Happy New Year.
I have one goal. To bring greater glory to God this year than last.
This is a two step goal. 1) Do more things that bring him glory. 2) Do fewer things that rob him of glory.
This second one is the more obvious. What do I do that robs God of glory?
a) I worry that God will not take care of me.
b) I sometimes believe that God has forgotten about me.
c) Two attitudes develop in this "water." Bitterness, and apathy.
In Malachi, the prophet offers two reminders. God is in control. And God loves us.
He then moves quickly to the application: Give God the honor due his name.
The prophet speaks specifically to the priest, and at the high point, or should we say low point of the first chapter actually asks that the door of the temple be shut so that people would not light useless fires on the alter.
I want to use all of this as introduction to present a question that we will consider for a few weeks here in January. Where is the honor God deserves? (See Malachi 1:6)
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Malachi 1
Breaking Covenant Through Blemished Sacrifices
6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty.
“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.
“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
7 “By offering defiled food on my altar.
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
“By saying that the LORD’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.
9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the LORD Almighty.
10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.
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What does God require of us? And today, I intend to show you that God requires our best! We can not give him our scraps and expect him to be pleased.
This point is made very clearly in verse 8. Imagine if you paid your taxes with the regularity with which you give to the church? Imagine saying to the US Government, "Well, we have had kind of a tight year, so we are going to just pay a little bit." While this might work in the short term, eventually it will get you in big trouble.
This is where I find an interesting parallel. The historical timing of Malachi. The people have returned from Babylon. They have rebuilt the walls and the temple. On a whole it is better than it could be, but it is also worse then it should be. The times are hard. And people are starting to doubt whether or not God loves them. They are wondering if he has abandoned them. And as a result doubts rise, and people begin to grow apathetic towards worship.
And clearly the prophet is getting up in the face of the priests about the lack luster effort being given to the worship of Almighty God. But I think it is important to notice both what is and what is not being said here.
1) What is being said, "God deserves better. In fact, he deserves our best.
2) What is not being said. "God wants cult like obedience to outer standards-in short "Behave better.""
The Bible is clear that what God wants is our hearts, not rote behavior, absent of passion. But, our behavior is indicative of the fact that our hearts are not in it.
Here is a test I would propose for January. I would like you to take a few minutes to calculate what 10 percent of your income for January will be. I would like you to consider giving that to the church.
Give God your best. It is what he deserves.
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