The Tears of a Treacherous Heart

And this is the second thing you do:
You cover the altar of the LORD with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.  Malachi 2:13

It seems there's this man going about my house singing nonsense verses like, "Colds are the epitome of miserability." I think he is losing his mind, but someone is also emptying the Kleenex boxes at a prodigious rate. Yes, there are signs that a virus has invaded the home. 

Today's verse is one of those backward starts wherein we read something in the Bible that appears to be exactly what the Lord desires of us, but yet He is upset over it. The Lord does not leave us or those long ago Israelites wondering, as the next verse explains that He cannot regard the tears of a treacherous heart. Jesus also told of the equal importance of that second greatest of commandments, love your neighbor as yourself. No tearful sacrifice is great enough to overcome a treacherous heart, especially if the neighbor in question is your spouse! 

Deal honestly with all of your neighbors, then the Lord can regard any sacrifice you make.

Bucky