As
we continue our very quick look at the book of Malachi, I want to remind you of
where we ended things last Sunday. You
see, the majority of the first two chapters of this book is really just one
long list of condemnations of both the priests and the people of
Jerusalem. We looked last week at the
first fourteen verses and what we ultimately took away from them was that
Israel showed great apathy towards God.
They gave to Him the things that they either didn’t care for or didn’t
want instead of giving their firstfruits and their best. We talked about how we have to be very
careful ourselves of falling into the trap of allowing the world to dictate our
faith. We have to take steps or measures
to make sure that we are giving to God out of our best and our first and not
just what is left over after we have given to all the other areas of our lives.
As
we begin looking at chapter two of Malachi, we find a very stern and harsh
condemnation of the priests in Jerusalem.
God, speaking through Malachi, tells the priests that not only will He
curse them, but that He has already done so.
They were not only failing to honor God, but they were going even
further and actually dishonoring Him. It
was one thing for the people to bring the lame animals to sacrifice, but the
priests accepting such sacrifices was taking things to an entirely different
level. When I let my kids dress
themselves, there is usually some assortment of rubber boots, capes, or
mismatched clothes involved. For them to
pick out such clothes is one thing, but for me to throw them in the car are go
to school dressed like that is a whole different matter. Now, that’s not an exact comparison, but you
get the picture. When a person of
authority, in this case the priests, allows those under their supervision to
get away with lackluster efforts and practices, then the person of authority is
at fault even more so than those under his/her supervision. The priests no longer resemble their ancestor
Levi, this obviously referring to how God set apart the tribe of Levi as God’s
priests. The priests no longer resemble
the ones who have been entrusted with the task of caring for and keeping pure
and holy the places and practices of worship and sacrifice. Now, I’m not taking any of the blame away
from the people of Israel, but it’s pretty easy to see that the corruption and
apathy of the priests didn’t help the situation as it pertained to the devotion
and commitment of the people to God. The
priests acted in a manner which enabled the people of Israel to continue in
their apathy and corruption, which in turn led to a worsening of the spiritual
condition of Israel.
One
of the responsibilities that I have to have as a pastor and as the shepherd of
this flock, this congregation, is that I have to be willing to make the
unpopular statement or to call someone to the carpet when it is necessary or
required. If I’m not willing to do so,
then things would begin to degrade within both the church and the lives of my
people, and over time there would become a real faith issue within both the
church and the people. Imagine if a
pastor found out about some adulterous affair between members of his church and
he did and said nothing about it (and I’m not talking about making a scene
here). Well, eventually those types of
things spread to either worse behaviors, or to more people. Well, that’s exactly what happened with
Israel. I’m sure it started out with
only a few people bringing a less-than-worthy sacrifice, but they were not
admonished as they ought to have been. Instead
of rejecting their offerings as less than adequate, the priests accepted
them. The priests were so lax in their
responsibilities that they allow such behavior to continue and over time
increase. The priests allowed all of
Israel’s faiths to degrade instead of nurturing them to a healthy status like
they ought to have done. Now, remember,
I’m not absolving the people of any wrongdoing, but I’m simply pointing out
that the behavior of the priests didn’t help matters.
After
spending a good deal of time on the priests, Malachi turns his attention to the
people of Jerusalem in general. Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another,
profaning the covenant of our fathers?
It’s not like many of us today go around openly saying that we either
dislike God or that we have chosen other things to place above Him. It’s rare, almost unheard of even, for
someone to list their priorities and say something like: family, friends, job, vacations, and then
somewhere down in the low teens list God.
You would never find someone, at least a Christian, who would say
this. When asked, we all give the
priorities in the form of the 3 F’s:
Faith, family, and friends, and usually we say it in that order. However, what order do our actions place our
priorities in? Remember, we said last
Sunday that saying that we are going to do something and actually doing it are
two totally different things. Saying
that we believe something and actually believing it are different as well.
In
our text today, the men of Israel were taking pagan wives, divorce was running
rampant for no reason, and people were pretty much doing whatever they wanted
to without any recourse. What’s even
more unsettling is that fact that in verse 13 it seems as if the people of
Israel don’t really know why God would be unhappy with their sacrifices. The fact that they were living immoral lives
and inadequately worshipping God was completely lost on them. Once again, I often fear that our modern
state of things mirrors that of Israel during Malachi’s time. We love God.
I don’t think that there is a person here today that would disagree with
that statement. However, I do fear that
our actions, much like that of Israel, would indicate that maybe our commitment
isn’t what it ought to be.
We
all want to please God and we want to do our best in terms of living out our
faith, but we allow so many other things to get in the way. We allow other things in our lives to take
precedence and priority over our relationship with Him. However, we’re very quick to turn to God in
times of trouble and to ask why we are being punished. Now, let me clear one thing up, I’m not saying
that our hardships and struggles come about as punishment for things that we
have done or not done. What I’m saying
is that we wonder why we aren’t rewarded like we think we ought to be. Well, Israel was in that same boat. They wondered why their less than acceptable
lives and offerings were not well received by God. Like many Christians today, they just assumed
that the point was that they were giving something to God and that as long as
they were doing that then everything was okay.
Imagine
if you will, a man or woman or family that regularly attend church. Let’s say that that family has been very
fortunate in terms of their prosperity; they want for nothing really. This person or family gives to the church in
terms of donations and volunteering every so often. However, their giving is in no way
proportionate to what they have and their volunteering is really more
self-serving than that of serving others.
Let’s say that their lives outside of church reflect in no way a close
personal relationship with the Lord. We
often see people like this portrayed on TV and in movies. For example, it’s not uncommon for career
criminals to be involved in church and everyone knows what they do, but their
faith changes nothing of their lives outside of worship. Do we really think that this type of person
is offering up a pleasing sacrifice to God?
Now, we have to remember that in terms of our sacrificing to God, Jesus
Christ has already been offered up as our once-for-all sacrifice; a fact that I
am very thankful for because none of us are even remotely capable of offering
up a sacrifice that is completely worthy of God. However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t
try or that it doesn’t matter what we do since our sacrifice has already been
made.
We
know that we live on this side of Christ.
We know that we live on this side of the cross and the resurrection, but
our failures are just as glaring as those of Israel during the time of
Malachi. Malachi points out much of
Israel’s failures by talking about their breaking of the covenant of marriage. However, we don’t want to limit this condemnation
strictly to marriage, although we cannot dismiss it from applying to marriage
either. What Malachi is doing here is
pointing to one of the many ways in which the people of Israel have defiled the
ordinances, statutes, and commands of God.
He’s pointing to one of the ways in which we corrupt a gift and blessing
that God has given us today.
The
bottom line of all of this for us today is that our lives are our offerings to
God. We are to present ourselves as a
living sacrifice to God. What that looks
like, is both the devotion and commitment to strengthening that relationship
that we talked about last Sunday, and our keeping of His statutes in our daily
lives as well. I’ve said numerous times
from this very pulpit that the greatest witness that we have to those around us
is the way in which we live our lives and conduct ourselves as God’s
children. Our lives are also the
greatest gift that we have to offer up to God’s service. If we take the basic principle of God giving
to us and our returning a portion of it back to Him, then it makes complete
sense in terms of our living. God has
given us life. Each of us has had
thousands or millions of moments where we could have been plucked from this
earth. Myself, I stand before you a
child who was born 9 weeks early, weighing three pounds, having spent the first
few months of my life in an incubator, as the only child of parents who had to
deal with the tragedy of miscarriage prior to my being born. I’m someone who has done a lot of dumb things
in my life where I’m lucky I didn’t get killed.
I’m sure all of you have similar types of experiences. God has given us the lives that we have. It’s really not asking too much for us to
give back to Him in the form of Christian service. God doesn’t call us to spend every waking
moment in the context of a worship service.
He gives us our jobs, our recreational activities, and our friends and
family as things to enjoy. What He does
command of us, however, is that we conduct ourselves in all of these areas of
life, and every other area of life, as children of grace. He calls all of us to live our lives and
conduct ourselves as hearers and receivers of the good news of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Shouldn’t our response to
all that God has given us and blessed us with be to offer up our lives, and all
of it, as a worthy sacrifice? Should
there ever be a part of our lives when we are able to set God aside and live as
if He hasn’t called us to be His children?
Let your lives be your worship, your sacrifice to God. And if you are someone who thinks that they
need help in this area, it would be a great privilege and honor for myself and
this church to help you along this path.
Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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