A shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord dishonors the Lord...

This week we have been looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Malachi. So far this week, we looked on as the Lord accused the Jewish people of refusing to show honor and respect to Him. The Lord accused the Jewish people of viewing the worship of Him as being something that was to be loathed and viewed with contempt.  The Jewish people were being accused of being so unimpressed with the Lord and thinking so lightly of Him that they failed to give any honor or respect to Him.

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 as something to be endured. We looked on as the Lord made it abundantly clear that He would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that makes light of Him. The Lord would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that is out of duty and that gives Him less than our best. The Lord would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that is driven by duty instead of delight. I

Instead Malachi predicted and proclaimed 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. But not only were the Jewish people dishonoring and despising God through their words; they were also dishonoring and despising God through their actions. The Jewish people decided that the Lord was only worthy of their leftovers and had come to the conclusion that the Lord could be deceived into thinking that they were offering the best when in fact they were offering the worst.

Malachi then proclaimed that the person who attempted to deceive the Lord into thinking that they were giving Him their best when in fact they were giving Him their worst in worship would receive a curse from the Lord. And throughout the book of Malachi, the prophet continued to confront the Jewish people with their rebellion against the Lord and warn the Jewish people of the response that awaited them as a result of their rebellion. We see this reality revealed by Malachi in the conclusion of his letter, which serves as the second bookend of this letter, which begins in Malachi 3:13-15:

"Your words have been arrogant against Me," says the LORD. " "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?'” "You have said, 'It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 'So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.'"

Malachi begins by revealing another accusation which, if communicating in the language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “You have used strong and harsh words against Me when you have talked about Me to others”. And once again, the Jewish people responded to the prophet’s accusation with a plea of ignorance. “What have we said about You that was harsh? We haven’t said anything bad about You.”

After hearing the Jewish people’s denial, Malachi, provided four pieces of evidence of the Jewish people’s strong and harsh words against the Lord. First, the Jewish people were telling others that serving and following the Lord was foolish and worthless. Second, the Jewish people were basically saying “what do we gain by observing His commands? How does it benefit us to walk in His ways?”

Third, the Jewish people were painting a word picture of how a person conducted themselves at a funeral to communicate to others that they no longer found joy on following God. Instead, like attending a funeral, it was a dreadful duty that did not benefit them at all. And fourth, the Jewish people were telling others is that God blesses the arrogant. However, not every Jewish person held such a view of the Lord, as Malachi revealed in verse 16-18:

Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. "They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him." So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

Here we see Malachi explain that there were some Jewish people who still held the Lord in honor; there were some Jewish people who still thought highly and made much of the Lord. And those Jewish people continued to gather together in community to encourage one another to remain faithful to living lives that honored and glorified the Lord. Malachi then explained that the Lord responded by leaning in to listen and that a book of remembrance was written before the Lord for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. This book of remembrance was to serve as a memorial of the faithfulness of the Jewish people who did not buy into the lie that following the Lord was foolish and futile.

A book of remembrance would be written so that, at the end of God’s story here on earth, when every human being will give an account for how they lived their lives here on earth, the book of remembrance would provide the evidence of their faithfulness during their life here on earth. And on that day when the Lord establishes the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense, Malachi explained that those who were faithful to the Lord throughout history will be God’s possession. Just as a father has compassion on his faithful son who serves him, the Lord will have compassion on those who are faithful to Him.

And as a result of the Lord’s activity at the end of God’s story, the prophet explained that all humanity will be able to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. There will be a crystal clear distinction between those are just and right when it comes to their relationship with God and those who are guilty of not being right when it comes to a relationship with God. Malachi then unpacked exactly how this distinction will become so crystal clear in Malachi 4:1-3:

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." "But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.  "You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts.

Here we see Malachi proclaim that, upon the Messiah’s arrival at the end of God’s story here on earth, the Messiah will sift through all of humanity and gather all of those who reject the Lord and the word of the Lord to experience the eternal judgment that awaits those who reject Him. And that judgment, according to Malachi will be thorough and complete. However, for those who honor and glorify the Lord, they will experience the blessings that come from living faithfully and rightly with Him. Those who live in a right relationship with the Lord will experience justice and righteousness in the fullest sense. 

Those who live in a right relationship with the Lord will experience healing from the damage and destruction that selfishness and rebellion have wreaked on the earth. Those who live in a right relationship with the Lord will experience the joy that comes in living in the fullness of the relationship with God that they were created for. And those who live in a right relationship with God will overcome and dominate those who have received God’s right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion upon the Messiah’s coming. Malachi then concluded his letter by reminding the Jewish people of the Lord’s promise of the Messiah and His coming in verses 4-6:

"Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."

Malachi commanded the Jewish people to keep watch and make sure that they followed the Lord’s commands as given to Moses. The reason that they are to make sure to keep and follow the Lord’s commands was due to the fact that the Lord would send Elijah the prophet before the arrival of the Messiah and the ushering in of the kingdom of Heaven. Upon his arrival, Malachi explains that he will be used by God to “restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”

Just as reconciliation within a family involves a turning toward one another to restore the broken relationship, the Lord would take the initiative to restore the broken relationship with humanity. And, it is here, when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and His activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: A shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord dishonors the Lord. Just as it was for the Jewish people of Malachi's day, just as it has been throughout history, a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord dishonors the Lord.

You see, the point of the book of Malachi is that a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord will lead us to give the Lord our leftovers in worship of the Lord. The point of the book of Malachi is that a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord will lead us to view having a relationship with the Lord as a duty rather than a delight. The point of the book of Malachi is that a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord will lead us to have a faulty view of how the Lord responds to those who rebel and reject Him.

And when we give the Lord our leftovers when it comes to worship, we dishonor the Lord. When we view a relationship with the Lord as a duty rather than a delight, we dishonor the Lord. When we have a faulty view when it comes to how the Lord responds to those who rebel and reject Him, we dishonor the Lord.

We dishonor the Lord because our view of worship reveals that we have a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord. We dishonor the Lord because a life of duty to the Lord instead of delight in the Lord reveals that we have a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord. We dishonor the Lord because a faulty view of the Lord’s response to rebellion reveals that we have a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord.

So here is a question to consider: How do you view your relationship with the Lord? Is your relationship with the Lord driven out of duty to the Lord or delight in the Lord?  

Because, as we have discovered, a shallow and insincere relationship with the Lord dishonors the Lord...