This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of Malachi, where Malachi confronts the pastors of his day for failing to fulfill the roles and responsibility that they have as pastors to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves as the One True God. Yesterday, in Malachi 2:1-4, Malachi called the pastors of his day to repent from giving God less than their best when it came to fulfilling their role and responsibility. Malachi called the pastors of his day to repent from being unimpressed with God that resulted in them fulfilling their roles and responsibilities out of duty and as a tiresome nuisance that gave Him what is of little value and worth. Malachi then explained that just as the unclean refuse of the offerings was carried away to be discarded outside the camp, the pastors would be removed from serving the Lord in utter disgrace if they refused to repent from their selfishness and rebellion.
Today we will see Malachi, as God’s spokesman, provide the pastors of his day a history lesson when it came to how they came to be pastors in Malachi 2:5:
"My covenant with him 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.
Here we see God bring the pastors back to a story that is recorded for us in a section of the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Numbers. After being delivered from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt, instead of embracing a relationship with God, the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against God, which caused an entire generation of the Jewish people to die off in the wilderness. And it is in that context that we read the following story in Numbers 25:1-13:
While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel. The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor." Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. Those who died by the plague were 24,000. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. "Therefore say, 'Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.'"
As a result of the reverent respect and awe that Phinehas displayed for God, God entered into a covenant relationship with him and his descendants that they would be the priests, or the pastors of the Jewish people. In this covenant agreement would give the priests life and peace as long as the priests held a reverent awe that gave honor to God. Malachi then unpacks for us what that reverent awe and honor looked like in the lives of Phinheas and the other pastors in verses 6-7. Let’s look at it together:
"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. "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.
In these verses, God, through Malachi, is revealing the expectations that He had for pastors as they fulfilled the role and responsibility that they have been given. First, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to preach and teach the truth of the word of God. The true instruction the God refers to in verse 6 refers to the Law, which were the first five books that are recorded for us in our Bibles today. Phinehas had a passion for the truth of God’s word and communicating God’s word.
Second, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to speak in ways that are marked by righteousness and justice. Phinehas did not speak unjustly in ways that promoted injustice. Instead, Phinehas speech was marked with words that were true, right, and just.
Third, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to live lives of integrity. When Malachi uses the word peace, this word conveys the sense of completeness of wholeness. The word uprightness conveys the sense of standing firm and living right before the Lord. Phinehas lived a life of integrity before the Lord. He lived a complete life; publicly and privately, that was faithfully following Jesus.
And fourth, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to live lives that lead people away from selfishness and rebellion and to Jesus. Phinehas was used by God in a powerful way to bring repentance from selfishness and rebellion.
In verse 7, Malachi then provides the reason why these expectations are so essential for pastors in order for them to fulfill the role and responsibility that they have been given: “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.” In other words, a pastor is responsible to be the type of a person who keeps watch over and guards the truth about God and the word of God in a way that results in people having the confidence that they could come and would be able to receive clear and accurate guidance and direction that comes from God and the word of God. These are essential because, as Malachi points out, a pastor is a messenger who is responsible to deliver God’s message to God’s people and to all humanity.
A pastor’s job description is to live a life of Christ-like character and integrity that calls people away from selfishness and rebellion and to follow his leadership as He follows Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching and teaching of the word of God. And that should be my job description and that is what you should hold me accountable for, because that is what God says He will hold me accountable for.
Tomorrow, we will see Malachi contrast God’s expectations with the pastors of his day’s performance…
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