Malachi Part II: Despising God

Malachi 1:6-2:9

 

Preached 9/2/2018

(Previous Sermon) 

 

I. INTRODUCTION – “Where is my honor?”

As we said, the prophesy of Malachi is written in the format of a dialog between God and his people, specifically the priests.

Words mean things.  For us, worship consists of a few songs with high-sounding words full of love and devotion.  We sing “better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere”, based on Psalm 84:10 “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” But when the church doors open for prayer we are elsewhere after all – perhaps watching a God-dishonoring movie or maybe just sitting in the dark, checking Facebook over and over, hoping for a “like”.  We sing “I keep falling in love with Him over and over and over and over again, … he gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by, O what joy between my Lord and I”, but we are content to be told about him once a week for 45 minutes in a single Sunday School class (if even that) and then his very love letter to us sits on our shelf until the next week, unopened.  Our words are big (especially when set to music and recited with other people who are watching us) but then our deeds fall short and our attitudes aren’t even close.  Jesus often remarked the difference between words and actions – for instance:

Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?”

And He made this dire prediction:

Matthew7:22-23  ²² "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' ²³ "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

And this one:

Matthew 12:34, 37 ³⁴ "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. ... ³⁷ "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

John in his first epistle contrasted words and deeds also:

1 John 1:6   If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

1 John 2:9   Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

1 John 4:20  If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

None of us is perfect, and even John says in the same book that we all sin, and that “He is faithful and just to forgive us” when we confess our sins to Him.  Thanks be to God for that!  But the warning is clear, we should be quick to make sure our lives match our words.  The greatest thing that we say to God is our confession that He is Lord.  As Jesus said, if we call Him Lord are obligated to actually obey him.  This is where we find ourselves in the book of Malachi.  In our last message, God starts the message from Malachi, his messenger, with the declaration of his faithful love for Israel.  But in verse six he asks a strong question which sets the tone for Malachi’s message:

Malachai 1:6a   "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.

The Israelites were proud to describe God as their Master and as the heavenly father of the Nation.  But God was not happy.  They were saying the right things, but in some way the Lord did not think that they were giving him the honor and reverence that were due to him.  Now I am sure that if we were to visit Jerusalem at that time, we would observe a mostly decent and religious people whose lives would seem to be centered around the worship of God including following religious laws, making sacrifices at the temples and attending religious worship services.  They would proudly trumpet their devotion to God and talk about his choosing of Israel to be his people.  Isn’t that what God wanted?  But God does not just say that they were slightly lacking.  Look again at verse 6 – he says that they were “DESPISING HIS NAME”.  Malachi answers for the offended priests with the first of a series of questions, worded as if from the people, calling God’s criticism into question:

Malachi 1:6b  "… But you say, 'How have we despised your name?'

Before we read God’s answer in Malachi, we should review a bit about the history behind this book. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah chronicle the return of the Israelites from their 70+ year exile in Babylon.  Though they never achieved full national sovereignty again and had a smaller temple than that which Solomon had built, they had a spiritual revival under Nehemiah. This is recorded in Nehemiah chapters 8-11. After they had rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Nehemiah called the people together and they stood and listened to the reading of the scriptures, with explanations.  After hearing the word, they all shouted “AMEN” together and worshipped.  They continued in the teaching daily, and when they had finished, and they realized how much that they had sinned, they repented in sackcloth and ashes and made a national covenant with God to obey his law, which they notarized and signed.  The agreement included a recitation of their sins as a nation and of the faithfulness that God had showed to them in spite of it.  Finally, they made some specific promises:

1. That they would stay separate from the wicked nations around them, and especially that they would not inter-marry with them,
2. That they would keep the Sabbath
3. That they would support the temple and the Levitical priesthood, and
4. That they would bring the first-fruits of all of their blessings to the temple in thankfulness and honor to God.

The rest of the Old testament books after this chronicle the fact that the Israelites fell back on those promises over and over – even during the time of Nehemiah’s leadership.  At the center of it all was the priesthood and the religious leaders, but all of the people were guilty.

So here we are in Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and through the prophet God is calling the priests to task.  They are despising the very name of God!  This sounds serious indeed.  Are they building altars to foreign gods again like they did in the days of Manasseh and Amon?  Are they burning their sons on the altar of Molech?  Are they engaging in immoral relations with people coming to the temple like in the days of Eli the priest?  It must be terrible indeed if God is accusing them of actually despising his name! 

But no, when we look at God’s answer to the offended priests, we see something quite unexpected.  God is “merely” accusing them of what John Piper refers to in his sermon on this passage as “lazy worship”.

Lazy worship?  Why is that so serious that it merits this final book of the OT? Why is it tied to a threat to “destroy the land with a curse” (the final words of the book).  In this section of Malachi we will see that (1) Lazy Worship Does Not Honor God, (2) II-B. Lazy Worship Worse Than Doing Nothing, and (3) What worship is supposed to be like.

II-A. Lazy Worship Does Not Honor God (1:7-9)

The sin of the people is half-hearted worship.  In answer to the question “how have we despised your name?”, God replies (v7a) “By offering polluted food upon my altar.”  The word for polluted here does not mean “unworthy” but “defiled” or “unfit” or “rejected”.  Rather than offering a pure and perfect offering, God regarded it as unclean.  He did not regard their worship as valid or acceptable and was rejecting it altogether.

Again, Malachi has the offended counter-question “But you say, 'How have we polluted you?’”  Now we may laugh derisively at their question (since we are so much more spiritual) but the question is understandable.  If you are doing your religious activities, shouldn’t effort count?  What were they doing that was so bad, anyway? 

Have you ever heard the saying “his actions spoke louder than his words?”  Well this was the case here:

Malachi 1:7b-8a  ⁷ ... But you say, 'How have we polluted you?' By saying that the LORD's table may be despised. ⁸ When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? …”

We must understand that the priests were not walking up to the altar, proudly proclaiming “the LORD’s table may be despised!”  They were going through the motions, but their service was half-hearted and lack-luster. And also disobedient.  Right at the beginning of the instruction manual for the priests, the book of Leviticus, we read this initial instruction about offerings:

Leviticus 1:1-3  ¹ The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, ² "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. ³ "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD.

The phrase “without blemish” is used 49 times in scripture, 17 times in Leviticus alone.  With respect to sacrificing animals, God told them in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 15:21 But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.

So first of all the priests and people in Malachi’s day were being disobedient, since offering blind and lame animals was forbidden by the passage that we just read.  God does not rebuke them for disobedience.  Instead, something more fundamental is going on.  By bringing God their cast-offs and their junk they are telling everyone that they think that the LORD’s table is contemptible, and that therefore God himself is not valued.  Instead of ascribing great worth to God (the meaning of “worth-ship”) they are despising him and his glorious Name.  And God is not pleased by it.  In fact, He calls it “evil”!

What should we expect from God when we offer substandard offerings?  Malachi writes in full sarcasm mode here:

Malachi 1:8-9  ⁸ When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. ⁹ And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts.

God through Malachi gives us a good way to clear the blinders on our self-evaluation of our own worship.  He suggests thinking about whether a human authority over us would be pleased with our offerings.  Which are you most likely to be on time for – Sunday school or your job?  What if you were as punctual in attendance at work as you are at church?  Would you get a promotion, or would you be fired?  If you watched the clock as often at work as you did at church how would that go?  If you paid attention at school as much as you do in the sanctuary, would you get a good grade from your teacher?

We will not ever please God by taking Him lightly or by valuing Him less than anything else.  Whether it is other gods or things or time or people, anything valued more than God is idolatry and a dishonoring of his Name. Worship is a privilege, partially because it is a very serious business indeed.  Lazy worship can cast aspersions on the very name of God, so we should be very careful to have our deeds match our words!

Though most Christians don’t think of themselves as Bible teachers, we are all teaching others about the nature of God through our daily worship of Him.  A LOT of theology is taught just by how we live our lives.  Our devotion to religious duties shows others how much we consider knowing God to be worth.  What does it tell people if God is only worth an hour a week of our busy lives?  What does it say when we act like we hate being around God’s family? When we give few of our worldly goods to God or to others in his name?

One further aspect of this particular sin in Malachi is that bringing blemished animals for sacrifice destroyed the theological symbolism of the entire enterprise.  In the book of Hebrews we read that the blood of bulls and goats cannot pay for our sin.  We need God’s perfect sacrifice – God’s Lamb.  Jesus was the fulfillment of that.    Peter wrote

1 Peter 1:17-19  ¹⁷ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

That is why the OT sacrifices had to be without any blemish or deformity.  Just as Jesus had to be sinless to be our sacrifice, the lambs of the offering had to be unblemished to point to that perfect sacrifice and remind the people of their need for cleansing. If they offered a blemished lamb, they destroyed a major part of what the offering was teaching them.

 

II-B. Lazy Worship Worse Than Doing Nothing (1:10-2:4)

God says something very bold in verse ten:

Malachi 1:10  Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

Here is something frightening to the complacent.  God would prefer that the temple doors be closed and the entire nation stop going through the motions of worship rather than continue on with half-hearted services.  Having no worshippers would be less dishonoring of him than having a bunch of lazy worshippers.  Lazy worship can only come from a heart that does not honor God.  Therefore He has no pleasure in it.  That bears repeating:

LAZY WORSHIP CAN ONLY COME FROM A HEART THAT DOES NOT HONOR GOD.

That means that even here, today, God would rather that this church would close its doors rather than that it be filled with “fair-weather Christians”.  That is why Paul warned the Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 13:5  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Why is God so concerned about what we say by our worship?

Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

That is it.  Worship is about God, not us.  If we loudly sing his praised but then offer Him junk and left-overs in our service, we profane it.  Sometimes we can offer fancy service, though, and kill it with a whiny or complaining attitude.  But we always destroy it with our actions with lazy worship.  God asks again:

Malachi 1:12-13  ¹² But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. ¹³ But you say, 'What a weariness this is,' and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD.

It is so easy to get into the “this is boring” mindset.  So many people stop participating in church activities because they are “boring” or “I don’t get anything out of it” or “they don’t need me for that” or just “oh, I don’t do that thing – that’s someone else’s ministry.”  We must always evaluate what God hears us saying about him by our actions.

So, how does God answer his question from verse 13?  Will he accept the half-hearted offerings from the people?

Malachi 1:14 – 2:3 ¹⁴ Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. ¹ "And now, O priests, this command is for you. ² If you will not listen, if you will 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. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. ³ Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.

The lazy offerings of the people had already been rejected by God.  Part of making an offering clean and acceptable involved removing the entrails and their unclean contents from the animal and burning them outside of the camp.  But God declares in vivid imagery that he would disgrace the worshippers by taking that dung and spreading it on their faces.  They might have prepared their offerings in a technically correct manner, but because of their heart attitudes it was is if they had left the unclean elements in.  In the spiritual realm, their hearts of worship were full of dung and uncleanness and just like was done with the entrails would be symbolic of God’s disdain for them – they would be “taken away” with the disposable parts of the offering.  It would be of no benefit to them.  God had completely rejected their worship.

II-C. What Worship is Supposed to be Like (2:5-9)

So what does acceptable worship look like?  Why does God call us to worthy worship and what is the benefit if he is pleased with our offerings?  To show this, God takes the priests back to the beginning when it all started:

Malachi 2:4-7  ⁴ So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. ⁵ My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. ⁶ True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. ⁷ For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

This is a beautiful picture of what God had been aiming for with the establishment of the Levitical priesthood.  The Levites were to be a conduit of God’s blessings to the people and of the people’s devotion to God.

• The covenant with Levi was based on God’s faithfulness (v4).  The LORD of hosts says that it will STAND.  The prophesy of Malachi was for the purpose of upholding it, not destroying it.  In the same way, when God rebukes us it is to get us to return to loving fellowship with Him, not to drive us away.  He wants us to return to Him.
• The covenant with Levi was one of life (v5).  Scripture tells us that the wages of sin is death, and “the soul that sinneth will die”.  But God gave Israel the sacrificial system so that their sins would be covered and that they could live.  He sent his ultimate high priest to pay for our sins and give us eternal life.
• The covenant with Levi was one of peace. As sinners we were enemies of God, and estranged from Him.  The priests of Israel made atonement so that God could dwell in their midst.  When we receive justification through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, we gain peace with God (Romans 5:1) and can experience the peace of  God (Phil 4:7)
• The covenant with Levi was one of grace.  “and I gave them to him.”  The Israelites did not earn salvation or establish the priesthood without God’s reaching out to them first.  It was God’s idea to form the relationship.  As Christians, we were lost in sin when he “shone in our hearts” (2 Cor 4) and quickened us (Eph 2).  He saves us by grace, through faith (Eph 2:8-9).  It is all of Him.
• The covenant with Levi was one of fear.  Levi was brought into proper relationship with God and stood in awe of Him.  We are to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling”.  We must also never lose our reverence and awe of the holiness of God (or we are just not seeing Him correctly.)
• The covenant with Levi was one of knowledge.  God disclosed himself – His name and his attributes and will – to the people through the priests.  He promises that one day “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” “[Hab 2:14]  He wants us to know Him!
• Finally the covenant of Levi was one of holiness. The mouth reflects what is in the heart, and God says of Levi that “no wrong was found on his lips” and “he turned from iniquity”.  When we have true fellowship with God, we are not only saved from our sins legally, we are saved from sinning as we progress in sanctification.  Anything less than this is fake religion and false Christianity.

After reminiscing about the blessings of the Levitical priesthood (as God envisioned it working correctly), He finishes by reminding the priests that this is not where they now are in their sinful corruption of the worship of God:

Malachi 2:8-9  ⁸ But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, ⁹ and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction."

The problem of sin in the priesthood in Israel is that it affected all of the people.  The failure of the priests in Joshua’s day led to the darkness of the time of the Judges.  The sin in the lives of Samuel’s priestly sons led to Israel rejecting God and demanding a king.  The failure of the priests to teach the people and the kings in later days led ignorance of God and the entire nation falling away from Him and exile.  Now that they were back from exile the priests were once again failing to treat God as holy before the people and they were falling away again.  And because of it their relationship with God was cursed.

III Conclusion

After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the whole concept of a separate priestly caste is obsolete.  He has made us to be a nation of kings and priests now.  We now have one High Priest, Jesus Christ, who bridges the gap between us and God the Father. We all have bold and confident access in prayer to the throne of God through the blood of Christ.  In this sense we are all priests to each other and to the unsaved world that does not yet know God.  Our priestly service is no less important than that of the Levitical priests, and it is just as bad – actually much worse – to engage in lazy worship!  We must not get bored and we must not think that God is pleased when we fail to honor Him with our time, treasure, and devotion.  Paul wrote to the Galatians:

Gal 6:7-9  ⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸ For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ⁹ And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

But if Jesus paid in full for our sins and there is nothing more to offer to take care of the wrath of God for our sins, what job do we have as priests?  PLENTY:

Giving of THANKS: Ephesians 5:1-4  ¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. ³But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; ⁴and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

Giving of OFFERINGS:  Phil 4:13-14,18 ¹³I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. ¹⁴Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.  ...¹⁸But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

Evangelism (Giving of the GOSPEL to people and of souls to God): Rom 15:15-16 ¹⁵But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, ¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.   (evangelism is an offering to God)

Giving of PRAISE: Hebrews 13:15-18  ¹⁵Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. ¹⁶And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. ¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. ¹⁸Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

Giving of PRAYER:  1Tim 2:1-6,8  ¹First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, ²for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. ³This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. ... ⁸Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

Giving of OURSELVES:  Romans 12:1  Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

What sacrifices? Be humble, exercise spiritual gifts for health of body of Christ: serve, exhort, lead, show mercy, love and be devoted to one another, hate evil, cling to what is good, prefer others, be diligent and fervent in service, rejoice in hope, persevere in tribulation, be devoted to prayer, give (needs of saints), practice hospitality, bless persecutors, weep with weeping, associate with the lowly, be at peace with all men, don't take revenge but give good for evil, overcoming it thereby!

With so much to do, let’s be sure that we are not guilty of careless or lazy worship!

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