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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester podcast.
We are glad that you have joined us for this whole season five and we're glad that you're
here for our final episode number 13 where we will discuss Malachi.
I am one of your hosts Brian Kenyon and with me are
Forest Antemesaris
Steven Ford.
and we have had a great study on the minor prophets and we appreciate all the brethren here
who have looked into this and give us a great insights as well as the listeners and so we
are going to have our six season we're gonna call it minoring in the majors that's right
minoring in the majors and we look at some lessons from the major profits like we did with
the minor prophets but we have malachi and steven is gonna
guide us in this study.
Malachi.
This is the last book in the Old Testament.
Just for some kind of historical context, the book was written estimated in the mid-400s
BC.
It's kind of contemporary, kind of aligned with the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Some of the same things are going on.
You can read the book of Nehemiah.
You can read Ezra chapter 7 through 10 to kind of get some context of why this is being
written.
As we talked about in the
previous episodes, these post-exilic books are written.
The people have been set free from captivity, they've gone back home, and they've slipped
back into the warm bath of mediocrity in terms of their spiritual relationship with God,
their spiritual zeal had waned, their service to God had kind of resorted back into just
going through the motions, I guess you might say.
And so the Lord is reminding them that
He deserves greater than that.
And so his name, Malachi, means my messenger.
And he does, in fact, have a message for them.
There are several things that he addresses.
And what we'll try to do with this one is look at just kind of the main thoughts in the
Book of Malachi, three or four of them, and then from there, you know, kind of draw out
some points and see what we can ascertain from these books.
Or from these messages.
So what's going on here is From the top to the bottom Israel has kind of turned into going
through motions for God as I stated But not even so but treating God with like a disdain
almost a disrespect in the way that they were worshipping And it's not just like let's
just go in clock in and get this over with but it's like let me just give the absolute
bare minimum
which is probably even lower than I'm being asked for.
I'm giving less than what I'm being asked for in a way that shows contempt almost for God.
Yeah, absolutely.
They were completely disrespectful to our God in the way that they began to worship.
And as we talked about, I think in our last episode with Zechariah, it's amazing that not
far outside of captivity, here they are again.
You know, and it just kind of demonstrates, you kind of see like that cycle that you see a
little bit more keenly in the book of Judges.
You see it again with humanity here.
You just got out of trouble.
And now here you are doing the things that led you into trouble again.
And not just the people, but you have the religious leaders who are the ones who are
literally leading the way in this sort of lackadaisical worship and disrespectful worship,
as we say it.
I'll just note this, what you'll find in this book as is present, maybe in a couple of
others, is that God will use, I think as we saw it also in Haggadah, but God will use
their words to bring these charges almost against them.
You'll find several times, yet you say, or you have said, or you say, and so here they are
saying these things to God, and it seems almost like they're trying to justify themselves
with the things that they're saying.
and then God will respond and answer why the charges against him are in fact good and
righteous and just instead of them trying to make these excuses for themselves.
Alright, so let's start off.
He says in verses 1 and 2, you'll find the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by
Malachi, and I'll just add this, there's not much known about Malachi.
We don't know really anything about this individual.
There's not a lot written about him.
His context, his lineage and all that sort of thing.
We don't find any great record about him in the New Testament that talks about his
parentage or anything like that.
So there's just not a lot we know about him.
Again, so he says, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi, I have loved
you says the Lord, yet you say wherein have you loved us?
not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord, yet
I loved Jacob and so they're asking this question, how have you loved us?
How can we see your love?
And God begins with this idea of love, before the message of doom comes to them, which
they rightly deserve, he reminds them, I love you.
And then he says, not that you're thinking, not that you're acting, but you have said,
when have you loved us or where and have you loved us?
That is like quite the,
arrogant and presumptuous question.
Could you imagine asking God, how do I know you've loved me?
Prove that you've loved me.
And then he reminds him, look, I loved you over Esau.
You were the chosen son.
And he reminds him that they were always favored.
And so as such, they're going to reap the benefits of, or I won't say the benefits,
they're gonna reap the product of their
behavior, says in verse number six, a son honors his father and a servant his master, if
then I be a father, where is my honor?
And if I be a master, where is my fear, says the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests that
despise my name?
And you say, wherein have we despised your name?
Again, here's that question, when have we done that to you, And he's reminding them that
They have in fact been disrespectful.
They have dishonored him and again this isn't just anybody.
He starts off with saying this is something that the priests have done and so right in
this first section God desires true worship as Jesus would say there in the New Testament
but he desires not only true but genuine worship.
Jesus would say it in the way that God wants us to worship in spirit and in truth.
He wants the inner man to be connected ah in addition to
the right aspects of worship, he wants the right heart in worship.
And they weren't offering that.
He says in chapter one, verse six, how these priests are despising his name.
And he says, oh, priests are despising my name, and you say, wherein have we despised your
name?
You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted you?
In that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.
And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is that not evil?
If you offer the lame and sick, is that not evil?
Offer it now to the governor.
Will he be pleased with you?
Or offer thy person, says the Lord of hosts.
God gives them, he proves his point by showing that they wouldn't even do that to the
ruler over the land.
You wouldn't give the governor something that's torn up and lame and all that kind of
stuff.
I'm assuming this would be like to pay some sort of tax maybe or something like that, but
you wouldn't offer that to them.
So then why would you do it to God?
I love that he, Isaiah says, let's reason together.
And so here God is reasoning with mankind.
said, look man, if I were, you honor your father and you honor your masters, but I am both
to you.
And then look how you treat me.
And then you have the audacity to ask, how have we mistreated you?
And I'm adding my own inflection there, but in my mind, it sounds just flippant.
I can't even find myself fixing my mouth to say that to my actual biological parents, let
alone the guy.
If my mom accuses me, Steve, you're not done what's right.
I'm not gonna say, well, yeah, right, when did I do that?
Not unless I wanted there to be some sort of consequence in that.
Yeah, think you see the same attitude uh that we did with both Haggai and Zechariah, and
especially here with the religious leaders, that they just think God is not first in their
life.
And it shows that it's been this way for a while, and they're just not thinking about
serving God, it's about serving them.
And so, of course, Malachi is, I forget they got some fancy name for it, the way the book
is written, it's like a dialogue.
A statement is made and the question is asked, and then he...
is a statement against it they go to the ad active dialectic very
had that on my notes somehow.
Yeah, that's pretty good.
Yeah
But anyway, but yeah, so you see that that attitude and it's like, you know, it's like,
like the leaders think that they're here and God's here.
Or the very best, God's on the level with them.
But it's not that way.
No, I think that that's something that's common with people.
start to see, and God uses anthropomorphic language about Himself so that we can try to
understand and get a concept of a uh God that is completely Spirit, but that doesn't mean
that He is man now.
Since I now can conceive of Him, that doesn't make Him now equal with me or me equal with
Him.
ah And it's demonstrated here that God says even with their worship, their offering that's
not up to par for God,
He says in verse number 10, the second half of that, I have no pleasure in you, says the
Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
This demonstrates that both the gift and the giver must be acceptable to God or they will
both be rejected.
You find that in the early parts of the book of Genesis with both Cain and Abel, both Cain
and his gift were rejected.
and Abel and his gift were both accepted.
And so it's not that God says, man, I see the gift so I now have to accept both the gift
and the giver.
No, if the heart isn't right, then that will probably be demonstrated through what the
gift is, but God says no, both are gonna be rejected.
And so in this first section, you'll find God demonstrating that he wants true, sincere
worship, and if it's not both of those things that doesn't meet his criteria, he doesn't
have to accept it.
um which I wish we could just scream from the mountain tops today, and I guess we do in
large part, but I wish more people would hear, that's a way to say it.
Because you hear so many people, you can't tell me how to worship.
No, I can't, but God does.
And we think that any kind of worship is acceptable.
I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do the other, whether it be those that may
be of the charismatic ilk that are running around and those that would posit that they're
speaking in tongues or.
using instruments of worship, mean women in leadership, whatever the thing is, we think
just because we do it and we're sincere in doing it, if we are in fact sincere, that God
then must accept it.
God is so desperate for what we have to offer that he's taking anything like he's like a
panhandler I think the other side of that coin too is we could do all the right things but
with the wrong You know, we could sing pray give partake of the Lord's Supper all that
we're gonna stuff but we're not you know, oh the plate comes across and scrounge up some
pocket change and put that in there or Lord's Supper I'm not thinking about anything other
than how the juice tastes and how the you know what I mean?
It's like
But if you put a bunch in the plate, you count out the money in front of everybody, know,
so you can be seen.
Like we mentioned in one of the other episodes, like the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus
talks about the praying, fasting, and giving.
If it's only so that other people can be like, wow, look how holy they are, and they're
awesome.
Then it's like to God, like, well, you got what you wanted.
That's all to it.
You know, there's gonna be no heavenly reward for it.
So Malachi continues.
He wants us to know that God does desire
true, sincere, spiritual worship.
In fact, he continues.
um I like how chapter one ends.
Notice here he says in the second half of that, well I'll just read that whole verse,
verse 14, but curse me the deceiver which has in his flocks a male and vows and sacrifices
unto the Lord a corrupt thing.
So he's saying, you know, woe to this person, shame on you if you have the right thing.
So, yeah, I promise I'm gonna give the first of the flock.
and then you go grab the crippled, beaten, one that's been mauled by an ass.
The one you don't.
I'll give that one to God.
uh And man, that's such a, I've had to catch myself not necessarily with doing that to
God, but with other people.
I'll say, well, I've got this old worn out, torn up stuff.
I'll give that, because I know somebody will be so desperate to take it.
And while there may be somebody that will use it, is that the attitude that I need to
have?
It's of absolutely zero use to me.
And so then I'll give this broken up trash to other people.
oh
Just because you feel bad about throwing it away.
Yeah.
Yeah, better off in goodwill than in the...
And so he says there, you waltz with these people, or curse rather, be the deceiver.
And I like to use that terminology.
You're a trickster.
You're a deceiver.
You're trying to trick God.
You you posit, oh, I'm going to do this great stuff.
Look at this, what I have.
And then at the very end, you pull the old switcheroo, I guess, and give something that's,
corrupt.
But then he says, I love the way this verse closes.
He says, for I am a great king, says the Lord of Hosts.
and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
We're not dealing with, as he mentioned, the father or the governor.
We're not dealing with a regular person.
We're talking about dealing with the sovereign, self-existent, all-powerful ruler of the
universe.
And that being loves us with unfathomable and unyielding love.
And that being is the one that we say, I'm gonna give him less than he deserves.
That to me is just, and I'm not looking at anybody else but myself in the mirror when I
say this, because I've had times and still may have times and still do have times and will
likely in the future have times where I have lapses in what I'm doing for God, the way God
wants me to do it.
But the idea is just that I think we always must have the holiness of God before us.
It has to stay in front or else I will just see myself.
That's a big thing that jumps out at me here.
If you don't fear and reverence God the way he deserves, you're going to do stuff like
this.
And I think by and large, especially in our culture, myself included, you don't fear and
revere God as much as you need to.
And I think that there's this popular idea of God, the kind of hippity-dippity Jesus and
the God who's cosmic Santa Claus on the clouds granting wishes.
And it's like, no, it's fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God.
and to give him bare minimum, to give him what's left over, to give him anything other
than the best way you can give him really is offensive.
Not because he's like looking to smite you, but because he really actually does deserve
the best you can possibly give him.
And I think that that's something that we have to keep in mind, otherwise we'll fall into
these kind of, you know, people just don't fear God enough.
And that's what we see in Malachi's day.
You know, they're
They're, you know, divorcing their wives and getting remarried and they're putting
whatever they want on the altar and all this different kind of stuff.
It's like, okay, bro.
ah You know, if you fear God and revere Him, that nips a lot of that in the bud, you know.
I think looking, the identity and the person of God has to always stay before us, not just
what he is.
Like we think about Jesus, he is fully man and he is God.
He is the Messiah, he's the prophet, but just looking at all of his person, like when you
were making your statement, I just thought about Hebrews chapter 12, where in verse 28 he
says, ah wherefore we receiving,
a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire." And I love that he puts
that because in two passages in the Old Testament, I think there's only three times that
phrase is used, the guy's a consuming fire.
In uh Deuteronomy 923, they would have loved to hear that because he's a consuming fire
for the Canaanites, you know.
God is a consuming fire.
Yeah, he's on our side, he's gonna consume all the enemies.
But earlier in chapter 424, he reminds Israel that he's a consuming fire.
So in those passages, God must be respected in the same way that we're not necessarily
terrified of fire, because it warms us, it can protect us, and we can cook with it and all
that kind of stuff.
But I wouldn't lay in the bed and play around with fire or a blowtorch or something like
that, you know, because I understand that I can kill myself and burn down my house and
that kind of thing.
And so in the same way, when God is respected,
revered, like we would respect a fire, then we can be blessed by him.
But if we take advantage of him, if we don't respect him, and really his full nature, like
the full nature of fire, it can warm you, but it can also burn you and kill you.
If we don't respect God in the same way, then we can put ourselves in a terrible, terrible
position.
and let the consuming fire i'm thinking i those bonfires i like it i mean it is is not
just a little candle alone it is consuming big force fire is gobbling it's a young and
that's what happens we get on the wrong end of dot
I wish we could have an image right now because I took a picture of the last time we set
the Christmas trees on fire and the blaze when you know it would kind of die down a little
bit and they'd throw more trees on and it would just the blaze was it was so
You don't even gotta be in the fire to get burned.
No!
And I was probably about 30 feet away at least and every time the new trees were thrown on
you could feel the heat, you could see the heat, it was impressive, it was intimidating,
was all that stuff.
And that was just one tiny little fire in one tiny little yard on this tiny little planet.
And just think of the power that God has and he wants us to respect him and he deserves
it.
And I would say like our motivation, like how many people come to church because they're
scared of what their parents will think rather than they fear God and revere God?
Or how many people, you know, don't break the law because they're scared of Grady Judd
versus, which is supposed to be that way, but how many people, don't, I keep the law
because I fear God, you know what I mean?
Or how many men don't cheat on their wives because they're scared of their wife?
Hell, you don't cheat on your wife because you fear God.
And you revere God and you respect that institution, you know what mean?
So think sometimes that motivation, not just in worship, but in a lot of areas of our
life, if I do what I do because I fear God, I'm going to be helped down the right track,
you know?
I think it's a maturing thing, just like when you're a kid, you're afraid to get a
spanking, you're afraid to get on punishment, but later on, you don't obey your parents
because you think they're gonna beat me, put me on punishment, and they're stronger than
me, and all that kind of stuff.
You do it out of complete love and respect for who they are, instead of what they can do
to you.
I think the same thing probably happens for believers, that we initially maybe have a fear
of hell, or this desperate love for that which seems pleasant in heaven, but later on it
becomes out of complete devotion to the
person of God, and then everything else comes out of that.
So coming back to the text here, going back to chapter 2, it begins, he says, Oh now, ye
priests.
And throughout the book he'll list these people groups, and the priest you'll find
multiple times, says, ye priests, this commandment is for you, if ye will not hear, and if
ye will not lay at your heart, to give glory unto my name, says the Lord of hosts, I will
even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.
Yes.
I have cursed him already because ye do not lay it to heart.
the worship was, I'll just say it was out of line.
It wasn't sincere, it wasn't right, it wasn't what God wanted and so he's letting them
know right at outset of this book, worship is a priority.
God desires worship and he's worthy of worship but not just anything.
He wants a worship that is according to what he has asked.
And so if we think of the way we worship, and I'm sure that any person who's here today
and who's listening today can say that there may have been a time that we have attended an
assembly of the saints to worship and we've not totally been engaged, you know, but that
doesn't please and honor God.
Half-hearted worship.
If you sing in the song because you've memorized the words, what you're thinking about the
job, that's half-hearted.
If I'm taking the Lord's Supper but I'm holding the grudge with somebody, that's
half-hearted.
If I'm not paying attention to the preached word of God or if I'm giving because, know,
man, I gotta give again, that preacher wants my money, those elders want my money, know.
people passing the plate are looking at me yeah
yeah, I gotta give it, because now they're be looking at me.
The folks are watching me give.
The people behind me, they're gonna see how much I'm giving.
But God deserves, he deserves, he deserves complete devotion and worthy worship.
So that was the first part of it, that they were offering worship to him that was ah not
appropriate.
But the second thing that we can note here is that God pays attention to ah faithfulness
to covenants.
And so he wants them to realize that the worship is wrong, but also like we have this
covenant agreement.
Like we're in a contract together and you all aren't holding up your end of the bargain if
you will.
And uh verse number, you know let me just point this out again in verse number seven, he
talks about the priests, their lips, they should know or they shouldn't necessarily keep
knowledge, but again they weren't doing that.
Coming down now to uh this idea of the covenants in chapter two.
uh beginning at verse number 10, he says, have we not all one Father, has not one God
created us?
Why do you deal treacherously every man against his brother by profane a covenant of our
Father?
So why are you dealing with your brother in the way that you shouldn't deal?
There's a covenant that we have with God.
uh Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem for Judah has profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved.
and hath married the daughter of a strange guy.
The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, other
tabernacles and Jacob, and him that offers an offering unto the Lord of hosts." God had
given instruction way back on how they should marry and who they should marry.
God did not want the children of Israel to intermingle with the idolatrous nations of the
Canaanites and so on.
Not because God is some sort of national bigot or that God doesn't like this people group
or that people group just on a surface level because of the color of their skin or any
other sort of superficial thing, but God did not want his people to intermingle with the
nations around them because of their lifestyle.
When you look at when the children of Israel are ready to go into the land of Canaan, God
says over and again, don't intermingle with these people because of their unrighteousness,
because of their wickedness.
go down their path, don't do their things.
ah And so it's not that God is just mean toward people, but he just doesn't want his
people to be involved in sin or sinful practices.
And God understands the nature of man.
If you get married to somebody who's doing these things, what's gonna happen?
It's likely gonna influence you, i.e.
You know, you end up married with these people, and unfortunately it's gonna happen.
I say these people, I don't wanna make it sound like I'm, you know.
Yeah, right, yeah, yeah, those people, but.
those people that sense if any person who's not living according to God's standard
And there was also a covenant aspect of it too because Jesus was gonna come through those
nations.
mean they had these marriage laws and all that so that those tribes could stay intact so
that Jesus would come and even though there were some breakage in those lineages, God
worked it out, but it's a covenant situation.
They weren't just to marry Israelites, they were to marry Israelites from their own tribe.
Those tribes together and so they're violating the covenant just even if they married
outside,
Nonetheless, strange women.
Yeah, I think if you keep I know you're going here, but I think if you keep reading like
verse 14 Seems like they're divorcing their Jewish wives to marry these foreign wives So
they have the wife of their youth that they're bound to by covenant that they divorce and
then marry This foreign lady.
So not only are you Trampling on marriage through the divorce and remarriage aspect, but
you're not even marrying people.
You're supposed to be marrying that's absolutely around, you know
and that's a great segue.
He says, this have you done again covering the altar to the Lord with tears and weeping
and crying out in so much as he regards not the offering anymore or receives it with any
good at your hand?
ah And yet you say, wherefore?
Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth against whom you
have dealt treacherously.
Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant?
ah
Here they are worshiping and it says they're weeping and crying out and you know God
doesn't have regard for an offering and they're asking well why?
Why wouldn't God accept it?
And as I think we talked about during the episode with Haggai when he says consider your
ways it's almost like a how dare they?
How dare they ask this question about well why would God be doing this?
Why wouldn't he accept our worship?
Well why wouldn't he be punishing us?
It's like okay, alright let's just stop for a minute.
And then let's just kind of examine.
And that's, in my estimation, an effective way to teach.
We do that with our girls sometimes.
And at this point, they're 13 and 17.
And sometimes they'll say, well, why can't I do this?
Or why don't I do that?
And instead of giving an answer, well, you don't do this because you didn't do that, I'll
just say, remember when we were supposed to do this?
And what was the result of it?
Or when you did have that freedom, what did you do with it?
Or when we allowed you to do?
So I want them to be thinking, what did you do before?
And so instead of just answering the question, you can't do it, you know, whatever, I want
them to think and reflect.
It seems that in this text, they're just not considering the way that they have been
living.
um He says they've dealt treacherously with the wife of their companions.
He says, did not he make one, yet had he residue of the spirit?
and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and
let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth for the Lord the God of Israel
said that he hates putting away for one covers violence with his garment the other or
excuse me says the Lord of hosts therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not
treacherously you'll find that word treacherously like three times right in these couple
of verses that God is really underscoring
the treatment that they are demonstrating to their wives.
And I think this also underscores the greater point.
If you're not even keeping the covenant with your wife, how can you be faithful then to
God?
Which, you know, for husbands and wives today, you know, I think that some people may view
marriage very casually when I, my primary devotion in my marriage is to God.
and my wife's primary devotion in our marriage is to God.
And then through God to one another.
if I am unfaithful, if I am unfair, I am treacherous or any other word we might attribute
to the behavior toward my wife, I'm also that to God.
oh Which, you know, when you see people committing adultery, it's like, man, you made a
covenant to God that you're gonna treat this woman good.
And it's not just her that you're betraying.
You're betraying God, so how much can I truly love God
if I'm breaking this covenant that I have with him toward my wife.
It's kind of like self-idolatry.
My needs and my wants and my whatever is more important to me than what I've vowed to God.
Absolutely, and as Brian pointed out, there had to have been this kind of a purity within
the tribe so that the Messiah, God's promise of the Messiah would come to fruition.
But whatever the case, they are being unfaithful to God and their covenants they have to
the laws to God, the laws to marriage and those sorts of things, and so God is saying, not
only is your worship unacceptable,
But you aren't exercising any sort of fidelity towards your own word.
You are part of this covenant.
They could choose not to be.
They could just say, you know what, man, it's too much.
I'm walking away from it.
But to just kind of play the game and go through the motions is a whole other sort of a
thing.
And seemed that that's kind of what they were doing.
ah
And before we leave this text here about the marriage, think it's uh worthy of pointing
out, as you mentioned, that word treacherous or treachery occurs a bunch in here, but also
violence.
You see the word violence in there.
And I think Malachi 2, especially these verses, is a good illustration of when Jesus said,
of the hardness of your heart, you know, Matthew 19, 8.
Here's a good illustration of that hardness of heart, violence committed and all that
against them.
And so God allowed them to put away their wives, but not to marry a foreign wife, of
course.
He says in verse 17, you have wearied the Lord with your words.
Yeah, and that's just what I was thinking, like when you think of God, some of the
attributes that we might think that come to mind, long-suffering, patient, his mercy from
everlasting to everlasting, but in our kind of vernacular, you say, man, you're just
wearing God out with all this stuff that you're saying.
You're wearing him out with your
I feel that.
I said that with Job has three friends, didn't he?
He can wear me out.
em
I say that to Silas oh
inquisitive.
Yeah, exactly.
to count how many questions our youngest daughter, we didn't do it with our oldest
daughter, I guess we just forgot, we weren't thinking about it, we were just so impressed
that she was just asking us questions with our youngest daughter, sometimes we'd say, how
many questions will she ask on the way, you know, the school or the way here or the there?
And sometimes it would be like 60 questions, you know, and one trip, you know, what about
this, well why?
Well then what about that, you know?
And you know, it's kind of a whimsical way to think about it, but these people in their
wickedness, they're wearing God out, they've wearied him,
He says, you've wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say wherein have we wearied him?
When you say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth
in them, or where is God, or where is the God of judgment?
And I can only imagine that that would frustrate the heart of God when they're saying, as
Isaiah was woe unto those who called evil good and good evil.
If you're telling this everyone that does evil that he's good in the sight of the Lord and
that he delights in them,
Not only are you all right, but God delights in you.
Man, that's the polar opposite of what they were supposed to be doing.
Not that we should try intentionally to terrify people, but the reality of it is is that
God is just, and he is going to bring vengeance and judgment on those that do evil.
And to tell the person that's doing evil is not only an affront to God,
But in my estimation, it is the height of disrespect also to the person.
Because now they don't even have the proper information to make an informed decision.
You're all good, man.
And they're not.
There's a great quote I heard one time, if you love somebody, tell them the truth.
If you love yourself,
tell them what they want to hear.
So if I tell you what you want to hear, I'm not helping you, I'm helping me.
Because now you think that I'm a great guy or whatever.
If you really love somebody, you tell them the truth, even if it's not what they want to
hear.
Now you could do it respectfully.
But I think you see a lot of this in our culture, sometimes in the church, but especially
in our culture, where we went from things, you just take homosexuality for example, being
stigmatized and people looking down on it, to being accepted.
to being like embrace, right?
So it's not just like, you do you, like we don't care in the privacy of your home,
whatever.
It goes swings all the way to like, if you're a sinner, if you don't approve these
actions, right?
Like you're a bigot or you're whatever.
And I think that that's kind of the way the world works.
Once you get that worldliness in, it's not enough just to tolerate sin.
It has to be celebrated, right?
And that's the problem.
If you don't draw the line, that's what ends up happening.
Absolutely, it will become celebrated and you see it's being celebrated and so much so
that even ah in some so-called churches there people who would celebrate uh various kinds
of sin, um including that which you just named in homosexuality, but we try to uh put a
hat on something and dress it up so much that it's unrecognizable as sin anymore.
Sin is always sin no matter what you call it.
Moving on a little bit,
Their covenant faithfulness to God had waned, as I said, and they're saying, where is this
God of judgment that reminds me of what we read about in 2 Peter, you know, oh, where is
God's return?
He's slack concerning His promise.
So they were not faithful to their covenants, and God expects us to be faithful, as we
talked about in a previous episode, in every aspect of life.
There's not one aspect of life that our faithfulness to God should not permeate.
thoroughly and completely.
It doesn't matter if it's our marriage, if it's our parenting, if it's our worship, or
anything else.
uh God desires us to be completely submissive to his will in every aspect, in every
situation, no matter what.
ah And so they obviously had missed that.
ah Let's move to our third point so we don't uh take too much time with this smaller book.
Man, we were, think in our episode with Zechariah, it might have been shorter than this
one.
So we'll just have to tell fours to be shorter next time.
It's all me, it's all fours right now.
Anyway, the third is that God's gonna judge sin, but he will also bless those that are
faithful to him.
If we move forward a little bit, you find some hope ah in uh chapter three, uh in some of
the uh earlier parts of chapter three, where God is gonna send a messenger to prepare the
way before him, and even in sending messengers, sending prophets, that's an act in my
estimation of mercy.
Absolutely.
God is informing us what he desires.
He's informing us of what he wants.
And even if he's pronouncing absolute destruction, that is still mercy.
You see that prominently in the book of Jonah.
God says, you know, eight days and you're gonna be destroyed.
And what happens?
They repent.
And so that is an act of God's mercy, an act of his grace.
And he's gonna send forth a messenger that's gonna prepare the way before me, says the
Lord.
And the Lord whom he seeks shall be suddenly come to his temple.
even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in, then behold he shall come says the
Lord of hosts." And this kind of looks forward to the one that's going to come and set the
path straight before our Lord.
There's one who's going to come before him in the form of John the Baptist, but also Jesus
is going to come and set a path before us so that we can follow his example.
ah In the book of Hebrews, ah he calls him the, let me just get the terminology right.
in chapter two.
Let's see.
he calls him the captain of our salvation.
And if I remember right, that is like a leader, one, if you can imagine the example
analogy rather of a person who's on a safari and he's kinda leading the way, forging the
path, making it so that we can follow his footsteps.
So Jesus is the one who's gonna make it so that we.
Yeah, I that.
ah
So in chapter 3, some of these later verses, let's look at 16 and 17.
Well, before we get there, I just want to look at a couple of these other verses.
Verse five says, I'm going to come near to you to judgment, and I will be swift oh witness
against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against
those who depress the higher link, and as wages the widow, the fatherless, and those who
turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear him not me, says the Lord of Hosts.
So all these groups of people who aren't living right,
including those that aren't hospitable toward the strangers.
And so again, it's not only my, you know, Sunday morning from nine 30 to 12 that God is
looking at, but he's concerned with, he's concerned with even how I would treat those who
may be in need.
How do I look at the people who, you know, socially may be on a lower tier, economically
may be on a lower tier.
How do I look at those people?
How do I treat those people?
Yeah, I think that's the thing like you have There's people who might emphasize one part
of this list over the other right?
Like you know, there's people who have no problem with adultery, but they'll say you got
to treat the alien Well and duh duh duh, and then sometimes those people who say hey
adulteries a sin, you know, whatever But we're not worried about those maybe who don't get
their wages or whatever like that You know what I mean?
So I think to have truly biblical worldview and mindset is
You're not going to fit neatly probably in either cultural category, right?
Like if you speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent, there's
no like platform that totally covers the Bible.
know, obviously one may be better than the other, but I think our job is to really be
informed by what the Bible says is sin and call it out wherever we see it, whoever's doing
it.
Even if it's in us.
I've got the hate sin in me in as much as I hate it in my enemy.
I can't say, well, know, just because it's not my sin either, you know, I don't cheat, but
I steal.
And I look down on the cheater.
Sin has to be abhorrent to me, no matter what it is and no matter who does it.
He says here, verse number seven, repent, or excuse me, he says, return to me.
And I'll return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
um But you say,
wherein shall we return?
Then he says, verse eight, will a man rob God, yet you've robbed me?
But you say, wherein have we robbed thee?
So again, I love how uh God is kind of putting their words in front of them all the time,
but you say this, you say this, you say this, how are we gonna return?
When have we robbed you?
ah And he answers, in tithes and offerings, so they had not been given to God as they
ought, you are cursed with the curse, for ye have robbed me even this whole nation.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and
prove me now wherewith says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of
heaven and pour you out a blessing, there shall not be room enough to receive it." God is
daring them to be faithful.
And this is not like a prosperity thing.
God is daring them to be faithful again, not just so that they can get a bunch of money.
The idea here isn't the increase, it's the faithfulness to him.
and it's his faithfulness to them.
If you're faithful to me, God is saying, watch me be faithful to you.
And I think that some miss this and saying, if you sow a seed of $500 into the kingdom,
watch God buy you a new house.
No.
If you're sowing the seed to get the new house, that's not faithfulness to God.
That's faithfulness, again, just to your pocketbook.
Self-indulgence.
Yeah, exactly.
And it boils it down exactly to that.
If you're only looking at it for the benefit, then you don't care about the God, you care
about the benefit.
saying hey if you do the right thing I will take care of you.
And isn't that the message throughout all the Bible?
If you are obedient and faithful, you will be blessed, period.
And he says, um if this is done, rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not
destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time
of the field, says the Lord God of hosts, or the Lord of hosts.
All the nations, and all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome
land, says the Lord of hosts.
So God is telling you, if you're faithful,
I'm gonna make sure your enemies are not a problem to you, and I'm make sure you're well
spoken of again, you will be important again to the people around you, you'll mean
something, and all they have to do is be faithful to God.
And God will be in fact faithful to them.
Chapter four, verses one and two, for behold the day comes that shall burn as an oven and
all the proud, all that do wickedly shall be stubble.
And that day, or the day that cometh shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts.
And it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his
wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves ah of the stall." And here again you
have ah this New Testament illusion, but I love the fact that God gives us like really ah
like
brilliant imagery, like you can imagine this in your mind, what's happening.
God is going to burn up all those that are doing wicked, they'll be like stubble and you
imagine um hay, old grass, sticks, just being completely consumed by fire.
God said those things are gonna be gone, but to the ones that fear his name, we talked
about earlier, having reverence to a God, the son of righteousness is gonna arise with
healing in his wings.
And you think about this restoration, you think about this healing, you think about this
righteousness.
And not just like this, he's not saying just the son of blessings or of stuff.
He is the son of righteousness and he will have healing in his wings, which is really
beautiful.
And he says, and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall and you shall tread
down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.
And that day that I shall do this says the Lord of hosts, remember ye the law of Moses my
servant." so he first is telling them, listen, you'll be victorious and successful.
That reminds me of like Joshua chapter one again.
No, go forth, don't be afraid, be courageous everywhere you go.
You'll conquer or be fine.
He tells them essentially the same thing here in verse three, verse four.
Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him and Horeb for all Israel
with the statutes and judgment.
So go back, remember what Moses was told.
Remember the days of old.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord." And of course we know that this Elijah is being talked about here ah is not
the Old Testament prophet specifically, but he's talking about John the Baptist as Jesus
would say.
That he's going to come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
So before Jesus, John the Baptist was going to come and set the path straight.
He was going to be teaching and preaching, baptizing people in the Jordan ah for the
remission of their sins.
And it says,
Turn the heart of the fathers to the children, the heart of the children to the fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with the curse.
This book, as it kind of closes out, has high notes in it, and it has some allusions also
to judgment also, but you got to get both intermingled here mixed together.
That God is very serious.
He wants his people to turn.
He wants them to turn and be blessed.
And so there is incentive for them to turn and be faithful to God.
It's not just a one-sided agreement.
The covenant that God has with mankind in every age has always had
benefits and blessings for mankind if we would do what he says.
So he wants him to turn, he wants him to be blessed, but also um to remember the law,
which he says in verse number four, chapter four, verse four.
Remember the law of Moses my servant, I command him in Horde.
So don't forget what God says.
Don't forget his blessings, yes, but don't forget his law, don't forget his word, don't
forget the commandments.
That's kind of the idea.
Remember.
where you are, consider where you are, think about where you are, but remember the word of
the Lord and obey the word of the Lord.
Yeah, and the blessings of God aren't a reason to stop obeying Him.
Right?
Like, God's going to bless me.
I'll just, I'm good.
Just like, no, you got to remember.
And think about like you're going into 400 years of silence as it's usually called, right?
You still have to obey the Word.
You still have to do it.
Like, it doesn't matter.
Jesus might not come back for 5,000 more years.
We still have the commandments to keep, right?
absolutely.
Yeah, no matter what.
immediacy of judgment shouldn't change how we feel about God.
Sometimes it does.
uh If I know something's happening right away, then I might be more inclined to jump to
it.
But the idea again is like we talked about a little bit earlier, remembering the person of
God.
It's not whether or not Jesus is gonna come back judging.
evil that should motivate me.
It should be that he is God and he's worthy of every single thing I can muster and devote
to him.
I think it's pretty cool the way Malachi ends, lest I come and strike the earth with a
curse.
And then we have the 400 years of silence and then the voice of one crying in the
wilderness.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Even Matthew opens up the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
The son of David, the son of Abraham.
so, full circle if you will.
All right, we appreciate this discussion.
And again, as I mentioned, our next season, season number six,
minoring in the majors minoring in the majors will have studies from the major profits we
appreciate your listening we appreciate your following us if you're a fan of our podcast
and you can find it again please tell your friends and relatives and and give us some
feedback if you can we would love to hear from you and some have made comments to me
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And so we will look forward to seeing you, or at least being on the mic with you, for
season six coming up.
Thank you for your support.
I've found land some number on Calvary, on Mount Calvary, cruel Calvary.
Paved the way by blood that we might win a bright shining crown.
Praise His holy name.
Salvation has been brought down, oh glory.
Praise the Lord, the Son of God.
Salvation has been brought down from heaven.
Go and and and and tell the world around.
Go preach it and tell today to people in sorrow.
Tell of today and tell of tomorrow Preach the word of God that we might win a shining
crown Tell of the laws of all of us Salvation is full and free To sinners, brethren, and
men But sinners all over the land and sea Go teach it and tell of God in every nation Tell
of our all over creation Praise the Lord, bless him, salvation has been brought down All
alone without
He suffered to pay it all.
Yes, He paid it all.
Jesus paid it all.
In His blessed promises sweet victory can be found.
Praise His Holy Name.
Salvation has been brought down.
glory, praise the Lord.
Bless the Lord.
Salvation has been brought down from heaven.
Go and and shout, and shout, and tell the world around.
Go preach it and tell it today to people in sorrow.
today and tell it tomorrow.
Preach the word of God that we might win a shining crown.
Tell the laws, the law the law.
Salvation is full and free to sinners, friends, and sinners.
Bless and lose all over the land and sea.
Go teach it and tell it afar in every nation.
Tell it afar all over creation.
Praise the Lord.
Bless the Lord.
Salvation has been brought down.
There's a blessed home prepared way over in Glory Land, in bright Glory Land, blessed
Glory Land.
I have trusted in His love and now I am heaven bound.
Praise His holy name!
Salvation has been brought down, oh Glory!
Praise the Bless the Lord!
Salvation has been brought down from heaven.
Go and and and and tell the world around.
Go preach and then tell it today to...
If people in sorrow it today and tell it tomorrow, preach the word of God that we might
win a shining crown.
Tell it all, the law of all salvation is full and free to sinners, friends, and news all
over the land and sea.
Go teach it and tell it afar in every nation.
Tell it afar all over creation.
Praise the Lord, blessed Lord, salvation has been brought down.