Malachi 1:6 – 14
Introduction:
It was a rain
y Sunday afternoon. A little boy with his younger sister couldn't playoutside, so they decided to play inside the bathroom. They filled the bathtub with some water,then took an old shoebox and made it float on the water. They
were playing Noah's Ark with the shoebox representing the ark while the water in the tub was the flood. The boy was Noah while his younger sister was Mrs. Noah. Once the flood was over, the kids decided that they needed to make an offering to God.Noah (the boy) said to Mrs. Noah (the girl), “Here, take one of your toy animals as asacrific
e.” “No,” she replied, “Let’s use one of your animals instead!” When they could not agree, she ran to the attic. In a moment she was back with a toy lamb. It was dirty, it’s head smashed, and it’s tail missing. “Here,” she cried,“let’s give this as a sacrifice. We will never want it again.” Her brother agreed, and they made their sacrifice. The little broken lamb they did not want was given to God.Now, some of us may laugh at the two little kids at how they arrived at a solution for their dilemma; what is sad, however, is that the dialogue and the action between the two kids reflect how many people (grown-ups) actually treat God. This is not a new phenomenon as people even during the days of the Old Testament were at times guilty of offering sacrifices that were less than acceptable to God. A good case in point is Cain whose offering was not accepted by God, in contrast to that of Abel, his younger brother.
Behind the issue of sacrifice is the question of how we treat God. How do we treat God? Do we take him seriously in our life such that we are willing to give everything to him? Or do we treat him as if he isn't on top of our priority list, that we don't need to take him seriously at all? Do we give him the honor and respect that is rightly due him or do we treat him with disrespect? These are questions I believe at one time or another we have been asked to reflect upon and I am certain that we have been moved and even convicted by these questions. This morning, we are going to ask these questions again of ourselves as we will study our passage taken from the first chapter of the book of Malachi. Malachi is written in a straightforward manner, thus it is easy to understand. It is also a book that reveals what God expects of his people with regards to their relationship to him as well as with others. So, let's jump right into our study of this book's first chapter and hear what God has to say to us this morning.
Context:
The Book of Malachi was written at a time when the Israelites had already returned from the Babylonian exile for quite some time and they had rebuilt the temple and reestablished temple worship. Some scholars date the writing of this book at around 460 BC, probably a few years before the coming of Ezra and Nehemiah to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city as well as to institute social and religious reforms.
When the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile, they had high hopes. Having been inspired by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, they rebuilt the temple. Although the temple did not have the glory of the original one, still it served its purpose as the place where the LORD was worshiped corporately by the Jews. However, as the years passed, the Jews became disillusioned because the promised prosperity did not come, life was hard, and the people were surrounded by many enemies who were out to destroy them. The land had also suffered from drought, which resulted in bad crops and famine (3:11). Thus, the Jews began to question and doubt the love of God (1:2) and his rule (2:17). They also argued and concluded that there was nothing for them to profit in obeying God's commandments and in walking faithfully before Him because it was the evil and the self-reliant people who were actually prospering (3:14). This led the Jews to become shabby in their worship of God.
This morning, we've read the first chapter of the book, in particular, verses 6 to 14, and we find that the Jews had been giving to God their leftovers, their rejects, their second-best, rather than what is rightly due to God – the very best. What was worse was that the priests, the people who worked in the temple and who were responsible for accepting or rejecting the people's sacrifices, turned a blind eye to the defective sacrifices and just accepted them and offered them to God. God was not pleased with what the people and the priests were doing.
This was why God used Malachi to rebuke the people for their skepticism which had led to unpleasing actions as expressed in their act of worship.
Why was God upset with his people when they gave defective offerings and sacrifices to him? There are two reasons that we can surmise from today's passage.
I. A Lack of Respect and Honor for God (v. 6)
Every Jew knew that a son was obligated to honor his father and that every servant was obligated to respect his master. Even we, in modern society, know this. No Jew in his right mind would ever go against the social convention of paying honor and respect to those whom it was due. In fact, a son who dishonors his father can be put to death; the same is true for a
slave who defies his master.
Now, in today's passage, God made it known to his people that he is their father as well as their master. We do not need to go into the detail as to why God is their father and their master but what God wanted to point out was that if the Jews understood the need to honor their fathers and to respect their masters, then why couldn't they do the same to God who is, after all, the Lord of the universe, the God who owns everything, the God who had adopted them as his very own people? The God who redeemed them from their enemies?
As we all know already, the lack of respect and honor for God can best be seen in how the Jews offered their sacrifices to God. They brought before him animals that were blemished, animals that had physical defects. In verse 8, Malachi described the blemishes of the animals being offered – some were blind, others were crippled, and others were diseased. God's standard for bringing a sacrifice to Him is very clear – the animal had to be free from any defect (you can read this over and over again in the book of Leviticus); in other words, it had to be the very best. If someone gave a defective animal to God as an offering or sacrifice, it speaks tons about the person's attitude towards God; that he doesn't think that God is worthy of his worship, that the very best should be for his personal enjoyment while God can get the scraps or the leftovers.
God further rebuked the Jews by pointing out that they would surely not give the governor their defective animals and yet they would, without hesitation, give the same animals to God instead. If they had respect for humans who have authority over them, why can't they render the same respect to God who is Creator and Lord? If you are willing to give the very best to someone of authority, then why can't you do the same when bringing your sacrifices to God?
II. An Insult and a False Witness to God's Name (vv. 11, 14)
Not only did the Jews failed to show respect and honor for God by giving their defective sacrifices, they also insulted God's name; in other words, by offering a faulty sacrifice, the Jews were saying that God was not a great God, that he was not someone whom people needed to fear. We find this idea in verses 11 and 14. In both these verses, God talked about his name and it was connected with the idea of rendering sacrifices to God. In verse 11 we read, “My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations.” In verse 14 we read, “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great King, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations.”
In these two verses, God made clear to the Jews that he possesses a great name, a name that people are to revere. Reverence towards God's name will be manifested when people give what is rightly due to God. It will be an acknowledgment that God is truly great and that he is to be feared or revered by all. On the other hand, when people do not give what is rightly due to God and give him instead that which is defective or blemished, then it is an act of insult, saying that God is not a great God, that God is not to be feared. Furthermore, giving a blemished sacrifice is to bear false witness against God, to say that the Lord God is nothing close to what He claims to be.
The Bible testifies that God is a great God, a God who is to be feared, to be held in awe. There can be no question about it. However, when the Jews decided to give God their inferior and defective sacrifices, they were distorting the truth regarding God and they were insulting his name.
Because of the Jews' belittling of God's name and glory, God is angry at his people. For God it would have been better if the doors of temple were shut so that no one would bring their defective sacrifices to Him; if the priests continued to allow this practice, then the name of God would be continually insulted and the lies about God continually perpetuated. This was why God sent Malachi to deliver his message of rebuke to Israel.
Relevance of Today's Passage for Christians:
We may wonder, what is the relation of this passage for us today as Christians? We no longer live in the era of the Old Testament where we have to offer an animal sacrifice, for Jesus Christ has already become the perfect sacrifice for us, paying for our sins with his life. So, how does this particular chapter in Malachi relate to us Christians?
While it is true that we no longer need to make animal sacrifices, we need to realize that Christians are called to become living sacrifices. In Romans 12:1 we read, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” The sacrifices of the Old Testament had everything to do with worship. In the New Testament, it is still the same thing. We are called to sacrifice because it is an act of worship. However, the sacrifice that we make is the sacrifice of one's self. We no longer are to live for ourselves and for our self-interest but we are to live for the Lord by doing the things that would bring pleasure to him.
When we are true to our faith, when we are living in a manner that is consistent with the name “Christian”, then we are rightfully testifying who God is. When we are truthful in our dealings with other people, we are testifying that the God we worship is a God of truth. When we live righteous, moral lives, we are testifying that God is righteous. When we demonstrate love to each other as well as to those outside the circle of faith, we are testifying that the God we worship is a God of love. On the other hand, if we practice deceit in business and in our relationship with others, it is as if we are saying that our God is a deceiver. If we are immoral in our behavior, we give the wrong impression that our God tolerates immorality. If we quarrel and bicker within the body of Christ and we are harsh towards other people, it gives the impression that our God is not a loving God. That is why Paul exhorts us all to offer our bodies, not just once, but continuously to God; to be a believer not only on Sundays but also from Monday to Saturday. We are called to be followers of Christ 24/7.
There is a second sacrifice that we, as believers, can offer to the Lord. We find this second sacrifice in Hebrews 13:15 where we read, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.” This is the sacrifice that we offer whenever we sing praises to the Lord or when we speak of God's worth through our prayers and our verbal declarations. Note that the author of Hebrews exhorted his readers to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. This is something we are to do constantly, whether in corporate or in personal worship. We should not keep quiet when it comes to praising and worshiping God, for when we do this with our heart, mind and soul in it, then it becomes a pleasing sacrifice in God's presence.
Both these sacrifices apply not only to Sundays but to our everyday walk with God. We are to offer these sacrifices constantly because these are what will please God.
I believe today's passage also has application as to how we worship the Lord on a Sunday morning. If the Jews back in Malachi's time offered faulty sacrifices, we can also be guilty of offering faulty sacrifices in terms of our time and our “presence”.
What do we say about God when we come in late for the worship service? I know I am striking a sensitive vein here but I believe it needs to be said. When we come in late for worship, we are telling God that he isn't top priority in our schedule. We're saying to God that he is just coincidental to our schedule and that we probably prefer to be somewhere else than be here in church like inside a mall or probably in some nice beach resort or probably playing golf. We come in late because we think that singing hymns and worship songs as well as listening to the choir sing are a waste of one's time. We come in late thinking that the most important part is the preaching and we wait for the pastor to start preaching before we enter the sanctuary and we leave prior to the benediction or even before the offering when in fact everything done within the worship service is important. I wonder, we don't want to be late when we're attending a concert, we don't want to be late for our plane flight, we don't want to be late for work for fear of reprimand from your boss, we don't want to be late for a date with that special someone, but why is it OK for us to be late when we are going to worship God? Being intentionally and deliberately late for worship is to offer God a blemished sacrifice. It is to tell God that he is not our priority in terms of our time. It's telling God that he is just a coincidence in our schedule, worship being something we just need to get done and over with, a mere activity in our calendar or planner. However, if we really want to worship God, I believe we should begin by giving priority to him in terms of time. Let's be on time every Sunday as one way of saying to God that we are serious in worshipping him.
Let's consider another area of worship that we often fall short – our “presence”. I am not talking here about being either physically present or absent but I am talking about our heart and mindset when we come to church on Sundays. I am sure most of you come here because you want to worship God and you have a sense of anticipation that God is working and doing great things in our midst; however, there are people who come to church not because they want to meet with God but because of obligation. For the students of Christian schools, some of you may be coming to church simply because you'll get a higher grade if you attend worship service or Sunday School but when summer break is around, we don't see you anymore until the next school year starts. For some businesspeople, you come to church not because you want to worship God but because this is a good place to meet with other businesspeople as well as prospective clients. Others may come to church simply because you're told to come and you come but with reluctance and the wish that you were somewhere else. Still some will come to church regularly but their minds are wandering to and fro and they don't have a worshipful attitude towards God and they either spend the entire time of the service sending text messages or whispering with the person beside them. Even if you are physically present but if your heart and mind is not here, then that is not real worship. That still is a blemished sacrifice in God's sight. So, when you come to the worship service or even if you are at home doing your devotions, put your heart and mind into it. When you do so, when you involve your heart and your mind to the act of worshipping God, then that becomes a pleasing sacrifice in the presence of God.
Conclusion:
This morning, we've learned that when we worship God we must offer our very best to him. We cannot go around giving him our leftovers and our rejects for that is an insult to him,a lack of respect and honor to him and a false witness to who God really is. We also learned that, although we don't need to offer animals anymore to the Lord, we are still called to give of our very best to the Lord through the life we live each day as well as in our worship time on Sundays.
We all need to examine ourselves as to whether or not we are truly offering our very best to the Lord. Our leftovers will never do, nor will our second best. Only the very best will do for the Lord. Are you giving your very best to Him? Am I giving my very best to Him? May the Lord be gracious to all of us, forgiving us for the many times we have given him less than what is the best, and may we again live each day giving our very best to Him.
