Let us not undervalue the mercies of God

 

Read Malachi 1

I don’t bring much in the way of published commentaries into my weekly messages, but I will make a brief exception today.  Matthew Henry noted that:

All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.

Let’s think about being prone to undervalue the mercies of God and to excuse our own offenses.

Isn’t it our nature to see sin in others while concurrently justifying or forgiving it in ourselves?

Isn’t it our nature to see all of the things that God needs to do for us while concurrently missing the multitude of blessings poured out on us throughout our lives?

God’s Chosen People—especially those in Jerusalem—had gotten into this all about me rut.  Complying with God’s divine directives was obligatory but not profitable, at least in their own eyes.  

It seemed like a waste of time to them.  They just went through the motions.  OBTW—they were not fooling God.  God saw that their hearts were not in their worship and sacrifices and offerings and he was not pleased.

He had chosen these people to be his own.  The world would know the one true God through his people.  Now it seemed that his people didn’t even know him or want to know him.

God reminded them that he chose Jacob over Esau.  Esau's people could put all of the earthly effort they wanted into their enterprises, but God’s people would prevail.

God had blessed his people—those who came through Jacob.  Those who came through Esau were like those ages before building the Tower of Babel.  Their own achievements would never compare to what God did for those whom he had chosen.

But God’s own people had forgotten their blessings.  They considered their sacrifices and offerings to be of no value—what a waste of time and resources. They had contempt for God and what he had required of them and were just going through the motions.

They had forgotten how recently God had restored Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  This captivity was the result of their own apostasy but their deliverance was wholly of God’s mercy.  These were his own people and he loved them.

They did not return the favor.  They had grown lukewarm and their worship was perfunctory.

God had provisioned his people to build a new temple.  This was the temple in which people begrudgingly sacrificed animals full of defects.  Why waste a good animal on a sacrifice to God?

Back to where I started with Henry’s commentary.

We all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.

If you want to see blessings in your life, look for them.

If you want to see the hand of God at work in the world, look for it.

If you want to see the great mercy of God, examine your own life and where you would be based solely on your own merits.    We often think that we would be at the top of the world, until we actually examine ourselves and our choices and our priorities.

We are so prone to forgive our own shortcomings but so ready to find fault in others.

We are prone to see what we think we must have but are often blind to what God has already given us.

God loved us first.  He doesn’t owe us anything.  We owe him everything.  When we remember this, we start to see our blessings and we can begin to worship God as he desires.

Let us never undervalue the mercies of God.

Amen.