Bible Study on Malachi - Part 3, Malachi 1:5-14, 3:6-7

Last week we heard God’s primary message to His people through Malachi: “I have loved you,” says the Lord (Malachi 1:2). God hates sin, but he still loves sinners. God uses the example of His own people of Israel, the line of Jacob, through whom He has been working out His plan for salvation, for them and for the whole world. This was happening in spite of their sin and rebellion against Him. Read Malachi 3:6-7. The Lord does not change, and He will not “consume” His people completely. The Jewish nation would continue, so that the plan of salvation could be completed for all nations. The Savior will come from the Jews, but He will be the Savior of all peoples. Note the strong emphasis on this in Malachi 1:5,11,14. God’s Name will be great among the nations, reaching everywhere, from the rising of the sun to its setting.

That is also the message of the Messiah, Jesus, for us in the New Testament. God hates sin, but He still loves sinful people. Our situation would be hopeless without Him and His saving work for us, while we were still sinners. Read Romans 5:6-11. Note how we are called “still weak," “ungodly," “still sinners," “enemies” who needed to be “reconciled” to God, and Jesus still dies for us in that condition, so that we might be saved through Him.

God loves sinners. Yet He also knows that He needs to keep calling His people to repentance, even 400 years before Jesus came. Recognize your own sins, and “Return to Me,” says the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of all, including all the many angels and the stars of the heavens and all things (Malachi 3:7). God speaks in Old Testament terms, with Old Testament standards. This is hard for us to understand, since we are not as familiar with the Old Testament and are actually free from some of these standards because of Jesus and the New Covenant. Still, as we listen we need to think of parallels - ways we are also called to repentance for our sins. A call to repentance is a key part of the New Testament, too.

For the Jews, the sacrificial system given to them by God was important for keeping them in relationship with God and His forgiveness, and prepared the way for Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice for sins on the cross. People were to offer “firstfruits” in response to God - the first and the best, for the Lord - not the last, the leftovers, and the worst. See the story in Exodus 12: 5,7,8,13-15 of a lamb “without blemish” to be sacrificed by the Jewish families. The blood of the lamb marked them to be rescued from the death that came to Egyptian families, so that they would be released by the Egyptians from slavery. They were to eat some of the lamb themselves, and repeat this sacrifice every year, as a memorial to God’s great rescue event for them.

This became a pattern for a whole system of Old Testament sacrifices. Notice how the animals sacrificed were to be without blemish, as described in Leviticus 22:19-23 and Deuteronomy 15:21, for example. This was in preparation for the perfect sacrifice of the perfect Jesus, who was the perfect Lamb of God, “without blemish or spot,” though He carried our sins to pay for them as He died for us on the cross. See 1 Peter 1:18-19.

The Old Testament sacrificial system also provided support for the Jewish tribe of Levi. those who would be priests and other workers carrying out these sacrifices and other work and rituals on behalf of God’s people. They could eat some of what was donated and sacrificed, as God directed. Read Exodus 23:16,19, where giving the first and the best of one’s crops and other bounty was emphasized. This food, etc., was stored at the temple in Jerusalem for the use of the Levites.

This system had broken down in the days of Malachi. Read Malachi 1:6-14. People were blamed for bringing to the Lord unworthy animals and produce as sacrifices, and the priests were especially blamed for allowing and accepting and sacrificing what was unacceptable. They set bad examples and taught and permitted the opposite of what God had told His people in Old Testament Scriptures. They made all sorts of excuses and did not even give the common respect to God which should have been given by a son to a father, or a servant to a master, or honor to a governor. By such unworthy gifts, they were despising the Lord’s Name and the Lord Himself. They were desecrating the Lord’s table, the altar of God’s presence. There was general lack of respect and care for the worship of God  - weariness and snorting at the things of God. See an earlier example of this with the sons of Eli in 1 Samuel 2:12-17 and 27-29,34, and what happened to them.

As we hear all this, can we think of ways the same sorts of things, in New Testament terms, might be happening among us today? Do people turn up their nose at God and worship of Him? They say that they can worship God out hiking on a beautiful day or on the golf course or exercising or all the other things that become a substitute for worship time; but do they ever really think much about God’s Word and Sacraments, this way?
How often do we offer God and others less than our best or not much of anything at all? Do we become weary of our Christian life and practice? Do we just go through the motions? Do we get upset at the tight policy we have about who can receive Communion at the Lord’s table, though we are simply trying to follow Scripture? Think of your own examples, and you will realize that we, too, are all sinners who need repentance and God’s forgiveness. How good it is that God still loves sinners, including us, even in our struggles and the pull to do just as so many others do - what we want and not always what God wants. We need to keep hearing what God says, through Malachi, for our own spiritual good.