Will a mere mortal rob God?

 

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.

I will send a messenger ahead of me

 

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.

The promises of God are true.

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.

Comfortably Cool

 

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.

They continue:

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.

God Hates Divorce

 

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.

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.