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The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
"I have loved you" says the Lord. "Yet you say, 'In what way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the Lord. "Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness."
Even though Edom has said, "We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places," Thus says the Lord of hosts:
"They may build, but I will throw down; they shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel'
"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?'"
"You offer defiled food on My alter, but say, 'In what way have we defiled You?' By saying, 'The table of the Lord is contemptible.' A when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?" Says the Lord of hosts.
But now entreat God's favor, that he may be gracious to us. . . . (Malachi 1:1-9a)
The year is about 400 BC. You are standing at the temple in Jerusalem. This edifice, as you know, is not the original temple built by Solomon. That temple was destroyed when Israel was taken captive by the Babylonians. This temple was re-built by the exiles who returned to Jerusalem after Babylon fell. Completed in 515 BC it shares little in resemblance with the temple of Solomon. It is much cruder in construction and less ornately and richly adorned than that previous temple of glory. But its crudeness and plainness is not what you mark today as being odd.
Arriving here in Jerusalem, you come from a land where God is worshiped and loved and honored and revered as the Almighty creator of all. In your land God is sovereign. He sits on His throne dealing with people in a manor worthy of honor. And yet, as you stand before the temple in Jerusalem, as you witness to economic dealings of the people one with another, as you behold the manner in which the priests perform their duties before God and the nation, as you observe the social corruption and marital unfaithfulness around you, you begin to sense that this is a people who have forgotten what manner of Deity they serve. They are unlike the people from your land who are blameless in their honor and reverence of God. And as you ponder the scene around you, the thought enters your mind, "How will God respond to this degenerate people?"
For the answer to this question one needs to only look to the short book of Malachi. There we see God expressing to His people the nature of their offence toward Him. We see Him reprove the priests for their neglect of the temple, we notice that he admonishes the people for their profaning of the temple-services and worship, we witness his condemnation toward them for their befouling of the marriage covenant, and we behold a God who condemns a nation for their unfaithfulness to HIM.
Yet in this book, we hear in the voice of God a burden for His people. Here He expresses the magnitude of His Love and the unfailing nature of His promise. God, in this word to His people, reminds them that a Messiah is yet to come who will relieve them of their sorrow and replenish them in their emptiness.
One day C. H. Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE. Spurgeon remarked to his companion that he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message. "Weather vanes are changeable," he said, "but God's love is constant." "I don't agree with you about those words, Charles," replied his friend. "You misunderstood the meaning. That sign is indicating a truth: Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love."
In their own way each man was saying the same thing. And in their words they were expressing the sentiment of God in the first five verses of Malachi 1. Here we see God pleading His case, in much the same way a defendant, whose innocence is unquestionable, would express his purity before a court of law. God stands before His nation. He hears their accusation: "God does not love us, He has left us and He has forgotten us. The covenant He made with Abraham, Issac and Jacob is a covenant of the past and that covenant God will not honor." And upon hearing the accusation of the plaintiff, God responds, "I have loved you, . . . was not Esau Jacob's brother, . . . Yet Jacab I have loved, but Esau I have hated. . .." In this statement, and in the ones to follow, we notice two things about God's love and each is evidence of the invalid nature of the accusation against God. We can not say that God does not love us, for here He demonstrates that His love is unchanging and sovereign.
First, we will look at the consistency and unchangeableness of God's love. Theologians call this "the Immutability of God" and they define it this way: "Immutability is that perfection of God by which He is devoid of all change, not only in His Being, but also in His perfections, and in His purposes and promises . . .." In Malachi 3:6, God says, "For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."
One of God's purposes is to Love His elect. He chooses to deal with them in their sinfulness with grace. And here in the book of Malachi, we see God explain that because He does not change, because He is immutable, the promise He made to Abraham, "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you." (Gen. 17:7) will be honored. That same promise is given in another form to Issac and Jacob, and again in Exodus to the entire nation Israel. God had promised to be their God and in being their God He demonstrates love for them. And in revealing His character He demonstrates that His love for them will never fade. As James tells us, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." (James 1:17-18)
And so God expresses to the Israelites and to us that, before we were born, while we were yet dead in our sins, He chose us to be His people. And as a result of making such a choice, we His people, can rest assured that He will never leave us and that He will never reject us. He is my God by love, and I live victoriously knowing that the love with which He saved me does not change.
The second attribute of God's love which is revealed here is it's sovereignty. Notice that God tells the people that He loved Jacob and hated Esau. Many times I think people believe that God loved Jacob because He either witnessed Jacob's righteousness and therefore rewarded it, or He knew in His foreknowledge that Jacob would choose to serve Him and He therefore loved him. Romans 9:10-13 sheds some light on this question. Here, Paul says that, ". . . when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our Father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls,) it was said to her, 'The older shall serve the younger.' As it is written , 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.'"
It can not be denied that God loved Jacob and hated Esau as a direct result of God's holy purpose. God did not arbitrarily choose to love one and reject the other. He did not flip a coin, one side with Jacob, the other with Esau. According to His purpose, according the pleasure of His holy will he chose to love Jacob and reject Esau. He chose to lavish mercy on Jacob and leave Esau in the hands of Justice. Notice, God did not cause Esau to be an object of wrath, for without God's mercy we are all born objects of God's wrath. Without mercy Jacob would have been hated by God. And so God reveals to His people the awesome fact that He loves them by choice. His love is based completely on His sovereign will and good purpose. For the person who wallers in the mire of guilt, there is this healing balm. God loves you because it is His good purpose and pleasure to do so. And if in God's good pleasure and purpose there is love for you, then in God their is no reason to doubt His love. In God, there is no fear of condemnation. Remember Malachi 3:6, "For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob." Thus is the promise toward all those whom God has loved and called to be His own.
A minister one day sat in the vestry of his church to meet anyone who might have spiritual difficulties. Only one came. "What is your difficulty?" asked the minister. The man answered, "My difficulty is the ninth chapter of Romans, where it says, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,'" "Yes," said the minister, "there is great difficulty in that verse; but which part of the verse is difficult for you?" The latter part, of course," said the man. "I cannot understand why God should hate Esau." The minister replied, "That verse has often been difficult, but my difficulty has always been with the first part of the verse. I never could understand how God could love that wily, deceitful, supplanting scoundrel Jacob."
Folks, I know that for some of you here, the thought that God would hate an individual or a nation, is disturbing to you. It is troublesome to our sense of God's love that He would be so final in His judgement. Yet that is not the real issue. All of us deserve to be hated by God, for all of us are dead in our sins, we are wicked to the core of our being. And so what should be so disturbing to us is not that God would hate, but that He would Love and love so that He turn His hate upon His Son.
And so God begins His defense by giving two compelling reasons why it is inappropriate to doubt His love, for it is constant and it is sovereign.
That brings us to our second point which I must move through quickly.
I want to accent two points here under the heading of Dishonoring God's Sovereignty. First, in light of what we know concerning the unchangeableness and Sovereignty of God's Love we ought to be compelled to respond to him with reverence and honor. Second, as we recognize the price that He has paid, the sacrifice that has been made by God to allow Him to Love as He does, we ought to, in our service to Him, sacrifice more than we would for anything or anyone else.
Let's chase those out for a moment.
Concerning our reverence and honor of God: God here calls into question Israel's understanding and appreciation of God's Love. He brings to mind two relationships. First, the relationship between a son and his father. He says that in that relationship, obviously where the father is a "good father," there is evidence of honor being directed toward the Father from the son. It's not hard for us to imagine what this would look like. We can see a son who loves his father, acting in such a way as to bring praise to the father. When the father of this son goes to the Parent - Teacher conference, he is praised for his son's good behavior and good example. The teacher reflects that this father is raising his son well. This same son in His actions in society makes it His goal to cause those around him to comment on the good parenting He must have received from his father. And the father, because of the son's upright living, is honored as a good father.
The second relationship involves that of a servant and his Master. The closest relationship we have to this today, (not counting the relationship between myself and my cat, I being the servant,) is that relationship between the employer and the employee. This illustration has it's pitfalls, as we all know employers that we would rather not reverence. But the same is true in the illustration of the son and father. As we consider the relationship between a good employer and his employee we can see how this works. Usually, an appreciative employee will work in such a way to cause the employer to receive accolades from fellow businessmen and more tangibly, a larger pay check. The point is that, when met by a superior who is just and fair and even sometimes gracious in his dealings with those who subordinate to him, the ones who are subordinate tend to do things in that relationship to make the superior look good.
That is God's point. He has reminded us that He loves us. He has related to us the consistency of that love. And what is more we see in that love it's gracious nature. As we understand this it only makes sense that God would expect honor and reverence in return. The natural course of our lives is to honor and reverence those people whom we appreciate because of their concern for us. And so as we see God's concern for us, we should be compelled to honor and reverence Him in our actions. John the Revelator also known as the apostle whom Jesus loved wrote in 1st John 4:17-19, "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is not fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us."
It was John's intent to teach as God also argued in Malachi, that God's love is of such value to it's object, namely us, that when received, it ought to move individuals to love God in return. John tells us that the presence of this love for God, which is the result of God first loving us, is revealed in obedience to God. If you and I are not exercising a desire to be obedient to God then it is evident that we do not love God and therefore we do not possess God's love for us. And so God says, "If I am father, as you claim me to be, if I am your Lord, as you have sworn that I am, then where is your obedience to me?" The church member must weigh his life in the balance these scales and determine where there is evidence to support the claim that he is indeed redeemed. If there is not evidence to support such a claim then that person sits in grave danger being hated by God. Yet God desires to love you. Will you yield to His grace as He draws you to him today?
Second, and very quickly, in dishonoring God's sovereignty the people, priest particular, were accused by God of offering sacrifices which were sinful. They were required to offer only that which was without blemish. This is a foreshadowing of Christ, who became the sacrificial Lamb without blemish. God accused them of ignoring that command and thereby offering sacrifices which were blind and lame. In doing so, they mocked God. Do you remember Esua? The man who was hated by God. The man who was refused mercy by God. We know that God created humanity to be the object of His love. He wanted a companion and so he created humanity. And yet here we see Him hating Esau and his descendents. But why? He told the descendents of Jacob that as a result of God displaying His wrath on the Edomites, "You shall see, and you shall say, The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel."
I believe that God left Esau to justice because Jacob would not appreciate mercy unless he knew the sobering pain of Justice. Let's face it. We are prone to take for granted those things which are common to all. But that which is rare and possessed only by some, we desire and when we have it, it becomes our prized possession. It's rareness compels us to pay highly for it's possession. And so God says that if we realized what a high price He paid to make this rare gift possible, if we realized what a priceless possession we hold in our person, we would give anything and everything in return for it.
But what is most compelling to me, is that nothing is required. There is no payment plan for salvation. God purchased it and He gave to us according to His good purpose and will. As is only natural, God expects to see a grateful recipient, and as I said before, scripture teaches us that we are not indebted to God but our grateful obedience demonstrates the reality of our relationship with Him.
And so God challenges the Israelites and also us. If we think that our service to God would be pleasing to Him, if we deem our devotion toward Him presentable, then we ought to be comfortable in presenting it to our world leader. Would we obey the laws of Congress with the same laxness seen in our obedience to God and then find Congress pleased with us. Would go before the ruler of the land, the President of the United States, who is a God appointed authority, (whether you like it or not) and offer the same devotion to him that we offer God and find acceptance from Him? This rhetorical question reveals much concerning how God feels about our obedience and devotion to Him. He knows that Congress and the President would not be impressed by our devotion to them if it were an image of our devotion to Him. And yet He is so much greater than Congress, He is so much holier than the President. How much more sacrifice and devotion is He deserving of?
But notice that God does not leave us, even when we are wicked and ungrateful and un-sacrificial in our service to Him. He says in verse 9, "But now entreat God's favor, that He may be gracious to us." You see, God's favor is upon us. It is our possession. He has given us claim to it. It is for us, as His children, to take advantage of. We have as part of our inheritance as the children of God, the favor of God through which we can plead for mercy.
I do not want you to be deceived. I want you to be redeemed and victorious in your redemption. And so you must know that God in His sovereignty has loved you, and because of that you are His child. But the child who lives in disobedience, while He remains a child, still lives in defeat. He does not walk in God's pleasure, rather He is asleep in His waywardness and desperate in his perdicament. In Malachi, we find a people who are God's people, but they are not reaping the full benefit of that relationship because they are neglecting the relationship in disobedience. We also find a God who reminds us of His compassion and of our claim to His favor. Child of God, entreat His favor today, and live victoriously in Christ. This is the Burden of the Qord of the Lord to you.
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