The biggest issue with the Nation of Israel is that virtually every generation forgot about God, in spite of His great deliverances. Malachi repeats this here, once again.
God’s promise of the Kingdom, in which He would reign and rule was, and is, a standing promise. Even when Jesus came, in the incarnation, the Nation of Israel could have accepted her King, but His own received Him not.
They were expecting the Messiah to overtake the Roman Empire, He would come to do that, but He was also looking for the Nation to return to Him spiritually. To understand the Sermon On the Mount, we need to have this understanding. He was speaking of overthrowing the SPIRITUAL kingdom, as well as the physical one. His desire was to have the hearts of the people turned to Him. |
