Malachi Sermon - 7

Lars Janssen

Malachi Series • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Malachi: A “Keeping” Problem

Malachi 3:6-12

1. Introduction – A couple disclaimers as we begin this morning. I have preached on this passage before.

a. Back in 2013, we did a series on worship. We took a look at our order for worship and we looked at how each part of service is an act of worship.

i. We don’t simply worship through singing, but through prayer, communion and baptism, through reading God’s Word and through hearing God’s Word preached.

1. And on the week we looked at giving as an act of worship, we studied this passage. We looked at it through the lens of worship. It wasn’t really an expositional message on the passage…

a. We used it more as a jumping off point to see that giving back to God is a vital aspect of our worship to him.

ii. I read that sermon earlier this week and in it I said this about our attitude towards giving.

1. It’s not that you “have” to give…you don’t pay your dues to the church for services rendered.

a. Not I ‘have’ to give…but I ‘get’ to give. God has given me so much that in return I will freely and gladly give back to him what is his anyway.

b. This morning, we’re going to look at Malachi 3:6-12 in its context. We’ll study what it says, means and how it applies to us.

i. We’ll see how Israel wandered, how they were robbing God, and we’ll see God’s solution to their plight.

c. And one more thing before we dive into the text. This section, particularly Malachi 3:10 is a prosperity gospel preacher’s favourite passage.

i. If you’re listening to a preacher and he goes on and on about the storing up of ‘seeds’…

1. If you hear him talk about tithes as ‘deposits’…my recommendation is for you to turn that garbage off and find something else to watch.

a. That kind of nonsense treats God like a vending machine. It teaches people that God is only interested in your finances.

i. It also tries to put God under your control. The prosperity gospel preacher talks about placing deposits in God’s kingdom…and usually ‘deposits’ means large sums of money directed towards their ministry….

1. But the deposits are made so that when you need it – God will pay out in huge sums of money.

ii. Those preachers would do well to read the rest of the book of Malachi -where it speaks harshly and directly to pastors about leading people in to sin.

1. It’s funny how they take a verse from this book – and honestly, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been convicted as a pastor in reading this book – and prosperity preachers completely ignore the warnings directed at those in leadership, and they focus on 1 verse…

a. They rip it from its context and lead people astray.

d. We will NOT do that today. We are going to see how this passage connects with what came before and how it leads us into what follows. Hear the words of God – Malachi 3:6:12.

i. My premise for the morning is this – this section exposes Israel’s (and our) keeping problem.

1. They didn’t keep their end of the covenant with God, and they were keeping too much of their possessions for themselves.

2. Return – Verse 6 acts like a transition verse. It brings to a conclusion the previous section of God’s refining fire – but serves to introduce us to the next section.

a. Why is Israel not consumed by God’s fire? Because God never change. He made a covenant with Abe, Ike, and Jake – with their ancestors…he promised that he would be their God and they would be his people…and God always keeps his promises.

i. However, there’s an interesting comparison used here. God uses the unusual title of “Children of Jacob” in this verse. Why do you think that is?

1. We learned in the early weeks of this study…week 1 or 2…that Jacob means “Heal grabber” and that its Hebrew slang of “swindler’ or ‘cheat’.

a. God is making a statement about his nature…he never changes…

i. But he is also making a statement of the nature of his relationship to his people.

ii. God doesn’t change – but in calling them ‘children of Jacob’ and continuing on in v.7 to talk about the waywardness of previous and the current generation…God in effect is saying…you don’t change either.

1. He relates them to their forefathers, to Jacob, in that they are constantly going their own way, and they are always seeking to something for themselves.

b. But we must continue and press on through the passage, because God makes a pretty incredible statement.

i. Given that he has just told them that, like Jacob, they are swindlers and cheater…

1. God incredibly summons his people back to him. Israel may have tried to de-covenant themselves from God, but god could never do that to his people.

a. Discipline his people…yes. Punish them for sin…absolutely…send them into the promise exile…yep! But break covenant promises…Not a chance.

c. Return – that’s the message of all the prophets boiled down to one word.

i. Return is the OT word for ‘repent. It invites the listener to turn 180 degrees – reversing their direction.

1. Instead of heading towards sin, towards idolatry, towards waywardness, towards acts of robbing god…God’s people are urged to turn towards him and renew their relationship.

d. What’s incredible is that there’s even a renewal clause in their covenant to begin with.

i. A covenant was an ancient contract, usually between 2 countries – a big and powerful one and a small and puny one.

1. A covenant was a series of agreements that each party would have to adhere to otherwise the covenant would be broken.

a. There were covenant promises of both sides – love and cherish, have and to hold…there were blessings for keeping the covenant, and curses for breaking said promises.

i. But between earthly parties there was never a renewal clause…if the covenant promises were broken, all bets were off.

e. And God’s covenant with Israel had all the hallmarks of an ancient covenant – promises, blessings and curses…but there was also a renewal clause.

i. With God and his people, there’s a constant cry of “Come back to me!” “Return!”

1. Here is the gospel of grace, even before Jesus came – God reaching out to his wayward and ungrateful people…calling them back to himself. What a beautiful scene.

f. But again, see how disillusioned Israel was with God. See the nature of their relationship.

i. God calls them wanderers; God makes a heart felt plea for their return…and their response???

1. Who? Us? Why do we need to return? Why do we need to repent? We haven’t gone anywhere!

a. Now, this could be a genuine plea of innocence, but more likely it is resistant question.

i. Like a child who was caught red handed denying his or her actions to a parent…

1. The question was designed to deflect and delay God…

a. And possibly even impute blame to God.

b. Why do we need to repent, we haven’t gone anywhere, but you have!

3. An Open Door – But look at what happens. They ask a question as a stall tactic, but that question actually opens the door for God to point out one glaring sin in the nation.

a. Now this lack of tithes and contributions wasn’t the only sin that Israel was committing, nor was it the most heinous…

i. It was a readily provable sin. The people’s failure to bring a tithe or bring special offerings showed conclusively that they were willing to cheat god out of what he was due.

1. Why do we need to repent? Return? We haven’t done anything wrong – the people say smugly.

a. How should we repent? They ask – and God says – stop robbing from me…that’s how.

b. God says they weren’t brining their tithes and contributions or offerings…What are those?

i. We’ll start with contributions. These were gifts given for a special purpose – given towards a construction project.

1. It was a voluntary gift over and above the regular tithe. It wasn’t compulsory.

c. A tithe on the other hand was a covenant obligation. By saying they weren’t bringing their tithes was God’s way of saying they weren’t holding up their end of the covenant.

i. Because the people were in a covenant relationship with God, they were to bring God a tithe – tithe means ‘tenth.’

1. Specifically, this tithe was levied on agricultural produce, not on other forms of income.

ii. Why a tithe? Well it wasn’t because God needed fresh produce, but the tithing law was designed to perpetually remind God’s people that everything they had was a gift that came from God.

1. The people of Israel were always God’s tenants – enjoying the use and benefits of the Promised Land.

a. As such, Israel was required to return a tithe of the produce of the land to God – the God who freed them from slavery in Egypt.

d. The tithe is rather modest when compared to other taxes levied. In Genesis, Pharaoh levied a 20% tax on the people in preparation for the famine and the average tax at the time was 33%.

i. The tithe in Israel was compulsory giving – a recognition that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.

1. And because they were stewards of the land – they were to give back to God what he had given to them.

e. Why? What was the tithe used for? The OT lays out 3 uses for the tithe.

i. First – the tithe was used to support the full-time ministry of the priests and Levites…in return for the service they provide.

1. Remember, unlike all the other tribes, the tribe of Levi didn’t own an allotment of land. They were the temple workers.

a. They couldn’t and didn’t grow their own crops to eat.

i. They worked in the temple, so the other tribes would provide for them – bringing a tithe to the temple so the Levites could eat.

1. The Levites would then take a tithe from that tithe and give it to the priests.

ii. Secondly, the tithe was use to provide relief for the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow.

1. Benevolence was the second use. Providing for those who couldn’t provide for themselves.

iii. And the third use was this – the tithe was used as a feast for God’s people in God’s presence.

1. Every 3 years when the tithe was brought to the temple, the food would be cooked up and served up and the people would eat together as an act of thankfulness.

f. But none of that was happening. Tithes – whole tithes – weren’t being brought in.

i. So, the priests and Levites could no longer serve full time at the temple, they had to go work the land to provide for themselves and their families…so temple duties were neglected.

1. The whole tithe wasn’t being brought in so the widow, orphan and sojourner were falling through the societal cracks.

a. There was no celebratory meal in God’s presence with God’s people.

i. They weren’t bringing their compulsory tithe, or their voluntary offerings…and the temple was falling in to disrepair.

g. As we’ve seen in previous weeks, Israel was experiencing hardships. Economic hardship – it was hard being a small province in the huge Persian empire.

i. And their reaction to such hardship was to tighten their grip on their possessions. Close up the wallet and become stingy…even in given to God.

1. But have you ever noticed that God’s ways are backwards from natural human inclinations?

a. Think about it – if you want to be first…be last. If you want to lead, but a servant.

i. If you want to live, die to yourself, take up and instrument of death and follow Jesus.

h. Well, even in Malachi, we see the backwards ways of God. What’s God solution to the economic hardship of his people?

i. Well, it’s not what they were doing. They were cinching up the purse strings, holding tighter to their possessions…and God says when they do that, they are actually robbing from the very mechanism designed to relieve their poverty.

1. They are experiencing covenant curses because they are breaking their covenant obligations.

i. God’s solution to their economic hardship…give more! He says, “Bring the WHOLE tithe” which suggests that they were bringing party of…but God says bring the full tenth.

i. In economically hard times – open the wallet, crack open the cheque book. Don’t clench your first, open it up and loosen your grip on your possessions.

j. God says, “Test me on this!” Now, generally speaking, testing God is NOT a good idea. But there’s a difference between faithless and faithful testing.

i. Faithless testing requires God to make the first move, it delays obedience and seeks to make the Master our servant.

1. It depersonalizes God and turns him into a vending machine.

ii. Faithful testing reflects a truly reciprocal relationship.

1. Faithful testing puts the onus on humans to make the first move – embracing obedience to God’s call even if it seems counter intuitive or foolish.

a. When faced to economic hardships, don’t keep more…God says, give more away, and then see how God will move and work.

4. Us Today – I said that the beginning that this passage exposing Israel’s keeping problem.

a. They weren’t keeping their end of the covenant, and they were keeping too much for themselves.

i. And if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that we too have a keeping problem.

1. As the hymn says – we are prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

ii. But isn’t it reassuring to know that there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love?

1. That if we are truly in Christ, there’s nothing we can do to make ourselves out of Christ.

a. Isn’t it reassuring to know God will always welcome us back – running out to us with open arms?

i. Even when we have trouble keeping our end of the covenant, it’s a reassuring to know that God doesn’t.

b. And often we also have a keeping problem in relation to our possessions.

i. I’m not going turn this sermon into a telethon and stand up here and plead for more money. This passage is about so much more than dollars and cents.

ii. But I do want us to examine our use of our time, money and possessions.

1. Let’s use the 3 criteria mentioned earlier, because these 3 items are still concerns in God’s kingdom.

a. Are you supporting the ministry of the local church? The minister of the local church?

iii. Are you using your possessions to relive poverty? Are you showing hospitality by opening our homes to one another? Sharing with others who are in need and giving to others what God has given to you?

c. God’s call to give more in the face of hardship radically decenters our stuff from its prime place in our hearts.

i. It reminds us that we are more than what we own or what we wear. It reminds us that our stuff is not our God… that money doesn’t bring joy or life.

d. We examined a keeping problem this morning – not keeping a covenant, and keeping too much for ourselves.

i. Let this be a reminder to us that we need to be faithful to God because he is always faithful to us…

1. And we need to be thankful and generous with however much or however little God has given us, recognizing that it’s all his anyway.