You've Gotta Be Kidding!

Of the prophets of God in the Old Testament, Malachi is the last.  The chronological order of the prophets is not necessarily the order we find them in our Bibles, however Malachi happens to be the last one in both cases.  Coming some 60 or so years after Haggai and Zechariah, his message is presented as a dialogue between God and the people of Israel, with Malachi taking the role of a mediator between them.
I can never come to a reading of Malachi with chuckling a bit thinking back to a young man in our church in Fort Morgan, Colorado, who called him Ma-la-chi.  No matter what he is called, the study of Malachi (Mal-a-cai) is a study in understanding how the Jews were treating the God who had proved Himself as the One who cared for them by setting them up to have a personal relationship with Himself.  He did this for no one else before Jesus came to earth.
Still these people became so complacent with that relationship that they began to elevate themselves to a place of self-aggrandizement.  When presented with their attitude by God, their response was, "Really! You've gotta be kidding.  What have we done to ... (whatever the charge might be against them).
Two hundred years earlier, their ancestors were thumbing their noses at God as if to dare Him to bring any judgment upon them until He finally was forced, by their attitude and refusal to repent, to punish them by means of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians.  When they confessed their failure (70 years later), God brought them back to their home ... Jerusalem. 
Now, here we are again...they are once more thumbing their noses at God.  By grace, He is trying to give them another chance, but they keep on rejecting His overtures of love.  Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
This is where America is today.  Once a humble nation, Christian in her origin, we are thumbing our noses at God and daring Him to do anything about it.  As a pastor friend just recently pointed out, the Apostle John wrote about this in his first letter.  1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
We have become complacent in our blessed status having been protected by God for so much of our nation's existence.  But we, like the Jews of old, are thumbing our self-righteous noses at Him.  In His grace, God is challenging America while we are saying, "Really!  What have we done wrong?"
America, we are way overdue for God's correction.  We are way past our time to turn back to Him and plead for His forgiveness.  What America needs is a changed heart and God is the only one who can force that change.  Our leaders have failed us and we have failed our leaders not holding them accountable.  We cannot expect God to stay His judgment forever.  2 Chronicles 7:14, an oft quoted passage, needs to be repeated again and again, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
This message was to the Jews of King Solomon's day but the principle applies to us today.  Turn back to God America before God sends judgment.  We are way overdue!