Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. It is prophecy—sometimes harsh prophecy but it also looks forward to reconciliation. For the child of God who has embraced Jesus as Lord, the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord is not to be dreaded.
These links take you to the scriptures and messages that we shared as we studied the prophet's words.
Read Malachi 4
Elijah will
come before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.
Jesus said
that Elijah has come. We get these words of Jesus right
after he is transfigured standing between Moses and Elijah, but later in that
chapter, it is clarified that Jesus did not mean this momentary appearance but
that Elijah had come in the form of John the Baptist.
Why the
disguise?
Consider John’s purpose.
He was the forerunner.
He prepared the way for the One who was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Now imagine
if people knew that John was Elijah.
People flocked to John at the Jordan.
Imagine how many more would have come to Elijah. Imagine how hard it
would be to leave Elijah for Jesus.
This man by
either name knew his own purpose. He was to prepare the way. John was Elijah
2.0.
Call him
John or call him Elijah, but this man knew that he was not the focus of these
few years. Jesus was. John knew that his ministry must lessen for that of the
Messiah to increase.
The Great
and Terrible Day of the Lord is on it’s way, but John or Elijah has come to
prepare you for reconciliation. God
wants to see you raised up in righteousness so that the great and terrible day
will be a day of joy for you.
One of my
tendencies as pastor is to gravitate towards challenges. What does God want us to do? What did you do with what God gave you?
Be a light
in the world.
Be the God
seasoning of the planet. Let people
taste God’s goodness every time they cross your path.
Be known by
your love.
Those are
legitimate challenges, but I have to remind myself to include some affirmations
every once in a while.
Our
behavior, our performance, our actions are all things that we want to please
God, but we must remember that it is God alone who has made us right with him.
Our response
to that great love can be manifested in our behavior and our performance and
our actions but we must keep in mind that God did it all and he did it for us.
God did
it. I know that you might be thinking it
was Tom’s sermons that let us turn the corner to righteousness, but it was and
is all God.
God did
it. You might think that it was reading
your chapter every day without missing a day, but it was and is all God.
There will
be a Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.
When? Soon.
In that day
and on every day from now until then, know that God alone has made you right
with him.
He has
called you to obey his directives. He
has called you to be a living sacrifice.
He has called you to bring the whole tithe. He has called you to reconciliation in the
blood of Jesus.
There may be
judgment taking place all around you but because of what God has done for you,
you will have joy. You will frolic like
a young calf not concerned with the wickedness melting away all around you.
Do not lose
hope because of the wickedness around you.
On the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, the wicked will be no
more. They will be like ashes under your
feet and we can wash each other’s feet.
Malachi
contains some tough prophecy and tough admonitions but it closes with
reconciliation. God sent his messenger
who prepared the way. He sent Jesus who
died for your sins. He will come and
claim you.
Because of
this we can live through our present suffering knowing that the glory in store for
us is overwhelming. We can look forward to the Great and Terrible Day of the
Lord.
Amen.
Read Malachi 4
Creation is
moving to some point in the future that we will call the Great and Terrible Day
of the Lord. It’s coming. We can’t mark it on our calendars or register
it in our phones, but it’s coming.
For the
wicked, it will be worse than they can imagine.
For the
righteous, it will be greater than the human mind can conceive.
For the
wise, we are to always be ready and live as if that day is upon us. We don’t wait for the two-minute warning to
start living as God has directed. We are
to be known by our love this day and every day.
We are to
live our lives in response to the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus and
do our best to follow the example of our Lord.
We know God
through his holy word—the Bible—and through his Holy Word in the Flesh—Christ
Jesus. The people of Malachi’s time knew
God through his holy word—mostly read to them by the scribes and priests—and by
their interaction with their priests.
As they
looked forward in time, they knew judgment was coming at some point, but they
did not fully comprehend a Messiah or a Savior or an Anointed One. They had an
inkling of these things but nowhere the knowledge of them that we enjoy today.
The Great
and Terrible Day of the Lord was mostly going to be terrible, especially for
those who rebelled against the Lord. We
can’t fault them for their thinking.
Malachi promised that before this day, Elijah would come.
The people
knew of Elijah. How could they not? Think to the encounter of Elijah and the
prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel some 400 years earlier.
The kingdom
had gone astray. Elijah was a wanted man
but he confronted the king and caused all of the prophets of Baal to meet him
on Mount Carmel to settle the matter of who truly is God.
This was not
of Elijah’s own doing. God set this in
motion with the promise that he would send rain upon the drought-stricken land,
but first the wicked needed to be purged from the land.
You know the
story. Both Elijah and the many prophets
of Baal prepared a bull for a burnt offering.
There were 450 prophets of Baal plus 400 prophets of Asherah—those who
ate the Jezebel’s table.
So there are 850 prophets who had led the people astray to worship false gods, and there is
Elijah. Elijah said, let’s settle this
once and for all.
Elijah went
before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the
Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
Here is how
we will sort this out. We each make an
altar on which to burn the sacrifice. We
each prepare our animal and place it on the altar. Make sure there is plenty of wood. So they did just that. The prophets of Baal
were up first.
No person
would like the fire. Each would call
upon their god to light the fire of the sacrifice. The prophets of Baal called out for hours
without response.
Elijah had
not yet called upon his God. He hadn’t
even repaired the altar that was in disrepair, but he was not silent. He mocked the false prophets. He taunted them.
You had
better shout louder. He can’t hear you.
Maybe your
god is busy. Did he put you on hold?
Maybe he
is in the bathroom and he isn’t getting enough fiber in his diet.
Elijah had
to be having the time of his life. False
prophets wanted real fire from a false god.
They started slashing their own bodies to draw blood. This was sometimes practiced and surely
needed now as their god seemed to be taking a long nap. Maybe he was hibernating.
When evening
came, Elijah stepped up and said, it’s my turn now. The people had
become bored with the false prophets' futile and frantic efforts to elicit fire
from their god.
Elijah addressed
the altar that had been neglected. He first surrounded it with 12 stones
representing the 12 tribes and took the stones to build an Altar to the one
true God. Then he loaded it with wood
That wasn’t
enough. It was time to taunt the false
prophets again. He dug a trench around
this altar. That wasn’t all. He had people fill 4 large jars with water
and douse the offering and altar. Once
was not enough. He would have the jars
of water poured on the altar twice more until it was soaked and the trench
around it was full.
The false
prophets were probably thinking that this was going to be a draw. It would take hours for the wood to dry
enough that it might catch fire. The
status quo could continue. Elijah could
say what he wanted and the 950 false prophets could continue spewing their
nonsense without fear of ever being held accountable.
But Elijah
would not wait for the wood to dry.
At the time
of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and
that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people
will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back
again.”
There would
be no waiting to see if God would answer.
Then the fire
of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the
soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
It burned
the offering and the wood and even the rocks. It even burned the dirt. Have you ever been camping and said, let’s
round up some rocks and dirt and start a fire with them. Every drop of water was consumed.
When all the
people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The
Lord—he is God!”
The people
were convinced. This was crossing the Jordan
and the Red Sea on dry land convinced.
This was sweeping through the Promised Land with their enemies fleeing
convinced. This could only be the hand of
the one true God.
Elijah
seized the moment.
Then Elijah
commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They
seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and
slaughtered there.
OBTW—the
rain came shortly thereafter.
Why do I
tell the story of Elijah and the false prophets? This Mount Carmel encounter was the image
seared on the minds of God’s Chosen People.
The wicked were exposed. They
were taunted. They were discredited and
they were killed.
When God
told his people that he would send Elijah before the Great and Terrible Day of
the Lord, they were looking for a man who took care of business the way they
would take care of business. Think about
it—850 false prophets dead in one afternoon.
The
denomination sends me an email every couple of months noting the pulpit
vacancies in our denomination. On rare
occasions, all the pulpits in our presbytery are filled. That’s a momentary celebration. Across the denomination, there are always two
dozen churches searching for a pastor.
Imagine,
having 850 vacancies to fill. Elijah
gutted the mechanism for worshiping false gods.
And yes, by
way of confession, I do look to see if there is a CP church in need of a pastor
in Honolulu.
The people
of Malachi’s day were looking for someone to come and set things right and if
wicked people had to die in the process, then so be it. Elijah would be perfect.
But God had
other plans for Elijah.
He will turn
the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to
their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Destruction will come for the wicked but not before there is
a chance for people to repent and truly know God.
Elijah would begin the reconciliation that would be completed
in Christ Jesus. For those who rejected
the invitation to life, there would be destruction, but God desires that none perish.
Before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, there will be
a chance to repent and be reconciled to God.
We live in that time now.
Elijah has come. We
preach that all must repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord.
There is a Great and Terrible Day of the Lord on the
horizon. Our job is to bring as many as
we can to the great side of this day before it arrives.
Elijah has come.
Jesus has come.
Jesus will come again.
We are to be ready and bring as many to him as we can before he arrives!
Amen.
Read
Malachi 3
The people had gone astray but thought
they were justified. Following God’s
rules has not been profitable for us.
The priests had lost fidelity to their
calling. The half-blind and crippled
runt was accepted as a sacrifice when the owner had much finer animals.
Everyone was just going through the
motions. The people gave God their leftovers
and the priests
sanctioned it.
God was not pleased, but he promised
the people if they would return to him that he would do likewise. God had not written off his people as a lost
cause.
But the people were prone to defend
their apathy and malaise and so the questions continued.
How are we to return?
Will a mere
mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
How are we robbing you?
You might think that Malachi had
already explained this in the first two chapters. You are bringing defective offerings. You are bringing God your leftovers. God is not first in your lives.
God through the prophet replied:
“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole
nation—because you are robbing me. Bring
the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test
me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the
floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room
enough to store it. I will prevent pests
from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their
fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed,
for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi had previously chastised the
people for trying to get away with sacrifices and offerings to God that they
would never try on their governor. Now
he frames this as robbing God.
What is the tithe? Tithe means tenth. It’s one tenth of that with which you have
been blessed. In this time, it was often
a tenth of
the crop. Today, we write a check, but
the tithe is still a
tenth.
God gives two reasons as to why to be
faithful in the tithe other than strict obedience. Obedience is good, but God offered his
rationale with this directive.
First, it fills God’s house. The priests will be provisioned, but more
importantly, the poor will be fed. Those
that might be called the least of these will have provision as well.
The second is that the tither will be
blessed—very blessed. It’s not a money-for-money exchange. It is God’s blessing
poured out upon us in ways that we often don’t understand. God longs to bless us. He longs to open the floodgates of blessings.
This is a unique passage for God says
test me in this. God says put him to the
test. God says go ahead and double-dog dare me to bless you when you give a tenth of what you have.
Talk to a tither who has been faithful
for a few years and ask them if they would ever go back to not tithing. I am confident that each one would tell you no
way.
God is true to his word!
Now talk with someone who tithes one
month then gives what’s left over the next month and then stops giving for a
while because the budget is so tight that they don’t think that they can.
Some people say Proverbs 3:5-6 with attached caveats. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart
but not your checkbook. In all of your
ways acknowledge him except in your budget where your own understanding must
prevail to survive. Then they wonder why God is not making their paths
straight.
The people who gave defective animals
or did not tithe did not trust God. How
can I give a tenth? How can I give my
best bull? They did not trust that God
would continue to bless them with more.
They had forgotten their most recent
deliverance from Babylon. They had
forgotten how their ancestors had swept through the Promised Land defeating all
who opposed them. They had forgotten
crossing the Jordan and the Red Sea on dry land. They had forgotten the plagues upon Egypt
that delivered them from bondage.
They had forgotten the counsel of
another prophet—Jeremiah—who asked if anything is too hard for God.
It was a rhetorical question. Nothing is too hard for God, including blessing his people with more than
they thought possible.
But the people had to let go of their
own understanding. In this equation of
trusting in the Lord and leaning on your own understanding, there was a whole
bunch of leaning.
Many remained in their own
understanding but some who feared the Lord sought to do better.
Some kept complaining about God not
helping them and the wicked getting away with everything, not knowing that in
this distrust of the Lord and constant complaining they were migrating to the
ranks of the wicked. Their own understanding
brought them to apathy towards God.
Some did fear the Lord and desireD to
serve him. Those few—a remnant—put their
names on a scroll. These were those who
still feared the Lord. They still
desired to honor the Lord. These few
wanted to bring glory to God’s name.
And God noticed them.
He said when the time was right, when
it was time for God to act, at just the right time God would claim these
faithful few as his treasured possession.
God listened and heard. God desires
none to perish but he is always pleased with faithfulness. There were some who were faithful among the
apathetic and ambivalent of that day.
There were some who honored God. There were some who feared the Lord. There were some who by their lives and their
offerings and their sacrifices and their words brought glory to God.
God assured them that they would see
the difference between how God treated those who honored him and served him and
those who did not.
There will come a time when there will
be a sorting and these few will be on the right side of the equation.
What about today?
We pray for our nation to turn to God
but see little happening in that area. We keep praying but must know that God listens and hears
us. We may not get what we seek, but God
has already sorted us. We are his.
We pray for the lives of the unborn
and the helpless, but see little progress.
We keep praying but must know that God listens and hears us. We may not get what we seek, but God has
already sorted us. We are his. God will
rescue the helpless. We must trust him that he knows exactly what to do.
We pray that our offerings and our
living sacrificeS are pleasing to God. We
may not see change in the world, but we trust that we are changing and being
molded in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus.
God listens and hears and does what is
just. We must do what we are commanded
to do and what God’s Spirit leads us to do without doubt that God listens and
hears and does what is right.
We might just be in the minority. It may be a very small minority. It may be a remnant, but we will remain
faithful to God by putting him first
in all things.
We will tithe with both trust and joy
in our hearts.
We will serve with passion and purpose
and our service and obedience will
not be a burden.
We will grow in God’s grace and the
trials that seem to take forever will be nothing compared
to the coming
glory.
We will be known
by our love and not our complaints.
We will be known by our faith
even when the world doubts us. In fact,
our faith is most evident when it is the evidence of things not seen.
We trust that God has heard us and
that he listens to us and that he has good
plans for those of us who remain faithful
to him.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
This is not only a
verse that we all know by heart but one that guides us to remain faithful
when others have moved God out of first place and complain why things are not
going well.
We are known as Christ’s disciples by
our love.
We are known as God’s faithful by our
unwavering trust in him and his
promises.
Amen.
Read
Malachi 3
The Hebrew
people were a mess. The priests were a
mess and were largely responsible for the people continuing down the wrong
path. They
were complicit in the matter.
What does
God do when his people are a mess? He
sends a messenger, and not just a messenger but one that will prepare the way
for his coming.
There will
be a messenger. For us he has come. It was John the Baptist or if you keep
reading, Elijah. Later, Jesus would note that John and Elijah were the same man.
God would
not leave his people in the mess of their own making. He would come and bring a New
Covenant. He would offer life to
those enslaved by death and sin.
But who
could endure his coming? He will be like
a refiner’s fire. He will sift
out impurities. Those who continue
in rebellion will perish. This is
judgment.
But it is
also restoration. God can do more than one thing at once. We
are told that God will purify the Levites.
Those who he chastised severely will be cleansed and refined like silver
or gold. Then offerings pleasing and
acceptable to God may resume.
For some
there is hope. There is
restoration. The offerings of the people
will once again be acceptable to God.
God said not
to fear his coming. He does have good plans for his people.
Were we to
continue reading, we would see that God has more admonition for his
people. He gives them hope and he chews
them out at the same time. The
tithe is the focus of the next reprimand.
We will save that for another time.
For now, let
us have hope and take courage that even in our worst mess, God
still loves us. He does
not want to see us perish. He does
have good
plans for us.
If you go to
the end of the chapter, you will see that there were some people who still
feared the Lord. They made a scroll of remembrance. God heard them.
There will
be a time when it will be too late to worship and serve the Lord, but that time
has not yet come. So long as it is still
called today, we hope and encourage and share
God’s love.
But encourage
one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be
hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
God through
Malachi is giving his priests and his people a harsh chewing out, but he is
also speaking of a time when he will come in the flesh and forgive sins and make a way where there was no way. He will be everything we need.
We have
received the fulfillment
of this prophecy. Jesus
has come. He made the atoning
sacrifice for our sins. We have been restored
and made right with God not by anything we did but by God alone. We have received his mercy. We live in his favor and grace.
We have
received what was promised by the prophet Malachi. We have received what the people of Malachi’s
day saw as a future promise.
That promise
lives in us. We must never let ourselves
become like God’s people of Malachi’s time—complacent, apathetic, and without
hope.
We have no
excuse for God himself lives within us.
Your pastor,
the body of Christ, and the Holy Spirit are here to challenge and encourage
you.
So let us
never make God second best in our lives.
Let us never
give him leftovers
when we have first fruits.
Let us
always seek
him first, and not be enslaved to the things that the godless seek after.
Let us long
to be known as his disciples by
our love.
Let us take
the admonishments and lessons of Malachi and apply them to our lives so as to
be his faithful servant.
Amen.
Read
Malachi 2
As we approach the days when the
temperature will likely hit the century mark, think to those very cold days we
had a couple months ago. That was some cold.
I remember some counsel from over 40
years ago about dressing for cold weather.
It was to dress comfortably cool.
You didn’t want to be warm or if you had to move or do something
strenuous, then you would be hot and quickly become overheated. Dress
comfortably cool.
As a second lieutenant going through
my first combat readiness evaluation in Japan near Mount Fuji, my platoon was
about one minute from moving out from our assembly area. At the last minute, I was given a squad of combat
engineers.
They had no assigned mission at that
time other than to stay with my platoon in case something came up.
It was drizzling when they arrived and
they were all dressed in rain suits. If you
have never worn one, a military issue rain suit is essentially rubber
coveralls.
If you need to lose 20 pounds of water
weight in 20 minutes, then put on one of these suits and walk a mile. Make sure there are plenty of saline bags for
your IV when you are done.
I had to get my platoon moving so I
told my platoon sergeant to get those guys out of the rain suits and catch
up. Fifteen minutes later my platoon
sergeant caught up to me and told me that the engineers had all dropped
out. They didn’t shed their rain suits and were soaked with sweat and totally dehydrated.
They didn’t understand comfortably
cool. The engineer lieutenant and I had a long talk after the readiness
evaluation was over but this was a memorable lesson in comfortably cool that I
remember to this day.
God through Malachi chastised his people,
but reminded the priests that they were not off the hook. They had a role in the people going astray.
What if your Sunday messages never
made you a little uncomfortable? What if
they never invaded your comfort zone?
What if your Sunday messages simply
scratched your itching ears
and affirmed what you believe without testing it
against God’s word?
What if the shepherd entrusted with
this flock led you to become more transactional? What if the vending machine became our model?
What if you were counseled to minimize
your contact with those whom we might call the least
of these our brothers and sisters?
What if you were led to embrace
disconnection from God and the body of Christ?
What if your counsel from your pastor
was to just give God the leftovers?
I think that I would hear many
comments to the effect of that dog don’t hunt.
You don’t have the same relationship
with your pastor that the ancients had with their priests. You have a personal relationship with God
that came through Christ Jesus and continues in the Holy Spirit that dwells
within you, but there are expectations from your shepherd.
Some of those expectations might just
come from Malachi even though you didn’t know until now and some might just
ruffle your comfort zone.
For the lips of a priest ought to
preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people
seek instruction from his mouth.
The latest trends are good, but truth
is essential.
Understanding the world’s systems is
helpful, but knowing the heart of God from his holy word is mandatory.
Knowing the seasons and festivals and
traditions of God’s Chosen People and of the modern church are enriching, but
knowing that God desires mercy more than sacrifice, more than perfunctory
offerings, and more than mindless lock-step compliance is sharing a loving God
with those in your charge.
The priests and today pastors have
always been set apart and are a little different from the people who have a
relationship with them. Jesus noted that
the priests violate the Sabbath law and yet they are innocent.
The context of this discussion was
that the religious hypocrites were criticizing Jesus for working and healing on
the Sabbath.
You will see your priest or your
pastor at the ball games or at Walmart or at the town-wide yard sale and he is
the same as you, except he is set apart for a specific purpose—to preach the
truth and good news.
For that reason, he may not sugarcoat
the truth.
For that reason, you may have some
discomfort around him or her.
For that reason, compassion may look
more like instruction than a that’s ok.
It doesn’t matter comment. Your priest or your pastor is
required by his or her calling to deliver the messages of God.
God was serious about the descendants
of Levi honoring his covenant and his laws. You just don’t see many places
where God says, If you get out of line not only will I curse you but I will
rub manure in your face.
The chapter concludes with some words
for Woke America.
You have wearied the Lord with your
words.
“How have we wearied him?” you ask.
By saying, “All who do evil are good
in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of
justice?”
Your
ears will not be tickled here.
The
word of God will be understood by the word of God and illuminated by the Spirit
of God and not made to fit into the flavor of the week.
Sometimes
you will receive challenges. Sometimes
you will receive affirmation, but you will never receive apathy or ambivalence.
I
have a role. My fellow pastors have a
role in helping you to respond to God’s love with passion and purpose. Everything that we do should be done in
response to God’s love that we know in Christ Jesus and guided by his example.
It
is wholly your response but you who belong to body of Christ and continue to
worship him in the assembly are not alone.
You
have the counsel of the body. You have
the counsel of your pastor. You have the
counsel of the Holy Spirit who lives within you.
The
proverbs tell us that plans fail for lack of counsel but with many advisors
they succeed.
For lack of guidance a nation falls,
but victory is won through many advisers.
The
book of wisdom of which we will soon embark continues:
A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
You
do not have to navigate this world alone.
You have God’s holy word. You
have a pastor called to speak the truth without sugar coating. You have God’s own Spirit living in you.
The
message may come in different forms and different personalities, but the word
of God, your pastor’s message, and God’s Spirit speaking to you should all be
in one accord.
If
that is not the case, then it is the wrong time to make a major decision.
Imagine
if the priests of Malachi’s time had turned away the defective animals. We don’t know what would have happened, but
we do know that the issue would be before the people with each and every
sacrifice.
God is first
in all things. Don’t bring him your leftovers
and save the good stuff for yourself.
The
people might have ignored the counsel and just stopped bringing sacrifices.
The
people might have pressured the religious hierarchy to replaces these priests
with others more pliable.
The
people might have remembered that nothing
is hidden from God. God
sees the heart.
In
any case, the priests would not have been coconspirators in the ambivalence of
the people, but those are all hypotheticals.
The priests were complicit in helping the people just go through the
motions.
I
have told some of you before, that if I ever stand in front of you and just say
the words: For God so loved the
world, and there is no passion; it’s time to form a search committee.
Your
worship, your offerings, and your sacrifices in whatever form they take in this
age must be out of joy not duty, love not compliance, and hope not doubt.
My
part in this is to help you remain comfortably cool. I’m not talking about our passion for the
Lord. We should be on fire.
I’m
talking about your personal comfort zone.
We should always be ready to move towards what God has for us next and
not pass out because we are comfortable right where we are. My part is to help you live in faith and love
and hope. It is to challenge you to set
doubt aside and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. It is to know with certainty
that the promises of God are true.
I
will not be complicit in giving quarter to apathy, ambivalence, malaise, or
rebellion. Sometimes you may think me a pain in the …you pick the body part.
We
have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Even the Levitical priests had to sacrifice for their own sins before they offered the
sacrifice for the sins of the people. We
have all sinned as well—pastor and parishioner alike, but we remain people of
passion and purpose and as we live completely for God, our encouragement from
fellow believers should be such that we long to stay the course and finish our
race.
Our
desire to continue and finish our race of faith must be so much more than our
desire to remain in our personal comfort zones.
We
don’t want to quit. We won’t just go through the motions. We
long to worship and serve and love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and
strength.
Your pastor might just challenge you along the
way.
And
here is something to chew on as we consider God’s chastisement of the priests. We are all a holy priesthood. All
who have come to Christ Jesus—the stone that the builders rejected—are now a
people—God’s people.
You
are now a royal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek.
Now God does call some to ordained ministry, but all who profess Jesus as Lord
are to minister to the world, not because of your Levitical lineage but because
your Lord is the cornerstone
and foundation
of all that you do.
OBTW-
Your pastor still will challenge you along the way.
Amen.
Read
Malachi 2
I begin with
verse 16. The Lord God of Israel
said: I hate divorce.
Why such
strong language? God said thou shall
not murder. It was and is a
command. He didn’t add, I hate
murder.
What is it
about divorce?
God noted
that through marriage sanctified by him you get godly offspring. In flesh and spirit both husband and wife
become one through the union blessed by God.
The Hebrew
people had intermarried, at least some of them.
Think to the times of Jesus when the Jews detested the Samaritans. They had intermarried with their conquerors. This was mostly the women being taken as
wives by the Assyrians or other invaders and remaining in the land.
Before the
people had entered the Promised Land, God gave directions against intermarrying with the
pagans. Don’t marry people who worship a
false God.
How do I
preach this in an age where almost every family you know is impacted by
divorce?
That’s
easy. God hates divorce. It doesn’t matter what my opinion of the
matter is. It doesn’t matter if this is
easy to preach or not. Don’t do what God
hates.
But I am
in an abusive relationship!
You don’t
know what it’s like.
You don’t
understand.
Understanding
is a good quality for counseling but obedience to God is essential for right living.
But let's speak briefly to the counseling side of this equation.
Ask yourself
how you got there and you will have your counsel for how to live with whomever
or whatever comes next. Broken marriages can be fixed but they seldom are.
How did you
get there? You were not ready to enter
into a promise that you would never break.
But I
didn’t know he or she would be like that.
Then you
casually made a promise that God takes very seriously.
Why does God
hate divorce?
God hates
broken promises. Marriage is a covenant. It is an unbreakable promise and God hates it
when we break what he made to be unbreakable.
Do not enter
lightly into an unbreakable promise with a partner, because the promise is also
with God.
What if at
the end of the age, you were standing before Jesus and he said, “Send this one
to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go directly to hell.”
But, but,
but…. You promised me eternity with you.
I professed you as Lord. I
believed in my heart that God raised you from the dead. I was your disciple. I confessed when I sinned. I even read my chapter every day even though
some days I didn’t want to.
You
promised.
Imagine
Jesus saying, “Yeah but, I’m going to have to break that promise.”
We live
under the new deal, right? No, it is the
New Covenant. God does not break his
promises.
A covenant
is an unbreakable promise. God does not
break his promises and he does not want you to make promises that you will
break, especially in the marriage covenant.
Malachi puts
in like this. You wonder why God doesn’t
respond to your prayers? You don’t keep
your most important promises.
You are not
faithful to God. You are not faithful to
each other.
If you are
young, don’t rush into marriage.
If you have
been divorced, don’t rush into the second or third time around.
Years ago as
a manager for the newspaper, some of my carriers told me about some of their
friends who were also carriers. Two of
them were getting married.
I thought,
“that’s nice.”
Then they
told me it would be the fifth wedding for each of them.
Today, we
are told not to intermarry. You didn’t
know that, did you?
Those of you
who received the stone that the builders rejected as your cornerstone are now a
people—God’s people.
Do not marry
someone who does not proclaim Jesus as Lord.
But, but,
but…
He could
change. She could change.
That’s
true. Wait until they do before you
commit to an unbreakable promise. If they are going to change, it’s worth the
wait.
That’s
cool. We will just do the friends with
benefits thing until somebody changes.
If you think
the FWB package is ok until both are ready for the covenant of marriage, you
will never get to the covenant.
Marriage is
tough but doable with God and in a godly relationship. It has many benefits and is the prescribed
process to bring godly children into the world.
There is
probably not a person alive who has been married for 5 years or more who has
not entertained the thoughts of either killing or divorcing their spouse.
If you are
at that point, remember that God hates divorce and I can help you dispose of
the body.
Seriously,
if you are at that point, remember that you made a promise that was never to be
broken. If you can’t continue your
marriage, then don’t jump into a second or third one without understanding that
marriage is a covenant—a promise never to be broken.
We have
forgiveness in Christ Jesus but we are counseled to be wise.
Do not enter into a marriage covenant until you can do so knowing that
you will never break your promise.
Amen.
