At the church where I serve, we concluded a sermon
series entitled when God speaks. During this series we spent our time together looking at these letters that we often have a tendency to
skip over, which are referred to as the prophets. We discovered who these
letters that we have a tendency to skip over were
written to. We are discovered what these letters that we have a tendency to
skip over reveal about who we are. We are discovered what these letters that we
have a tendency to skip over reveal about the nature of God and God’s activity
in history. And as we went through the series, our hope and prayer was that God
would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts and hands so
that we understand and embrace the timeless and timely truths that these
letters that we often skip over have for our lives.
Now this week as we conclude this
series, I would like for us to look at a letter that is recorded for us in the
Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Malachi, which is the last letter
that was written by a prophet chronologically and is the last letter that is
recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible. Unlike most of the rest of
the prophets that we have looked at during this series, we know essentially
nothing about the prophet himself. Malachi, in Hebrew, means “my messenger”.
However, while we know nothing about
the prophet himself, we do know a great deal about the circumstances that led
Malachi to write this letter. As we have
discovered during this series, while the Lord sent prophets to warn the Jewish
people to return to Him, the Jewish people refused to return to the Lord. As a result, the
Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. Then,
in 586 B.C., the Babylonian Empire conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judea and
destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple. Then, in 539 B.C., the
Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire. The next year, the
Persian Emperor Cyrus began to allowed the Jewish people to return back to Jerusalem
and rebuild their city. By 536 B.C., the Jewish people had rebuilt the altar
and began to worship God again through the Jewish sacrificial system.
However,
while the Jewish people were building their own houses, they failed to rebuild
either the rest of the Temple of the walls around the city of Jerusalem. As we
discovered the past two weeks, the Lord responded by sending the prophets
Haggai and Zechariah to call the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple. In 515
B.C., the temple was completed. In 458 B.C. a man named Ezra returned from
Babylon to Jerusalem and led the Jewish people to repent from selfishness and
rebellion that had once again arisen among the people, which is recorded for us
in the book of Ezra.
14
years later, in 445 B.C. Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem and led the Jewish
people to rebuild the walls around the city, which is recorded for us in the
book of Nehemiah. After traveling back to Babylon, Nehemiah ended up having to
return to Jerusalem in 427 B.C. in order to, once again, confront the
continuing selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people.
So,
150 years after being conquered and carried into captivity by the Babylonian
Empire,; after being allowed to begin to return to Jerusalem as a result of
God’s activity through the Persian Empire; after spending over 100 years
rebuilding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem; the Jewish people were still
selfishly rebelling and rejecting the Lord. And it is in this context that the
Lord sent the prophet Malachi to the Jewish people with a message.
Now
the book of Malachi is written in a unique
question and answer format, as though Malachi is being asked questions by an
audience of the Jewish people. I would like for us to look at two sections of
this letter that serve as bookends of the letter and that reveal the timeless
truth about the nature and character of God and His activity in history. So
let’s look at the first bookend of this letter, which begins in Malachi 1:6:
"'A son
honors his father, and a
servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a
master, where is My respect?' says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who
despise My name.
Now Malachi’s statement, if communicated in the language
we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “It is
common knowledge that a son normally shows honor and respect to his father. It
is common knowledge that a slave normally shows honor and respect to his master
or lord. Well if it is normal to show honor and respect to your earthly father
and earthly master or Lord, then why are you not showing Me the honor and
respect that I rightly deserve and should receive as King and Lord of all?”
Here the Lord is making an accusation against the Jewish
people: “How could you honor and show respect to your earthly fathers and lords
and not show honor and respect to your Heavenly Father and Lord?” Malachi then
revealed the objection that the Jewish people would have to the Lord’s
statement at the end of verse 6. Let’s look at it together:
But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'
The Jewish people’s response was one of denial: “How have
we despised Your name”. The word despised, in the language that this letter was
originally written in, literally means to think lightly of. The Jewish people
denied that they were making light of God instead of making much of God by
bringing glory and honor to God.
But not only did the Jewish people deny the accusation;
the Jewish people also demanded proof of the truth of the accusation: “How have
we despised Your name”. We see Malachi respond to their demand by providing
evidence to support his accusation in verse 7:
"You are presenting defiled food upon
My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled You?' In that you say, 'The table
of the LORD is to be despised.'
Now to understand the evidence that Malachi is presenting
here, we first need to explain how the Jewish people worshipped God in the Old
Testament and then define some terms. When Malachi refers to presenting defiled
food upon My altar, he is referring to the Jewish sacrificial system. In the Jewish sacrificial system, there were
two times every day that sacrifices were made to God for the sins of the
people, one early in the morning and one in the in the late afternoon at 3 p.m.
The sacrificial offerings involved animals who were
offered as a substitute to pay the penalty for acts of selfishness and
rebellion that had been committed against God. There were also burnt offerings
that were offered as an expression of worship and thanksgiving to God. These
sacrifices and offerings were to be made on the altar at the Temple in
Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, God provided the Jewish people very clear and
detailed instructions when it came to when sacrifices and offerings were to be
offered and what was to be offered in those sacrifices.
However, the Jewish people were presenting offerings of
worship to God that were contaminated, polluted, or desecrated in some
way. Malachi then recorded the objection
that the Jewish people would have to God’s accusation-“How have we defiled You?” This response, if communicated in the
language the we use in our culture today, would have sounded like this: “how
have we shown contempt for You and Your Name?”
Malachi, anticipating this response, replied with a
powerful statement: in that you say 'The table of the LORD is to be
despised.” Malachi is revealing the
reality that the Lord was accusing 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. Malachi then provided the evidence of this
lack of honor and respect in verse 8-9:
"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 the Lord in worship shows that you honor and respect the Lord? 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 the Lord, 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 as something to be
endured.
Tomorrow, we will see the Lord’s response to the Jewish
people’s attitude toward Him…
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