People are funny, and the funniest people, in my judgement are children. As much as we love our children, we soon find out that they require discipline. When my oldest son was born, I took his picture with me to show people. I showed it to an elderly black lady, and I’ll never forget what she said. She said, “That’s sho yo baby, alright.” Now, I hadn’t even considered that he might not be my baby, but it was comforting to get her confirmation on the matter! Then she said, “You’re gonna hate to have to spank his behind, but if you don’t, it won’t be long ‘til he will be spanking your heart.”
I ran across these observations that were made by one parent:
1) There is no such thing as child proofing your home. 2) Baseballs make marks on the ceiling. 3) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. 4) A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way. 5) The glass in windows, even double pane ones, is not strong enough to stop a baseball that has been hit by a ceiling fan. 6) When you hear the toilet flush and the words “Uh-oh”, it’s already too late. 7) A six year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a thirty six year old man says they can only do that in the movies. 8) If you use a waterbed as home plate while wearing baseball shoes, it does not leak – it explodes. 9) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 square foot house 4 inches deep
Even experiences where discipline is required with our children are often funny. We’ve all got stories we could tell. But, God’s discipline of His children is not funny. I can’t think of one instance in all the Bible, or in my own life, where I can look at sin and say, “Isn’t that cute?”
In so many ways, looking at the attitudes and actions of Israel is like looking in a mirror. God had done so much for them, yet they appreciated it so little.
It just dawned on me the other day that the reason there were 400 hundred years between Malachi and Matthew, with no word from heaven, was for a couple of reasons:
1) If His people were so bored with God, He would just let them see what things are like when He stopped communicating with them. He just stepped back and let the circumstances they created give them a good whipping. In Malachi they were not under the rule of the Roman empire, but in Malachi they were.
2) God was allowing an atmosphere to develop that should create a hunger in their hearts for a word from God, and particularly, for the Messiah.
In these verses, God was saying, “I am going to discipline you because of your wilful misunderstanding of Me.” They had come to think that God would just have to settle for whatever they offered Him. He could demand what He wanted to, but He would have to take what they gave.
I think there is an epidemic of that same kind of attitude in our day, don’t you? We can easily see in these Scriptures that God was not pleased with it back then. How do you think He likes now?
Verses two and three are key verses in this passage. Look what God says He is going to do.
1) Curse their blessings. Then, he says, “I’ve already cursed them.” They were like Samson, who didn’t even know the blessing of God had left his life. What were their blessings? They had abundant provisions, and that was a blessing from God. They had rest from their enemies, and that was a blessing from God. They were a healthy people, and that was a blessing from God. But, it was all about to end. It was already in the working.
2) He would rebuke their descendants. What they were doing was not only having a negative effect on their own lives, but they were going to bring the rebuke of God on the lives of their children and grandchildren. Not because God was going to punish them for what their parents and grandparents had done, but because they were going to follow the examples they had been given. For the most part, that’s what children do.
3) He would spread refuse on their faces. That means poop. He was going to give them a “manure make-over!” In other words, God was going to let them be discredited and humiliated in the eyes of the public.
4) He would remover them. It’s not a problem for God to take any of us out of the way, if we are dishonoring Him.
What had they done that God would come down on them so hard? Five things:
1) They refused to give glory to God, v2. The unworthy sacrifices they were offering on the altar was just a symptom of a greater problem. The greater problem was what they thought of God.
A.W. Tozer said, “What you think of God is the most important thing about you.”
One of the ways we give glory to God is by listening to what He says to us. They refused to listen. It wasn’t all that important to them.
2) They departed from the way, v8. The way means, “God’s prescribed way of doing things.” In the book of Acts, before Christianity was called, “Christianity,” it was called, “The Way.” It was the way to get to God, to follow God, and to please God.
God’s way is always the way He says, even if the way we would prefer is different.
Remember, these people were still going to the temple, still going through all the motions, but their hearts had become very lukewarm toward the things of God.
3) They caused many to stumble, v8. I suppose, next to insulting God by offering Him the left-overs of our lives, God is most grieved when His people do things that influence others to dishonor Him.
I visited a man one time, who was probably in his middle sixties, and he had set a can of Budwiser down beside his chair, when I came in. He didn’t know I could see it, but I could. I talked to him about Christ, and he assured me he was saved. I said, “Then, I don’t understand why you don’t go to church anywhere.” He said, “Well, preacher, I just don’t believe like you do.” I knew that soon as I saw his beer can! He said, “I just don’t think it’s necessary to go to church. I can read my Bible and pray and worship the Lord without going to church.” A few weeks later, I visited his son, who was probably in his mid-thirties, and I asked him about his relationship to God. He said, “Well, I’ll just tell you, I don’t know if I believe in God.” I looked over in the middle of the room, and there was his little boy, about 8 years old, laying in the floor watching TV. I immediately thought about the older man who saw no need to go to church, and I wondered what would become of that little boy?
I had a woman tell me, one time, that she wanted to go to hell where all her friends would be. I knew the woman pretty well, and I said, “The people you call your friends will very likely be in hell with you, but you will not be friends there. Friendship is a spill-over from the love and goodness of God, but in hell there will be no friendship, only hatred. And you know, I suspect their will be people who will weep and wail and gnash their teeth forever in hatred of their daddy, or their moma, or their grandparents, who have led them astay.
I knew one man who had been a drunkard all his adult life, but he came to Christ when he was in his sixties. He really didn’t have anything but the ashes of a wasted life to offer God, but God in His mercy saved him. But, he told me one day, “I live in a saved man’s hell.” I said, “What in the world are you talking about, I’ve never heard such a thing?” He said, “I’ve got two sons, and I taught them to be gamblers, drunkards, and whoremungers, and now they won’t listen to anything I’ve got to say.” That must be how Lot felt when his daughters and sons in law’s laughed at him, when he talked about the judgement of God.
Who’s watching your life today? In what direction are they going to go if they follow your example?
4) They corrupted the covenant of Levi, v8. God’s covenant with Levi was a covenant for the priesthood. God said, “I am going to give the Levites peace, and the priesthood will be theirs from generation to generation.”
5) They showed partiality in the law, v9. They didn’t treat people the same, and they weren’t fair as they made decisions that effected people’s lives.
Even in a passage as severe as this one is, you can see the spark of God’s grace, you can hear the invitation of God, calling His people to turn to Him with their whole hearts. In v2 He says, “If you will not hear.” That implies that if they would hear, things would be different.
The big question for you today is, “Will you hear?” God has loved you, and He loves you now. Jesus has died for the sins that you have committed, but in order for that to count for you, you must turn to Him in faith. Would you do that today?
