God's response to a relationship with Him that is driven by duty instead of delight....

This week we are looking 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. Yesterday we began  to look at the first section of this letter that serves as a bookend of the letter and that reveal the timeless truth about the nature and character of God and His activity in history.

In Malachi 1:6-9, we looked on as the Lord made 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?” The Jewish people’s response was one of denial: “How have we despised Your name”. 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”.

Malachi responded to the denial and demand by providing evidence to support his accusation in that the Jewish people were presenting offerings of worship to God that were contaminated, polluted, or desecrated in some way.  Malachi also revealed 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 that, 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.

Today, we see Malachi provide the Lord’s response to their attitude toward the Lord in Malachi 1:10-11:

"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. "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.

The Lord’s response was 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.”

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.

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. After predicting and proclaiming, the future, Malachi transitioned to reveal the present problem that plagued the Jewish people in verse 12-14:

"But you are profaning it, in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.'  "You also say, 'My, how tiresome it is!' And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the LORD of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?" says the LORD. "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the LORD of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations."

Unlike the future, Malachi confronted the Jewish people with the reality that they were profaning the name of the Lord. In other words, the Jewish people were dishonoring and despising the Lord. The Jewish people were dishonoring the Lord by readily acknowledging that their worship was polluted and contaminated as the result of their failure to follow the very clear and detailed instructions of the Jewish sacrificial system.

Yet, in spite of that acknowledgment, the Jewish people still viewed the idea of even having to worship God with loathing and contempt. Their complaint, if communicated in the language we use today, would have sounded something like this: “What a nuisance it is to have to go to church this morning. There are so many things that I could and would rather be doing then going to church. I could be on the lake, I could be camping, in the fall I could watch football; I could be shopping, I could sleep in; this whole church thing is just so wearisome. Church just gets old, you know. What a drag.”

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 were stealing from one another, and then were giving to the Lord what they had stolen in worship. In our day, it would be similar to someone robbing a Circle K and then bringing that money to church and putting it into the offering as an act of worship. In addition, 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 we will look at on Friday…

An accusation over an attitude problem...

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…

In the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer...

This week we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of Zechariah. We looked on as the Lord proclaimed to the Jewish people who had returned from captivity to the Jewish nation “What I have to say to you now that I have brought you back into the land that I promised you is the same thing that I said to your parents and grandparents before I removed them from the land. As I have always said, what I require of you is to demonstrate your love for Me by how you love and treat those around you. You are to demonstrate your love for Me by promoting justice and kindness towards one another. You are to demonstrate your love for Me by refusing to exploit the poor and marginalized among you. However, your parents and grandfathers refused to listen to my spokesman the prophets who I sent to warn them. Instead, the hardened their hearts and refused to listen to Me or obey Me. Therefore, I treated them in the same way that they treated Me. Just as they refused to listen to Me, I refused to listen to them and instead exercised my right and just response to their rebellion by sending them into captivity in Babylon.”

However, in the midst of the rebellion of the Jewish people; in the midst of the Lord exercising His right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people by sending them into captivity in Babylon, the Lord still had a plan for the Jewish people. A plan that Zechariah reveals in Zechariah 8:1-8:

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, ² "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.' ³ "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.' ⁴ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. ⁵ 'And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.' ⁶ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight?' declares the LORD of hosts. ⁷ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; ⁸ and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.'

Here we see the Lord proclaim to the Jewish people that there would be a day in the future when the Lord Himself would return and dwell in the city of Jerusalem. There would be a day in the future when the city of Jerusalem would be recognized as a bastion of truth. There would be a day in the future when the Temple of the Lord would be viewed as set apart to the Lord.  There would be a day in the future where the young and old would dwell in safety and security in the city. There would be a day in the future when the Lord would bring the Jewish people from across the planet to dwell in the presence of the Lord in the right relationship with the Lord that they were created for. And just a few verses later, we see the Lord continue to proclaim His promises and plans for the Jewish people in Zechariah 8:14-17:

"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and I have not relented, ¹⁵ so I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear! ¹⁶ 'These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. ¹⁷ 'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD."

Here we see the Lord remind the Jewish people of Zechariah’s day that He was a promise maker and a promise keeper. The Lord reminded the Jewish people that just as He fulfilled His promise to exercise His right and just response to their past selfishness and rebellion if they continued in that rebellion, He has promised to bring good upon the Jewish people. The Jewish people were not to look back in fear of their past. And the Jewish people were not to live in fear in the present.

Instead the Jewish people were to live in the land that the Lord had returned them to in a way that promoted truth, justice, and peace with one another as they lived in community with one another as the people of God. The Jewish people were to reject the selfishness and falsehood that marked the lives of the Jewish people prior to being conquered and led captive by the Babylonian Empire. The Jewish people were to move away from their past rebellion and opposition against the Lord and one another and move towards a life that trusted in the promises of the Lord so as to obey the Lord and represent the Lord to the nations of the world. We see this reality revealed to us in Zechariah 8:18-23:

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ¹⁹ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.' ²⁰ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. ²¹ 'The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go." ²² 'So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.' ²³ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

The Lord proclaimed to the Jewish people “you know those four days of sadness and fasting that you have done to commemorate the major disasters connected with the fall of Jerusalem that came as a result of your selfishness and rebellion: Well, in the future those days will become times of joy and gladness for the Jewish people. So make sure that in the present you are leaning into lives that love what is true and what promotes harmony with one another as you live in community with one another. You are to live such lives, understanding that there will be a day in the future when the nations of the world will come to Jerusalem to seek the favor of the Lord.

There will be a day in the future when the nations of the Lord will seek you as a people because they recognize the reality that I am present with you as you live in a right relationship with Me. There will be a day in the future when your right relationship with Me will cause the nations of the world to recognize My presence with you so that they would desire to seek and know Me as well. Then, just a few verses later, we see Zechariah proclaim one of the clearest promises of the Messiah that has been fulfilled by Jesus in all the letters that make up the Bible. So let’s look at that promise together, which is found in Zechariah 9:9-10:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰ I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.

And a little over 500 years after proclaiming this promise, we see Jesus fulfill this promise in Matthew 21:1-11:

When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ "If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ⁵ "SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, 'BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.'" ⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" ¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee."

Now you might be here this morning, and at this point a question or objection has been raised in your mind. And if we were to have a conversation in the courtyard coffeehouse, the conversation would sound something like this: “Well Dave, what about all the stuff that Zechariah said in verse 10. I mean, if Jesus actually fulfilled this prediction and promise, then all of the things in verse 10 should have happened too. But they haven’t happened. So how can you say that Jesus actually fulfilled this prediction and promise and is the Messiah?” 

If that question or objection is running through your mind, I want to let you know that you have a fair question. And my response to your question and objection is this: The reason why what is predicted and promised in verse 10 did not take place is because the Jewish people rejected Jesus as their Messiah. And because the Jewish people refused to place their confident trust in Jesus as their Messiah, because the Jewish people continued to rebel and reject the Lord, verse 10, like the previous promises and predictions that we have looked at this morning are for a day in the future. And in that day in the future, the Jewish people will recognize the gravity of rebelling against the Lord and rejecting Jesus as Messiah. We see this reality revealed for us just a few chapters later, in Zechariah 12:10:

"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

Here we see Zechariah proclaim that, on that day in the future, the Lord will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, pour upon the Jewish people His grace and compassion. And in His grace and compassion, the eyes of the Jewish people will be opened to see that Jesus was the fulfillment of His promise to send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, to bring the Jewish people, and all people, back to God. And on that day in the future, when Jesus returns to earth to usher in the kingdom of Heaven in its fullest sense, the Jewish people will see Him whom their forefathers wrongly rejected and handed Him over to be pierced by crucifixion.

Now remember, this was written over 500 years before Jesus entered into humanity to live the life humanity refused to live and die the death that humanity deserved to die. And on the day in the future, as the Jewish people see Jesus, they will weep bitterly like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. The Jewish people will recognize that they missed and rejected Jesus and will weep over the loss of the blessings that their ancestors missed as a result of that rejection. However, upon Jesus return, Zechariah reveals the promise of what is to come for the Jewish people and all humanity in Zechariah 14:9:

And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.

Upon Jesus return, Jesus will defeat selfishness, sin, and death and will usher in the spiritual and the earthly blessing of the kingdom yet be fulfilled for the Jewish people as well, which is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the Millennial Kingdom. During the time of the Millennial Kingdom, the Lord will dwell with the Jewish people who placed their confident trust in Jesus, and who will experience the fulfillment of the promises that the Lord made to the Jewish people. During the time of the Millennial Kingdom, Jesus will rule and reign as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus will rule and reign as a result of being the One True God and the One True King.

And, it is here, when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: In the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer. You see, the point of the book of Zechariah is that the Lord is just and will execute justice upon the wrongdoing and injustice of those who rebel and reject Him. Yet in the midst of the Jewish people’s rebellion and rejection of the Lord, the Lord offered hope in the promise of a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, who would bring the Jewish people back to the Lord.

And just like the Jewish people, all of humanity has done things that hurt and wronged the Lord and others as a result of our rebellion and rejection of the Lord. And just like the Jewish people, in the midst of our rebellion and rejection of the Lord, the Lord offered hope in the promise of a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, who would provide all humanity the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for. In the midst of our rebellion, the Lord promised that whoever responded to that hope by responding to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader would be rescued from God’s right and just response to selfishness and rebellion to live in relationship with the Lord as part of the people of the Lord.

So here is a question to consider: How will you respond to the reality that, in the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer?  How will you respond to the offer of rescue that the Lord extends through the fulfillment of His promise of rescue through His Son Jesus?

Because, in the midst of our rebellion, the Lord offers the hope of a rescuer…

When we refuse to learn the lesson...

At the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled When God speaks. During this series we are spending our time together looking at these letters that we often have a tendency to skip over, which are referred to as the prophets. We are discovering who these letters that we have a tendency to skip over were written to. We are discovering what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about who we are. We are discovering 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 go through this series, our hope and prayer is 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.

This week I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Zechariah, which is the next letter that was written by a prophet chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the Bible, where they are organized by size. So let’s look at the man and the message of the Book of Zechariah.

Now, as we discovered last week, after the Lord removed the Jewish people from the Promised Land and destroyed the Temple through the Babylonian Empire, the Jewish people lived as a conquered people in captivity in the nation of Babylon from 586 to 538 B.C..  Then, in 538 B.C., as predicted and proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah, the Persian Emperor Cyrus, after conquering the Babylonian Empire, began to allow the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.

Under the leadership of a man named, Zerubbabel, who was the governor of the Jewish people, and Joshua, who was the high priest of the Jewish people, some 50,000 Jews returned in 538 B.C. and began to rebuild the temple. However, after some immediate opposition, work on the Temple ceased. And, for the next eighteen years, the Temple remained in ruins. And it is in the context that God raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah to deliver His message to the Jewish people who had returned from exile to the Jewish nation.

In Zechariah 1:1, we discover that Zechariah was both a prophet and a priest. Zechariah then explained that, “in the eighth month of the second year of Darius”, which was in November of 520 B.C., Zechariah was sent by the Lord to deliver a message from the Lord to the Jewish people. This means that Zechariah’s message from the Lord would have been given between Haggai’s 1st and 2nd messages, which we looked at last week. Thus, the Lord sent both Haggai and Zechariah to confront the Jewish people, when it came to how they were living their lives in relationship to the Lord after the Lord had brought them back to the Jewish nation.  

While Haggai focused on the Jewish people’s misplaced priorities, Zechariah was sent by the Lord to deliver a different message. As a matter of fact, the book of Zechariah contains more predictions concerning Jesus Christ than any other minor prophet. So let’s jump into this letter that is found in the Old Testament of our Bibles, because it is in this letter that we will discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of the Lord and His activity in history that has the potential to powerfully impact how we view the Lord.

In December of 518 B.C., a little over two years after proclaiming his original message to the Jewish people, we see Zechariah respond to a question that he was asked by the Jewish people that described the state of the Jewish people. So let’s look at that question and Zechariah’s response beginning in Zechariah 7:1-4:

In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. ² Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD, ³ speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?"

Now to fully understand the question that was being asked Zechariah, we first need to understand something about the Jewish people and how they lived while in exile during their 70 years in Babylon. While living in captivity in Babylon, the Jewish people practiced four days of fasting to commemorate the major disasters connected with the fall of Jerusalem.

In the 4th month, the Jewish people fasted to commemorate the walls of the city being breached. In the 5th month the Jewish people fasted to commemorate the day that Jerusalem was conquered. In the 7th month the Jewish people fasted to commemorate the assassination of the appointed governor, Gedaliah, which led to the Jewish people fleeing to the nation of Egypt. And in the 10th month, the Jewish people fasted to commemorate the day that the siege of the city of Jerusalem had begun.

However, now the Jewish people were back home in the Jewish nation, having returned after spending 70 years in captivity. So the question being raised was “Shall we continue these observances now that we are back in the land?” We see the Lord’s response through Zechariah, to this question in verse 4-7:

 ⁴ Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ⁵ "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ⁶ 'When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? ⁷ 'Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?'"

In other words, the Lord basically said to the Jewish people “when you fasted those 70 years while in Babylon, were you actually fasting to create space to hear from Me? And now that you have returned to the land that I promised to give you, when you feast and celebrate your return, you feast and celebrate yourselves and not Me. Is this not exactly what you were warned about by all the previous prophets who I sent to you before I sent you into captivity by the hand of the Babylonian Empire? How you acted when in captivity was no different than how you acted before I sent you into captivity”. We then see what else the Lord had to say through Zechariah in verse 8-14:

Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying, ⁹ "Thus has the LORD of hosts said, 'Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; ¹⁰ and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.' ¹¹ "But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. ¹² "They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. ¹³ "And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts; ¹⁴ "but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate."

Here we see the Lord proclaim to the Jewish people “What I have to say to you now that I have brought you back into the land that I promised you is the same thing that I said to your parents and grandparents before I removed them from the land. As I have always said, what I require of you is to demonstrate your love for Me by how you love and treat those around you. You are to demonstrate your love for Me by promoting justice and kindness towards one another. You are to demonstrate your love for Me by refusing to exploit the poor and marginalized among you. However, your parents and grandfathers refused to listen to my spokesman the prophets who I sent to warn them. Instead, the hardened their hearts and refused to listen to Me or obey Me. Therefore, I treated them in the same way that they treated Me. Just as they refused to listen to Me, I refused to listen to them and instead exercised my right and just response to their rebellion by sending them into captivity in Babylon.”

However, in the midst of the rebellion of the Jewish people; in the midst of the Lord exercising His right and just response to the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people by sending them into captivity in Babylon, the Lord still had a plan for the Jewish people.

A plan that Zechariah reveals in Zechariah 8. A plan that we will look at on Friday...

God deserves, desires and demands to be our highest priority...

Last week we were looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Haggai. We looked on as the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against the Lord by failing to place the Lord first in their lives. Instead, despite the Lord’s activity through Cyrus that provided them the opportunity to return from exile to their own country, the Jewish people selfishly placed themselves first. And because of their selfishness and rebellion against the Lord that placed themselves over the Lord, the Jewish people experienced economic insecurity from the hand of the Lord.

We looked on as the Lord commanded the Jewish people to stop delaying and to start rebuilding the Temple. And is His command, we see the Lord call the Jewish people to consider their ways. The Lord wanted the Jewish people to consider that the way that they were living their lives resulted in economic ruin and poverty. And the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that the reason that they were experiencing economic ruin and poverty was due to the fact that they had selfishly placed themselves and their plans before the Lord and His commands.

The Lord wanted the Jewish people to consider that the way that they were living their lives resulted in the Lord bringing a drought upon the Jewish people. And the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that the reason that they were experiencing a drought was due to the fact that they had selfishly placed themselves and their plans before the Lord and His commands.

After spending 23 days finishing the harvest season while preparing and planning how they would go about rebuilding the Temple, the Jewish people began the work of rebuilding the Temple. And as the Jewish people began the work of rebuilding the Temple, the Lord proclaimed a promise to the Jewish people: “I am with you”. The Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand the He would be present with them and would empower them to rebuild the Temple as they strove to place the Lord first and follow His plans and commands.

We looked on as Haggai delivered a second message from the Lord. As the Jewish people had laid the foundations of the Temple, hopes were running high among the Jewish people who grew up living as a captive in the nation of Babylon. Hopes were running high because they had never had the opportunity to see the Temple that was built by Solomon, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

However, for those who were older and who had seen the glory of Solomon’s temple, hopes were not high. Instead they were incredibly disappointed, as they viewed the foundation of the Temple as though it “seemed like nothing” in comparison to Solomon’s Temple. The Lord proclaimed a command, promise His presence, and provide a promise for the future. Even though the Temple that they were building seemed like nothing in comparison to the Temple in the Days of King Solomon, the Lord commanded the Jewish people to take courage and continue the work that they had began to rebuild the Temple. 

The Jewish people were to take courage and continue the work that they had began because although the temple being constructed was very humble, the Lord promised that there would be a day in the future when the nations would bring their treasures to it in the times when God would fill His house with glory. The Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that when our lives seem like “nothing in comparison” remember that God is in the midst of the small things. The Lord wanted the Jewish people to live their lives in a way that did not despise the small things. Instead, the Lord wanted the Jewish people to remember that the Lord was present with them, even in the small things, and often worked in and through the small things to accomplish great things in the future. Today, we see Haggai deliver the third of four messages from the Lord to the Jewish people in Haggai 2:10-19. So let’s look at that message together:

On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying, ¹¹ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Ask now the priests for a ruling: ¹² 'If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food, will it become holy?'" And the priests answered, "No." ¹³ Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter become unclean?" And the priests answered, "It will become unclean." ¹⁴ Then Haggai said, "'So is this people. And so is this nation before Me,' declares the LORD, 'and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean. ¹⁵ 'But now, do consider from this day onward: before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the LORD, ¹⁶ from that time when one came to a grain heap of twenty measures, there would be only ten; and when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there would be only twenty. ¹⁷ 'I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,' declares the LORD. ¹⁸ 'Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the LORD was founded, consider: ¹⁹ 'Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on I will bless you.'"

On December 18^th 520 B.C., two months after the second message, Haggai delivered a third message from the Lord to the Jewish people. In this message, the Lord commanded Haggai to ask the religious leaders for a ruling regarding what would cause something to be considered holy, or set apart, to the Lord. In addition, the Lord commanded Haggai to ask the religious leaders for a ruling regarding what would cause something to be considered unclean, or unacceptable, to the Lord.

After receiving the correct answer from the religious leaders, Haggai applied their answer to the condition of the Jewish people. The Lord commanded Haggai to ask these questions because the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand during the past eighteen years, all of their acts of worship to the Lord were unclean and unacceptable to the Lord because they had been living their lives in a way that was unclean and unacceptable to the Lord.

You see, the Lord commanded Haggai to ask these questions because the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that they were not to assume that religious activity somehow cleaned up and made acceptable an unclean and unacceptable lifestyle. The Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that something unclean and unacceptable to the Lord does not become set apart and acceptable to the Lord simply by association. Instead, the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understands that the opposite always happens- the things that are unclean and unacceptable to the Lord will always contaminate that which has been set apart and acceptable.

And because of the reality the Lord called the Jewish people to live their lives from that day forward in a way that was set apart to a life of faithfulness and obedience to the Lord. By living in such a way, the Jewish people would no longer experience the seasons of economic insecurity and drought that came as a result of their selfishness and rebellion against the Lord. Instead, the Jewish people would experience the blessings that the Lord had promised the Jewish people and that flowed from living a life that faithfully placed God first. Haggai then delivered a fourth message from the Lord to the Jewish people in Haggai 2:20-23. Let’s look at that message together:

²⁰ Then the word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, ²¹ "Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah, saying, 'I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. ²² 'I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.' ²³ 'On that day,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,' declares the LORD, 'and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,'" declares the LORD of hosts.

On the same day as the third message, Haggai delivered a fourth message from the Lord that proclaimed a promise from the Lord. And that promise from the Lord was that the Lord had removed His curse on the house of King Jehoiachin as a result of their previous selfishness and rebellion against the Jewish people that led to the Jewish people being conquered and led into captivity by the Babylonian empire. Instead of a curse, there was hope that a descendant of Zerubbabel the governor, who was from the house of Jehoiachin, would be the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and usher in the Kingdom of God here on earth.

However, it is here when God speaks through the prophet Obadiah, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: God deserves, desires and demands to be our highest priority. You see, the point of the book of Haggai is that God deserves to be our highest priority. God deserves to be our highest priority because it is God who is the Creator who is in charge of history. God deserves to be our highest priority because it is God who is worthy of worship and worthy of glory as our provider, protector, rescuer, and deliverer.

The point of the book of Haggai is that God desires to be our highest priority. God desires to be our highest priority because it is when God is our highest priority that we experience the lives of meaning and purpose that we were created to experience. God desires to be our highest priority because it is when God is our highest priority that we live in light of our true identity as a child of God. God desires to be our highest priority because it is when God is our highest priority that we experience His presence and activity in our lives most powerfully.

And the point of the book of Haggai is that God demands to be our highest priority. God demands to be our highest priority because God alone is worthy of being our highest priority. God demands to be our highest priority because when anything other than God is our highest priority, we are committed idolatry. You see, idolatry is taking a good thing and making it a God thing. Idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing.

Now a natural objection that could arise here is “Well Dave, God sounds arrogant. God sounds needy. It sounds like God is just running around like ‘worship Me, worship Me, worship Me’. It sounds like God is He is full of Himself”. If that question and objection is running through your mind, I just want to let you know that is a fair question and objection to have.

And if we were able to have a conversation out in the courtyard coffee house, here would be my response: You are absolutely right. God is all about God. Because if you were God, who else would you be into? If you were God, would you be into you? I don’t think so. If you were God would you be into me? I don’t think so? God is into God. God is totally into Himself. God is full of Himself.

God is totally into Himself because for God to point you to something that was less than the best would mean that God did not know what was truly best, which would mean that God was not really God. You see, God is totally full of Himself because there is no other being other than God that deserves to be our highest priority. There is no other being that is all powerful, all knowing, ever present, everlasting, never changing, perfectly right and just, perfectly merciful and loving. So who else would God point you to when it comes to what should be our highest priority. And because of that reality, God deserves, desires and demands to be our highest priority.

So here is a question to consider: What is the highest priority in your life? And what does how you spend your time, talent, and treasure reveal about what is the highest priority in your life? Does your behavior betray what you say is the highest priority in your life? What priorities in your life are competing with God to be the highest priority?

Because God deserves, desires and demands to be our highest priority…

The God who is in the middle of the little things...

This week we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Haggai. Yesterday, we looked on as Haggai revealed the reality that, once again the issue for the Jewish people was their selfishness and rebellion. The Jewish people selfishly chose to disobey the Lord’s call for them to rebuild the Temple. The Jewish people selfishly rebelled against the Lord by failing to place the Lord first in their lives. Instead, despite the Lord’s activity through Cyrus that provided them the opportunity to return from exile to their own country, the Jewish people selfishly placed themselves first.

And because of their selfishness and rebellion against the Lord that placed themselves over the Lord, the Jewish people experienced economic insecurity from the hand of the Lord. We looked on as the Lord command the Jewish people to stop delaying and to start rebuilding the Temple. The Lord wanted the Jewish people to consider that the way that they were living their lives resulted in economic ruin and poverty.

And the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that the reason that they were experiencing economic ruin and poverty was due to the fact that they had selfishly placed themselves and their plans before the Lord and His commands. Instead of following and bringing glory to the Lord by rebuilding the Temple, the Jewish people selfishly chose to follow and bring glory to themselves by building fancy and expensive houses for themselves.

The Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand that the issue for the Lord wasn’t about wealth or poverty: the issue wasn’t about whether or not they should have a nice house; the issue was about priorities. The issue was that the Lord was not the highest priority in their lives.

After spending 23 days finishing the harvest season while preparing and planning how they would go about rebuilding the Temple, the Jewish people began the work of rebuilding the Temple. And as the Jewish people began the work of rebuilding the Temple, the Lord proclaimed a promise to the Jewish people: “I am with you”.

You see, the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand the He would be present with them and would empower them to rebuild the Temple as they strove to place the Lord first and follow His plans and commands. We see Haggai deliver the second of four messages from the Lord to the Jewish people in Haggai 2:1-3. So let’s look at that message together:

On the twenty-first of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet saying, ² "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people saying, ³ 'Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?

On October 17^th 520 B.C., a month after beginning to rebuild the Temple, Haggai delivered a second message from the Lord. This message fell on the seventh day of one of the major religious festivals of the Jewish people, called the Feast of the Tabernacles. Normally the Feast of the Tabernacles was a time of rejoicing that looked back and celebrated the Lord’s faithful care of His people.

And as the Jewish people had laid the foundations of the Temple, hopes were running high among the Jewish people who grew up living as a captive in the nation of Babylon. Hopes were running high because they had never had the opportunity to see the Temple that was built by Solomon, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

However, for those who were older and who had seen the glory of Solomon’s temple, hopes were not high. Instead they were incredibly disappointed, as they viewed the foundation of the Temple as though it “seemed like nothing” in comparison to Solomon’s Temple. We see the Lord’s response to their disappointment in verse 4-9:

 'But now take courage, Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD, 'take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,' declares the LORD, 'and work; for I am with you,' declares the LORD of hosts. ⁵ 'As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!' ⁶ "For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. ⁷ 'I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD of hosts. ⁸ 'The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,' declares the LORD of hosts. ⁹ 'The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and in this place I will give peace,' declares the LORD of hosts."

Here we see the Lord proclaim a command, promise His presence, and provide a promise for the future. Even though the Temple that they were building seemed like nothing in comparison to the Temple in the Days of King Solomon, the Lord commanded the Jewish people to take courage and continue the work that they had began to rebuild the Temple.  The Jewish people were to take courage and continue the work that they had began because although the temple being constructed was very humble, the Lord promised that there would be a day in the future when the nations would bring their treasures to it in the times when God would fill His house with glory.

There would be a day in the future when the glory of the Temple would be even greater than that of Solomon’s temple. You see, the Lord wanted the Jewish people, and us today, to clearly understand that when our lives seem like “nothing in comparison” remember that God is in the midst of the small things.

The Lord wanted the Jewish people, and us today, to live their lives in a way that did not despise the small things. Instead, the Lord wanted the Jewish people, and us today, to remember that the Lord was present with them, even in the small things, and often worked in and through the small things to accomplish great things in the future.

Friday, we will see Haggai deliver the third of four messages from the Lord to the Jewish people...