We are in a series called Fresh Faith where God is exploring the people’s failures in their faith and telling them what needs to be different to belong to him. The people, however, have been surprised by this. They are questioning God throughout this prophecy. God has proclaimed his love for his people. Yet the people have questioned how God has loved them. God has told the people that they are not honoring him. But the people have questioned how they are not honoring him. The reason they are not honoring God is because they do not love to worship God. They want to give God their leftovers and find having to worship God tiresome and a weariness. So here is an important question. How did these people get to this point? How did the people get to a point of being unable to see God’s love? How did the people get to where they do not have a heart for God? How did they get to the point that worship was a burden to them and did not have a passion for God? What you will see as you come to Malachi 2 is that this is a continuation of God talking about the lack of honor he has received from the people. You see this in Malachi 2:2 where God warns the people about taking this message to heart and honoring his name. So we are going to look at how the people got to this point and what the solution is for their spiritual apathy. As we begin I also want us to notice that the framework of this paragraph is probably backward to the logic we typically apply to an argument. Malachi 2:1-3 is God telling the people what he is going to do because they are not honoring him. In Malachi 2:4-7 God explains the way things should have been. Finally, in Malachi 2:8-9 God describes the people’s failure.
The Proclaimed Plan (Malachi 2:1-3)
Notice how God begins in verse 2. God challenges the people to listen and take what he is saying to heart about giving honor to his name. It is a great way that God double backs on this important truth. Will you take it to heart that I am a great God and I should be honored? Remember from Malachi 1 that God said he wished that someone had the courage to close the temple doors to end this heartless worship (Malachi 1:10,13). Now God gives a second picture of how he feels about heartless worship. God says he will curse the people and curse their blessings because they did not honor him.
Sometimes we can struggle with the idea of God cursing his people for their disobedience and lack of honor. It is warning that was given to Israel in the Law of Moses. But there is another way that curses fall for not listening to God. I want you to listen to the outcome the apostle Paul describes for people failing to honor God or give thanks to God.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21 ESV)
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves… (Romans 1:24 ESV)
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. (Romans 1:26 ESV)
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:28 ESV)
Did you notice the repetition that Paul gives this that paragraph? Paul keeps saying, “God gave them up.” We do not initially think of this as a curse, but we need to. If we do not listen to God, do not take to heart our need to honor through our hearts’ desire to worship him, then we will fall under God’s curse. Part of God’s curse is that God will give you up and turn you over to your own desires. To state this another way, God will let you destroy yourself. God will let you destroy your life. God will let you ruin yourself because that is the only outcome for not honoring God. We are choosing to be cursed and to forfeit God’s blessings when we do not see God as worthy of our praise and worship and we begrudgingly give him our leftovers. So God says to take what he is saying to heart because our worship reflects where are hearts are toward him.
You will notice in verse 3 how else God looks at our worship if we see worship as tiresome and weariness. God says he would take the animal waste from their sacrifices and smear it on their faces. Our worship is disgusting to him when we do not want to give him our full hearts at all times. Just as much as flowers on Valentine’s Day from a husband who does not love you is a joke worthy of the trash, so also is our worship when it is not from our love for him. Now I want you to notice one more point and then we will move forward. Look at who is getting rebuked in verse 3. Did you notice that it was the offspring that was getting this rebuke? Here is the problem: heartless worship is contagious and destroys future generations. When worship is tiresome and weariness, then you are teaching your children to act the same way. When we act like to it too much or too hard or too far to drive to worship, then we are teaching our children to have the same spiritual apathy and laziness. We are teaching our children how God is so burdensome. We are teaching our children that God will accept our leftovers. We are teaching our children that everything else in life is more important than the Lord. We teach them that our comforts, our sleep, our hobbies, our recreation, our sports, our entertainment, our jobs, and our cares are more important than having a heart to worship the Lord our God. So we are dooming our children to a cursed life because we did not show them how to honor God or give him thanks. We taught them to honor the world. We taught them to honor money, hobbies, sports, sleep, and everything else but him.
The Expected Ideal (Malachi 2:4-7)
Now God describes what the work of the priests should have been before the people. God declares that he has given this warning to the people so that he can continue in covenant relationship with his people. But here is what that was supposed to look like. God says that the covenant he gave to the people as a covenant of life and peace. Now it is important that we think about this. God says that he gave his instructions and teachings because that is the path of life and peace. But how did the people look at God’s covenantal instructions? Remember that they were saying that it was weariness to serve the Lord. They did not look at God’s laws as life-giving. They looked at God’s laws as painful and problematic. The means to life and peace is in the word of God and nowhere else. But do we look at God’s word in this way? Do we see God’s life-giving instructions in it or do we see them as a burden? God says he gave a covenant of life and peace and it called for reverence.
God continues by describing that the priests of God were to stand in awe of him. They were to show reverence for God. True instruction was to come from their mouths and nothing false was to be uttered. They were to walk in righteousness and peace, turning many from their sins. Their words were to speak God’s knowledge to the people and the people should be able to come to them for instructions because he is God’s messengers. God’s teachers were to be the place of knowledge and instruction. They were to instruct the people correctly in God’s ways. Do you see why Jesus was so upset with the religious leaders in his day? Jesus condemned them for not doing what they were supposed to do. Rather than giving true instructions so that the people could experience life and peace, they were blocking people from coming to the light and the life of God. One does not have to stretch their imaginations to think about what Jesus would say to the religious world today and the kinds of teaching that happens. The teaching is to turn people from sin, not encourage them to remain in their sins. The teaching is to preserve the knowledge God, not distort the knowledge of God. The teaching is supposed to instruct the people, not entertain the people, scratching their itching ears. The ideal is simple: proclaim what God’s word says to give people life and peace.
The Priests’ Failure (Malachi 2:8-9)
But that is not what was happening. Look at Malachi 2:8-9 to see what was going on in Israel. In verse 8 we read that the priests’ teachings were actually turning people away from God’s path. God says that you have caused many to stumble with your instruction. Rather than upholding the covenant of life and peace, the priests had corrupted the covenant. God’s condemnation is very simple. It is as if God is saying to the priests, “You had one job.” Just tell people what God’s instructions are. Just tell the people about my covenant of life and peace. You do not make up a message. You communicate God’s message.
Now I want us to think about how God’s answering the problem. Why are the people not honoring God? Why do the people find worship a pain? Why do the people not know the love that God has for them? The answer is that the priests are not doing their job. God is emphasizing the importance of right, sound teaching that accurately represents God and communicates his word. It is so disheartening when those who are charged to proclaim God’s word fail to do the one job they have been given. Listen to what the apostle Paul charged:
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4 ESV)
The NRSV reads: “Proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.” The NET reads: “Preach the message, be ready whether it is convenient or not, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and instruction.” The goal is not to teach only when it is favorable or convenient. The goal is to always say God’s word in all seasons and occasions. Notice another facet about how Paul says to proclaim God’s instruction. He says that you are not going to take poll and ask people what they want to hear. People are going to want teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will want to follow their own desires and look for teachers who will tell them what their ears want to hear. But Paul says that this is a turning away from the truth. How sad that Paul would say that people are not going to like hearing God’s instructions! Friends, it is so important to know God’s instructions and want God’s instructions, even if it is hard or uncomfortable. We must not allow ourselves to fall victim to our fleshly desires but want the line by line word of God no matter how uncomfortable it could make us feel. We must be like the Greeks who went to Jerusalem.
So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (John 12:21 ESV)
The Message
But I want to push this message one more level for us today. I think we should note that the New Testament does not come along and tell us that the preachers or the elders are like the priests and you are like the congregation of Israel. So our applications up to this point have been valid but there is something deeper for our consideration. Listen to what the New Testament does say about priests in Christ’s covenant.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9 ESV)
So God’s instructions should come from our lips. Our words should give the knowledge of God to the world. Or to sum it up earlier, you have one job: give God’s word to the world. Do not make up a message. Communicate God’s instructions. May another goal to have a renewed, fresh faith for the new year is to always desire to hear only God’s instructions and to say God’s word to others, whether the time is favorable or not. The world needs to see Jesus. How will they see him if we do not show Jesus to them?