The passage of scripture that we’ll be studying today was written around 432 B.C. and it was proclaimed to the children of Israel in city of Jerusalem. Open your bibles with me if you will to Malachi chapter one.
I want to give you just a little background on what led up to this message from the Lord through the prophet Malachi. The Jewish people have had it pretty rough the last hundred years or so before this point. The Babylonians had laid siege to Jerusalem and finally destroyed the Holy City along with the temple of the Lord and taken the Jews into captivity. By the grace of God, gradually the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and begin the work of rebuilding the city and the temple. With great difficulty, after many decades, the rebuilding was finally completed and the people repopulated the city of God. The Levitical priesthood was soon reestablished and the Jewish people resumed their role as the Lord’s holy nation. This meant that people once again brought their sacrifices to atone for their sins, once more blood flowed from the altar and the sweet smell of incense permeated the air.
But yet something was still very wrong… Although the temple and all of its furnishings were rebuilt to the exact specifications given by God and people were bringing their sacrifices and offerings.. the Lord had not yet come to this temple and allowed His glory to dwell there. In short God had not accepted the worship of his people.
The message of the Lord given through this prophet is God telling His people why He is displeased with them and their worship. Let’s look at this message together… (Malachi 1:6-14)
What’s the matter with these Israelites? God has brought them out of exile and back to Jerusalem. Against all odds, He has enabled them to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city. Their identity as God’s chosen people is finally beginning to be restored…. And how do they show their eternal gratitude to God? By bringing Him unacceptable sacrifices!
I don’t know about you but when I read stuff like this, I just can’t understand how God’s chosen people who have witnessed first hand the power and Glory of the Lord could forget so quickly! Of all the people on the planet, the Israelites should have realized just how much they were dishonoring or “profaning” God’s name by presenting Him with substandard or unacceptable sacrifices and offerings.. And then they have the audacity to ask why it doesn’t seem that the Lord has been blessing them!
The sacrifices and offerings presented to God by His people were meant to HONOR God. They were to be the BEST of their flocks—the first fruits of their crops because as we all know the offerings that were made usually represented Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God.
In these few verses of Malachi, we find bad news and even worse news about the spiritual condition of Israel. The bad news is that the Jews no longer think God worthy of their very best..
Instead of their best, they now offer Him blind, crippled, diseased, and even stolen sacrifices while keeping the best for themselves. How you may ask could it get any worse? I’ll tell you how, the spiritual leaders of Israel were allowing it without objection. And by doing so, they not only profaned the altar, the temple, and the very name of God, but they hindered the Lord from blessing the nation. So in short, not only were the priests failing God but they were failing the very people they were supposed to be interceding with God for. By allowing them to give less than their best to God, their sins weren’t being forgiven and God wasn’t blessing them!
I’m so glad that we don’t have to offer bulls, rams, cattle and lambs on this altar today! I’m glad that the repeated spilling of innocent blood isn’t a part of the New Covenant system of worship. Jesus came to this sin-sick world and offered Himself, once and for all, as the ultimate sacrifice for our transgressions. And by doing this He freed us from the written code and the supervision of the ceremonial law. Praise God for that!
That being said, why is it do you suppose that God put it on my heart to preach from this particular passage of scripture that speaks very specifically about sacrifices and offerings? I’ll give you two hints in the form of two other scriptures.
The first Romans 12:1,2 which says; “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The second is Psalm 141:2 where David says, “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
I believe God’s word is clear that He still requires sacrifices of us today. What He declared in Exodus 23 applies even more to us today, He said, “no one is to appear before me empty-handed.”
I. Like the apostle Paul said, we should “offer our bodies (our lives) as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” He even goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 10, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”..
A. If we are to do “everything” in this way, how much more important should it be that our WORSHIP be done to the glory of God??
So, I hope you are beginning to see that what the prophet Malachi wrote so long ago was written with us in mind.. Let’s take a closer look at this passage, but now lets read knowing that God is speaking to us. (READ Malachi 1:6-14 again)
Illustration: God deserves our best. That seems to be hard for many of us to understand. One man, who was very well off financially, was asked directly if he would be willing to make a large contribution to his church’s capital campaign. The need was clearly and compellingly conveyed to him; but he boldly announced that he wasn’t going to give anything at all.
Needless to say the pastor and the other church officers were very disappointed with the man’s obvious lack of good stewardship and generosity. The man saw the shock and disgust on their faces so he began to tell them a little bit about himself. He said, you think you know me? Yes, I own a successful business, have a nice house, drive an expensive car so I guess I can see why you think I would gladly donate say $50,000 to the church. But here are a few things you may not know: Did you know that my mother is in a very expensive nursing facility?…..
Did you know that my brother died 3 years ago and left a family of five with no insurance?…..
Did you know that my son is deeply religious and felt convicted to quit a good-paying job to go into social work that pays below the national poverty wage?….
The pastor and church leaders began to feel very ashamed and were about to apologize profusely for their rudeness when the man cracked a smirk and said, “so, if I don’t give a penny to any of these people, what makes you think that a man like me will give you anything?” (author of illustration unknown)
I like a man who doesn’t have to make excuses… I think God would appreciate more honesty from us when we try to convince ourselves and Him that we have valid reasons for giving Him less than our best or even nothing at all. (go back to vs 9)
A favorite old hymn of mine is “Give of Your Best to the Master.” Throughout the bible, God is instructing us to get our priorities in order. He has told us time and time again that we indeed need to give of our best to Him. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to, “love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind, and with ALL your strength.” That’s pretty clear isn’t it? Yet in spite of that and in spite of how richly He blesses us, we still tend to think that He should be grateful for our leftovers. I believe that if we keep throwing God our leftover time, money, talents, and devotion, we are going to end up being “leftovers ourselves….”
Let me close with this one question: are you giving of your best to the Master?
** (alternate scripture) Leviticus 10:3 “Among those who approach me, I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored” (this was Moses’ words to Aaron right after Nadab and Abihu, his sons were struck down for offering “strange fire” before the Lord.)
