This week, we are looking at a letter in our Bibles where
God is challenging the Jewish people of taking a detour when it came to their
worship of Him. Tuesday, we saw Malachi reveal the reality that God was
accusing the Jewish people of viewing the worship of Him as being something
that was to be loathed and viewed with contempt. God is accusing the Jewish people of failing
to approach the altar and the worship that would occur at the altar with any
respect. The Jewish people were being accused of being so unimpressed with God
and thinking so lightly of God that they failed to give any honor or respect to
God. Malachi then continues to speak for God and provide the evidence of this
lack of honor and respect in 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 governor? Would he
be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the LORD of
hosts. "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.
Now this evidence, if communicated in the language we use
today, would have sounded something like this: “Don’t you think it is
dishonoring and disrespectful to offer up to God that which God has
specifically said was not to be offered to Him in worship? I mean, do you hold
animals that are blind, handicapped, or weak and sickly as being very valuable?
No, you consider blind, handicapped, and weak and sick animals as being of
little value and worth. So do you think that giving those animals to God in worship
shows that you honor and respect God?
Would you take animals that were blind, handicapped,
sick, or weak and give them to any political leader that you wanted to honor?
Would any earthly political leader and ruler be pleased with you and accept
them favorably? No, of course they wouldn’t. They would feel dishonored and
disrespected because you are giving them less than your best, you would be
giving them your leftovers. So what makes you think that giving God, the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords, your leftovers would result in a different
response? If such an offering would not earn the favor of an earthly ruler,
what makes you think that such an offering would earn that favor of the King
and Lord of all?
You see, as far as the Jewish people were concerned,
worship was a duty that needed to be done. There was no excitement about
worship; there was no sense of expectancy when it came to worship; and there
was no delight in worship. Instead, worship was done out of duty with loathing;
worship was viewed with contempt; worship was something that was endured.
Does that describe how you feel about worship? Is Sunday
morning worship something you get to do? Or is Sunday morning worship something
you got to do? Do you show up Sunday morning with an expectation that you will
experience and encounter God through the music, the message, the times of
giving and prayer? Do you show up Sunday
morning with an excitement that results in a response of giving God the best of
your head, heart, and hands in worship? Or do you show up Sunday morning with
an apathetic attitude that gives God whatever you have left over from the rest
of the weekend? Is gathering together in community to worship on Sundays a duty
or a delight? And does it matter?
You may be here this morning and you may be thinking to
yourself “Dave does it really matter? Whether it is duty or delight, God is
still being worshipped. I’m putting my time in. I mean does God really care?”
Malachi provides us God’s answer to these questions in 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.
God’s response is straightforward and to the point: “Oh,
I just wish that one of you would close the doors and lock them tight. If that
is how you are going to approach worship, I just wish one of you would cancel
church. I just wish you would cancel your worship services, because you acts of
worship are useless to Me. I do not find any pleasure or delight in your
worship. And I will not accept your worship of Me favorably.”
God makes it abundantly clear that He would rather that
we not worship at all than receive worship that makes light of Him. God would
rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that is not impressed
with Him. God would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that
is out of duty and that gives God less than our best. God would rather that we
not worship at all than receive worship that is driven by the motivation that worship
is something I got to do and is viewed with contempt.
Now you might be thinking “well Dave, God needs my
worship, doesn’t He? And God gets honor and glory regardless of whether my
worship is done out of duty rather than delight, doesn’t He?” Malachi provides
the answer to this question in the form of an amazing prophecy in 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.
Here we see Malachi predict and proclaim that in the
future all of the nations would honor and make much of God. From as far as the
east is to the west, individuals across continents and cultures would respond
to who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do by
worshipping Him.
A little over 400 years after this letter was written,
God sent His Son Jesus, who entered into humanity as God-in-a-bod and allowed
Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that
God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Jesus came
with a mission to seek and save the lost from the selfishness and rebellion
that separated them from God so that they could have the opportunity to
experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for
by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.
Jesus passed that mission on to
His followers and Divinely designed the church to be the vehicle that He used
to reveal His Son Jesus and His message of rescue through the message of the
gospel to the world. In 70 A.D., the doors were permanently shut by the Romans
when they destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, thus practically putting an end
to the Jewish religious system’s ability to function. And throughout the
history of Christianity, followers of Jesus have embraced God and advanced that
mission in a way that has produced transformation and has resulted in God being
honored and glorified.
Tomorrow, we will see Malachi
transition to reveal the present problem that plagued the Jewish people…
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