It Is Vain to Serve God
13 “Your words have been harsh against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies? 15 Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’
The last objection is the most honest one in the book: obedience has not paid, and the arrogant are doing fine.
Your words have been harsh against me — and the objection comes back as before, what have we spoken against you? Then their own sentences are quoted, and they are not the words of unbelievers.
It is vain to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept his charge and walked mournfully before him? The complaint assumes God exists, assumes his service is real, and concludes that it does not pay. Verse 15 completes it: the proud are the happy ones, the wicked are built up, they test God and escape.
Scripture takes this complaint seriously wherever it appears rather than rebuking it as impiety. A psalmist says his feet had almost slipped from envying exactly this prosperity, and reports that he could not resolve it until he went into the sanctuary and considered how it ends Psalms 73:2–3 Psalms 73:17. Malachi's answer will take the same shape — not a denial that the arrogant prosper, but a longer view of the account.
settled What this mark means