Sermon Tone Analysis
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We are on our last stop in the minor prophets: Malachi.
There is debate as to whether the word Malachi is a proper name or a reference to an unnamed prophet.
Malachi only shows up here in this book.
The name means “my messenger,” leading some to support the idea that Malachi is not a proper name, but a title of an unnamed prophet.
Structurally, the way the name is written in Hebrew, it is a title rather than a name.
There is an ancient Aramaic translation and paraphrase of the Old Testament called the Targum that attributes the book to Ezra.
The word Malachi also appears in 3:1 as my messenger and not the proper name.
Malachi introduces itself differently that Zechariah, a book written around the same time period.
These are all reasons some conclude Malachi is not the name of the prophet, but a title.
If this is true, it would make Malachi the only prophetic book in the Old Testament written anonymously, which is unlikely.
What we do know is that the book is written during the time Israel had returned to the land after their exile.
So they were exiled in 586 BC to Babylon, and Babylon was conquered by Persia.
God then used the Persians to allow Israel to return to their homeland and rebuild.
You can read the accounts of this in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
As we read through Malachi, we see him address some of the same issues as Nehemiah.
Though Israel had spent 70 years in exile for their sins against God, it looked like the next generation was making some of the same mistakes.
God has demonstrated his love for us.
The opening of this book shows God making a claim about himself before he brings an accusation against his people.
In verse two he says, “I have loved you,” but the people don’t believe it.
They reply, “How have you loved us?”
What doesn’t happen here is the people present reasons God hasn’t loved them.
So why do the people not believe God when he says that he has loved them?
It has been quite some time since the first group returned home.
The temple has been rebuilt and the priesthood was restored, but the nation was facing some challenges where expectations did not meet reality.
It is estimated that this time period is about 100 years after the first group returned.
Their kingdom had not been restored, they were still under Persian rule, and they were facing economic hardship.
Perhaps they were feeling abandoned by God because things were not where they though they would be.
So maybe they were buying into the lie that God didn’t love them.
Israel was living in a season of waiting on God to fulfill his promises.
When God takes longer to do what we expect him to do, the seeds of doubt are planted in our minds.
If we are not careful, those seeds take root and we begin to believe the lies.
God reminded Israel of his love for them by looking to their past.
He reminded them of how he thoroughly punished Edom.
It is difficult to determine which event he is referring to, because we have references to Edom’s destruction in Obadiah, Jer.
49, and Ezek.
35.
Edom was the nation founded by Jacob’s brother Esau.
We read the statement of how God has loved Jacob but hated Esau, and we think, how can that be?
Doesn’t God love everybody?
The answer is yes.
So why does God hate Esau?
The Hebrew word for hate here carries with it the idea of rejection.
We look back to Genesis 25:19-26 and see how God sovereignly chose Jacob to inherit the covenantal promises of God though Esau was the firstborn.
Therefore, Edom does not share in the covenant relationship with God that Israel has.
Edom was also nasty to their brother and God judged them for it.
Edom is done for.
Those who bless you, I will bless.
Those who curse you, I will curse.
This was God’s promise to Abraham.
God’s punishment of Esau was his demonstration of his covenantal love for Israel.
Do you ever doubt the love God has for you?
Do you ever come to church or talk to a friend and hear all about how God loves you, and you say to yourself, “Yeah, right.
How has God loved me?”
The secret to seeing how God has loved you is by looking to the past.
Hasn’t there been a time in your life where you know God showed his love for you?
Maybe it was carrying you through a difficult loss.
Maybe it was sustaining you through hard financial times.
Maybe it was helping you overcome self-esteem issues.
Maybe it was simply helping you feel his closeness in a great time of need.
God shows his love for us in those ways and so much more, but:
God loved us when we didn’t love him.
He loved us by sending his Son to defeat our greatest enemies: death and the devil himself.
The chains of sin no longer hold us.
The freedom we have in Christ is the basis of our new existence.
Every week we get the privilege to proclaim together that we are free from the power of sin and death because God has already demonstrated his love for us.
We demonstrate love for God through proper worship.
God compares himself to a father and a master who has received no honor or respect.
Israel asks how they have dishonored or disrespected him.
Here, God brings the charge against his people.
As we read through this account, we discover the priests were lax in their approach to offering sacrifices.
The sacrificial laws in Leviticus were very clear.
Animal sacrifices were to be unblemished male one-year old’s.
But the priests were sacrificing the blind, the lame, and the sick.
They weren’t doing this because because there were no qualified animals.
They were keeping them for themselves and offering junk instead.
What they were offering was not what the Lord had prescribed.
Therefore, it had no value.
There is an intense probing question in verse 8.
You wouldn’t serve that to your governor, would you?
If it’s not good enough for him, then it surely isn’t good enough for God.
Yet the sacrifices they were offering showed their contempt for the Lord.
God is so disgusted by their worthless sacrifices that it would be better for them to close the doors than keep doing what they are doing.
He says that he will not accept an offering from them.
Yet everywhere at all times, his name will be magnified.
The people in verse 13 say it is tiresome to do what the Lord has required.
So they took shortcuts.
They took what was taken by robbery, the lame, or the sick and offered that instead of what they should have.
But look at verse fourteen.
This is not about them not having it.
They do have it, but they refuse to give it over to him.
That is the point here.
They had what they needed to worship the Lord wholeheartedly, but they refused to do so.
They chose to love with leftovers instead of love with the best of what they had.
We are supposed to be in a love relationship with God.
But when we fail to give him the care and attention he deserves, we begin to love him with leftovers.
And we seem fine with this.
Everything else begins to rise in the ranks of our priorities.
But if we take the same concept and apply it to the other relationships in our lives, what effect would it have?
Does your spouse get the best of you, or do you love him or her with your leftovers?
Do you give the very best of you to your children, or do you love them with your leftovers?
How about your family?
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