Malachi’s prophecy is a startling account of how far the people of God had fallen from the ideal in the fifth century BC. It also reads like a description of the present day people of God. Malachi has the last word to say before the centuries of silence preceding the first coming of Jesus as the babe in Bethlehem.
Malachi 1:6-14 NIV
[6] “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.
“It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?'
[7] “By offering defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?'
“By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. [8] When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong?
Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty. [9] “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”---says the Lord Almighty.
[10] “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.
[11] My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. [12] “But you profane it by saying, 'The Lord's table is defiled,' and, 'Its food is contemptible.'
[13] And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously, ” says the Lord Almighty. “When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. [14] “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.
Here is a telling indictment against the people of God, and by extension, and specifically in the following verses, the priests who stand in the place of offering sacrifice and worship in the Temple.
The people were offering defective animals for sacrifice and the priests were accepting them as suitable sacrifices. The law specifically stated that only the finest animals were to be brought to the Temple. The offering of defective animals is saying that God will have to be happy with what is left over rather than the best they had.
What an insult to God!!!
Yet is that not what happens again and again today? God is offered our leftovers: leftover time, leftover money, leftover priorities, leftover honour. We insult Him again and again. Our churches continually do this as well. It is not just individual Christians who insult God in this way, it is also when we come together that we act similarly.
His many times do we hear the Bible read in church without passion or understanding and, at the end of the reading, the congregation halfheartedly says, “amen” to the reader’s “this is the word of the Lord”. NO, IT IS NOT THE WORD OF THE LORD. If you believed it to be the word of God, then it would be read with understanding, everyone would listen intently, and, afterwards would be able to remember what had been read.
This is but one example of our dishonouring of God.
Our tithes and offerings are another example, specifically addressed in Malachi 3. Do we give sacrificially from the FIRST part of our substance? I am not referring just to what is given in church, but what we do as a whole with our possessions. Usually we give God our leftovers, that which we can afford after everything else is paid for. Does this honour God? Isn't that the difference between the offerings of Cain and Abel. One was the first fruits of the animals with no guarantee of others being born. The other was from his crops which were guaranteed to have more for Cain after he had given from the crop.
Our offerings are seldom as sacrificial as Abel’s. Jesus drew a similar point from the parable of the widow’s mite. It might have been small, but it was all she had. That is what made it acceptable, rather than the rich offering which was affordable, even though it was a large amount of money.
In the early church we read of the judgement on Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 whose lives were forfeited when they gave a very generous offering to the church but lied in the giving.
We decide where to live and what to do with our time based on a whole range of factors. Is God, and His call on our life, top of this list? Do we consult God as to where we should be living and who we are to join with as a Christian community?
But there is an even more fundamental question. Is there anything else on our list of priorities? If there is, did God allow you to have these other items? Of course the answer will be yes, but to what extent do we prioritise these other items.
There are certain matters which are not only allowed, but necessary. Thing like looking after our family, other essential responsibilities to others, our jobs, etc. But all in their proper proportion remembering that our lives are not our own, we have been bought with the price of the life of the Son of God.
God’s words though His prophet Malachi are as relevant today as they were when delivered in the fifth century BC. God has not changed. But neither have His people. We are just as negligent of Him as were the people then.
How many offer less than their best, or the first of everything, to God? After all that is the essence of the first and great commandment as Jesus rephrased it:
Matthew 22:34-35,37-38 NIV
[34] Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. [35] One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: [37] Jesus replied: “ 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' [38] This is the first and greatest commandment.
It is only after this first commandment that we are to care for others. Then everything else will fit into place.
Is this the offering we bring to the altar?
What response is required in the face of this?
Malachi speaks of this behaviour as defiling the Temple. God calls out for someone to close the doors of the Temple in the face of this defiling. God will not accept any offering from their hands, and so the Temple doors need to be closed.
There are two aspects here:
1. God’s reaction
2. The people's response
God's response is clear. He will not receive anything from them. It is not a matter of God sorting out the worthy from the unworthy, accepting the one and rejecting the other. No, He will not receive anything from them. Here we see the lie given to the idea that God will be happy with some things when others are wrong. Holiness is an absolute thing. Holiness demands absolute obedience to God.
In our society, now as then, there is often the idea that close enough is good enough. It wasn't good enough then and it is not good enough now. God demands holiness since He is holy. Nothing impure or defiled in any way is acceptable to God. This is what lies behind some of the difficult passages of the Bible, such as the Levitical laws about mixtures. Even the fabrics used in the priestly garments had to be made from a single fibre, not a mixture of fibres. It is the same with mixed marriages between Israelites and non Israelites. Purity is applied to even the most mundane of matters so that the people will know that God is a holy God.
That is why there was no human good enough to satisfy the laws of Moses. Jesus had to be perfect in every way to be able to be our sin bearer. Even the greatest of saints, Moses, Abraham, David, etc, did not qualify.
In Jesus’ coming, His death and resurrection we who become disciples of Him, become new people, a new creation. We are no longer what we once were. We are nor “in Christ”. Our very nature is transformed and we learn how to grow into this new nature, just as a baby learns about life as he/she grows in a nurturing family.
Of ourselves we can never be as holy as we are called to be. But hat is the point. It is no longer us, it is Christ in us and us in Christ. This is the great mystery of faith.
The second aspect, the people's response, also is an important factor. God calls for a man to shut the doors of the Temple, to prevent others from trying to enter into God's presence without the proper consideration of holiness.
In Ezekiel's time God called for someone to stand in the gap so He would not have to destroy the land.
Ezekiel 22:30 NIV
[30] “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.
There was no one who would do this. There was no one to intercede for the land, for the people. It was not until Jesus came that there was someone who would be this person. It was Jesus who was able to be the intermediary, the true High Priest, between God and man to take responsibility for the wrongs of the people.
Nehemiah did this in a limited way in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. But it was not until Jesus came that this could be done for all the people.
How does this apply today?
In many places, the Church has moved so far from holiness that God is being insulted by the activities done in His name. On the surface things look good, but just under the surface the “sacrifices” are defiled. God is mocked. It might not seem to be the case, since we are not used to true standards of holiness. We are in an era of “close enough is good enough “. But Go is not fooled. He can see through the shallow service and sacrifice offered.
So He cries out again, as He has throughout the ages. Who will stand in the gap? Who will close the doors? Who will send out the cry that God will not be mocked?
This will involve someone calling out for a true reformation of the church: a “re-forming”. The Church needs to be formed in the way Jesus declares. After all we are meant to be His betrothed. We are the ones who will be His Bride when He returns to claim His Bride.
He is coming back for a Bride who is without any spot or wrinkle. There will be no place for a bride who is “close enough”, with just a few spots. There will be no spots. There will be a group who is so sold out to God that their own lives matter not at all.
I have seen such a people. There are some in the western church who are prepared to pay this price. There are even more in places where persecution is rife, in India, Africa and China. Even in these areas the formation is incomplete, but the signs are stronger in such places.
It seems that persecution and poverty produce holiness in the church that seems almost impossible to achieve in other ways. I wish it were not so. But even a casual observation seems to bear this out.
Who will close the doors to the old temple so that Jesus can enter in glory through the eastern gate of the Temple made without hands as we see in Ezekiel's visionary temple?
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