Book of Malachi - Ch. 1, Vs. 2-5 (01/15/2023)

Resetting the Context for Malachi 1:2-5

There we go. When Dave does come in, Katie, you might have him just check the back computer for me just to make sure everything is good to go back there. But as far as I know, it is. So we'll go ahead and get started.

Morning, everybody. Excuse me. We're going to try to get some momentum building up here for our Malachi study and cover a little bit of ground. We spent the last few weeks, of course, on verses two and just the very beginning of verse three predominantly.

So we're going to kind of start out this morning just resetting the context a little bit as we get ready to finish up this first kind of natural section of Malachi. The first five verses of the book are all about I had a I had a title for the section.

It's all about God's love. This first section we had titled God's utmost love for his people because he wanted to set the kind of set the stage for the some of the rebuke that is to come. And in some of what he's going to be reminding his people through his prophet Malachi is going to be kind of a rude awakening for his people.

But he started by reminding them of his of his utmost love for them. Of course, we've been talking about that quite a bit just in verses two and a little bit of three alone. But all the way through verse five is kind of on this again, this topic of his love for his people before shifting to the next section of the book, which lasts for the better part of chapter one through chapter two.

And that's all about the sins of the priests and kind of that going into detail in that irreverent worship we talked about in our introduction a few weeks ago. And so I'm looking forward to kind of getting into that and seeing what some of the parallels we can draw from it because it's a pretty eye opening section there.

But again, we've got to finish up section one first. And so we're going to reset the context just a little bit. We'll go ahead and just start with verse two and read from there through verse five today.

God's Love and Israel's Questioning of It

So verse two, of course, this is the one that we've been on, been spending quite a bit of time on. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Wherein hast thou loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob. Now, you got to remember, verse one, it begins with the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel. And so we know that something harsh is coming.

But before it does, again, he's going to he's going to first remind them that he has been unchanging in his love for them and in his promises to them. But they are reaping what they have sown at this point in time, which is why they are living through some of the hardships that they're living through.

And so it begins with that burden. It ushers quickly into his love, which we're in at this point in this section. And then, of course, it's going to transition into some of those hardships and why they're even occurring at this time.

So I have loved you, saith the Lord. So instead of loving him back, they questioned his love for them by asking, wherein, wherein hast thou loved us? And in doing so, of course, they were betraying God.

And not only that, they were showing disbelief in his very word to them because he's literally talking directly to them, of course, through the mouth of his of his prophet. But he's telling them this and they disbelieve it.

So, you know, their failure to have faith in God's word caused them to fail to love him back, which, of course, is the whole purpose of everything. God's people are here literally asking him, how are you our friend?

We kind of looked at the Hebrew a few weeks back at this phrase, wherein hast thou loved us? They're asking him, how are you our friend? Or perhaps even better, how do you love us? Now, of course, God answered their question precisely.

And his answer is what we've been is what we've spent the last few Sundays discussing. So we've covered that in good detail. All of this, all of the misfortunes that they were experiencing at this point, that being Israel, God's people, and that they had made them it started to make them bitter toward God to the point of asking that question, how?

Even with the most simplest statement, the simplest statement of that, I love you. I mean, doesn't get more foundational than that, especially considering all of the literature they had. I mean, they had the five books of Moses at this point.

They had the historical books. They had, I'm sure, many of the prophets at this point as well. I mean, we've talked about kind of the linear historical timeline in our introduction. And this was truly the last part of the Old Testament.

Before, at least until John the Baptist and Jesus came on the scene. And I guess technically finished up the Old Testament at that point, but this was the final Old Testament prophet. So the people at this time, they've returned.

They've been back in their homeland for 70 years. Temple worship has been restored. Nehemiah finished the wall, presumably at this point, he may have still been working on it, but it was close to being finished either way.

And they had all of their history. They had the books of Moses. They had Deuteronomy. They had everything they needed to remember why it was that God loved them in the first place. And yet they still questioned even the most basic statement that God made.

And, you know, again, they were experiencing these misfortunes because of that. And not only that, but their misfortunes were the result and not the cause of their disobedience in the first place. God isn't going to let that disobedience slip.

He's going to keep pointing it back out to them. And we looked at a passage of Deuteronomy early in the study that that just laid all that out, you know, obey me, keep my commandments, keep my statutes.

And here's a myriad of blessings that is going to fall upon you if you do that. And then and we're going to get to this later in the study as well. But in Deuteronomy chapter eight, I'm sorry, Deuteronomy 28.

There's like 50, maybe 60 verses talking about what's going to happen if you don't obey me. And it's really bad stuff. And it's like, well, go figure. They're experiencing some hardships this time, but it's like they totally forgot about, you know, what Moses laid out for them in Deuteronomy.

But we're going to get to that later. But again, they questioned God's love for them anyway, even though they have all that information. They don't have any excuse, but they questioned it anyway and have fallen into this state of bitterness toward their Lord, which, of course, will be illustrated more and more as we move through this book.

God's Election of Jacob and Rejection of Esau

Verse three says, and I hated Esau and the remainder of the verse, which we actually haven't read up to this point, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Now, in response to their questioning, of course, God answers it.

He answers their questioning of him by stating, Jacob, if I loved you, so have I hated. And then in the remainder of verse three there, after making the statement, and I hated Esau, he goes on to kind of vindicate his claim of love for them by giving them that really stark contrast that we've talked about before.

We've talked about it in Obadiah. We talked we've talked about the beginning of this study. He gives them he illustrates his love by giving them that stark contrast, telling them he elected Jacob and his descendants.

We talked about this in detail the past few weeks and to inherit the promise, not his older brother Esau. So he's just giving them he's just reminding of he is reminding them of this reality once again, even though it's what literally one of the oldest stories in the book, quite literally.

This is the same. Now, this is interesting. And this kind of opens up a new rabbit hole that I'm going to avoid going down in full because then we'll continue to be kind of stuck in verse three for a little while longer.

But I do want to just give a snapshot of it. So the hatred, going back to that for just a minute, the statement and I hated Esau, this is the exact same hatred that David displayed toward God's enemies in Psalm 139.

If you guys want to turn there, I want to go just a few verses into this and show you guys an interesting parallel here. And then open up some questions that I think are interesting. So Psalm 39, I'm sorry, 139, starting in verse 21, and this is David talking, this is very interesting.

I've always found this passage pretty interesting. David says, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred.

I count them mine enemies. Now, just really quick, the literal like word hatred here, the Hebrew word sane, I believe is how it's pronounced. It's the exact same hatred that was on display by God toward Esau in our Malachi passage.

So it's the Hebrew word sane. It literally means to hate in full. And so that's what David, I'm sorry, that's what God was exhibiting toward Esau. This is what David here is exhibiting toward those that hate God.

And he says, I count them mine enemies. Verse 23 continues, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. This is where it gets a little bit interesting. And see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is why I find it interesting. So first of all, as we know, actually, I'm going to save that for a second. OK, so, David, I always tell my kids, you know, they'll say something, they'll say something like, you know, I hate bugs or something like a roach crawls across the floor.

Everyone freaks out and daddy has to come kill the roach or something. I hate bugs or I hate being cold, you know, just casually throwing that out there. And I always tell them, you know, hate is a strong word.

I don't necessarily say don't ever say hate because there's appropriate context for it. But I just remind them hate is a bit of a strong word. So maybe, you know, it's not the right word in in that scenario.

And so here, David uses this very strong word in a in a in probably the strongest sense that he could. I hate them with a perfect hatred. We're going to look at that word perfect in a little bit. I hate them.

I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. So he makes this really harsh statement, this really strong statement. And then he goes on to tell the Lord, search me out, know my heart, try me and know my thoughts.

So it's like he says this and then is like, Lord, you know that I'm sincere about this. This isn't just some. And. What's the word I'm looking for, you know, just on a whim, this isn't just some emotion I'm throwing out there because I'm feeling a little cranky today.

And, you know, this is true. This is complete. This is a perfect hatred toward them. And you know that I'm being sincere about it. Try my heart. Am I, you know, is there any wicked in me? See if there's any wicked in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

So we can gather not only from the fact that this, of course, is inspired scripture. And so we can gather just from that alone that this that David is being honest when he says this is a perfect hatred.

But we can also gather it just from the context of David's in like real time conversation with the Lord saying, you know, my heart, search me out. If there be any wicked in me, lead me to the way of everlasting.

If this is just some whims, just on a whim, emotion that because I'm a little bit cranky today, you know, search me out, lead me to the way of everlasting. But this is a perfect hatred. And those that hate you, I count them as my enemy.

OK, so again, without going too deep here, because it's a whole different topic we could delve into, I just want to quickly compare that. Well, let me let me ask you guys really quickly this. Number one, do you all think that David's hatred here was justified and kind of, I guess, a twofold question that it was truly perfect?

Like, do you think that this was him just being emotional and maybe being a little too harsh in perhaps perhaps his hatred was just going too far? Or in this context, was it justified, I guess, is the best way to put it.

What do you guys think about that? OK, that's an interesting thought. So Pop Pop is basically saying he's a man after God's own heart. He's his best friend. Of course, he's going to count his God's enemies as his enemies and perhaps even hate them.

Is that too harsh? And then Pop Pop's final point was, well, maybe it depends on how that hatred leads his actions. Now, from just from a strictly human viewpoint in terms of the way humans are, again, extremely emotional, brash, jumping all over something based on emotion alone, I would agree that if the hatred was the sole leader of his actions, it'd probably get pretty bad.

In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of any, but I'm sure in all of the stories of David we have, there are probably some examples where that may have even happened. However, there could also be instances where the hatred is pure and God is leading his actions.

And so I think the I think the key there would probably be as long as David is truly in tune with the Lord and letting the Lord lead his actions while having, let's just say, a pure hatred or this perfect hatred that he says here toward the enemies is just an underlying driver of who he counts as enemies.

Personally, I think it's justified, and I think I think he was in the right in this context to have, as he calls it, this perfect hatred toward God's enemies. When I read this, I think, yes, I think this is exactly how I want to be.

Maybe even this is how I am to some degree. I just can't stand these people out there that are just I mean, I don't even want to get into some examples. I mean, there's so many examples you can see of the grossness of things that are happening, not only in our country, which is especially depressing, but around the world.

And it's always been like that. But you can see people doing these these gross things and using the Lord's name in vain and really particularly gross ways and blatantly, blatantly doing the opposite and being proud of the fact that they're doing the opposite of what we know to be his moral standards, all this kind of stuff.

And that can certainly boil up some emotions inside of any Christian, any follower of the Lord. And it can maybe even lead to some hatred. And so when I read this, I think, yes, the hatred is justified.

You know, like I can have these strong feelings toward these people that are really bothering me right now and blatantly cursing at our creator and our God. And and so, you know, I read this and dad and I actually recently had this conversation as well, because there have been times where I've always liked the way I've always liked the way that dad does this references this passage because he'll be all fired up up here.

And I've he has gone to this and many different sermons, totally different topics and stuff where he's getting all fired up and something in there. Kind of proposes the question, you know, is it is it bad to hate?

And then he references this passage where he says, well, David hated. Oh, I know what it is. It's usually when he's talking about the whole God hates the sin, not the center. Is that it? Yeah, he hates the sin, not the center.

And then and then dad will be like, well, David hated those that hated God, you know, the people. And he'll he'll kind of flesh it out a little bit better than that. And then he always follows it up with with something like I'm kind of paraphrasing a little bit here, but it's something along the lines of, but maybe we have a higher standard.

And then he goes on and normally just brushes over it pretty quickly. But he references this passage all the time. And I've always looked at this passage and I think, yes, that is justification. But let's quickly compare this with our perhaps a new standard, putting it in my words.

That's not exactly how dad has worded it before, but a new standard that was set before us because we are, of course, in a different time than David was. So we have to remember, yes, God is immutable.

He doesn't change, but he deals with people differently throughout all of the course of human history. Obviously, he's going to treat people after the Garden of Eden differently than he did in the Garden of Eden.

He's going to treat people differently after the flood than he did before the flood, after the law than he did before the law. And in our case, in this law, in this age of grace, differently from the age of the law, if you if you will, or dispensation, however you want to put it.

So God is immutable, but he does treat humans and his people differently throughout the course of time, depending on the age of the dispensation, however you want to however you want to put it. And so here we are, we find ourselves in what we call the church age or the age of grace.

Perhaps it's a little bit different for us than it was for David, even if his hatred was pure and justified. There are many New Testament passages that touch on kind of the topic of hate. But again, without going all the way down the rabbit hole, I just want to touch on one.

And it's the it's the one that we would all most likely go to. The apostles kind of reaffirm this idea in other epistles. But Jesus in Luke chapter six, if you guys want to turn there, it's only I'm only going to read two or three verses.

But if you guys want to read along, Luke chapter six, verse twenty seven is where we'll start. Now, again, compare this with what we just heard from David. And I didn't really ask around too much. I don't I think Popop and I would be in agreement, perhaps all of us are.

I'm not sure. But me personally, I think David was justified. And I think in this context, not that all his hatred throughout his entire life was totally pure. But in this context, in this passage, it was a righteous hatred, if you will.

So with that being said, let's compare that with the words of Jesus here, Luke six, twenty seven. But I say unto you, oh, and this is right after the Beatitudes, by the way. He does the Beatitudes and he does a couple of woes for people that basically just live, want to live lavishly.

All they care about is gain in this life. They don't care at all about their spiritual well-being or the eternal. So he gives a few woes to those people. He just finished up the Beatitudes before that.

And then here we are in this verse. But I say unto you, which here love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you and pray for them, which despitefully use you. And to him that smited thee on the one cheek, offer also the other in him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy cloak also.

And again, this is you know, this is Jesus talking to a large group of people and this idea of, OK, perhaps don't hate your enemies the way that David was. And I would say even righteously so in Psalm 139, rather than doing rather than hating them, actually love them and bless them in any opportunity you have.

Don't curse them, but bless those that are in turn cursing you. And again, that whole idea, that concept is reaffirmed by by the apostles in later letters and stuff like that. But while David's hatred, again, which in his words was a perfect hatred, while I believe it was justified, we in this age, if you want to put it that way, have been given a higher standard by Jesus here.

And it really makes total sense if you think about it from the human viewpoint, because, again, think about the fact that David was inspired by the Holy Spirit at this time when he wrote this. And to Popop's point, I mean, he's the apple of God's eye.

This is a very special individual in the in the big picture of God's kids throughout all of history. And so he was enlightened, if you want to put it that way, obviously. I mean, he penned so many of the inspired Psalms and of course, his life was in the historical books and all this amazing stuff.

So he was enlightened in a way that most people, the large majority of only God, if I'm just looking at God's kids, not even all of humans, but just God's kids in the entire history of humanity, he knew things that the large, vast, enormous majority of others will never have or won't see in this life, of course.

So we can't, talking about us in this room, you know, everyone around us on the planet, God's people, we can't know any person's heart. So it makes sense. The Lord can know everyone's hearts, obviously, but we can't.

So it makes sense that Jesus would give us a higher standard to live by because we don't have all the information. We don't know the hearts of the people around us who we're dealing with. And as humans, as I alluded to a minute ago, we are a very emotional group.

And we can let those emotions lead the way. And to Pop Pop's point earlier, when those emotions are leading the actions, it can get really ugly, really fast. And so if we let our emotions go unchecked and we start letting hatred bubble up about these people around us who we don't even know, and not only do we not know, but we especially don't know their inner selves, their hearts, the way that God knows their hearts, it can make it very easy to let our untamed, and in our case, unjustified, I would argue, hatred.

And when we let that go unchecked, that unjustified, that untamed hatred, it can hurt people around us, obviously. It can even hurt ourselves. Whereas God's hatred, when he says something like, Esau, have I hated?

It's obviously a perfect hatred. And even David in this psalm, in this context, which is kind of a key phrase here, because I'm not saying David had a perfect hatred throughout his entire life, but in this context, he apparently had a perfect hatred.

That word perfect, that Hebrew word for perfect, if I'm pronouncing this right, it's taklif. And it literally, it can mean perfection, or it can also mean just complete, like a complete, totally, just a totally complete hatred toward something.

And so in God's case, it's the same, the same case for him. And in God's case, I would say it is both perfect and complete. And in David's case, it was at the very least a complete hatred. Perhaps it was literally perfect as well.

And so, yeah. So what do you guys think about that just in general? So we have this case from David, but we also have this higher standard that we live up to. What do you guys think about that idea? Because at first glance, you can look around, you can see people doing the worst things imaginable, dragging God's name in the dirt in ways that turns your stomach.

And so, first of all, would you guys agree with me that it's pretty easy to let hatred start swelling up? But number two, that that would be incorrect thing to let take control of yourself, even in, let's just for a second, assume you are witnessing someone do the worst thing.

I'm going to give you a specific example. It's kind of a dramatic example, but there's a lady, and she's going to laugh at this because I talk about this all the time, Noreen Irvine. I don't know if you've ever heard of her before.

She has an unbelievable testimony. But before she was saved, she was known as the queen. And not to get into too much detail here, because we have some little ones, but she was known as the queen of, I'm just going to put it this way, of a specific coven in London, not to get into specific terminology, but she very like she was the leader of a world renowned group of ladies in London for many years.

If we witnessed her and the other women that were doing some of the things that she was doing in real time, would we not think that our hatred toward that would be toward that person would be justified in that moment?

Well, we could rationalize and we could say, of course, it's justified. Of course, it's reasonable. Look at what they're doing right now. However, we have to remind ourselves of this standard. Well, why would Jesus give us this standard when there's obvious gross sin going on in the world?

Why aren't we allowed to hate that and the actor of that? Well, lo and behold, this lady named Doreen Irvine ended up being one of God's kids, and she later went to a church service to disrupt the service and heard the gospel and ended up getting saved instead.

And she has one of the most unbelievable testimonies you've ever heard, both in terms of the salvation aspect of it, which, of course, is very edifying, very special. But another part of her testimony also is very enlightening in terms of the darkness of that side of humanity.

And she kind of gives it as a warning to to her fellow Christians of certain things to take part in where you may not even realize what's behind it. Anyways, that's all completely aside. She's she was one of God's kids.

So, of course, again, this illustrates why God doesn't want us going out just hating people based on their actions in that moment, because we may very well be hating a sheep that is lost, looking for the shepherd and just getting in all kinds of trouble and getting dirty in all kinds of ways along the way, unbeknownst to them that they are one of God's kids and that he's going to be calling for them before we know it.

And so we don't know their hearts. It makes total sense that we are given this higher standard and that we're not allowed to just hate the person because of certain actions. We need to love our enemies.

Even when they're cursing us, we need to bless them. God knows their hearts. Let's let him take care of business. Let's let him take care of all of that. And of course, if it is a true, let's say, goat that is out there just to hurt us, just to persecute us and just to drag God's name through the dirt until the moment they take their last breath.

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. So even in that case, we don't need to be hating people. Yes, ma 'am. Yes. Yes. I 100 percent agree. And Michelle, who may not have been able to hear online, she's saying, OK, we're given this instruction to love them.

But how like what's the appropriate way of doing that? Does that necessarily mean just embracing them for who they are? And, you know, that's all that, which, of course, is a very common interpretation, by the way.

But Michelle's point is, no, what we're not going to we're not going to hate them. We're not going to just spew verbal hatred or certainly not hatred, hateful actions toward them. But it's not necessarily about embracing them either.

In fact, we just happened to read a passage last week. It was it was for a different context, but it's what you're talking about. Where is it? Second Timothy two twenty four. Servant of the Lord must strive not to be gentle and to all men apt to teach patient in meekness.

So there's the key right there to Michelle's point. We're going to be telling them the truth. We're not embracing their sinful actions. On the contrary, we are pointing out where they are wrong. But what's the key here?

It's not in hate. It's in meekness, in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God peer adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. So it's all in God's hands.

What we are meant to do and commanded to do here is to keep our emotions in check. And to talk to them in meekness. And this is the way that you love your enemies. It's not embracing the gross sin at that time, but it is it is in meekness, being in gentleness, telling them the truth, telling them they are on a path to destruction.

What greater form of love is that than trying to pull someone out of that to Spurgeon's point? You know, you need we need to be on the ground grabbing these people by the ankles until the very last moment and prayerfully asking for their salvation.

So, you know, that's our job. The rest is God's duty. But he does tell us to instruct them in meekness. And then, of course, it finishes with a bang and that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the devil.

One of the most chilling verses in the Bible, who are taken captive by him, talking about the devil at his will. So I couldn't agree more that not only are we given this instruction not to hate, but we're we also need to be diligent in loving in the right way, too.

So we know we need to love them. But what's the biblical way of loving those that are in the middle of doing sinful actions? It's not embracing the actions, but it is instructing them in meekness and gentleness and all that.

Edom, Judah, and God's Sovereign Judgment

OK, so that is good stuff. Again, I mean, that is an interesting topic. You can go on and on there, but we'll keep moving forward here. OK, so back to verse three in Malachi. There's another important reason that God is giving Israel this stark contrast between them and here we are talking about Edom again.

So we finished up the whole study of Obadiah that was all about Edom. And now we're talking about Edom, the nation again, talked about his specific hatred of Esau, the individual. Now we're back to Esau's lineage and the people, the nation of Edom.

Again, he gives us that stark contrast when he says and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. And in a second, in verse three, it's going to I'm sorry, in verse four, it's going to start talking about Edom as a nation specifically.

So let's see, God is giving Israel the stark contrast between them as a nation and Edom as a nation to show them that this is really this is this is very important here to show them that they could have been no better off than Edom and totally rejected like Edom, like the Edomites had God not elected them to and in his love.

So let me say all that one more time. He's showing them here that they could have been the same as Edom, essentially. Like it's not about them playing their cards right, they played their cards just as poorly as Esau and the ensuing Edomites.

He's telling them that by no action of your own, by no part of your own, you are not like Edom because and again, this goes back to the last two weeks we've been talking about because I have elected you, have chosen you, it's synonymous to my love and in my love.

He's given them just one more illustration of that. Both Israel and Edom received judgment from God simultaneously at the sixth century B .C. at the hands of the Babylonians. So we have historical examples where God's people are right in line with the rest of the heathen nations, and yet he pulls them out time and time and time and time again where the heathen nations just go further and further, further into the destructive paths that they're on.

And so when he's reminding them of this in verse three that, you know, the. How to word it, his mountains are laid waste, his heritage is laid waste for the dragons of the wilderness. He's saying that is like, look, guys, you are now restored.

You are back in your homeland. You have your temple, you have it all. And where are the Edomites? That's kind of where he's getting at. Go to Jeremiah 27 for a second. OK, I just want to give you guys this historical example where we're getting close to being done for the day.

But this is just interesting to me. I mean, this is not this is just an example of why God's words here are so potent or at least should be so potent to his people. Why is this such a wonderful illustration?

Why does he always bring it back to the Edomites? You know, he uses the Edomites all the time to give that contrast, give that contrast. So why does he do that? To us, we just kind of read through it.

We're like, OK, you know, there's a foreign nation compared with God's people. And here are the blessings of God's people. And here's this. He always uses the Edomites in so many different occasions. He talks about them more than any other foreign nation in the Old Testament.

So obviously, from the perspective of the people that are hearing this prophecy in Malachi, his people, this is obviously meant to resonate something in there. Well, why is that? Again, they have what we're about to read.

Jeremiah 27, let's start in verse two. And I'm just going to kind of read through this really quick. I'm going to read like six or seven verses again just to show you all an historical example of why this is such a wonderful illustration from God in places like Malachi, verse three, starting in verse two.

Thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bounds and yokes and put them upon thy neck. He's about to tell him who the nations, tell Jeremiah who the nations are that are going to be bound and send to them the first person or the first one mentioned, the king of Edom.

So the Edomites are the very first ones mentioned into the king of Moab and of the king of the Ammonites and the king of Tyrus and the king of Zidon into the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem and to Zedekiah, the king of Judah.

So God's people, Judah is wrapped right in there with all of these other heathen nations. Let's see what's about to happen. Verse four, and command them to say unto their masters, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus shall ye say unto your masters, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched arm and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

Why on earth is that important for him to say? Well, if we find out here in verse six, he now tells them who he is now giving that power to for the time being. And now, have I given all these lands, all of those nations we just listed, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, a couple more.

I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. This is a heathen king we're talking about here. This just solidifies the whole idea that Brother Otis kind of introduced.