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THE MINOR PROPHETS

God's Mechanic: MALACHI

Historical Context

            The final book of the Old Testament - the name Malachi in Hebrew simply meant “messenger,” which points to Malachi’s role as a prophet of the Lord, delivering God’s message to God’s people. There is no other identifying information about him, leaving out markers typical of other prophets such as his father’s name or the current leader of Israel.

However, based on the content of the book, it becomes clear that Malachi delivered his message of judgment to a Judean audience familiar with worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem (2:11). The people of Judah had turned away from the true worship of the Lord, leaving themselves under judgment and in need of salvation.

            The historical setting for the book is given (roughly) in Malachi 1:8. Here the prophet used the Persian word for governor, indicating a time period between 538–333 BC, when the Persian Empire ruled the Promised Land. Malachi also wrote about the corruption of the temple sacrifices, meaning that he likely delivered his message many years after the Israelites rebuilt the temple in 515 BC. The prophet’s concerns mirror those of Nehemiah’s, suggesting that Malachi prophesied to the people while Nehemiah left the city for several years, beginning in 432 BC (Nehemiah 13:6).

Message/Theme/Audience

            Though the temple had been rebuilt, the fervor of those early returning Israelites gave way to a thorough apathy for the things of God. This led to rampant corruption among the priesthood and a spiritual lethargy among the people. Malachi came along at a time when the people were struggling to believe that God loved them (1:2). The people focused on their unfortunate circumstances and refused to account for their own sinful deeds. So God pointed the finger back at them, and through Malachi, God told the people where they had fallen short of their covenant with Him. If they hoped to see changes, they needed to take responsibility for their own actions and serve God faithfully according to the promise their fathers had made to God on Mount Sinai all those years before.

            Malachi’s convictions about idolatry (2:10–12), easy divorce (2:13–16), and social injustice (3:5) suggest he is a man of commitment and integrity. He was also a man of courage, because he scolded the influential priestly class and social elites (1:1–14; 2:1–4; 3:2–4). Malachi calls Israel to repent in order to renew their covenant with God (1:2–5; 3:7). This will enable the priests and people of God to restore proper temple worship (1:10–14; 3:9–10) and practice social justice within the community (3:5).

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2019

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Words of Greeting: Matthew 3:1-6

One: In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

All: This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

One: John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

All: People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

As Christians we have been taught right from wrong.  Not only that, we have a responsibility to teach others. When we sin, we will be held accountable on both these levels - as were the Children of God in Malachi's time: 

Prayer of Confession: Malachi 2:7-8, 10

One: "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty. But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi," says the Lord Almighty.

All: Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

    (Silent Prayer and Reflection)

To be forgiven - what does it feel like? For we are promised God's mercy if we turn to God.  Here is an image that the prophet Micah paints for us...

Assurance of Pardon: Malachi 4:2

One: "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." Friends, believe the good news of the Gospel!

All: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

Scripture Reading                                                   Malachi 1:11-14

Scripture Reading                                                     Malachi 3:7-12

The Minor Prophets: Malachi          "Open the Floodgates"

Malachi 3:7-12

7Ever since the time of your forefathers

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?'

8"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.

"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In

tithes and offerings.

9You are under a curse-the whole nation

of you-because you are robbing me.

10Bring the whole tithe into the

storehouse, that there may be food in

my house. Test me in this," says the

Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw

open the floodgates of heaven and pour

out so much blessing that you will not

have room enough for it.

11I will prevent pests from devouring

your crops, and the vines in your fields

will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty.

12"Then all the nations will call you

blessed, for yours will be a delightful

land," says the Lord Almighty.

Malachi 1:11-14

11My name will be great among the

nations, from the rising to the setting of

the sun. In every place incense and

pure offerings will be brought to my

name, because my name will be great

among the nations," says the Lord Almighty.

12"But you profane it by saying of the

Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food,

'It is contemptible.'

13And you say, 'What a burden!' and you

sniff at it contemptuously," says the Lord

Almighty. "When you bring injured,

crippled or diseased animals and offer

them as sacrifices, should I accept them

from your hands?" says the Lord .

14"Cursed is the cheat who has an

acceptable male in his flock and vows to

give it, but then sacrifices a blemished

animal to the Lord. For I am a great

king," says the Lord Almighty, "and my

name is to be feared among the nations.

Preaching points for the day

December 8, 2019 - Malachi

·         Scripture: Malachi 3:7-12 and 1:11-14

·         Message/Theme: Robbing God (or would you choose to be blessed instead)

Introduction

Oh you better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout

I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list

And checking it twice;

Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice

Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping

He knows when you're awake

He knows if you've been bad or good

So be good for goodness…

·         Donald Miller (Searching for God Knows What) and the death of Santa for him... randomly running into Santa in the Men's bathroom as a child (nothing inappropriate at all - but made him very human... and he didn't wash his hands)...

·         Miller says that believing God is someone he is not 1)wrecks your life and 2) makes God look like an idiot.

·         Many people think of God like Santa: to interact with Santa did not require an intimate interaction... he just came and went, Santa like God was very black and white... you either made the list or you did not... if you did not it was because you were bad, Santa like God brought presents if you were good. 

Malachi has to overcome some misconceptions about God.  He is our spiritual mechanic to 

fix our relationship with God where it is broken... He has to fix how the Children of God 

thought of God and fix how they perceived God thought of them.

I) Malachi: Date, Name, Style

·         According to every canonical tradition Malachi is the last of the prophets in the 

“scroll of the Twelve,” that is, the 12 minor prophets. This suggests, among other things, 

that his book was written last and provided a fitting climax to the whole prophetic collection

 by its collocation of the old and the new—the prophet Moses with the law and the prophet

Elijah with the promise. Its location at the very end of the Christian canon enhances this 

climactic element all the more.

·         Malachi appeared on the scene at a time when the euphoria of the postexilic 

Jewish community following the rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of social 

and political life was beginning to give way to cynicism in both the sacred and secular 

arenas. The priests had begun to become corrupt in their official capacities as well as 

their private lives; the people had mingled themselves with the pagans around them by 

undertaking illicit marriages and pandering to false religious systems; and the nation as a 

whole had lost the ardor of messianic, eschatological hope, focusing its attention on the 

mundane necessities and pleasures of the here and now.

II) Literary Style

·         His Hebrew is clear and forceful and direct; sometimes almost rhythmical. His statements are bold and correspondingly effective. The most original feature in his style is the lecture-like method which characterizes his book throughout; more particularly that of question and answer. His style is that of the scribes. It is known as the didactic-dialectic method, consisting first of an assertion or charge, then a fancied objection raised by his hearers, and finally the prophet's refutation of their objection.

·         At least 7 distinct examples of this peculiarity are to be found in his book, each one containing the same clause in Hebrew, "But you say" (1:2,6,7; 2:14,17; 3:7,8,13).

·         Elie Weisel, the Jewish writer and Nobel Prize winner, recalled a childhood story. When he was a boy, his mother would greet him every day when he returned from school. Every day she would ask him the same question. She did not ask, "What did you do today?" or "Whom did you talk to today?" or even "What did you learn today?" She would ask, "Did you have a good question today?"

·         Malachi had some good questions for his day. How has God loved us? (1:2) "Has not one God created us?" (2:10) "Where is the God of justice?" (2:17) How shall we return to God? (3:7) Malachi poses twenty-two questions in just fifty-five verses.

·         Our first reading today was question/answer #2

·         Our second reading today was question/answer #6

III) The Purification of the People.

·         In verses 2-3, the prophet describes the Lord's coming as like the refiner's fire, whose purpose is to remove impurities and strengthen the substance being refined. John Calvin wrote this about the refiner's fire: "The power of the fire, we know, is twofold: for it burns and it purifies; it burns what is corrupt; but it purifies gold and silver from their dross."

·         The refiner's fire has made a number of appearances in theological discourse over time. What is it that stands in need of purification? And what will be consumed by flames in the process? After purification, what is it that God reckons as precious metal? Calvin thought that the refiner's fire would serve to correct the corruption not only of the people, but of the Levitical priests also: "Such then was the contagion, that not only the common people became corrupt, but even the Levites themselves, who ought to have been guides to others, and who were to be in the Church as it were the pattern of holiness. God however promises that such would be the purifying which Christ would effect, and so regulated, that it would consume the whole people, and yet purify the elect, and purify them like silver, that they may be saved."

·         Purification, in addition to the removal of impurities. When silver is refined, it is treated with carbon or charcoal, preventing the absorption of oxygen and resulting in its sheen and purity. One writer has suggested that a silversmith knows that the refining process is complete only when she observes her "own image reflected in the mirror-like surface of the metal"

IV) Covenant and Divorce

·         All the prophets refer to Covenant

·         Think especially of Hosea - use of the marriage image to describe personal 

relationship

·         Ezra seemed for Divorce, Malachi against it... but these aren't mixed messages.  

·         Malachi and Ezra are addressing two totally different kinds of marriage and divorce. 

Malachi, in the course of chastising his brethren for the mixed marriages, implies that 

these marriages have come about at the cost of divorcing their own Jewish wives. It is 

this divorce that prompts YHWH to say, “I hate divorce.” One cannot deduce from this 

statement that a universal principle is being articulated. To the contrary, the word of 

YHWH here is limited to the horrible travesty of covenant-breaking expressed by the 

breakup of Jewish marriages. YHWH has no word here beyond that. Ezra, on the other 

hand, speaks not specifically to the problem of Jewish divorce that made illicit 

intermarriage possible, but to that mixed marriage itself. His thrust is exclusively that 

those who have entered those kinds of marriages must terminate them. There is thus 

no real contradiction at all. YHWH hates divorce between His covenant people but, in 

Ezra’s situation at least, demands it when it involves a bonding between His people 

and the pagan world. 

Just how personal Covenant is...

·         Miller's story about the husband overhearing his wife's indiscretions and being 

taken aback...  absolutely personal!  so is sin....

The sixth Didactic/Dialectical Answer/Question reading...

VI) Robbing God

·         The use of sacrifice was an integral element of Israelite worship. God prescribed animal offerings to be pure and blameless, representing the pure intention of the worshiper’s heart. The Israelites did not always adhere to these instructions, and in the book of Malachi we see God’s displeasure with their sacrifices.

·         Instead of giving God their best, they profaned the Lord’s table by bringing injured and diseased animals. They would vow to offer an acceptable sacrifice but then “cheat” God by substituting a lesser animal. If no human ruler would accept such actions, why would God?

·         This was no small matter. As God explains, worship was intended to make His name “great among the nations” (v. 11). Because God is a “great king,” His “name is to be feared among the nations” (v. 14). Instead, their polluted worship dishonored God and sullied His name.

·         For Christians, after the coming of Jesus the Jewish system of animal sacrifice ceased. But this does not mean that God no longer desires worship and sacrifice. There is a new “Lord’s table” (see 1 Cor. 10:21) at which Christians offer their praise and thanksgiving in celebration of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Likewise, prayers across the globe ascend before the Lord’s heavenly throne like incense (Rev. 5:8), fulfilling the words of Malachi 1:11: “In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations.”

·         Scripture also reminds us that our entire lives are a kind of sacrifice before the Lord. Paul urges us: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom. 12:1). God no longer desires animal sacrifice. He wants our whole lives offered to Him in pure and holy worship.

·         Our spiritual lives have everything to do with our material lives. The intersection of the spiritual and the physical can't be torn apart. Therefore, when we think about our spiritual lives, we'll necessarily have to think about money. The Bible has tons to say about money, so we want to talk about money, too. We believe that God has richly blessed us. How do we respond to that?

·         The Book of Malachi is structured as a seven-cycle argument between God and his people. God tells the people how he expects them to give their best, the people respond with a cynical question, and then God expands on his original concern.

Malachi 1:6:

"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the Lord Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.

"But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?'"

This is the first part of the pattern. God raises the issue of honor. God says: A son honors his father. A servant honors his master. Am I not a heavenly father? Am I not a master? Where is the honor due me?

And their response is a contemptuous question.

·         In the original Hebrew the word honor means literally to be heavy. So when you honor someone it means you treat them as a heavyweight in your life—someone of extreme importance, someone of great significance, someone who is huge. When God says in the Ten Commandments, "Honor your father and your mother," he's not saying just obey them and respect them, but treat them as if they're truly significant to you. God says here: I'm a father. I'm a master. I expect honor. Don't treat me with contempt.

·         They respond: How are we treating you with contempt? And God says: Okay, let me tell you what I want from you. He spells it out in three ways.

Honoring God means bringing him the best sacrifice.

·         Number one, honor means bringing me the best sacrifice. In verse 7 God says:

"You place defiled food on my altar.

"But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?'

"By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the Lord Almighty.

"Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?"—says the Lord Almighty.

"Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands.

·         Go to verse 13: "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the Lord. "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord."

·         Old Testament law required people to offer God sacrifices from their flocks and herds. The temptation was to bring God a worthless animal. If they had an animal in their flock or herd that was no good for breeding and wasn't going to fetch much of a price at the butcher shop, they would give it to the Lord. God says: I don't want those tainted sacrifices from your hand.

·         We no longer offer God animal sacrifices, because Christ has become our sacrifice. He has borne the penalty of our sin, like the animal sacrifices in Old Testament times bore the penalty of those people's sin. However, having said that, God is quick to tell us that, in response to what his son has done for us, the only reasonable response is to give back to God our best. The apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 12:1: Offer God yourselves as spiritual sacrifices; this is the worship God desires. So the sacrifices we bring God today are ourselves, our own lives. God says: Give me the best of yourself. Don't give me the leftovers.

·         Classical composers John Rutter was conducting a choral and symphony group in one of his own compositions, and when he got done the applause in the jam-packed auditorium was thunderous. But when everyone finally stopped applauding, he said, "Excuse me, do you mind if we try that again? I think we can do better than that."

·         God is saying: I think you can do better than that. You say: Better than what? Better than tainted sacrifices, better than the leftovers, better than what you give on your backhand. This past week I was asking God, What does it mean to give you less than the best? What does it mean to give you a tainted sacrifice from my life today? Let me tell you some ideas that came to my mind:

•        A tainted sacrifice is when I spend an hour in an evening reading USA Today cover to cover and then in the five minutes before I fall asleep I read God's Word. That's offering God the leftovers.

•        A tainted sacrifice is when we bring to our careers our best energy, our best talent, our best motivation, but when it comes to serving the body of Christ we either sit on the sidelines or look for something that requires the least amount of energy.

•        A tainted sacrifice is when we spend a lot of money on ourselves for a summer vacation, but when it comes to giving God an offering we look at the budget and say, What's leftover here?

•        A tainted sacrifice is when we watch Tiger Woods sink a 20-foot putt and leap off the sofa in jubilation, but in worship we sit passively with our hands on our lap.

•        A tainted sacrifice is when we love our kids so much there is nothing we wouldn't give them, but if we're honest our heart doesn't beat that fast for God Almighty.

·         God says: Don't bring me second best; don't bring me your leftovers. We make no apologies around here when we challenge you to bring your best. I stand in front of you and say God deserves minimally the first ten percent of your income. That's what Scripture teaches. Don't bring him less than that; bring him your best. I make no apologies when I say to get involved in what's happening here. Roll up your sleeves. Use the talents and gifts God's given you. Find a ministry here. Worship God enthusiastically.

Another manner for purification involves the sending of messenger who would clear or "prepare the way of the Lord"

Conclusion: Sending a Messenger

·         It would take 400 years of prophetic silence, but God’s promise through Malachi was 

fulfilled with the arrival of John the Baptist. As the angel Gabriel declared to Zechariah: 

“He will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the 

parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make 

ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). God’s promises are always true; the 

“messenger” of Malachi had arrived.

·         Elijah was probably the most famous of the Old Testament prophets. He was relentless in calling God's people to turn away from their sin and toward the one true God. He often stood up to evil rulers and never tried to sugar-coat his words. Elijah had died hundreds of years before the time of this passage. Is the Book of Malachi talking about reincarnation? Many in Jesus' day believed that this Scripture implied Elijah would come back from the dead. We are left hanging, wondering, and waiting.

God was silent

·         Generations went by without a fresh word from God. True, Israel had the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets, but only a few gave themselves to understanding the words and promises of God; only a few were willing to wait their entire lives if necessary to hear from God.

·         It's helpful to try and envision things from God's perspective. God was silent from a human perspective, but that doesn't mean he had stopped working on behalf of humankind. The apostle Paul wrote, "… when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons" (Galatians 4:4-5). God acted when the time had fully come—when everything was ready and prepared. God was silently but actively preparing the world stage for the coming of the Savior.