Twice last month, drivers using their Apple Maps app on their iPhones ended up driving right across the runway at the Fairbanks, Alaska International Airport. Apparently there was a glitch in the app which directed drivers to “Taxiway B”. Although the directions didn’t specifically tell the drivers to cross the runway, once they got to that taxiway and could see the terminal on the other side of the runway they just drove across the runway to get to the terminal.
Apparently those two drivers trusted their Apple Maps more than the multiple signs and the motion-activated gate that they had to ignore in order to reach their destination. Fortunately, no one was injured, but you can imagine the potential problems with a car driving across a runway used by large commercial jets. And of course, Apple rushed to fix the problem. Earlier this week, just for the fun of it, I plugged the Fairbanks Airport into my map app on my iPhone and got a message that directions to that location are “not available”.
Now there are a couple of lessons we need to learn from these incidents. First, if you have an iPhone and you are using the map app, you might want to actually look up once in a while and make sure the directions aren’t leading you across a runway, or perhaps over a cliff.
But there is also a spiritual lesson to be learned here. All of us are potentially somebody’s “spiritual map app”. There are other people who are looking to us for some kind of spiritual direction and we need to make sure that we don’t lead them along the wrong route. That’s the idea behind the passage in Malachi that we’ll be looking at this morning.
But before we get to that passage, I want to remind all of us of the main theme of the entire book of Malachi. See if you can help fill in the blanks:
God desires for me to pursue Him
in the same way He has pursued me
As we continue in our journey through the book of Malachi this morning, we need to remember that it is God’s pursuing love for us that motivates Malachi to share some difficult, but necessary truth with the people of Israel, and with us. With that in mind, go ahead and open your Bibles to Malachi chapter 2 and follow along as I read beginning in verse 1:
“And now, O priests, this command is for you.
(Malachi 2:1 ESV)
Let me pause for a moment here before we go any further. One of my greatest fears this morning is that some of you are going to just tune out right here because this section of Malachi is addressed to the priests and you’ll automatically assume that it really doesn’t apply to you. But before you do that you might want to consider these relevant New Testament passages:
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
(1 Peter 2:4-5, 9 ESV)
…To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(Revelation 1:5-6 ESV)
As the writer of Hebrews explains in some detail, the sacrificial system carried out by the Old Testament priests no longer is needed because of the sacrifice of our great high priest, Jesus. However, the function that the priests fulfilled as God’s representatives here on earth has been passed to those who are followers of Jesus. We serve as priests who have been given the task of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus, who has called us out of darkness into marvelous light. So if you’ve committed your life to Jesus, you are a priest and therefore what Malachi writes here is relevant for your life.
So with that in mind, let’s continue reading our passage:
If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”
(Malachi 2:2-9 ESV)
Let’s begin this morning with the big idea in this passage and then see if we can’t develop it in a way that will be very practical for all of us.
The big idea:
When it comes to discipleship
I can’t lead anyone else
further than I have gone
I don’t all the details of how Apple developed its map app, but my guess is that one reason there are so many problems with it is that the people who write the software don’t actually go out in the field and try to follow their own directions. So because these software developers haven’t actually gone there first, their ability to lead others is severely hampered. They are totally dependent on maps and aerial photos that others have produced and that often leads to the kinds of problems with their directions that guide people to drive onto a runway in Fairbanks.
As priests of God, we have been given the task of making disciples. We are to lead others into a relationship with Jesus and then help them to continue to grow deeper in that relationship.
But, as this passage demonstrates, we’ll never be able to lead others to places where we’ve never gone ourselves.
Faithful priests in the past
At one point in time, the priests had been very effective in discipling others. In fact, they had done such an effective job that God made a covenant with the priests. In verses 4 and 5, God speaks of His covenant with Levi, calling it a covenant of “life and peace”.
In the Old Testament, we find a number of covenants that God made with His people. Most of these covenants, like the ones God made with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David can be found in specific Scripture passages. But it is interesting that although the concept of a covenant with Levi and the priests can be found in the Old Testament Scriptures, it is never specifically mentioned. However, the way the covenant is described here in Malachi gives us some clues about what Malachi must have had in mind here.
The covenant with Levi appears to have its beginning in Exodus 32. When Moses came down from the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments, he found the people worshipping the golden calf. When Moses observed what was going on he confronted the people:
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD's side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
(Exodus 32:26 ESV)
After the Levites followed Moses’ instruction and killed 3,000 of the men who had been worshipping the golden calf, we find that because of their allegiance to God, they were ordained for His service:
And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
(Exodus 32:29 ESV)
But the specific reference to a covenant of life and peace seems to come from an event recorded in Numbers 25. As part of their worship of the false god Baal, the men of Israel were engaging in sexual immorality with those who were worshipping Baal. God’s anger was kindled and He instructed Moses to kill the chiefs of the people who had led them into this immorality and to hang them in public view as a warning to the people.
But even after that graphic warning, an Israelite named Zimri brought a Midianite woman into his tent and engaged in sexual immorality with her. A priest named Phinehas saw what was going on and he went into Zimri’s tent and ran his spear through both of them and thus stopped the plague against the Israelites, but not before 24,000 of them died.
God was very moved by what Phineas did and He responded with these words:
And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
(Numbers 25:10-13 ESV)
Throughout Israel’s history, when the priests served God faithfully, they were very effective in leading others into a relationship with God in which they walked with God and served Him faithfully.
Unfaithful priests in the present
But there were also times in Israel’s history, like in Malachi’s day, where the priests were not faithful. And, as a result, the entire nation fell away from God. In this passage we can discern a three step sequence that led to the priests leading the people away from God rather than leading them back to Him:
1. Their ministry was rejected by God
Verse 3 seems very harsh to us. First of all God is going to rebuke the offspring of the priests. When the priesthood was established, only the descendants of Aaron were to be priests. So the privilege of serving God in that way was a matter of heritage. But God makes it clear here that just being born into the lineage of Aaron doesn’t guarantee that someone is automatically going to be able to serve in that role.
That ought to be a lesson for us. No one automatically becomes a follower of Jesus because of his or her heritage. But at the same time the good news is that no one is precluded from becoming a Christ follower because his or her parents or relatives were not Christ followers. Each person must make the personal decision to place his or her faith in Jesus alone for salvation.
The picture in the last part of the verse is even more graphic. Obviously this is symbolic language here. God is not going to literally spread the dung from the sacrifices on their faces. The word “dung” here refers to the inner parts of the sacrificial animals that were to be taken outside the walls of the tabernacle, and later the temple, and burned. And then the priests had to wash themselves before they could reenter. So the picture here is that God considers these priests to be unclean and therefore He will no longer accept their ministry.
Notice that God does not necessarily reject the priests themselves, but rather their service. God certainly leaves open the possibility that they could repent and allow God to restore their ministry. God still loves them and He is still pursuing them, but He will not accept a ministry that robs Him of His glory.
2. Their ministry was rejected by the people
In verse 9, God points out that these priests are going to be despised and abased before all the people.
One of the biggest issues that God had with the priests is that they were allowing the people to dishonor God with their sacrifices. When God points out that they are showing partiality in their instruction, the implication is that, for their own benefit, the priests weren’t holding all the people to the same standard. Perhaps they had agreed to look the other way when the rich and powerful brought their substandard sacrifices because they were being paid or rewarded to do so. So it’s quite ironic that the very people they were trying to please were going to end up turning on them anyway.
3. As a result, they caused many to stumble
The end result is that because both God and the people had rejected the ministry of the priests, many people had stumbled.
This is a really sobering thought, especially for me as a pastor. Every week when I get up here and handle the Word of God, I’m certainly aware that if I don’t do that accurately and well, I could easily cause others to stumble as well.
But since we’re all priests, we ought to all be sobered by the possibility that we could also be guilty of causing others to stumble.
Corrupting the covenant of Levi
What occurred between the time the priests had faithfully served God and lived under His covenant of life and peace and the current situation where the priests not only were unfaithful to God but had caused the entire nation to stumble? In verse 8, God rebukes the priests because they have “corrupted the covenant of Levi.” Obviously they had done that in many ways, but essentially they had failed in two key areas. And because we are prone to “corrupting the covenant of Levi” in these same two ways, we’re going to focus the majority of our time here and see if we can’t focus on some things we can do in our own lives to make sure that we don’t follow in their footsteps.
1. They no longer feared God
According to verse 5, at one time the priests had feared God and stood in awe of His name. As we’ve discussed before, at least one aspect of fearing God is the idea that He takes our breath away. In that sense the fear of God is a recognition of God’s sovereignty. It is the realization that the things going on around us in life are “God things” and that should fill us with a sense of awe that literally takes our breath away.
But the words translated “fear” and “stand in awe” in verse 5 also convey a sense of terror that comes from recognizing God’s limitless power.
Last year, Mary and I were out for a walk in our neighborhood one afternoon. We were walking along the sidewalk talking when all of a sudden one of the largest rattlesnakes I’ve ever seen was no more than 8 feet in front of us in the middle of the sidewalk. I immediately put my arm to keep Mary from stepping any closer and then we slowly retreated and walked way around that snake. There is no doubt that snake took my breath away, and not just because I was admiring it as God’s creation. I was terrified of what that snake could have done to me had I not avoided it.
The fear of that snake was a healthy fear because it kept Mary and me from harm. But the priests of Malachi’s day no longer had that kind of healthy fear when it came to their relationship with God. And because they no longer had that fear of God, they had no qualms about just doing things their own way rather than God’s way.
So how do we make sure we don’t lose our fear of God? Obviously that’s a huge topic that we can’t adequately cover in the short time we have remaining so let me just leave you with one thought from Moses’ words to the nation of Israel:
And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
(Deuteronomy 31:10-13 ESV)
Even though this passage applies specifically to the Feast of Booths, there is a general principle we can draw from these words. I’ve given you some space on your outline to write down your own personal application from this passage. So I’m going to give you a moment to jot down your thoughts before I make a couple of comments on the passage.
My personal application:
[Give people time to write down their application]
There is obviously a connection between learning to fear the Lord and hearing and doing the Word of God. I develop my fear of God through reading His Word and being careful to do what I find there. That means that as I read and study the Bible, I need to think about how God’s Word reveals the greatness of God and I also need to focus on the consequences of failing to heed His Word. Only then can I develop and maintain a healthy fear of God that will prevent me from becoming the kind of priest that Malachi was dealing with.
2. They no longer listened to God
As we see in verse 7, a priest was to be “the messenger of the Lord of hosts”. The role of a priest was to listen to God and then to proclaim to the people the words that came from God. They were not merely to share their own thoughts or minister according to their own plans and desires. But for these priests, it seems that the voice of God had been drowned out by other voices. They were no longer operating based on the Word of God, and there were serious consequences for failing to listen to God.
The Hebrew word translated “listen” in verse 2 means much more than to just hear – it implies listening for the purpose of applying what is heard. So not only were the priests not listening to the Word of God, even when they heard it they failed to heed it.
Once again, I’ve given you some space to write down how you can personally apply this point in your life. So go ahead and jot down your thoughts and then I’ll close with some things for you to think about here.
My personal application:
[Give people time to write down their application.]
There are a couple of things that I would suggest we need to consider here.
First, our role as priests is to be “messengers of the Lord of hosts”. So we are to be proclaiming His Word, not our own ideas and thoughts. And that requires us to be familiar enough with His Word to be able to use it as the basis for our ministry. Obviously we all have differing levels of familiarity with the Scriptures, but we all need to be growing in our understanding of God’s Word so that we can proclaim it accurately and boldly. And that means that we have to give priority to reading and studying God’s Word on a consistent basis.
The second implication deals with how we approach God’s Word. Remember what we learned just a moment ago about the verb “listen”? It is listening for what purpose? That’s right; it’s for the purpose of applying what I hear.
Not only do I need to be hearing, reading and studying God’s Word on a regular, consistent basis, every time I do that I need to approach it with the idea that God is speaking to me personally and that He wants me to heed His words to me and apply what I am learning. Only when I approach God’s Word with that kind of mindset am I truly listening to Him.
Let’s close our time by going back to the big idea that I shared at the beginning of the message:
The big idea:
When it comes to discipleship
I can’t lead anyone else
further than I have gone
As a priest, I am called to make disciples and a large part of making disciples is to lead others to learn to fear God and to listen to Him. But I will never take them any farther than I’ve been myself. If I try to direct them to a place I’ve never been myself, I’m probably going to lead them right into danger. So that means if I want to be the kind of priest God wants me to be I must first journey there myself so that I’m capable of leading the way.
So I’ll leave you with this question to ponder this morning:
What are you doing to learn to fear God and to listen to Him, so that you can lead others to do
