3:11,12
There are two aspects to abundance. One is plentiful provisions, which we heard about in the previous verse, and other is the stopping of things devouring the abundance. Here God promises to stop pests from devouring the crops. The result will be that all the nations will call Israel blessed. So what are we to make of this for today? Are we to go along the prosperity gospel line that if we have enough faith we should all be living in luxury? Or is this all for the end of time, either in the millennium or after Christ returns? Or is it partly for today, but in a much deeper way that mere material prosperity? We live in a time when society is breaking down in all sorts of ways, when relationships are breaking down. There should be something different about the church, something different about our lives, someway in which our lives are a “delightful land”. For this to happen we need to be dedicated to God.
3:13-15
We still haven't run out of the charges that God is making against His people, though this is the last one. The people have spoken arrogantly against the Lord. As usual, the people are clueless as to how they have done this. Their crime was to say that it was a waste of time serving God, and that the evildoers get away with it. In short, there is no point serving God, and He is doing nothing about the evil in the world. Why is this arrogant? It is arrogant because it assumes that we know everything that is happening, that we know how things will turn out, that we understand God. None of these things are true. We do not have such wisdom or knowledge.
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