Sermon Notes on Malachi 1

Piper:

Malachi prophesied around 450 BC in Israel. He was one of the last inspired prophets before the 400- year lull in divine revelation between the Old Testament and Jesus Christ.

The Israelites had returned from the Babylonian exile. Jerusalem had been rebuilt, and the temple restored.

But the people had not learned there lesson from the exile. They had grown sceptical of God's love (1:2), careless in worship (1:7), indifferent to the truth (2:6-7), disobedient to the covenant (2:10), faithless in their marriages (2:15; 3:5), and stingy in their offerings

(3:8).

1 The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

Whenever “oracle” is used to designate a prophetic utterance, it always is an utterance that is threatening and condemnatory in character. T. V. Moore describes the threatening nature of such oracles: “Like some dark cloud, heavy with its pent-up fury, these prophecies are surcharged with the wrath of God, and hang ready to pour their dreadful contents on those against whom they are directed.”

To this carnal and rebellious people God sent his messenger (Malachi means "my messenger"), and the first message he put on his lips was, "I have loved you, says the Lord!"

The unrequited love of God

1Jn 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.

The Hebrew tense marks continuity. It does not look back only, but around and on, and I think may be rendered more accurately as, “I have loved, I do love, I will love you,” says the Lord . . .

Morgan: love that does not alter when it alteration finds.

People who lost the plot

They were going through the motions

Had been some 50 to 100 years since their return to Jerusalem

People were disheartened --- still under persecution from neighbours

There was doubt and scepticism

Deut. 4:37, 7:7,8 , 23:5 Jer 31:1-6

They needed to get back to God’s word

How easy it is for us to forget- to forget the loving-kindness of God

God stayed consistent- even to his statement of Edom

Was there a reason for this laze a fare attitude toward God?

Lost spiritual vision lost sight of who God is

Like people – like priests Hosea 4:7 - 11

Leaders who lost the plot

Vs 6 no longer honoured God

They despised God by their actions

How often can we say we honour God by our mouth but dishonour Him by our actions James 2:14-18

As a spiritual leader I have to consider this regularly. Do I want people to follow because of only what I say?

The leader is to be an example! Leaders are always trying to do the right things biblically.

Vss. 7,8 give a condemning word to the leaders, the priests

Remember what was to be offered

Lev 2:1 3:1 4:3 Deut 15:21

God’s statement:

Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD

Because the priest or leader is to be an example it was something then to be followed. If the leader doesn’t have it right the people won’t.

Would we give to our bosses the same as we would give to God?

How do we get the right perspective in all of this?

Regaining the spiritual vision

The priests needed to not only get back into God’s word - they needed to believe it, they needed to teach it!

Malachi uses the phrase Lord of Host’s

Fear of the Lord means “reverent submission that leads to obedience”

This reverence has to do with His holiness

Holiness is not one of many attributes of God. It is his essential nature and seen in all his qualities.

His wisdom is a holy wisdom.

His beauty a holy beauty.

His majesty, a holy majesty.

His holiness “adds glory, lustre and harmony to all his other perfections.”[1]

“TO whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. (Isa. 40:25)

Your ways, 0 God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?

(Ps. 77:13)

For I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you. (Hos. 11:9)

Some have called this “otherness,” this holiness, of God his transcendence. God is exalted above his people.

He lives in a high and lofty place (Isa. 57:15).

His judgment and mercy are above us, they are ultimately incomprehensible. As a result, we don’t use a reigning king or queen as our template for knowing God. To say that the Holy God reigns makes it impossible to use earthly kings as the model. The Holy God is unique, greater, and of a different kind than earthly kings. The Holy God is the original; the most glorious of earthly kings are only a dim reflection.

To make the holiness of God even more awesome, the transcendent God has come close to us. It would be one thing to know that God was gloriously transcendent and entirely separate from his creation. In such a situation we could become accustomed to his lack of intervention in human affairs, and for practical purposes we could become our own gods. But our God is also the Immanent One who has revealed himself and become like us. He said, “I will be your God and you will be my people” (Lev. 26:12).

He is near us. He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).

He is so close he calls us “friends” (John 15:14).

He is so close, the Scripture talks about Christ in you (Col. 1:27).

Consider the words of Isaiah 6:1,2

The awesomeness of worship but listen to what follows in verse 3

They called out to each other: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The thrice-holy magnifies the holiness of God. Each “holy” intensifies the one before it.

Edward Welch has a great application of this for us in his recounting a day with his daughter.

My daughter taught me about the power of such repetition. One afternoon I was working in my study at home. When I’m there, I prefer not to be interrupted. It is an unwritten and unspoken guideline, but I have probably been grumpy when interrupted in the past, so my daughters usually leave me alone. But this particular afternoon, Lisa really wanted to play with me. She asked me when I would be done, and then hung around, looking over my shoulder, hoping it would be soon. Such temptation was too much for me, so I took the afternoon off and played with her. It meant I bad to work that evening, but it was worth it.

Before she went to bed she slipped a note into my hand.

Dear Daddy, I love you so, so, so, so, so, so . . . so much. Love Lisa

For two pages she repeated “so.”

She didn’t have the vocabulary to say “exceedingly” or the poetic ability to use a rich metaphor. If she had, the letter would have been less powerful. Instead, every “so” intensified the “so” before it. She was saying that it was impossible for her to love me more than she

did.

This is how I learned to take notice of “Holy, holy, holy.”

Isaiah did what anybody would do. He cried out, “Woe to me!” He was certain that he would die. He was unclean, and he was in the presence of the Holy One of Israel who had punished Uzziah with leprosy.

If you have ever walked among giant redwoods, you will never be overwhelmed by the size of a dogwood tree. Or if you have been through a hurricane, a spring rain is nothing to fear. If you have been in the presence of the almighty God, everything that once controlled you suddenly has less power.

Are we living in light of this or still willing to give God our seconds

Priority is our tension

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[1] 1 John M’Clintock and James Strong, “Holiness,” Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and EcclesiasticalLiterature (New York: Harper, 1872), 4:298.