Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in Malachi.
[00:00:00] You are listening to the Through the Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the Old Testament book of Malachi.
[00:00:13] Here's Nate. The Book of Malachi, the final book of the Old Testament, is really a sad statement concerning the lack of love from the people of Israel towards God.
[00:00:26] I mean really, the Book of Malachi is a prophecy from Malachi, of course as a spokesman and messenger of God speaking to the people of Israel about God's unreturned, unappreciated, unrequited love for the nation of Israel.
[00:00:46] The timeline of this book occurs about 100 years after the decree of King Cyrus to rebuild the temple as found in Ezra 1.
[00:00:57] The people had gone through a rebuilding process, they had eventually rebuilt the temple and then through the reforms of Nehemiah had actually rebuilt the wall, had rebuilt the city.
[00:01:11] And so as you read through the book of Malachi, you'll observe that a temple obviously exists. They had leadership, a ruler perhaps, Nehemiah but some of the same sins that occurred at the end of the Book of Nehemiah which Nehemiah as a good man rebuked and purged from Jerusalem, some of those same sins appear here in the Book of Malachi.
[00:01:39] The priesthood is defiled, marriage in the nation was corrupted and the tithes and the offerings were neglected.
[00:01:49] And so in this book which is placed roughly around 440 BC you have the rebellious hearts of the people rebuked by God.
[00:02:00] And the message is very simple from the Lord. They were outwardly going through the religious motions and if you were to ask them how are you doing they would have said we're doing fine.
[00:02:13] And so God promises them real blessing in return for real obedience but their obedience at this point was false and phony.
[00:02:24] In a sense what you see in the book of Malachi is God rebuking the hypocritical devotion of the people towards God. He wants real devotion, real obedience.
[00:02:38] And so this is an amazing book and we're going to end it with an incredible prophecy concerning Elijah which I believe relates to the ministry of John the Baptist.
[00:02:51] And so this book is going to be really in many ways God's final word before a period of silence and before Jesus is revealed in the Gospels.
[00:03:01] And so it starts out in verse 1 with an ominous word, the word oracle. It says the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
[00:03:13] Now Malachi's name means my messenger and so right away in just this first verse the title of the book you have two things which could stand as a rebuked.
[00:03:25] First of all Malachi's name my messenger the priests were supposed to be the messengers for God as we're going to see in these first couple of chapters.
[00:03:36] The priests were supposed to have that ministry of communicating on behalf of God but here God has to go outside of the priestly system and find his messenger this man named Malachi.
[00:03:51] The other part of this rebuked in verse 1 is found in the word oracle, the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
[00:04:00] And that could also be translated burden and 27 times in the prophetic books this word oracle is used and it is most often used for prophecies of a threatening nature.
[00:04:17] So when it's called an oracle from God's messenger there's an ominous somber mood and tone established from the outset.
[00:04:27] Verse 2 God says I have loved you says the Lord but you say how have you loved us?
[00:04:39] Before God does any rebuking notice what he says at the outset before he rebukes he reminds them of his deep love for them.
[00:04:49] He says I have loved you says the Lord.
[00:04:54] I think there's considerable emotion in this phrase these are tender words.
[00:05:00] G. Campbell Morgan translated this I have loved you I do love you I will love you and certainly as you read the prophets particularly prophets like Malachi and Hosea you come to this understanding that God was grieved by the love that he poured out for the people and the way that it was completely disregarded and unreturned and their persistence in church.
[00:05:29] Persistence in chasing after idols who weren't loving them but enslaving them and so God announces to the people at the outset of this book.
[00:05:40] Listen I have loved you I have loved you and so this was necessary for them to see to grasp the love of God before they could ever obey the Lord they needed to see the love of the Lord.
[00:05:54] This is why I'm constantly encouraging men and women to understand the gospel because the more you understand the gospel the more you see the glory of Christ and the Father in the cross of Christ the more that you see the radical love of God the more your appreciation for him will increase and your desire to obey will also increase because you want to respond to this wonderful radical love of God.
[00:06:23] So in one sense God is rebuking them when he says I have loved you they hadn't been living like a people who had been chosen and loved by God.
[00:06:35] And they respond and say but how have you loved us how have you loved us now this outline or this flow this is the way the book of Malachi is going to go there will be seven questions from the people to God.
[00:06:51] Here in verse two how have you loved us in verse six how have we despised your name in verse seven how have we polluted you verse 17 of chapter two how have we we're ed God verse seven of chapter three how shall we return verse eight of chapter three how have we robbed you verse 13 of chapter three how have we spoken against you.
[00:07:14] And so you can see that there's a gap you know with these questions a simple outline of Malachi there's a gap between what God is saying about them and their perceptions of themselves these questions are very disappointing questions that the people were asking of God and here they say to God they say how have you loved us they didn't trust.
[00:07:36] The word of God or the faithfulness of God they thought this was a legitimate complaint they saw that they were living under foreign powers that 100 years had passed since the exile to Babylon and they were still living in poverty what they should have done is a read the covenant that they were under and realize that their disobedience is what had brought all of these curses upon them.
[00:08:03] And so God announces I've loved you and they say how have you loved us God says is not you saw Jacob's brother declares the Lord yet I have loved Jacob but he saw I have hated I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals to the desert.
[00:08:24] And so God responds you know they ask how have you loved us and God says well I've loved Jacob but he saw I've hated now in the Old Testament a Jacob and he saw were of course the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca and as they grew older it became evident that God chose to continue the promise which have been given to Abraham and Isaac.
[00:08:53] God decided to continue that promise through Jacob and not Isa who was the first born.
[00:09:00] And so the point that God is making is that God chose Jacob when he didn't have to and God's election of Jacob in choice of Jacob was his expression of love towards Jacob but I'll admit that verse two and three are really one of the harder couple of verses to interpret or digest.
[00:09:23] And so he says Jacob I have loved but I saw I have hated and you know there are those who would give explanatory remarks at this point.
[00:09:37] You know some would find a way to demonstrate that this phrase simply means that he loved I saw less that his love for Jacob was so great that he also loved I saw but it was as hatred in comparison to the great love that he had for Jacob and you know some would point out that God indeed had been very good to I saw or the item might people the descendants of I saw overall but it been overly merciful.
[00:10:07] And gracious to Jacob and you know we could say a lot of different things scriptually to perhaps make ourselves feel better about this statement or we could simply embrace the word of God.
[00:10:20] He is God we are not his ways in mind or high above ours his will is his will and the only one that really matters and here he says Jacob I've loved and Isa I've hated but I think it's important to remember what God is trying to do.
[00:10:36] God is trying to show them God isn't trying to demonstrate to them mainly any kind of hatred for anyone as much as he's trying to demonstrate his extreme love for them.
[00:10:48] He wants them to take a look at the way that he has cared for them and nurtured them and blessed them as a people over and above any other people on earth including the very twin brother of their ancestor Jacob who was renounced by Jacob.
[00:11:05] He was renamed Israel at one point in his life and so this indifference to the love of God that they were expressing when they say how have you loved us one way that this indifference could be cured was by understanding God's love for them to just think about the ways that God had cared for them.
[00:11:26] Perhaps you're feeling a little crusty in your relationship with God consider his deep and radical love for you.
[00:11:35] Now he says in verse 4 he says if Edom says we are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins the Lord of hosts says they may build but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.
[00:11:51] Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel and so the people should have realized that when the Edomites who eventually became a mother,
[00:12:04] eventually became a wicked people in real enemies of Israel when they made a decision to rebuild God would not get behind that decision and he would actually hinder their work but for Israel they should have seen it and said great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
[00:12:22] This should have been the response of the people but instead there was this spiritual loftiness to them. They should have been humbled by God's sovereign blessing upon their lives and just the way that God graced them and took care of them and enabled them in so many ways to rebuild.
[00:12:41] The people, God rebukes them at first the people are rebuked for a refusal to receive and reciprocate the love that God had shed abroad upon their lives.
[00:12:56] Now verse 6, God moves on from rebuking the people for their lack of love for him and their lack of understanding about his love. God moves on from rebuking their lack of love to rebuking the priesthood.
[00:13:11] They were really dishonoring the Lord in so many ways and so we pick this up in verse 6. He says, a son honors his father and a servant, his master.
[00:13:25] If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name.
[00:13:37] He turns his attention to the priests and gives them an analogy that they would have easily understood. He says, if I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my fear?
[00:13:49] And they would have understood this analogy in their culture of father deserved honor, a master deserved respect, reverence, fear.
[00:13:58] And they responded in verse 6 and he says, but you say, how have we despised your name? In other words, they weren't even aware that they had despised the Lord, turned from him, dishonored him and disrespected him.
[00:14:18] They were self-deceived, which is an absolute killer and they say how have we despised your name? And so the Lord answers. He says by offering polluted food upon my altar, but you say how have we polluted you?
[00:14:37] And he says, by saying that the Lord's table may be despised when you offer blind animals and sacrifice is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick is not that evil, present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favour says the Lord of hosts?
[00:14:56] And now entreat the favour of God that he may be gracious to us, with such a gift from your hand will he show favour to any of you says the Lord of hosts?
[00:15:05] Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you says the Lord of hosts and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
[00:15:18] And so they ask the question, when God says you've offered polluted food on my altar they ask the question how have we polluted you? What polluting kind of work have we done?
[00:15:31] And God gives them really four distinct answers to that question and I think that these four answers help us in determining and understanding how to make sure that our worship is pure and that we aren't operating in difference towards God.
[00:15:52] First of all, he asks them he says look when you offer blind animals or lame animals or sick animals to me and sacrifice is not that evil.
[00:16:05] In other words the first question that they should have been asking is are we offering God are very best.
[00:16:14] You know, somehow they had come to a place where they felt that it was okay to slight God and give him less than the best to give him that which he had already said in his law that he would refuse.
[00:16:29] The sick, the lame, the blind. These were not animals that should be sacrificed to God. He wanted the best of their flock which would have caused them to worship him, trust him.
[00:16:42] They would only do this if they had honor for him in their hearts and I find that we will only give God the best in our lives when there is a deep honor for Christ within our hearts.
[00:16:56] But then he asked them another question he says present that to your governor and will he accept you or show you favor says the Lord of hosts.
[00:17:06] Another way to sort of determine whether you're really giving yourself fully to the Lord is to ask yourself would I offer an extremely important person in my life, you know a dignitary, a president, a king and authority.
[00:17:24] Would I present this kind of service or sacrifice to him. You know what I bring him the blind, the lame and the sick and so often I think about our devotion and our worship towards the Lord and so often we give him less again than the best less than we would give to a human leader or authority.
[00:17:47] And God says you know what a governor accept that. Then he goes on in verse 9 and says now entreat the favor of God in other words pray and ask that he'll be gracious with you with such a gift from your hand will he show favor to any of you says the Lord.
[00:18:04] So another way to really seek this out is to ask is God answering my prayers. You know, is he hearing me am I in step with him and to see in step with me or is there silence from heaven.
[00:18:17] And then lastly God cries out and this is such a sad statement. He says I wish that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain.
[00:18:29] I have no pleasure in you says the Lord of hosts and I will not accept an offering from your hand. In other words God is saying listen it would be better for you to put a stop to this whole thing and not even show up just shut the doors don't even show up put a stop to this whole thing rather than play church.
[00:18:49] Jesus said in Revelation 3 verse 15 and 16 to the church in Laid to see it he said I know your works you're neither cold nor hot. I would that you were either cold or hot so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you or vomit you out of my mouth God is looking for real devotion.
[00:19:11] Real passion real worship and the people here were giving him a farce they were play acting their worship of the Lord and the priests especially is who the Lord is addressing they were especially guilty of this crime.
[00:19:31] So the people guilty of a lack of love and appreciation for God the priests guilty for a lack of honor towards the Lord and now to close out the chapter in verse 11 and following we have got speaking to both the people and the priesthood.
[00:19:49] He says in verse 11 from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations and in every place incense will be offered to my name and a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations says the Lord of hosts.
[00:20:10] In verse 11 I think what we're seeing is a promise and a prophecy concerning the future when God tells these people my name will be great among the nations and in all places or every place incense will be offered to my name.
[00:20:29] I think in many ways this is a foreshadowing and a prophecy concerning the coming church age.
[00:20:36] I mean you have to remember the book of Malachi is really that final statement of God before Christ appears in his first coming and of course the result of his first coming in an immediate sense after the cross the death the burial the resurrection the ascension of Christ was the birth of the church.
[00:20:58] And the name of Christ although partially received in Israel became great among the nations Paul and others would take the gospel out into all of the world to preach it and to teach of the glory of Christ and he was received of course not an entirety kind of sense of course not in you know every single human heart.
[00:21:24] But in all these different nations there were those who would follow after the Lord and lay themselves out before him an obedience to him there was a the fame of Christ increased throughout the world through the church through the body of Christ and he says here in verse 11 that in every place incense will be offered to my name.
[00:21:46] In other words you know incense and scripture is a picture of prayer and so I think in one sense God is saying look this fame of mine is going to increase to the nations around you not just you Israel.
[00:21:59] And in every place people are going to worship me and offer these pure offerings before me Jesus said to the woman in Samaria he said the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit.
[00:22:16] And truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him so I think the Lord in one sense is saying listen a day is coming I know that you are hypocritical in your devotion and in your service.
[00:22:31] And I know that you have not reciprocated my love but a day is coming where these things will happen people will love me my name will be great among them and their worship will be pure.
[00:22:43] He goes on in verse 12 and says but you but you Israel you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted and it's fruit that is its food may be despised but you say what a weariness this is.
[00:23:00] And you snort at it says the Lord of hosts you bring back what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick and this you bring is your offering shall I accept that from your hand says the Lord.
[00:23:14] So once again the Lord curses the kind of sacrifice that they were giving to the Lord they were saying out loud they were saying oh this is such a tiring thing to worship the Lord.
[00:23:27] What weariness this is they were bored in their worship and bored of their service to God they considered it this obligation a horrible duty that they had to fulfill rather than a relationship there was a blessing that was full of life.
[00:23:44] And so they continued to bring animals that had been killed you know road kill basically killed by violence lame and sick and God says I'm not going to receive this.
[00:23:56] Curse at verse 14 be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it vows to give it and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished for I am a great king says the Lord of hosts
[00:24:12] and my name will be feared among the nations.
[00:24:16] And so God likely hears he says curse it be the cheat he's likely speaking about payment of vows that people had made to the Lord they would vow you know a certain animal from the flock and say I will give this to the Lord if the Lord does this in my life and they would make these vows of worship to the Lord.
[00:24:36] And he's saying to them listen you can't promise to bring a clean animal to the Lord and then replace it with a blemished one now you've got to honor me in your giving I think it's important for us to camp on this for just a moment just for the sake of saying you don't want to be the one who is cheating God in the vows that you make to him he says there he vows it and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
[00:25:05] I know there have been times in my life that I've made promises and vows to the Lord and where I have partially observed partially kept or not even partially just barely even have kept that promise that I've made to God.
[00:25:24] And of course I live in the under the covenant of grace and so God is gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness towards me.
[00:25:36] But on the other hand I've just found that practically life goes better when I keep those vows to the Lord you know God is a God of grace but he has told us where that grace were that favor where that blessing is found and when I'm living that obedient life
[00:25:53] and that life of consecration when I'm Romans 12 1 and 2 presenting my body to the Lord is a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God.
[00:26:04] When I'm doing these things it's not that I'm earning anything it's just that I'm occupying the place that blessing is found.
[00:26:13] And so living under the spout where the blessing comes out as my parents used to say back in the day.
[00:26:20] And so you know really being a person that makes your vows and honors the Lord in your worship.
[00:26:28] And God says here in verse 14 he says, for I'm a great king says the Lord of hosts and my name will be feared among the nations to treat God as he is.
[00:26:40] He's the king and honor him as the king that he truly is.
[00:26:45] So listen today consider Malachi chapter 1, consider this great king of glory that you serve and that you worship,
[00:26:54] consider your own walk in your own heart.
[00:26:57] And consider the love of God that's very specific towards you, his great passion for you, his great love for you,
[00:27:07] his great desire for you, consider the love of God.
[00:27:10] Consider the way that he favors your life.
[00:27:14] I was recently in a group discussion where we were talking about John, the apostle who gave himself the title,
[00:27:22] the disciple whom Jesus loved and we were asking ourselves a question can you describe yourself in that way,
[00:27:30] the disciple whom Jesus loved.
[00:27:31] And I just responded by saying you know it's so easy for me to describe myself in that way not just because of the love of God is made manifest towards me and the rest of the universe in the cross of Christ.
[00:27:45] No, I explained to them that I've just seen so many ways how the Lord has favored and blessed my life and it's hard for me to feel anything other than loved by God.
[00:27:58] And you as God's child are under and in the love of God. God bless you and amen.
[00:28:07] Thank you for listening. For additional resources and teachings or to contact us please visit us at naitholdridge.com.