“How to Spot a Phony” - (01/22/12)

Malachi 2:1-9 (Message #3 in Malachi Series)

January 21, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

            When you go shopping you have to be careful these days to do your homework, read the labels, and make sure that you are really getting what you think you are buying.  That’s because there are so many phony products, made to look like the real thing and using names that sound like the real thing.  For example, for the past two years there’s been a huge ongoing scandal about fake Apple Stores selling fake Apple products.  These counterfeits look like the real thing but they are made in Singapore or China by Apple wannabes.

            So how are you supposed to tell the real iPad or iPod or iPhone from the fake one?  The only way to do that is by careful comparison of the two.  Someone who knows what he is looking for has to take them both apart and compare their innards.  The suspected phony’s component parts are compared to the original.  This is the same process that currency experts use to determine genuine US bills from counterfeit bills.  They know the original money so well that they know what to look for.  Spotting the phony then becomes relatively easy because you know the real thing so thoroughly.  

TRANSITION:

            This same technique applies to evaluating people, to sort out the genuine from the phonies.  In our text for today we encounter “priests” who at first glance might have seemed like the real deal, godly men doing the work of God in all the right ways and for all the right reasons, but when we look closer, and compare them to the people that God holds up as the “gold standard” of priests we can see that these guys are phonies.  They are unworthy to be called “priests” because they fall so far short of God’s basic requirements.

MAIN BODY:

Verses 1-2: “And now this commandment is for you, O priests.  ² If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.” 

• We can see that this address in 2:1 to the priests is a continuation from chapter 1.
• The LORD uses the word “commandment” in verse 1 in the sense of a threat of punishment, just as in Nahum 1:14, where we read, “The LORD has given a command concerning you, Nineveh: “You will have no descendants to bear your name. 
I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of your gods. 
I will prepare your grave, for you are vile.”
• Here in Malachi 2:1-2 we have an ultimatum from God.  He is basically saying, “If you do not comply… then I will do the following…”  God does not leave anything to their imagination.  He does not beat around the bush and speak in metaphors.  He lays it out in plain language.
• Let’s take it apart piece by piece.  “If you do not LISTEN.”  By listen He means to hear and take heed.  We all know the difference between hearing and listening.  Hearing is involuntary.  Anyone with ears in working order hears whether he wants to or not.  Our ears are sense organs that are constantly taking in information.  However, most of that information does not register—we perceive it almost like “white noise.”  To listen, on the other hand, requires effort and concentration.  It involves focus and the exercise of our will.  When we listen we hear selectively.  God is telling the priests that they need to shut out other voices and listen to His, and then take the next step of obeying Him.
• “If you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name…”  That is the big issue here—giving honor to whom it is due; namely GOD.  Verse two of chapter two is really the key verse to this whole book.  All of the issues that God brings up in Malachi are the result of people caring more about themselves than the glory, reputation, and honor of God.  The problems of divorce, tithing, sinful priests, inadequate sacrifices, etc. all arose because the people were more concerned about themselves than they were about God.
• So how about the “THEN” part of this ultimatum?  God says, “If you don’t listen and begin to truly honor My name…“THEN I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.”  Notice that He uses the definite article here: “THE curse.”  What curse is God referring to, specifically?  To understand this you have to go back to Deuteronomy chapters 27-28 and read about the instructions given by Moses to the people of Israel before they crossed over into the Promised Land.  God, through His servant, Moses, laid out both the blessings and the cursings—i.e. what God would do for them if they obeyed and followed His commandments, and, what God would do to them if they disobeyed and ignored His commandments.  So here in Malachi, when God speaks of “THE CURSE” every Jew knew what He was talking about.
• Moreover, God tells the priests that He will “curse their blessings.”  Part of the priests’ job was to pronounce God’s blessings on the people, as we see in the familiar Aaronic Blessing of Numbers 6:23-27: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites.  Say to them: ²⁴ “‘“The LORD bless you and keep you;
²⁵ the LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.”’  ²⁷ “So they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”  Now however, God is saying that He will come along behind them and lay down a curse everywhere they lay down a blessing.  He will undo everything they do because they are rotten and not worthy to speak for Him.

Verse 3: “Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring [lit. seed], and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.” 

• Not only will God rebuke the priests’ blessings, He will also rebuke and curse their descendants, the priests who follow in their fathers’ footsteps doing the same vile things.
• This next part presents a disgusting picture.  The word here translated in the NASV as “refuse” and in the NIV as “offal” is just the word for dung, or manure.  Before sacrifices could be placed on the altar the dead animals had to be cleaned out.  The gut, or entrails, which contained the waste products was removed, along with the hide, hair and certain other parts, and these were taken outside the camp and burned, because they were considered “unclean.”  Now God is saying that he will smear the manure from these unworthy sacrificial animals all over the priests’ faces so that they, along with the manure, will be taken away and shown to be corrupt and vile.

Verse 4: “Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi,” says the LORD of hosts.

• God’s purpose in all this in not to destroy Israel or to wipe out the priesthood.  He wants to wake them up to see how far their have drifted from their moorings.  He reminds them of His covenant with their father, Levi.  You can read about this in Exodus 32:25-29 and in Numbers 3:12-13.  Because of their faithfulness the sons of Levi were chosen by God to serve Him in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple.
• Many Christians are confused by this setup.  What you need to know is that every priest was also a Levite.  However, to be a priest, you not only had to be from the tribe of Levi, but you also had to be a direct descendant from Aaron (cf. Exodus 28:1; 29:9).  The priests were the primary religious leaders, who were assisted in all their duties by the Levites (Numbers 8:19).  So here in Malachi 2:4 God is addressing both the priests and the Levites.

Verse 5: “My covenant with him [Levi] was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.”

• By “him” God is referring to Levi, but not to Levi directly; rather, to his descendants.  This is a figure of speech called synecdoche [subset of metonymy] in which the part is used to refer to the whole.  God made a covenant with Levi and his sons in perpetuity, meaning that it would go on forever.  God has always upheld His end of the bargain, but the priests and Levites have fallen down on their end.
• God says: “My covenant with him was one of life and peace.”  This refers to a story about Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, a priest and Levite about whom God said in Numbers 25:12-13, “Therefore, tell him I am making My covenant of peace with him.  ¹³ He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
• God speaks here almost wistfully: “He [Levi] revered Me and stood in awe of My name.”  That’s a far cry from the attitude of the priests in Malachi’s day.

Verse 6: “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity.” 

• God continues in His eulogy of Levi. “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips.”   This means that he both spoke the truth and taught the truth to the people.
• Moreover, “He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity.”  God says that Levi not only spoke the truth but he lived it as well.  His walk matched his talk!  And as a result of this kind of righteous integrity, people were influenced to turn away from evil and toward God.  This, of course, is in contrast to the priests of Malachi’s day who, because of their own bad example coupled with their corrupted teachings, were leading men astray, away from God rather than toward Him.
• You must understand that the priests’ role was always twofold: First, to represent the people in holy worship before the Living God; and, second, to represent the Living God before the people by living a holy life and by teaching them the Word of God.  But in all of this they were to be holy men, not just in name but also in reality.

Verse 7: “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.” 

• Here we have God’s expectation of His servants.  Is this an impossible standard?  Is God asking too much?  No, I don’t think so.  In fact, we have basically the same standards set forth for God’s servants today.  Here are a couple of NT examples showing what God expects of His “messengers”:
• II Timothy 2:24-26 – “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.  ²⁵ Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”
• I Timothy 3:2-7 – “Now the overseer [pastor, elder] is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, ³ not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.  ⁴ He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.  ⁵ (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)  ⁶ He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.  ⁷ He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”
• The clear implication is that any man who does not seek to obey God’s commands and live according to His standards has no business calling himself a “priest” or a “pastor.”

Verse 8: “But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of hosts. 

• Here’s the bottom line: “YOU have failed miserably by any standard, and have acted corruptly.  You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”  God says, “YOU have made a mockery of My covenant with Levi, that he would be My servant and that the priests who come from him would be holy men, who speak for Me and represent Me faithfully before the people.”  God has every reason to be angry here!
• The Bible says that teachers of God’s Word will receive a “stricter judgment.”  This is because of the devastating ripple effect that occurs when a priest/pastor/religious leader “turns aside from the way.”  The results are terrible to behold and are stated right here: “you have caused many to stumble.”  This reminds me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:6, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” 

Verses 9: “So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.” 

• Basically, God goes on to say to the priests, “…so, I have returned your favor.  Just as you have made Me despised and abased before all the people by your sinful actions and attitudes, so also, I will make you despised and abased before all the people.” 
• At the end of verse 9 God gives a specific case of where the priests were revealing the depths of their corruption.  In Israel, the priests often acted as judges or negotiators between individuals or factions (cf. Deut. 17:9-11; 19:17, etc).  In Malachi’s day they were allowing themselves to be bribed and bought off, and thus were showing partiality to the highest bidder, making their sin even worse in God’s sight because priests were supposed to be like God in not being “respecters of persons.”  In other words, they were to be impartial (cf. Deut. 10:17).

CONCLUSION:

            So what are the lessons for us today?  One obvious thing is that we who call ourselves “Christians” should live in a way that brings honor rather than dishonor to the God whose name we bear.  We are “Christ’s ones” and we should live like it.

            Secondly, we who are in any position of leadership in God’s work are held to an even higher standard because with more honor and respect comes greater responsibility to represent the Lord Jesus Christ accurately, both in what we say and in how we live.

            Thirdly, we need to recognize that God has no patience with those who dishonor His name and soil His reputation.  He is quick to bless those who love, honor, and serve Him, but He is just as quick to curse those who deliberately turn away and cause others to do the same.  The priests in Malachi’s day underestimated God.  They lost sight of the fact that He is holy and just, and jealous for His own name.  He is Yahweh, LORD of hosts!

“Cheap Sacrifices on Tainted Altars” - (01/15/12)

Malachi 1:6-14 (Message #2 in Malachi Series) 

INTRODUCTION:

            When I was a boy, living in a little place called Imbler in Eastern Oregon, I got my first job delivering newspapers for the La Grande Evening Observer.  At that time, according to the signpost at the outskirts of town, Imbler had a population of 98.  I delivered about 45 papers every night after school to folks in town and to farms around the valley.  I started that job when I was 7-years-old.  In fact, somewhere in my archives I have a newspaper clipping about me being the youngest paperboy in Oregon at that time.

            During the 3+ years that I had that job I learned some things about money that have served me to this day.  I learned how to keep track of income and expenditures.  I had to keep records and turn in a monthly report to the newspaper office.  I learned how to bank money and keep a savings account.  I learned how to make decisions about spending or not spending.  I learned about tithing.  And I learned about the value of money and gifts.

            Lots of people are confused about these things.  For example, they don’t know the difference between “cheap” and “inexpensive.”  A gift can be inexpensive but precious at the same time; however, “cheap” will always be just that and nothing more.  In the OT God made provision for poor people who could not bring a bullock or a sheep to offer up two little turtledoves as a sacrifice.  Their sacrifice was inexpensive but when offered to God from a heart of love and gratitude it was a sacrifice precious in His sight.  On the other hand, an expensive prize-winning steer, if offered grudgingly or of necessity, was a meaningless sacrifice and an exercise in futility as far as winning God’s favor.  

TRANSITION:

            In the Book of Malachi we have a description of what was going on in Israel 100 years after the captives returned from Babylon.  The people were comfortably resettled back on their land.  Things were going well.  They were prosperous once again.  Their Temple had been rebuilt and the priests were busy doing their religious stuff.  Everything was pretty much back to normal, which was exactly the problem.  They dropped back into their spiritual apathy and complacency, doing the right things but forgetting the WHY of it all.  Their worship turned into ritual.  Their service turned into religious habits.  Their sacrifices turned into castoffs good for nothing else.  They lost sight of who God was and what He had done for them.  They forgot all the pain and misery their sin had led to in the past when they strayed away from the LORD and got sent into captivity.  But were they really so different from us?

MAIN BODY:

Verse 6: “A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  Then if I am a father, where is My honor?  And if I am a master, where is My respect? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name.  But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’”

• This is the second dialogue of the Book of Malachi.  The first began up in verse 2 with the LORD saying to Israel, “I have always loved you,” and the people responding, “How have you loved us?”  Responding to their question the LORD explains about how He sovereignly chose them above all other nations to become His own covenant people.
• Now here in verse 6 once again we hear the LORD’S voice.  He says, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  Then if I am a Father, where is My honor?  And if I am a Master, where is My respect?”   In the OT God referred to the nation of Israel as His son and while it’s true that individual Israelites did not consider God to be their Father in the personal sense, the people of Israel would regularly refer to God in their prayers as “Our Father,” and they would call Him, “Adonai,” which means lord, or master.  However, Yahweh is pointing out to them here that this is all just lip service if they don’t genuinely honor and respect Him in their hearts. (see Isaiah 1:2)
• If I’m respectful to my boss when I think he’s watching or listening, but make fun of him and say horrible things about him behind his back, do I really respect him?  And if I call my dad “father” to his face but refer to him as “my stupid old man” when I’m with my friends, then do I really honor at all?

Verse 7: “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar.  But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’  In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is to be despised.’    

• Here the LORD gets down to specific things that reveal the rottenness and hypocrisy of their attitudes.  As you’ll notice on the outline I gave you last week, this section deals primarily with the defilement of the priesthood, but it applies to the people as well.  The priests offered the sacrifices that the people brought to them.  In many cases they should have refused to offer the sacrifices but they were more concerned with pleasing men than God.
• “…presenting defiled food…”  Some versions say “bread,” which is a literal translation of the Hebrew word but Malachi is using it in the broader sense of food offerings, and specifically meat offerings as we see in the next verse.
• The people’s response is angry and immediate.  Once again they act like they have been insulted, so God goes on to explain: “In that you say, ‘the table of the LORD is to be despised.’”  The “Table of the Lord” refers to the altar of burnt offerings in the Temple.  But did they ever actually say that with their mouths?  Probably not, but like we learned a long time ago, “Actions speak louder than words,” and this is what their actions were screaming in God’s ear.

Verse 8: “But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?  And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil?  Why not offer it to your [Persian] governor?  Would he be pleased with you?  Or would he receive you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts. 

• Long ago in Leviticus 22:17-22 God had instructed His people about what kinds of sacrifices were acceptable and those that were not: “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or of the aliens in Israel who presents his offering, whether it is any of their votive or any of their freewill offerings, which they present to the LORD for a burnt offering— ¹⁹ for you to be accepted—it must be a male without defect from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats.  ²⁰ Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you.  ²¹ When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it.  ²² Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the LORD.” 
• To offer cut-rate sacrifices and secondhand gifts to the Lord is an insult.  Again, this comes through clearly in Deuteronomy 15:21, “But if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.”
• Now I’m going to step on some toes.  Just like it was back in Malachi’s day, many Christians today think that they can bring their old castoffs to the Lord and that He will be thrilled with their “sacrifice.”  We’ll go through our cupboards and pull out all the old food that is near or past the pull date and we bring that for the church food closet, feeling good that we’re helping out the poor.  Or we’ll go through our closets and pull out our old raggedy clothes that we wouldn’t be caught dead in and we bundle them up and take them to Union Gospel Mission and get a tax write-off and feel very spiritual and generous.  We’ll buy a new 72 inch 3-D plasma TV for our living room and pack up our old ratty TV that barely works anymore and drop it off at the church, saying, “We want to invest this in the Lord’s work.”  We’ll spend thousands of dollars fixing up our own houses but whine and bemoan having to spend money on God’s House or even to show up for an all-church workday.
• It seems to me that these are the same kinds of attitudes that the LORD was accusing the people of Israel of having.  Am I wrong?
• I love the LORD’S suggestion to them: “Try doing this with your governor and see how he likes it.  Let’s just see how long it takes for him to throw you out of his office.”  Obviously, he would not be happy with their lousy junk and neither is God.

Verse 9: “But now will you not entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us?  With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts. 

• People were bringing their old sick cows to offer to the LORD as sacrifices.  They were bringing their lame sheep and diseased goats that had no value in the market.  The LORD says, “Take your old sick cow and give it to your governor and see how happy it makes him.”
• I’m sure that this observation from the LORD didn’t go over very well.  Those folks thought they were doing all the right things to keep God satisfied, and they thought that He should be happy with whatever they chose to give to Him.  They were having a hard time seeing their own hypocrisy and selfishness, but that’s a common ailment.  There are prominent wealthy Christians that are very willing to give away their money, as long as the new building gets named after them.  They will donate to a cause as long as it becomes the “So-n-so Memorial Fund.”  Do you really think that kind of thing makes God happy?  I don’t.

Verse 10: “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar!  I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you.” 

• This is an interesting verse.  We can hear God’s broken heart here.  “Isn’t there anyone among you who can see what you are doing and would have the courage to bar and lock the Temple doors to keep people from profaning My altar with these scabby sacrifices?”  Sadly, there was apparently no one with the gumption to see the problem here.
• From God’s viewpoint no sacrifices would be better than defiled sacrifices offered from impure motives. (cf. Isaiah 1:11-15)

Verse 11: “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts. 

• Even though His own people were negligent in honoring Him, the LORD Jehovah here declares that the day will come when even the Gentiles will come to honor and revere His name and will offer pure and holy sacrifices to Him.  Twice in this verse He says: “My name will be great among the nations.”  That is both a statement of fact and of intent.  God says it so it will be so.  You can count on it!

Verse 12: “But you are profaning it, in that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.’” 

• By “it” the LORD is referring to His sacred name, Yahweh.
• I took the name of this morning’s message from this verse: They were offering “cheap sacrifices on tainted altars.”  Not only were the sacrifices themselves worthless, the attitudes with which they were given defiled the very altar itself.

Verses 13: You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’  And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the LORD of hosts, “and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering!  Should I receive that from your hand?” says the LORD. 

• The priests had come to consider their work in the Temple as distasteful, monotonous, and burdensome.  They sniff at it in contempt, the way Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, did in I Samuel 2:17, “This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’S sight, for they were treating the LORD’S offering with contempt.”  That which should have been a high honor and a privilege had come to be commonplace and meaningless.  This is the danger in ministry, both for pastors and for lay people.  We can get so busy doing religious stuff that we forget why we are doing it and WHO we are doing it for.  The holy becomes homely.  The righteous becomes only rite.
• “Should I receive that from your hand?”  This question by the Lord is obviously rhetorical.  The answer is “NO!”

Verse 14: “But cursed be the swindler who has a [perfect] male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished [literally, corrupt female] animal to the Lord, for I am a great King,” says the LORD of hosts, “and My name is feared among the nations.” 

• Here the LORD pronounces a curse on anyone who knowingly withholds the unblemished male animal for himself, and instead, gives the diseased or blemished female animal to be offered unto the LORD.  This attempted deception is a double affront to Yahweh-Tzavaót, Lord Sabaoth, Yahweh Lord of the Armies of God. 
• Again, the LORD declares Himself to be “a Great King.”  He is the LORD of the hosts of Heaven.  He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and His great name is to be feared among all the nations.

CONCLUSION:

            For the past 20 or so years there has been a great movement in America to liven up worship services and to make them more attractive to unbelievers.  This has been in response to surveys taken in which these kinds of questions are asked: “What is your general impression of church?” and, “What would it take to convince you to come to church?”  Many people respond to the first question with the one-word answer, “BORING!”  The second question evokes a variety of answers but they all ultimately fall into the “What can you do for me?” category.

            The problem is that many people, including many who identify themselves as Christians, believe that God exists to make us happy and to do nice things for us, and that worship is supposed to be fun and entertaining.  But that is the total opposite of the truth.  We exist by His choice, for His pleasure, at His service, owing Him everything.  And our worship is supposed to bring God pleasure.  It’s not about us.  Paul, in Romans 12:1 points out that to love, honor, obey, and serve Him is our “reasonable service of worship.”  He’s right.

            What’s more, God deserves our very best, not our old castoffs.  He, who gave everything for us, deserves our total allegiance.  And the very word “sacrifice” means that what we give to Him will be costly to us, just as the sacrificial gift of His Son was costly for Him.

            King David understood this concept.  In II Samuel 24 we read that at the prompting of the Lord’s prophet, King David made plans to build an altar to the LORD where they could offer burnt offerings.  Starting in verse 18 we read, “On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”  ¹⁹ So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad.  ²⁰ When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.  ²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”  “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”  ²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up.  Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.  ²³ Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.”  Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”  ²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it.  I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”  So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.  ²⁵ David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.  Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.”

            David understood that to offer to God cheap sacrifices on defiled altars would be to dishonor God, and to dishonor His name.  He understood that a sacrifice that costs us nothing is no sacrifice at all, but merely a religious ritual.

Yet how many of us have learned these lessons?  All too often we want to give to God our leftovers, our castoffs, our leavings.  We’ll give Him a little bit of time, if we have any left over.  We’ll give Him a little bit of our money, if we have any left after buying all the things we want for ourselves.  We’ll give Him a little of our service, if we aren’t too tired after going out and doing all the things we love to do.  We’ll witness for Him, as long as we don’t have to go out of our way to do it.  We’ll serve others, as long as they are really nice to us and smell good, and if we can do it at a convenient time.

And what is really amazing is that we can’t figure out why God wouldn’t be overjoyed with these wonderful sacrifices that we bring to Him.  Sometimes He seems so unreasonable and so ungrateful for all we do for Him, don’t you think?

“The Messenger’s Burden” - (01/08/12)

Malachi 1:1-5 (Message #1 in Malachi Series) 

INTRODUCTION:

            This morning we are starting a new teaching series in the Book of Malachi.  Although Malachi is a small book (4 chapters, 55 verses), the series will take us 8, or possibly 9 weeks to complete.

            You have probably noticed that I try to alternate between doing studies from the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Frankly, I personally find it easier to preach and teach from the New Testament because the Early Church culture was more similar to our own than that of the ancient Hebrews.  However, the Apostle Paul tell us in II Timothy 3:16-17 that, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate [complete], equipped for every good work.”  Moreover, in Luke 24:25-27 we read of the conversation between the risen Christ and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  ²⁶ Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’  ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.”  And one more… in Acts 17 starting at verse 2 we read: “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue [in Thessalonica], and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’ he said.” 

            In each of these cases [and there are many more examples] the “Scriptures” that the preacher used were the Old Testament Scriptures, not the New Testament, for that hadn’t even been written yet.  I have actually had Christians tell me that they think I’m wasting my time, and theirs, by teaching from the OT because they believe that the OLD was superseded, made obsolete, and done away with by the NEW.  Apparently Jesus didn’t think so, and neither did the Apostle Paul nor any of the other writers of the NT, but what do they know?  Right?

TRANSITION:

            Having said all that, I want to explain specifically why I have chosen the Book of Malachi for our next series.  Many Christians do not know that there occurred a 400+ year gap between the last book of the OT and the beginning of the NT period.  It was a 400 year period of silence in which there was no prophet, no mouthpiece for God, no mediator between Jehovah God and His people, Israel.  During those 4 centuries Heaven remained silent.  God stopped taking Israel’s calls.  He did not check His voicemail messages.  He unplugged His answering machine.  He did not respond to their faxes and emails.  Their text messages went unanswered.  But why?  That’s what we are going to find out over the next few weeks.

            There are two good reasons why Malachi is listed as the last book in your Old Testament: (1) It is the last book of the section we call, “The Minor Prophets.”  Now lots of people think that means these 12 books are less important than the so-called, “Major Prophets.”  That’s untrue!  They are called Minor Prophets because of the length of the writings, not because of their relative importance.  The short books are just grouped together and Malachi is the last of those because it was the last one written.  (2) The second reason why Malachi is placed as the last book of the OT is that those scribes who set the order of our modern Bible (i.e. the translators of the Septuagint, aka LXX, the Greek Version of the OT completed in 132 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt) recognized that Malachi had the last word before communication between God and Israel broke down completely, only to be reestablished with the coming onto the scene by John, the Baptist, the last of the Old Dispensation prophets and the Forerunner for the Messiah.

            This morning we are only going to look at the first 5 verses of the text, but before we do that I want to give you some background information about this book, as well as an annotated outline that I hope will be of use to you.  I would encourage you to fold this and stick it in your Bible so that you have it with you throughout our coming weeks of study.  Also, I hope you will refer to it often as you take time to study Malachi on your own during the week.

[Pass out the Study Guides and go over the first two pages with them.]

MAIN BODY:

Verse 1: The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.  

• The word “oracle” used here in several of our versions is a translation of the Hebrew word meaning “burden or weighty message.”  This is more than just a personal conviction on the part of the Malachi.  It is a heavy message that God has given him to deliver to the people of Israel.  The designation of the prophecy as a burden indicates that the message is one of rebuke rather than comfort or encouragement.
• An “oracle of the word of the LORD…”  This message originates with God.  It was not something that Malachi thought up.  I can tell you that Malachi was neither the first nor the last preacher to discover that proclaiming the Word of the Lord is a weighty responsibility (e.g. Jonah, Jeremiah, Moses, Elijah, etc.).  There are many times that it would be far easier just to say the things that the audience wants to hear.  In fact, many have gone that route.  There are churches all over this city, all over this country, where “the oracles of the word of the LORD” are never shared from the pulpit.  There are so-called messengers who bring no message from God, but merely from their own ideas or give little morality talks based on the current events.  In those churches you can die of spiritual starvation for want of the Living Bread.  But I’m an old-fashioned sort of preacher and I agree with Paul in II Corinthians 2:2, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you [in Corinth] except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  Similarly, he says in I Cor. 1:23, “…But WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”  Later on, in his second letter to Timothy, Paul advises: “I solemnly charge you… PREACH THE WORD; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (II Tim. 4:1-4).
• The title “LORD” used here, all in capitals, is the personal, covenant name of God, i.e. Yahweh (Jehovah), and it is used exclusively in the book of Malachi.  Then starting down in verse 4 we begin to see this personal name coupled with another Hebrew word and the result is used 24 times in the book—“LORD of hosts.”  This is the translation of the compound name for God, Yahweh-Tzavaót (Sabaóth)    meaning “Yahweh, of hosts, or of armies” (c.f. I Samuel 1:3, 11).  The name pictures Yahweh as the commander of the angelic host and the armies of God.  (cf. also Isaiah 1:24; Psalm 46:7, 11; II Kings 3:9-12; Jeremiah 11:20 [NT: Romans 9:29; James 5:4; Revelation 19:11-16]).
• The burden, the message, is so important that the message-bearer (Malachi) is overshadowed.  The prophet was merely acting as God’s tool, God’s megaphone, to transmit this last message from God to His people.

Verse 2-3: “I have loved you,” says the LORD.  But you say, “How hast Thou loved us?”  “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD.  “Yet I have loved Jacob; ³ but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation, and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” 

• The LORD starts out by once again declaring His love for the people of Israel, His covenant nation.  The truth is, God had told them many times that He loved them (cf. Deut. 4:37, 7:8, 10:15, 33:3, Jer. 31:3, Hosea 11:1, etc.).  Moreover, He had proven His love repeatedly throughout their history, despite their constant whining, complaining, rebellion, and adulterous relationships with foreign gods.
• But notice their immediate response: “How have You loved us?”  You can hear their snotty tone of voice coming through this question.  “You say that You love us, but what have You done for us lately?  Oh sure, You did some nice things a long time ago, in the days of our forefathers, but how come we never see any of that nowadays?  You love us?  Phooey!”
• You’ll notice that this book is built around a series of these little dialogues between God and the people.  God makes an assertion and then the people throw up a defensive, argumentative question, over and over again.  These conversations remind me of conversations between a loving and patient parent and a spoiled, bratty teenager.  No matter what the Dad says, the smart-alecky kid has an excuse or a smoke-screen.
• God’s answer: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD.  “Yet I have loved Jacob…”  On the surface this seems like a strange answer to their question.  Why would God bring this up and how does it prove His love for Israel?  First of all, you have to remember that before Jacob there was no such thing as “Israel.”  The name “Israel” is Jacob’s other name, the one Yahweh gave to him clear back in Genesis 35:9-12.  The name Jacob literally means “he who grasps the heel,” also translated as “supplanter” meaning someone who cheats someone out of what is rightfully theirs.  That’s what Jacob did to his brother Esau.  He cheated Esau out of his legal birthright as the eldest son of Isaac.  This kind of shenanigan came naturally to Jacob because he was a devious little weasel from the day of his birth, which is exactly why his father gave him that name.  However, God in His sovereignty chose to use that low-down lying punk Jacob to carry out His master plan.  However, He had to do several attitude adjustments on Jacob before He could use the guy.  One of those experiences involved an all-night wrestling match that left Jacob with a permanent limp and a whole different perspective on God.  It was after that when God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel,” which means, “he struggles with God.”  Here’s the passage in Genesis 35:9-12— “Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.  ¹⁰ God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; yet you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.”  Thus He called him Israel.  ¹¹ God also said to him, “I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you.  ¹² The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.”  
• Jacob and Esau were twins but Esau came out of the womb first so technically he was the first-born, in line to receive the bulk of his father Isaac’s estate.  But into this picture steps the LORD.  He chose to do His redemptive work, not through the lineage of the elder son but through the younger.  Why?  I think it was to prove that He could use even a donkey like Jacob.  Later on, the Lord chose David, the youngest of the household of Jesse, to become King of Israel.  Why?  I think again that it was to prove that nothing could stop Him from working out His sovereign plan to one day bring to His covenant people their promised Messiah, who would willingly give His life as the ultimate sacrifice for their sins.  You see, that’s how God spells LOVE!
• So what’s this about God “hating Esau”?  What did Esau ever do to deserve such “hatred” from God?  First we need to look at this word, “hate.”  Many times in the Scriptures we see this word used in the comparative sense rather than in the absolute sense (e.g. Gen. 29:30-31; Deut. 21:15-16; Prov. 13: 24; Matt. 6:24; etc.), where the thought is love less versus love more.  For His own reasons God chose to pour out His favor on Jacob rather than on Esau.  He chose Jacob.  He did not choose Esau.  And this preference for Jacob was expressed in His electing grace in extending His covenant to Jacob and his descendants (cf. Gen. 25:21-26; Isaiah 44:1-5, etc.).  Whether or not we think it’s “fair” God fixed His love on the one and not on the other, and chose to carry out His redemptive plan through Jacob’s seed, not Esau’s.  The Apostle Paul explains this in detail in the NT in Romans 9:10-18.  But to be honest with you, my biggest question is not why the scripture says that God hated Esau, but why it says that God loved Jacob.  To me, that’s the harder question to answer.
• We know that God does not exercise His sovereignty to deliberately reprobate or damn anyone.  However, God’s anger and hatred toward the sons of Esau was well deserved after their continued opposition to Jehovah through the centuries.  Esau turned out to be a prideful, wicked man and so did those who came after him (cf. Gen. 26:34; 27:41; Obadiah 10-14, etc.).  His descendants, the Edomites, set themselves against God and walked in the paths of prideful rebellion, wickedness, and idolatry, not to mention their maltreatment of their Israelite cousins.  The Babylonian invasion resulted in their destruction and captivity, but even through all that they refused to turn to the God of Abraham.  At the time of Malachi they had come back into their land and were vowing to rebuild, but God says here that He will tear down everything that they put up so that their land will serve as a constant reminder and warning to other nations.  Look at it in verse 4.

Verse 4: Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins”; thus says the LORD of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them ‘the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever.’”

• The Edomites, who were the descendants of Esau, were a wicked and stiff-necked outfit.  Moreover, they were a constant thorn in the heel of Israel.  They wanted nothing to do with God, and they hated Israel, an adversarial relationship going clear back to the time of Jacob and Esau.
• Though Esau in his pride should attempt to rebuild his waste places, God says that He will throw down whatever he builds.  Every attempt of the Edomites to rebuild their land will meet with defeat.  God vows that He will never allow Edom to regain its former position and power.  Moreover, He says that men will come to realize that the desolate condition of Edom is because of their sins and their rebellion against Almighty God.  Historically, God’s final destruction of the Edomites was carried out by the Nabatean Arabs who between 550 and 400 B.C. drove them permanently from their land so that Esau’s heritage became a desert place, fit only for jackals and other wilderness beasts (cf. verse 3).

Verse 5: And your eyes will see this and you will say, “The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”

• Malachi seems to infer here that his Jewish contemporaries would witness the conquest of Edom.  Their descendants would, at any rate.  And when Israel should behold Edom in perpetual ruins but Jerusalem rebuilt and restored, she would have to recognize God’s love for them, and would offer praise to Him.  Moreover, their praise and worship would spill over their borders as a witness to the nations around about, so that they too would come to magnify the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, the LORD of hosts.
• That’s what was supposed to happen.  That’s what should have happened.  That’s what God and Malachi hoped would happen.  But is that what really happened?  Sadly, no.  We will see in the weeks to come that the hardness of the people’s hearts deafened their ears to the prophet’s message, and blinded them to the reality of God’s love for them.

CONCLUSION:

            This final book of the Old Testament is about the error of forgetting the love of God and what that causes.  When people forget God’s love, it affects their attitudes, their families, and their worship.  When we begin to doubt God’s love and loyalty our sacred commitments no longer remain sacred.  God sent Malachi to awaken the people from their spiritual indolence and to exhort them to return to the living God.  But this book reveals a people who question both the reality of their sin as well as the faithfulness of their God, a people whose hearts have become spiritually hardened.  Thus you’ll see that the Book of Malachi ends on a poignant note, in a confrontation between a disappointed God and a disappointed people.

The Book of Malachi lowers the curtain on the Old Testament.  Malachi brings us to the edge of a great canyon, with the whining and argumentative voices of the people on one side, and the stern warnings of God on the other.  Only the Lord Himself could provide a way out of this stalemate.  Malachi looks forward in faith to a day of future deliverance, when he speaks of the one who would someday appear to prepare the way for the Messiah.  For indeed, the promised Messiah was the only One who could bridge that widening chasm between the people and their God.

           That’s true for us as well.  Only Christ can bridge the gap between God and us.  Our sin is what separates us from Him.  The blood of Jesus is the only solution.  Have you, like the children of Israel, doubted God’s love for you?  Have you questioned whether He really cares?  The proof of His love for you is that He sent His only begotten Son so that if you will but believe in Him with all your heart and accept His sacrifice in your place, you will not perish but will have eternal life.