Leftovers

 

Read Malachi 1

Malachi prophesied sometime after the Hebrew people returned from captivity in Babylon and after the second temple was built.  Unlike other prophets who looked forward to destruction at the hands of the Babylonians; this was history for Malachi.

These Hebrews from Jerusalem—Jews—had come home and worship in the temple had resumed, but unlike when Ezra and Nehemiah summoned all of God’s people to hear his holy word read aloud once more; the people of Malachi's day had become apathetic.

They were on fire when God’s words were first read again in their own land.  Those days and that passion had passed.

Now idolatry and apostasy were not big issues.  The captivity had cleansed them of most of that, but apathy and malaise had become the norm.  Worship and sacrifice were items on a list to be checked off.  They were no longer central in the lives of God’s Chosen People. 

The people had become lethargic.  They were indifferent.  There was an attitude of it just doesn’t pay to play God’s way.  The people wanted to blame God for their difficulties.

Malachi takes a series of interrogatives to discern that it was not God’s indifference but the lackluster effort of his own people that resulted in a drought of blessings.

As we navigate this short book of prophecy, we will come across many things familiar.  They will add context and antecedent to many things that we know from the gospels.

Blemished sacrifices were offered to the Lord.

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.

I hate divorce.

A Day of Judgment.

I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.

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 send my prophet Elijah before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.

There is much in Malachi that will sound familiar.  Let’s dive into the first chapter.

The people were showing contempt for the Lord.  How?  They offered imperfect animals for sacrifices.

Really, if you are just going through the motions, why would you give your best lamb to the Lord?  Cut that blind runt out of the flock and send it to the priest for sacrifice. 

The Lord noted that a son honors his father and a servant honors his master, but who honors God?

Try paying taxes to the governor with your rejects and see how far that gets you.  You know what the law that was given through Moses requires and you know that your stunts wouldn’t pass muster with human authorities; yet you try them with your God.

God through the prophet told his people that he would rather they shut down this whole offering and sacrifice business than to do it in the perfunctory manner with which they had grown comfortable.

God doesn’t like lukewarm.  God isn’t fooled by what is going on externally.  God sees the heart.

God chose Jacob over Esau even though both were from the line of Abraham, but Jacob’s line was blind to the blessing.

God’s Chosen People saw only the burdens and not the blessings.

His people saw only regulations that required compliance, not divine directives to be embraced for the fullness of life.

His people saw a God who could be outsmarted, not one who was feared among all the nations.

The people had brought themselves to their present predicament.  Only God could deliver them once more, but they were just going through the motions in their relationship with God.

I think the counsel from our Lord to the Church in Ephesus (Revelation 2) would have fit in here.

Consider the height from which you have fallen and repent!

Let’s examine our world.  Do we ever just go through the motions?

Do we give God our leftovers?

Have we abandoned our first love?

Is the body of Christ truly connected? Do we have those within the body of Christ who feel like outsiders?

How do we live in a world that says one god is as good as another?

How do we preach life in Christ in a world that demands tolerance of all religions and all beliefs?  Do we still bring passion with good news? Are we afraid that the truth might offend someone?

I have some good news for you.  Every time we have a food offering, our people bring mostly new food.  Sometimes, people buy specifically for the food offering. 

When there is a community food drive, that’s something different. I wonder how many cans of something will be more than 10 years expired.  How many will be 15 years expired?

It’s been a couple of years since I received anything that expired in the previous millennium.

I understand what’s going on when the community gives food.  Sometimes, it’s just cleaning out, but what if God’s own people did the same thing?

What if those desiring to be blessed because they thought they lived in faith, practiced these offerings of contempt? What if our practice was to give God our leftovers? 

I think that most here are saying to themselves, that’s not me.  I think when you give your time, money, or treasures, you know that you are making an offering to the one true God and your heart desires to please him and not slip in something contemptible while he isn’t looking.

I can tell you that you understand making an offering to God out of the best that you have. It is not a duty.  It is not a burden.  I can see that, but you have to inspect the other areas of your life to see if you are just giving God your leftovers.

Only you and God can know for sure.

Sometimes your leftovers are good.  I like some leftovers better than the original serving, but when it comes to making an offering to God we must ask:  Am I giving this to God so I can keep something better for myself?

Is God first in all things and in all parts of my life?

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The challenge for us today is to ask if we are consistently giving God our first things or just throwing a few leftovers his way now and then.

Malachi admonished his own people for the latter.  In the King James and New King James Versions, the introductory text reads:

The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

This was not going to be an enjoyable message.  It was admonishment and even reprimand.  Our times are different but our counsel is the same.

In these days where the gods of apathy and ambivalence reign in the world, are we giving God our leftovers or are we still keeping God first in all things?

This is not something that we say, when it’s all said and done, I think God will come out first in my life.  This is not something to be left to happenstance.

This is our choice.  God is first in all things.  He is first in my mind when I awaken.  He is first in my heart.  He is first in my time, talents, and treasures.  He is first.

Keep God first in all things!

Amen.

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.