Malachi Chats with Us

Malachi Advent I 2014

   Malachi struggled with the same things that we still do as a nation , as a people, as families and as individuals.  The people looked around at others and said, " it is useless to serve God...it the evildoers who are successful."3:14  ( NEB) They had neglected the House of God after returning from captivity ( 100 years later).  The priests did not set the example . Intermarriage between believers and non-believers continued.  Jews were divorcing their wives to marry idolatrous women. ( Halley's Bible Handbook) 2:10-16  They offered diseased and blemished animals in the temple 1:8 as well as neglecting the temple tithes.

    Malachi is quoted in the NT in Matthew 11, Mark 1 and Luke 1 , " Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." ( KJV)  He was speaking of John the Baptist who too faced similar things when he told the people to repent .  There is an attitude as well today in our churches and definitely in the culture that says there are no standards, no accountability and definitely no coming judgment to come.  We must couch all this in the words of Malachi 1 , " I have loved you, saith the LORD." As a father, God wants His children to live well in His love.  But we do not see it that way as a culture.  We wish to throw out the commandments, scatter the standards of God's law and not worry about statements as we read in our alternate Gospel from Mark, " But of that day and that hour knoweth no man...Take ye heed, watch and pray : for ye know not when the time is."13:32

     Point 1 is that God sets standards not to put shackles and constraints on us but to give us His love through His law.  I love God the most when I obey Him. " He came to warn them that a day was coming, burning as an oven...because God loved them. Every message of coming judgment or blessing is a message of love,--- whether spoken in words that sound harsh, and severe, revealing to them their true condition, or in words of tenderness, and comfort and wooing pathos." G Campbell Morgan, Malachi's Message for Today 

  A father's two daughters were begging him for permission to see the latest movie, which happened to be rated R with their friends. When he denied their request, their pleading only intensified. " It's only rated R because it has just a little bad language and just a few scenes that are bad," they reasoned.  Later that night, the father baked some brownies for the daughters.  They dug in and said how much they liked them. " You like them.?" said the father " Oh yes, they are great" said the daughters.  " That's interesting because I used a new recipe" he said . " Oh yeah, what's that?" they asked.  " Well I've always heard that, if you add a little dash of dog droppings to the brownies it gives them a distinct taste that people love, " he said straight-faced.  The daughters immediately stopped chewing. " You're kidding!" cried one as she spat the brownie from her plate.  The father said he would never serve such a dish because even a small amount of some things is completely unacceptable.  The girls agreed that R rated movies were not for them. ( as in Sermon Illustrations sermoncentral.com )

    Point 2 is that the priests did the ungodly thing and the people and the nation followed. 2:7 says , " For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for h e is the messenger of the LORD of hosts."  Instead of offering their best at the worship they offered, " the blind for sacrifice...and the lame and sick"  Malachi challenges them.  You would not offer such to the governor, would you? 1:8  The Lord says, " I have no pleasure in you." This is echoed in the NT when the Apostle tells the Corinthians that there are" divisions among you." 11:18 and they come together not to eat the Lord's supper but to feed themselves." One is hungry and another is drunken." I Cor 11:21

      The priests were intermarrying with the unbelieving pagan women around them and then they were divorcing their own wives to do it. Malachi 2:11 " Judah hath dealt treacherously , and an abomination is committed in Israel...for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD  which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god."  The Apostle again admonishes the Christians in Corinth in 2 Cor. 6:4 " Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"  So we see this is not just an Old Testament idea.  It is an idea that runs through the Scriptures.

      Lastly, they were stealing from the temple. " Will a man rob God ? Yet have ye robbed me.  Be ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings....Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse...and I will open the windows of heaven , and pour out a blessing." Malachi 3:10  The NT endorses the idea of thoughtful giving. " Every man according as he purposes in his heart ,let him give, not grudgingly , or of necessity : for God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Cor 9:7

       What was the fix? Make a covenant with God and keep it. " Return unto me , and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts." 3:7  " Then they that feared the LORD  spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened and heard it."  " Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." 4:2 

       There is always hope for individuals who return to God if they turn from their own way and follow God's laws and His love.  " The LORD  heard" " He bent over them and attended to them, caught every syllable that fell from their lips, every intonation and inflection of their voices; and amid all the discord of that awful day in which man had wandered from Him, and forgotten Him, here was music for Him, something satisfying even to His heart---an Elect Remnant that feared Him, thought upon His name, and spake one to another." (Morgan)