THE GREAT BURDEN OF GOD
TEXT: Malachi (selected verses) Dr. W. Max Alderman
INTRODUCTION: It was about four hundred years before Christ was born that the Book of Malachi was given. The Lord was greatly burdened by the way that Israel had turned from God in their affections and in their zeal for Him to the place of only satisfying themselves. Anytime ones affection is cooled towards God and increased towards something else, that something else becomes a god. He said: “Have no other gods before me”.
Perhaps more than turning to other God’s they were just going through the motions in their worship, and they certainly were not at all careful in their worship, but instead they had become casual. Staying casual long enough will then make you to become calloused. I want to examine “The Great Burden of God” and show how we should be careful and devoted in our worship of God lest we be or become casual and find ourselves just going through the motions.
I. THE REVEALING OF HOW GOD WAS BURDENED…
For one to have a clearer understanding of why God was burdened, one needed to understand what is really going on. It had been around 100 years since the Jews had returned to Palestine. The walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt and the second temple had been built, and then after the initial revival had taken place, the people were found to be worshipping God with great joy. Now, things are much different…the people and certainly the priests had only become mechanical in their worship, or as already stated, they were just going through the motions. This is a picture of where many of our churches are, and it is devastating. It is devastating because God has to be equally burdened at who we have become when we are only going through the motions. This describes the Laodicean Church Age, where many of our churches are neither cold nor hot…just lukewarm.
A. LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD BURDEN…
BURDEN.—The word so rendered in the OT is derived from a root which means to ‘lift’ or ‘carry.’ It has the two senses of an actual burden and a prophetic utterance. Instances of the former are 2Ki 5:17, Neh 13:19, Num 4:15. Related usages are frequent; in Isa 22:25 the word suggests the pressure of something hanging on a peg, or something heavy or something to be borne…as upon a beast of burden.
B. LOOK AT A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORD BURDEN…
I especially like this word picture of the word burden that I discovered in my studies. The word burden is described by the heavy weight that the donkey or burrow carries, and as he does, it is so heavy that it causes its legs to bend out. In our Text, God is carrying such a burden. It is just like the God of omnipotence is saying that this burden is so heavy that it weighs me down and I am like a little donkey carrying such a heavy load. That is such a graphic way of describing what God is feeling when He says, “The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.”
II. THE REASONS FOR WHY GOD WAS BURDENED…
For these next sub points, I borrow from Warren Weirsbe and make minor changes. I do not know how I can improve on the way that he worded these points, but I am putting my own meat upon the skeleton. It was like one said, you may get your milk from a lot of different cows, but you need to do your own churning. So, I am churning my own butter.
A. The Doubting of God’s Love…(1:1-5)
In verse number two, when I see the questioning of God’s love, that tells me that they had become very selfish. Their selfishness had begun to consume them. A person who has a stingy spirit towards God is a very selfish person. The Lord gives a very good answer that reveals His electing love, that God is also sovereign, not in a fatalist sense as some would contend, but in the sense that He is God and He need not and should not be questioned, or be answerable to anyone, as these backslidden Israelites had done and supposed. The example given in our Text is that of his loving Jacob and hating Esau. This way of expressing such is a means where God chose by His own volition to show His covenant blessings upon whom He desired, and in doing so, showed that loving acceptance to the brother who was perhaps less deserving than the other brother. This is one of the ways that God shows us that His love is not based upon anything that we do, but upon His grace alone.
B. The Despising of God’s Name…(1:6-14)
Early on, before their hearts were defiled and they had wained in their zeal and devotion to their God, the worshipers brought the very best to the Lord…and it was a grand and exciting time, when they did. I can imagine a young couple desiring to please God in their worship and also their sacrificing as, they would carefully select the very best offering that they had and take it to the priest who would also very carefully inspect and make sure that only the best was being offered. Then, if an inferior offering was being made, the priest would shut the door and say: “Unacceptable”.
This was because a very high value was placed upon worship. Over the course of time, what I am discovering from my Text is that they are becoming more and more casual and careless in their offerings. They are even offering polluted and defiled offerings, while very selfishly giving God less than the best. They would look for their sickly or maimed sacrifice and pick that out from the rest instead of offering their very best. The priest also had become very careless and would not even refuse what he knew was unacceptable. This reminds me of how over time, we can also lose our zeal for God and offer our inferior sacrifices, as our preachers also start to lower their standards. With this being so, everything about them was impacted in a most negative way...their marriages suffered, as well.
I tried to maintain a high standard of holiness when I was a pastor, but if I returned to the pastorate, I believe that I would try to raise the bar or standard even higher, because I know that there is a human tendency to follow the path of least resistance. Dear church, and pastor we need to become stronger in our faith and certainly not weaker.
C. The Defiling of God’s Covenant…(2:1-17)
When the people and especially the priest would not do what they were supposed to do, God said that He would curse their blessings…This is a reference to the “If-But Principle” in Deuteronomy 27 and 28. This is where God says that He will curse the one that does evil and bless the one that does right. In the New Testament economy, God will chasten the evil doer and will also bless the one that does right. We will look at some of the verses that I am referring to in these two chapters…Please turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 27 for the reading of some selected verses.
D. The Disobeying of God’s Word….(3:1-15)
When the people are told in verse number seven that “ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them…” This meant that they were getting away from and also disobeying the Word of God. One of the key indicators that they had gotten away from the Word of God showed up in their robbing God. They were immediately indicted for robbing God and this indictment coincided with their departure from and the disobeying of the Word of God….Just as Ecclesiastes 10:19 say, “”but money answereth all things.” You can tell what one really loves by what he invests in…where he spends his money.
III. THE RESULTS OF GOD BEING BURDENED…
God though burdened, still gives the lawbreaker an opportunity to repent before final judgment is passed. This last Book of the Old Testament is written for the purpose of bringing about repentance for the purpose of being able to bless the one who truly repents. This Book shows how tender God is, but also how firm He is. He tenderly calls for faithful obedience to His Word, and because He cares, He corrects.
A. He Cares for those Who Have Become Cold in Their Worship…
B. He Corrects Those Who Have Departed From Him in Their Worship….
Conclusion: May this study be a great challenge to each of us to draw near to God, and as we do, the curse or the chastening will be removed, and the blessings will be added….
