HEBREW WORD STUDY – STUBBORN – CHAZAQ – חזק   Cheth Zayin Qop 

Malachi 3:13-14: “Your words have been stout against me” saith the Lord.  Yet you say: “What have we spoken against you.” You have said: “It is vain to serve God and what profit is there that we have kept his ordinance? And that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of host.”

There is an old cartoon of a man in a horse drawn wagon with the reins to the horse in one hand and a carrot attached to a stick in the other hand.  When he dangles the carrot in front of the horse the horse wanting to get a bite of that tasty carrot will start walking toward it.  In this way the wagon driver will get the horse to move the wagon but the poor horse will keep walking toward the carrot not realizing that he will never reach the carrot, nor will he ever get to eat the carrot as it was never the intention of driver to give the horse the carrot.   The carrot is just a cruel deception to get the horse to do what he wants it to do.

The Lord said you have been stout against me.  The word stout is chazaq which comes from a Semitic root meaning to be stubborn.  To be stubborn means you resist any help or any attempt to change you course of action.  No amount of reasoning will alter your direction. After being so stubborn against the Lord we respond: “What have we spoken against you?”  The word spoken is devar.  These are words from the heart and in this context these words would be very meaningful and powerful words.  In other words: “What have we said that is so horrible.”   

What we have said is that it is vain to serve God and questioned as to what profit is there that we have kept your ordinances?   Why is this such a horrible thing to say to God?   After all, is that not why we serve Him?   Why do we go to church, pay our tithe, read Scripture and behave ourselves? We are seeking God’s blessing, for if we don’t do these things we will not be blessed.   Yet when we do all these things, it seems we are not blessed anyways. Totally unfair. In fact it seems those who ignore God altogether are faring better than we are.  

It is commonly taught among many Christians that if we pay our weekly tithe from our gross income, God will bless us with great financial blessing.  Yet, how do we account for the bankruptcy court being filled Christians who have paid their 10% plus in tithes faithfully.  Western Christianity is littered with the dry sun baked bones of Christians who have faithfully served God and kept his commandments and yet ended up turning against God because they were not adequately paid – uh blessed for all their efforts.

If we are not blessed then dog gone it it is vain to serve God. Right? The word vain is shave which means to make a worthless noise.  “What profit is there to keep his ordinance?” The word profit is basar which is to plunder, to gain at the expense of another. If you, as a righteous person would be bidding for a job against an unrighteous person, would you not expect to get that job since you are a righteous person?  If you don’t get the job you throw up your hands and say: “So what did all this honesty get me anyways.”   Basically is that not what is being said here that by keeping the laws of God you should profit over those who don’t keep his laws.  

Well, it is obvious what the prophet is saying here.  This great sin is to serve God and keep his commandments in order to get richly paid or blessed for doing so.  But soft, there is something more to it than that.  If you are really searching for the heart of God you will realize that by saying such a thing to God you are accusing God of deception. Is God not like that old boy dangling a carrot in front of the horse to get the horse to move, yet never intending to let the horse have the carrot.   God is dangling all these promises of riches and blessings to get us to obey Him and live a good life, but He never intends to make good on these promises.  Then, like the rich man who loses his wealth and his wife leaves him because he is no longer rich and can not buy the things for her that she wants.  The old boy is shattered and heart broken realizing his wife never loved him to begin with, she only married him for his money.  

This is why it is so horrible to say: “Is it vain to serve God, what profit is there in keeping his laws.?”  The bride of Christ are nothing but Christian gold diggers, they marry God for His money.  I recently read where a twenty nine year old woman married an eighty five year old man.  The man was worth a billion dollars, of course I am sure that had nothing to do with it. What we really are saying is: “God, I will love you so long as you pay me, but if the paychecks ever stop coming in, then I will just find myself another god who knows how to take care of me.”   

Can we honestly say: “God, if you go broke tomorrow and you are no longer the great provider” could we, like Job, say we will still trust Him.  Some of us may have to face that test just to be sure of why we love Him.

There is a scene in Fiddler on the Roof where Tevye is reflecting on the marriage of his daughter Tzeitel to Motel and sighs, “They are as poor as church mice, yet they are so happy they don’t know how miserable they are.” If we are truly the loving bride of Christ, then God does not need to dangle a carrot in front of us to get us moving, we do so simply because we love Him in sickness and health, for better or for worse, through richer or poorer and if He choses to allow sickness, poverty and the worse to come into our lives, we will still be so happy we won’t know just how miserable we are because we will be blinded by love.