Last week, we saw in chapter 1 that God was rebuking all of Israel. For denying God's love for them. For refusing to honor and respect Him. For presenting corrupted sacrifices on the altar. For despising and defiling God.
Now the Lord focuses in on the priests specifically, saying,
Mal. 2:1 "And now, this commandment is for you, O priests."
They are told to listen and take to heart what God told the people in chapter one. How could they take it to heart? In one way, by refusing sacrifices brought that were lame, blind, sick, stolen, or defective.
They were also told to give honor to God's name. How can we honor the name of God? The word honor there is "kabod", which means abundance, honor, glory. It comes from a root word meaning "heavy or weighty". To honor God's name means to give it weightiness.
Many people dishonor the name of God by vainly prophesying in His name. Saying, "Thus saith the Lord," when the Lord has not spoken. That shows dishonor to the name of God, using it like a stamp of approval on our flesh. Not giving proper weight to the divine name.
Other people dishonor the name of God by using it as a curse word. They blaspheme God using His own name. They fail to honor God's name by esteeming its kabod, its weightiness.
If the priests refuse to listen and take these things to heart, if they refuse to honor the name of God, then God promises to curse them. In Deuteronomy, we read that
Deut. 10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day.
They were to speak the benediction, the blessing, upon God's people. God would hear their blessing, and bless the people.
Num. 6:22-27 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: "The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace."' So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them."
So the ministers of God are commanded to bless His people, not only physically, but verbally, speaking blessing over them. There is a supernatural link to God's blessings when they do this, even to this day.
But because they were not esteeming the name of God, and were not taking these things to heart, God says, "I've cursed your blessings already."
God will curse those priests who do not honor His name...
Mal. 2:4 "...That My covenant may continue with Levi"
What was God's covenant with Levi? "The covenant with Levi was the election of that tribe to be the ministers of the sanctuary." (Deane) Levi had been singled out for their response in Exodus 32, when the Israelites had made an idol - a golden calf.
Exod. 32:25-26 Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control - for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies - then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.
So the Levites were chosen to be the ministers of the Lord.
The covenant, God says, was one of life and peace. This is what God desires for all of our lives - life and peace. Somehow, we usually seem to choose the way of death and stress, but that is not as the Lord would have it. The book of Romans says,
Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace
God had given life and peace to the Levites, supernaturally separating them and protecting them:
Deut. 33:11 "O LORD, bless his substance, And accept the work of his hands; Shatter the loins of those who rise up against him, And those who hate him, so that they may not rise again."
These supernatural blessings of life and peace caused the Levites to revere, fear, and glorify God. The tribe of Levi stood in awe of God for His great blessings upon them.
Originally, the tribe of Levi had been faithful to instruct the people in the ways of the Lord. They spoke the truth from God's Word. They drew near to the Lord in peace and uprightness. And their instruction turned many of the Israelites from their sin to honor the Lord.
God says, "all these things that Levi once was is what a priest should still be."
2Pet. 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
The lips of a priest should preserve that knowledge. Those in the priesthood must above all treasure the Word of God, for it is only the Scriptures that will fulfill people. It is only the Bible in which they will find everything that they need for their lives.
People should be able to seek instruction from the mouth of the priest. If there is nothing instructing coming from his mouth, he is not performing his duty, because he is assigned as a messenger of the Lord.
So God has described what the Levites were supposed to be, and what they had been previously. But the priests of Malachi's day had made a 180-degree turnaround from their ancestors.
Instead of turning many back from iniquity and giving men proper godly instruction, these priests had caused many to stumble by their instruction.
God is a very serious Father. And when you mess with His children, you're walking on thin ice. Jesus said in Matthew 18,
Matt. 18:6-7 "but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!"
They were causing the people to stumble by improperly instructing the people. They had deviated from the pure Word of God. Whenever you turn aside from the narrow path of the true Word, it is only a matter of time before you will stumble and fall.
God says that they are not keeping His ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction. When you show partiality, it means that you are being biased, prejudiced, you're singling out certain ones. They were doing that in the instruction.
A woman once told me that her pastor used his sermons to blast whoever he was angry at or disappointed with. Often before service, he would walk up to her and say, "You listen good this morning, because this sermon is just for you!"
What a horrible abuse of the ministry that God has given! To show partiality in the teaching ministry, whether positive or negative, is a sin.
That is what I love about teaching through the Bible. This week's instruction is already there, it is already written. My job is to merely make it understandable and applicable to everyone. There is no room for me to pick and choose, thinking, "I know that two people in the church are struggling with a certain sin, so I'm going to preach against it this Sunday! This person has made me angry, so I'm going to preach against them this Thursday night!"
I can trust the Lord that whatever is in the Word on Sunday morning or Thursday night is what He is desiring for you to hear, not what I in my limited wisdom would choose for you to hear.
The priests in Malachi's day had brought judgment to themselves because they had left the Word of God, and were showing partiality in their instruction.
Now Malachi begins to use the wide angle lens again, focusing on all the people.
Since returning from the Babylonian captivity, the Israelites had strayed from many of the commandments of God. One of these was the mixed marriages that He had forbidden for the children of Israel.
Some have taken this to mean that a black person should not marry a white person, or an Indian should not marry an Oriental. But what God is forbidding is marrying the daughter of a foreign god - someone with a different god, with a different religion.
Amos 3 asks, "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Paul wrote,
2Cor. 6:14-15 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
And Nehemiah told the Jews,
Neh. 13:27 "...You have committed all this great evil by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women"
Even great King Solomon suffered for disobeying this command.
1Kgs. 11:4 For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
If you marry an unbeliever, someone who follows after a different God than you do, your marriage will be a shambles. You will never experience the oneness that God intended for marriage - that beautiful fellowship and unity that two children of God can have in a marriage.
So the Israelites in Malachi's time had begun a sinful trend. They were divorcing their wives and marrying younger, more beautiful women from the pagan cultures around them.
When a Jew did this abominable thing - divorcing his wife to marry a pagan woman, God cut him off. He no longer accepted that man's sacrifices upon His altar.
They knew that God had stopped blessing them, that He did not regard their sacrifices. So they would cry out to the Lord and say, "Oh God! Why have you forsaken my offering?"
God's response is that it is because they have dealt treacherously with their wives. "You made a lasting covenant with her when you married. 'Till death do us part. And yet you broke that covenant for another woman - and a pagan idolater at that! Since you have disregarded your covenant with your wife, I am disregarding your covenant with me."
The Lord becomes a witness against you for your treachery. Weep all you want, but you've been cut off.
Remember that this was the last prophet that God had spoken to them until New Testament times. And yet many of them had not taken heed of this warning. A predominant teaching among the Jews of Jesus' day was that you could divorce your wife for any old thing at all.
But when asked about this, Jesus made it clear:
Matt. 5:32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Divorce is only allowed in the case of adultery - marital unfaithfulness. And that provision was only made because of the hardness of our hearts. The apostle Paul also said that divorce was okay in the case of an unbelieving spouse abandoning a believing spouse. Other than those two things, there is never a Biblical excuse or approval of divorce.
"Man is basically good." "All roads lead to God." "God loves everyone." These expressions sound nice, but they are all lies. The Lord says that He is wearied by these words.
They might seem true, because God hasn't made a habit of striking down people with lightning bolts. So the question is asked, "Where is the God of justice?"
2Pet. 3:3-10 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
God is patient, but not tolerant. He does not tolerate sin. Man is not basically good, and all roads don't lead to God. God will judge sinners. Next week, we will read of the Messenger, the one who was prophesied to take sinners' judgment upon Himself.