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PEOPLE OF THE BIBLE

Introduction

If you will remember, we said that Haggai and Zechariah were two of the three prophets who prophesied after the Babylonian exile. They became prophets around the same time about

520 B.C.

They both encouraged the people to finish the construction of the Temple that had begun some sixteen years earlier but had been left uncompleted. About four years after they prophesied the Temple was finally completed around 516 B.C.

Malachi, however, prophesied much later than Haggai and Zechariah. Ezra and Nehemiah have already come to Jerusalem. In fact it was about fifteen years after Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem that Malachi became a prophet. The year was about 430 B.C., around eighty six years after the completion of the Temple and around fifteen years after Nehemiah came to Jerusalem.

However, we will find that there was a close resemblance between the lax religious conditions of Malachi’s day and those which Nehemiah had to contend with when he returned from Persia to take up his duties as the governor in Jerusalem. The people were losing their enthusiasm for worship. Apathy and disillusionment had set in because the Messianic prophecies had not been fulfilled.

Many of the sins that brought on the Babylonian Captivity were still being practiced in Judah.

The people’s relationship with God had been broken because of their sin. They had dishonored God’s name, offered false worship, led others into sin, broken God’s laws, called evil “good”, kept God’s tithes and offerings for themselves, and they had become proud and arrogant.

God sent Malachi to confront the people with their sins and restore their relationship with God.

His words reminded them of their willful disobedience beginning with the priests and then the rest of the people.

However, in the midst of the wickedness there were some who remained faithful–the remnant.

These folks loved and honored God and Malachi wanted them to know that God would bless them.

Malachi is the last of God’s prophets to speak until John the Baptist arrives on the scene about 400 years later.

We don’t know anything about the prophet Malachi except what his prophecy tells us. Because of this, some ancient writers looked upon him as an angel incarnate. A great number of Jews believed him to be Ezra the scribe. We won’t know until we meet him in glory.

His name means “Messenger of Jehovah.”

Let’s look at his message to Judah.

Vs. 1–the word “burden” means that it is “a weighty message” or “a judicial sentence.”

[This was also used by Nahum (1:1), Habakkuk (1:1), and Zechariah 9:1]

I.         QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

The questions around which this book is built are those that the prophet attributes to the apostate Israelites of his day. These questions may or may not have been voiced verbally, but God certainly knew that they were on their hearts.

            A.        “Wherein Hast Thou Loved Us?” (1:2-5)

This very first question shows how far they had strayed from God. It shows an absence of trust on their part.

                        Only the hardest of hearts could be oblivious to God’s love for His chosen people.

                        But they were saying, in effect, “We haven’t seen any evidence of your love.”

May God help us to not be like that. We may face some troublesome times. Indeed we will face tribulation and trials in this life. We may look at the promise of Christ’s coming and wish that it would happen sooner than it is happening.

But we need to “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”(1 John 3:1)

1 John 3:16–“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

1 John 4:9-10–“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

                        All we need to do to see the love of God for us is look at the cross! AMEN!

Because their government was corrupt and their economy was poor, the Israelites assumed that God didn’t love them. They were wrong.

The proof to these Israelites should have been obvious in their family history.

                        God said, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.”              

The phrase, “I hated Esau” is not referring to Esau’s eternal destiny here. It simply means that God chose Jacob, not his brother Esau, to be the one through whom the nation of Israel and the Messiah would come.

God did allow Esau to father the nation of Edom, which later became one of Israel’s chief enemies. However, Esau’s position was subordinate to that of his brother.

We do know that Esau and his descendants led profane and sinful lives and God cannot but be set against sin and unrepentant sinners.

The point made is that Israel should behold Edom in perpetual ruins but Jerusalem rebuilt and restored and they would have to recognize God’s love.

                        God made Israel the everlasting nation, not Edom.

            B.        “Wherein Have We Despised Thy Name?” (1:6-2:9)

                        1: 6-9

Here we see that God charged the priests with failing to honor Him, even to the point of despising His name. Also, He charged them with not being very good spiritual examples to the people.

The Temple had been rebuilt, worship was being conducted there, but the priests did not worship God properly. (i.e. They did not follow his laws for the sacrifices.)

They were offering imperfect sacrifices–blind, lame, and sick animals–and God was not pleased.

Ezra, the priest, had sparked a great revival almost thirty years earlier, but by Malachi’s time the nation’s leaders, as well as the people, had once again fallen away from the LORD.

Worship was no longer coming from the priest’s or the people’s love or adoration for God. It had simply become a job to the priests and was just dead religion for the people.

We need to ask ourselves the question, “How pleased is God with what we offer to Him in our worship of Him and our service for Him?”

Do we just give God our leftover time, money, and energy? If we do, then we are just as guilty as these worshipers who didn’t want to bring God their best.

God deserves our very best! What we give to God reflects our true attitude for Him! By giving Him our best, we honor him and demonstrate our trust in His provision.

                        Verse 9 is irony.

                        1:10

Priests were the ones who stood before God for the people of God and stood before the people for God. Accordingly, they were responsible for reflecting God’s attitudes and character.

When they accepted imperfect sacrifices from the people, they were leading the people to believe that this was acceptable with God.

We who are saved have been made priests. We are to offer prayers for others before God. But we also reflect God to our friends and our family as well as to society in general.

What image of God’s character and attitudes do they see in us? What do we allow in our lives that is not pleasing to God, but they think its OK because they see it in us who ought to know better?

                        What are the consequences when God’s representatives offend God?

                        God’s name is reproached!

                        1:11

God said that all over the world His name would be great among the Gentiles and the heathen.

Praise the Lord the Gospel came to us too! Amen! Today God wants to save and bless the world through all that believe in Him–both Jews and Gentiles.

The incense we offer is our prayers. The pure sacrifice we offer is that of the living sacrifice of our bodies. (Romans 12:1)

Our prayers are offered to intercede for those who are lost. Our sacrifice is to take the Gospel to a lost and dying world.

                        1:12-14

I’m afraid that too many people have the idea that following God is supposed to make their lives easier or more comfortable. They are wanting a God of convenience.

                        The truth is that it takes effort to live by God’s high standards.

He may even call us to face poverty or suffering for His glory. But if serving God is the most important thing to us, what we must give up is of little importance to what we gain in eternity.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18–“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

                        2:1-3

God warned the priests that He would punish them if they did not give glory to His name. Giving glory to God means more than just saying “glory to God.”

                        Anybody can say “glory to God.”

                        You can say it while drinking a can of beer, but that doesn’t give Him any glory. 

                        Giving glory to God means acknowledging Him for who He is! But there’s more.

Giving glory to God means that we totally yield ourselves to His will–our heart, our soul, and our might–everything on the altar.

This means listening to God’s Word and then setting our heart, our soul, and our might on performing His will.

When we truly love God, His Word guides our daily activities. It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths. (Psalm 119:105)

                        2:4-9

                        There had been a time when the priests both spoke the Truth and lived It.

The tribe of Levi and their descendants were set apart for the service to God. (Numbers 1:47-54) They served God in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple.

One of their primary functions was to instruct people according to God’s moral law, which was based upon the Truth of His Word. They were to set forth a knowledge of God and His will. They were the “messengers of the LORD.”

                        But these priests had strayed far away from what God wanted them to be.

God wanted these priests to come to their senses and correct their ways, return the priesthood to what it had been when God first gave it, and make it possible for the Levitical priesthood to continue.

Conclusion 

That’s all we have time for tonight. Lord willing we’ll finish this up next Wednesday evening.

But before we go to our prayer time tonight, we need to do some self examination.

Do we question the love of God? If we do we’ll never serve Him like we should.

Do our actions show that we give God the reverence that He is due?

Does He get our best or does He get our leftovers?

What kind of representatives are we of God? Are we like these priests? If so, God wants us to amend our ways.         

Home Page   Contact Us    Service Times    Sermons   Are You Going To Heaven?

NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!