Cont (2) (see previous post)

"A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?" says the LORD Almighty" (Mal 1:6).

The next chunk of verses tell of how the priests sacrificed "crippled or diseased animals" to God. God is displeased as "He is a great king", and demands the best from His people in sacrifice to Him.

How often do I make a promise to God that I will give this to God, but then I either do not give it to God at all, or make a compromise, doing an asian bargaining thing with God: God, how about I give this instead (a smaller amount, or if it's something that I promised that I would do, how about I do it later, and do something else altogether). But surely, if He is a "great king...and [his name] is to be feared" (Mal 1: 14), where is His honour? It saddens me that I often don't treat Him as King, and instead, treat Him as my servant - sigh. Malachi is a good reminder to me that He is God Almighty, so I better treat Him and fear Him as God Almighty.

I'm really interested in this Book, and there are alot of things I don't understand:

1. So what actually happened to Edom?
2. When the "dreadful day" is described in 4:1-6, and "judgment" in 3: 1-5) is it referring to the Lord's first or second coming, or both?

Malachi intrigues me! :)