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.
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