Opinions
Malachi 3:11 Pest Control
Son #1 pointed out to me the streamers advertising a pest control company in our village. Its name? MALACHI 10:11.
Strange.
“Why would a pest control firm use a Bible verse for its name?” I asked.
“Look up the verse, Mom, and find the answer,” he replied.
Malachi 10:11, “‘I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
Hmm. You can interpret this in two conflicting ways: it is sacrilegious; it is pious. And a third one might come from admen: ingenious.
If I were still an ad gal, possessed with an out-of-the-box mindset, I would probably cheer its irreverence. My peers would gush, “Wow, brilliant!”
But now as a writer on grace, an earnest student of the Word, I don’t know what to think.
I niggle myself, “Have you lost your sense of humor?” Yeah, have I become dull and boring?
Mulling this further, I think this has to do with the copyright/plagiarism issues we authors (and teachers) face in today’s digital world. Try using a phrase or an image from the Net, and you get accused of using a creation not your own—to make money for yourself.
This Malachi 3:11 Pest Control is a commercial firm, advertising itself to gain customers in growing the business, for profit. Is there some kind of ethics violated then? Is this a moral issue?
Questions, questions. Scads of questions about what are acceptable today: same-sex marriage, for one; cursing people in public places, for another. Sigh, my space limits me to list more.
For me, Malachi 3:11 is simply an offshoot of verse 10, which is often quoted at church during offertory.
Here’s how Malachi 3:10 segues to Malachi 3:11, “10‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’ 11 ‘I will prevent pests from devouring your crops . . .’”
Is the firm’s name an over-promise? But aren’t most advertisements?
