INTRODUCTION: In 2007, the I-35 bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed suddenly during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The investigation revealed that the gusset plates that connect girders together in the truss system were undersized, resulting in a structural flaw leading to its collapse. After the tragedy, investigators determined that the designers had specified a metal plate that was too thin to serve as a junction of several girders. The bridge was designed in the 1960s and lasted 40 years. But like most other bridges, it gradually gained weight during that period, as workers installed concrete structures to separate eastbound and westbound lanes and made other changes, adding strain to the weak spot.
To say it another way, the bridge lacked integrity. A bridge has integrity when it does what it was designed to do. Cars, trains, or people can travel across the bridge without it collapsing. In this sense, integrity isn't about morality, but about the ability to function according to the intended design.
The prophet Malachi had to speak to a variety of sins among the clergy and the people. In chapter 1 he focused on their “cheap” worship and contempt for the sacrificial ritual. In the second half of chapter 2 he will address the problem of divorce and marriage to unbelievers. Somehow the people had the idea that such things were not serious sins, or that they could do them and get away with it. They had grown comfortable with their sin.
Malachi turns in this passage to lay the blame where it belongs: with the priests. Blaming the priests for the problems doesn’t let the rest of the people off the hook; they too were responsible for their sin even if they were unaware of what Scripture said about it—ignorance is never an excuse for breaking God’s law. But the guilt was greater for those who by their false teaching or lack of teaching caused God’s people to stumble. The priests were not functioning with integrity, according to their intended design. And it was going to cost them.
[READ Malachi 2:1-9]
Malachi’s message begins with the bold, direct confrontation: “And now, you priests, this warning is for you.” One can only envision the temple filled with priests, Levites, and people—and all of a sudden the prophet stood up to speak directly and bluntly to the spiritual leaders. They might have anticipated that he would be critical of something, as prophets often were, but I'm sure they had no idea what was coming!
This announcement would have absolutely overwhelmed Malachi’s priestly audience, probably present in clean white garments. They though they were doing everything correctly, as their earlier protests indicate. But God was saying they were unclean, disqualified, and not welcome in the holy place.
I. GOD REMOVES HIS MINISTERS WHO REFUSE TO HONOR HIS NAME (1-4, 8-9)
A. The message was that God would send a curse on them if they did not honor His name, that is, treat the Lord Himself with reverence.
1. The priests no doubt thought they were giving God the glory because they were saying and doing all the right things in the worship ritual, but their heart was not in it to do it in a way that honored and exalted God.
2. There were three basic duties the priests were to perform: teach the Law of God, burn incense (which was done when priests made intercessory prayer), and make the atoning sacrifices for the people. It looks as if nothing the priests do is being done appropriately or diligently.
3. The first thing they lack is listening (2).
a. The Hebrew verb has the range of meaning “hear, listen, obey.” God’s will regarding priestly duties has been presented numerous times previously, so they have indeed heard. What they lack is to render due honor to God through “setting their heart” toward Him.
b. This idiom, used twice in v.2, occurs four more times in Scripture indicating an attitudinal position of caring about or understanding things of God. The lack of this attitude results in a curse.
4. So God announced He would send a curse on them.
a. The word “curse” essentially means to remove or banish from the place of blessing. In this text God made it clear that He would “curse their blessings.”
b. If God cursed their blessings, it meant that He would render them unfit for ministry, or that they would have no effective ministry even though they might remain in office. In fact, this passage ends with God making them contemptible in the eyes of the people (9).
5. V.3 announces what this curse on the priests will be: a rebuke on their descendants. Because of the sins of these priests, their family line would be stopped from being priests.
a. This happened in the early days of Samuel when God removed Eli and his corrupt sons from the priesthood and chose another line.
b. “Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained” (1 Samuel 2:30)
c. Either the sons of the priests were already as bad as their fathers or they would be put out of ministry because of the sins of their fathers.
B. The second half of the verse is graphically clear. God said to the priests, “I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it” (3b).
1. I really hope this vivid language is figurative—that God will not literally give the priests a “manure makeover!”
2. It’s hyperbole, but also an implied comparison, for they were to be treated the same as the unclean parts of the sacrificed animals.
a. The background of Malachi’s image is that in the ritual the priests would sacrifice the animals, cut out the unclean parts, carry them outside the camp, and burn them.
b. God was saying that since the priests were spiritually unclean they were unfit for the sanctuary, and deserved to be carried out with the dung to the rubbish heap.
c. Their ministry was over!
C. Because God is already full of glory, the only way humans can glorify Him is by extending and expanding the knowledge of God in the world, by causing Him to be seen in everything that we do.
1. If His people sin, or fail to do what God wants them to do in worship and service, we do not glorify Him but give people the wrong impression about God.
2. This is what those priests were doing. They were ruining the understanding that people had of God and of His sanctuary.
>> Which leads us right to our Big Idea today:
II. THOSE WHO TALK GOD’S TALK NEED TO WALK GOD’S WALK.
Question: To whom should we apply this passage?
A. Christ?
1. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, the last scriptural word of God to His people until Christ’s advent.
2. Under the new covenant, Jesus, the high priest, who offered Himself as the final sin sacrifice, fulfilled this office. Hebrews makes clear that because Jesus has become the permanent high priest, the Old Testament priesthood is now obsolete.
3. Christ talked God’s talk and walked God’s walk better than anyone.
B. Ministry leaders?
1. It’s a dirty little secret of church world that there are people in vocational ministry who have no business being there. I may have met a few along the way.
2. James 3:1 addresses this topic: “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Let’s don’t be too quick to hold up the pastorate or missionary work as a career aspiration. We might not be doing that person any favors. It is a serious matter to speak for God. THOSE WHO TALK GOD'S TALK NEED TO WALK GOD'S WALK.
But really, it’s about all of us.
C. All of us:
1. Amazingly, the Bible teaches that you and I are priests. We are set apart to be involved in wonderful worship and sacrificial service.
2. 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
3. John put it this way in Revelation 1:6: “And [Christ] has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father…”
4. Here’s how this passage percolates into our lives today: Every believer is a priest and as such is set apart for worship and service. And, just as priests in the Old Testament were to point people to God, each of us is called to lead others upward today.
III. GOD REMINDS HIS MESSENGERS TO TEACH AND LIVE THE TRUTH (5-7) [READ]
A. The description in 5-6 of what a priest should be simply did not fit the priests of Malachi’s day. “Life and peace,” “reverence,” “true instruction,” and “uprightness” were to be the hallmarks of those serving the people. And in the old days such characteristics were found.
B. The covenant here was between God and Levi, and by implication, his descendants, the priests.
1. Levi was the ancestor of the tribe set apart for sanctuary service (Num. 3-4), of which Aaron and his descendants were specifically designated as priests (Lev. 8). They were a special group in God’s service.
2. The priests, as beneficiaries of the covenant relationship, are again reminded in v.5 that while the covenant is with Levi, it originates with God alone. The covenant consists of “life” given and protected by God, and “peace,” (shalom) wholeness and tranquility granted by God.
3. The two sides of the covenant are depicted here: God from His side gives His blessings (life and peace) and, from the other side, Levi gives appropriate honor (implying obedience) to his Master. As God’s covenant was “with him” so Levi’s walk was “with God.”
4. As a result of Levi’s walk, many (6) completely changed. People turned from their sin or repented of their lifestyle, returning to the position of covenant fellowship they had previously enjoyed.
5. The ideal displayed by Levi is that his descendants, the priests, should live what they speak (7). Their calling is a lofty one. However, their actual behavior was in stark contrast to this ideal. May it not be the case with us.
C. Every year revelers from around the world head to Pamplona, Spain to take part in the running of the bulls glorified by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. The festival, a heady nine-day mix of partying and adrenaline-chasing, draws hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to Pamplona, a city of around 300,000. Fifteen people have been killed in the bull-runs since records began in 1911.
Bill Hillman, a 32-year-old Chicago-based journalist, is an expert on the event. He even co-authored a book subtitled "How to survive the bulls of Pamplona." But on July 3, 2014, just knowing about bull running, even knowing enough to write an instruction manual on bull running, wasn't enough. A 1,320 pound fighting bull named Brevito lagged behind the pack just before entering the city's bull ring at the end of a rain-slicked run in the annual festival. At the opportune time, Brevito gored Hillman inthe right thigh and a 35-year-old Spanish man in the chest. Both men recovered, but the co-author of Hillman's book 's told The New York Times, "We will probably need to update the book."
D. What a great example of practicing what you preach or living what you teach! We teach by our words, but we also teach by our lives.
1. Too often our life undermines our message: “I can’t hear you because I see you.”
2. Jesus notes the same dichotomy between words and actions in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”
3. The messengers of the Lord must know, teach, and obey His word, so that we bring honor to Him and life & peace to the people.
CONCLUSION (BI) WE WHO TALK GOD'S TALK NEED TO WALK GOD'S WALK. That's me, you, and all of us.
Richard S. Halverson, the former U.S. Senate Chaplain, used to challenge people with the following image:
You're going to meet an old man [or woman] someday down the road—ten, thirty, fifty years from now—waiting there for you. You'll be catching up with him [or her]. What kind of old person are you going to meet? He may be seasoned, soft, gracious—one who has grown old gracefully, surrounded by hosts of friends, friends who call them blessed because of what their life has meant to them. Or you may find a bitter, disillusioned, dried-up old buzzard without a good word for anyone—soured, friendless, and alone.
That old man, that old woman, will be you. They'll be the composite of everything you do, say, and think—today and tomorrow. His mind will be set in a mold you have made by your beliefs. Her heart will be turning out what you've been putting into it. Every little thought, every deed goes into this old man or woman.
Every day in every way you are becoming more and more like yourself. Amazing but true. You're beginning to look more like yourself, think more like yourself, and talk more like yourself. You're becoming yourself more and more. If you live only in terms of what you're getting out of life, the old you gets smaller, drier, harder, crabbier, & more self-centered. Open your life to others, think in terms of what you can give, your contribution to life, your God-appointed mission in life, and the old you grows larger, softer, kindlier, and greater.
LET'S WALK GOD'S WALK, AND TALK GOD'S TALK.
