been kept but during the time that Tobiah's occupation of the storehouse (The time of Nehemiah and Malachi) the tithes were not kept there.
Nehemiah's comments on Tobiah are not about a church that had begun to be ruled by the "laymen". It is, instead, about a priesthood who had ceased to obey the laws of God and had blatantly disobeyed commands given them by God.
Threaded Mode
