We began our study with prayer, asking for the Lord’s guidance. I then talked about the value of asking questions if there are things we do not understand or need clarified. That is the way we learn. Someone asked this week, "What does it mean, that the Lord’s name 'will be feared among the nations'?" (Malachi 1:14). Does that mean that we should be afraid of God - to have fear or terror when we think of Him or hear His name?
That is not the primary meaning. Fear of God means, above all...
We began our study with prayer, asking for the Lord’s guidance. I then talked about the value of asking questions if there are things we do not understand or need clarified. That is the way we learn. Someone asked this week, "What does it mean, that the Lord’s name 'will be feared among the nations'?" (Malachi 1:14). Does that mean that we should be afraid of God - to have fear or terror when we think of Him or hear His name?
That is not the primary meaning. Fear of God means, above all, a deep awe and respect for God because of Who He is and what He has done for us, as King of Kings and Lord of hosts, (v.14) the Creator and Lord of everything, including all the universe and the myriad of stars we see at night and all the angels who serve Him. We honor and respect and love Him because He first loved us.
It is true, though, that fear of God can also sometimes mean that people should be afraid of God, when they are rejecting Him and His will, and refuse to listen to Him, and keep on doing so without sorrow for their sins and without repentance for them or asking for forgiveness. People can go so far away from God that they lose faith in Him and think they can do anything they want with no consequences. See Malachi 2:17, where some people are saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them.” They are saying, in effect, God doesn’t seem to care about what we do. There is no “God of justice.” Why not just do what we want? Nothing bad will happen to us.
Go back to Malachi 2:1-2. God speaks very strongly to that attitude, found among too many of His own people, including the priests themselves, whom He addresses. He commands them with a strong warning that there can be consequences, the judgment of God upon sin, if there is no faith and repentance. He calls them back to the highest meaning of fearing God’s name - “to take it to heart to honor My name, says the Lord of hosts.”
God then reminds them of His original intent in having priests from the tribe of Levi. Read Malachi 2:4-7. It was a “covenant of fear” in the best sense, of “standing in awe of God and His name.” The priests would then bring God’s “life and peace” - His “peace and uprightness” to people. They would “guard knowledge” and give “true instruction” as “messengers of the Lord of hosts” and “turn many from iniquity," from sin to the Lord.
There is the meaning of repentance - to wish to turn away from evil and turn to the Lord, in awe and respect for His love and care for His people. God would bring that repentance and forgiveness to people through the instruction of the priests and the priestly activities and sacrifices of the Old Testament, preparing the way for Christ.
This was not happening, though. Read Malachi 2:8-9. Too many priests had “turned aside from the way” of the Lord and “corrupted” His covenant. They were, in fact, “causing many to stumble” away from God “by their instruction.” That is why God gives such a strong warning to the priests in Malachi 2:1-3. God uses very strong, dramatic language in these verses. If His priests “will not listen” and will not “take to heart” what God is saying, they will receive “the curse” instead of “a blessing” from God. They might even say the words, “The Lord bless you," and yet actually be leading the people astray, away from God by bad teaching and approval of wrongdoing and mocking the true sacrificial system.
God expresses the terrible seriousness of this wrongdoing by the priests by saying that He would “spread dung” (animal excrement) on their faces - “the dung of their offerings." Anytime animals are around, there will be dung. This was true, even around and in the tabernacle and then in the temple in Jerusalem. There were specific Old Testament instructions for dealing with the dung and other refuse from the animal sacrifices. Read Leviticus 4:12, 16:27, and Exodus 29:14, as examples. The dung and other things were to be taken and “burned outside the camp." They were even called “a sin offering” because the dung represented the sinfulness and uncleanness of the people, which needed to be forgiven by God.
All this is very strong Law of God. God does hate sin and calls everyone to repentance, to recognition of and confession of our sins and our need for God’s forgiveness. In the Old Testament, soiled, dirty clothing was often used as a symbol for the uncleanness of our hearts. See Zechariah 3:1-5, where another priest of God, Joshua, had “filthy garments” and Satan was accusing him of His sins; but God takes away those “filthy garments” and clothes him with pure clothes and forgives his iniquity, his sin. See God’s description of even our “righteous deeds” as a “polluted garment," a filthy rag, in Isaiah 64:6. (The Hebrew for this verse refers to human bodily fluid, which can pollute and needs to be discarded.) In contrast, though, God really wants to clothe us with the “garments of salvation," the “robe of righteousness," provided for us in Jesus and His sacrifice for us (Isaiah 61:10-11). See also the contrast between those with “soiled garments” and those “clothed with white garments" in Revelation 3:1-6 and Revelation 7:9-13.
This is what God wants for all people, forgiveness and cleansing. But if people keep on rejecting God and His will, and wallow in their sins, apart from God, as some of the priests were doing, God gives the final terrible warning in Malachi 2:3: “You shall be taken away with the dung” and discarded, outside of God’s presence, forever. This is literally one of the Biblical picture images for hell. There was a trash dump outside of Jerusalem, called Gehenna, where dung and other refuse were dumped, which was always smoldering and burning. It became a symbol for “hell," the eternal consequence of sin, without God’s forgiveness.
Remember, though, as harshly as God speaks through Malachi, there is still time for the priests and everyone else to be brought to repentance and to return to the Lord in faith (Malachi 3:6-7). That is what God really wants and why He sent Malachi to speak God’s Word of truth to the people.
The New Testament has the same kinds of warnings. God does not want us purposely “to continue in sin," but to battle sin (Romans 6:1-2). We are not “to make a practice of sinning” for “sin is lawlessness” and it hurts us and others (1 John 3:4). Paul’s Letter to the Romans is full of the Gospel, the Good News of what Jesus has done for us as our Savior. In Him alone is our hope.
Paul begins, though, with very strong Law. Read Romans 1:18-32, which warns of the wrath, the anger of God, about sin and its consequences. All kinds of sin are mentioned, and the warning is given, “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done... Though they know God’s decree that those who practice these things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Jesus Himself talks more about hell than anyone else. See Matthew 5:21-22 and Matthew 10:28, as examples.
The goal of all this, of course, is not simply to condemn, but to help us all know our own need for the Savior Jesus, and to bring us to the eternal hope we have in Him, as we live in repentance and trust in Him. See what the Law shows us, very simply, in summary, in Romans 3:19-20, “knowledge of sin" and what the Gospel brings to us, in contrast - forgiveness and rescue by Jesus, in Romans 3:21-28. In Christ is our ultimate hope, as forgiven sinners, trusting in Him. He is the One who gives us such faith, by His grace.
