Charles Spurgeon Commentary Malachi 3:13-15

"Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and escape." — Malachi 3:13-15 (ASV)

Those were indeed bad old times when the mass of the people looked only to their own temporal comfort. When they saw the wicked become rich, they wished that they were wicked too, in order that they might be rich. They thought that it was of no use to serve God; but thankfully, there was another group of people in the land, as there always is, more or less. God never leaves himself without witnesses; and when the wicked are proudest, God's people are often boldest.