The Danger Of Selective Hearing Series

Jexit: Judah Comes Home

Not Cheap Grace

Malachi 1:6-2:9

Our church community is making our way through a series of sermons under the generic name of Jexit. We are focussing on the people of Judah who have exited Babylon and come back to Judah. As we come towards the end of the series … which we will get to next week … our focus is now on the book of Malachi. Malachi is interesting in the sense that, unlike all of the other books that we've looked at, there's no specific date in the book of Malachi.

We know definitely it was after the exile.

We also know that the other prophets, particularly Haggai and Zechariah, are mentioned by Ezra and Nehemiah. But Malachi is never spoken of by Ezra or Nehemiah.

So the general consensus is that, historically, Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament in terms of the timing of the book. It's the last word that God speaks to the Old Testament era. We can’t be exact but a rough date is 430-400 BC.

After this book there will be 400 years where there is no Scripture.

No word.

No prophetic insight into the people of God.

There are other books which give us an historical idea, but they're not included in the Scriptures – at least not in the Protestant Scriptures.

So the book of Malachi then becomes this last picture of what is going on in the life of the people after they have returned from exile.

So let’s turn to the last book. As we do so I am just going to read a series of verses.

‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. ‘But you ask, “How have you loved us?”

Malachi 1:2

‘A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘It is you priests who show contempt for my name. ‘But you ask, “How have we shown contempt for your name?”

Malachi 1:6

You have wearied the Lord with your words. ‘How have we wearied him?’ you ask.

Malachi 2:17

Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.

‘But you ask, “How are we to return?”

Malachi 3:7

‘You have spoken arrogantly against me,’ says the Lord. ‘Yet you ask, “What have we said against you?”

Malachi 3:13

When we read these verses it feels like a conversation that you might have with a three-year-old child. No matter what you say they just keep asking questions, “why?”. In this case the three-year-olds are actually God’s people.

God is telling them what is happening, or what he is doing, and they keep asking “why”?

We want you to be more specific.

We don't see what you're saying.

So as we get to the end of the Old Testament you get the sense that the people are quite resistant. They are in a confrontational and questioning mood. So God keeps on persisting with his people.

If nothing else Malachi is a reminder that despite the rebellious hearts of the people.

Despite their questioning.

God continues to speak.

That's what he does right through the book of Malachi.

But the other side of the story is this:-

The more God speaks the more apathetic the people become. There's this growing gap between what God thinks and what God is saying … and what the people think and what the people are saying.

We could outline the whole book of Malachi along these lines. Indeed if we wanted to have a sermon series on Malachi you would make a sermon series around those questions.

But we're not going to do that.

We're just going to focus on two sections - one this week and one next week.

But what we are going to is this growing apathy and half-hearted spirituality.

The people are not really committed to the Lord. But they're not really against him either.

God doesn’t talk about worshipping false gods and idols, so it's not like they're in complete rebellion. But they're not really engaged either.

They are on the middle road. Which is a dangerous place to be.

What we're going to see is that being in this spiritually neutral place means we're not really spiritually switched on, but we also don’t see the rebellious intent.

With that background in mind let’s read Malachi 1:6-2:9 (read)

This is terrible isn’t it.

The very reason that God sent them into exile in the first place was because of these actions and attitudes.

Now, after all that has happened, and the return and restoration the closing book of the Old Testament is using almost the same language as God was speaking to the people before he sent them into exile.