Now, friends, I've taken the opportunity of using the new whiteboard to put up this thing about the dates here just to give you some idea. We're turning to Malachi. in a moment or two. But just to put this in context and just to give you an idea of this, this is just a brief timeline, BC working back and of course BC counts down because we're counting up to, down to zero of course and then the other way. So this is just, I've just put this up like this to give you an idea. In 538 the first return under Zerubbabel comes and the rebuilding of the temple begins. And then by 536 the work on the temple is stopped and that's noted in Ezra chapter 1 to chapter 4 verse 5. In 536 Daniel dies. Now this Darius is not the Darius of Daniel's day, there's another Darius that comes in up here. And we won't go into that now. Darius is a name a little bit like Caesar. It's not a personal name. It means royal governor or it means kingly. And there was Darius I and Darius II and various Dariuses. Well, the Darius in Daniel's day is Darius the Mede, which is not this Darius. And there's another Darius that comes in down here, so don't worry about that. So this is what happens, the work on the temple resumes with Zerubbabel and Joshua and then in 515 the temple is completed. And just to give you some idea of what's going on in the rest of the world, in 500 the first eye cataract operation took place in India. And then this is the the time of Esther and Mordecai are here. And so here's Caesar Ahasuerus, the king that followed this Darius. Buddha dies, and Confucius dies, just to give you the timeline. And then we have a fixed date here, Ezra 4, chapter 4, verse 7 to 23 events here. And then Ezra returns to Jerusalem with 1,758 of the people. We're told about that in Ezra 7 to 10. Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem in 445, In 433, Nehemiah goes back to Babylon. So although this is the Ezra-Nehemiah timeline, this is where Malachi comes. So Malachi comes in about 440 or just a little bit later, that sort of time. 440 to 425 is about the time that he is prophesying. So that just puts this into context and gives you an idea. And I thought, well, as Steve has put up the whiteboard, I might as well use it and give you some idea of where we are on the timeline. So this is the last prophet before the 400 years of silence. until the time of the Lord Jesus Christ coming or just over 400 years of silence. So that puts that into context and that is significant and I thought well I'll take the opportunity to do that today because that's significant because of what we're going to be looking at this evening. So let's turn to Malachi chapter 1 and I'm just going to read verses 2 to the first part of verse 6. Malachi speaks the word of God. I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, in what way have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord? Yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Even though Edom has said, we have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places, thus says the Lord of hosts, they may build, but I will throw down. They shall be called the territory of wickedness. And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see and you shall say, the Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor?" Now, as I said last time, Malachi is the last of the prophets, and we introduced him, and we spoke about the burden that he carries, the burden of the word, the oracle, but the word is burden, it's a particular word, a burden, a heavy weight, a heavy burden that he bore. Now when, as we saw, when God withdraws his prophets, it is either because of judgment, that is what happened in the exile, which of course ended at the beginning of this timeline here, or to encourage a strong desire for men and women to look to Christ. And yet now here around about 400, Malachi 400 AD, BC, Malachi is prophesying, 400 years later, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, there are very, very few who are looking for him. Very few. Only a few were looking for the consolation of Israel. Now we'll find out more about that in Chapter 3. But Malachi writes at a very similar kind of time, when there was not much happening, things had settled down. There was a sense that God was not working as he once had done, and there was a dullness entering into the hearts of the people. The temple had been rebuilt, the walls had been rebuilt, but now, 50, 60 years later, people are beginning to lose heart so quickly. And yet we can see in our own land how 50, 60 years ago, things were very different from the things they are today, those of us who are old enough to remember that back that far. The temple had been completed, nothing much seems to be happening. And sometimes it's hard to keep going in days like that, isn't it? We live in days like that when, generally speaking, nothing much seems to be happening. We're not seeing vast numbers coming into the church. We're not seeing lots of conversions in the West anyway. God doesn't seem to be blessing us. The days of revival blessing that we read about seem very distant. And there's no one in living memory can speak of first-hand revival experiences in this land now. When I was a child, there were still some people who'd lived through the last revival in the 1905 revival in Wales. There are none now. There are none now. There are none left. or at least that we know of. The Jews had returned to their own land. If anyone's left it from the 1905 revival, they'd be quite an age, wouldn't they? They'd be 100, what would they be? They'd be well over 100. 120, yeah, sort of thing. So there's no one we know that can remember that. Now that was similar to the kind of situation that Malachi is writing into. And I think that helps to explain some of the things that are going on in this book. That's one of the reasons why I particularly wanted to, if I hadn't got this I would have duplicated it maybe and given you copies. But I thought it would be easier to have it up on the board like that. For the men of Malachi's day, the return was quite some distance. You know, it was a hundred years back, or more. A hundred and ten years, a hundred and five thirty-eight, five years. 110, 120 years back, about the same time as the 1905 revival. Thank you, Ernie, for working the figures out for us. So here's Malachi writing in a very similar situation. And they were beginning to lose faith in God, and they were beginning to question his love. That's why I wanted us to sing that hymn, come let us sing of a wonderful love, tender and true. I hope we've not lost, forgive me friends, I'm not saying this of you, but I hope people haven't lost confidence in the love of God, in the wonder of the grace of God. The Jews had returned to their own land, but within 70 or 80 years they'd already turned away from the pure worship of God and things had not really turned out as they'd expected. They'd returned from captivity. The temple was built. There was great enthusiasm. But the promised prosperity hadn't come. They were not victorious over their enemies as they'd expected. The Messiah hadn't appeared. And so they began to murmur and they began to complain about God's dealings with them. And they questioned God's faithfulness and power. Malachi speaks into this situation. It's very easy to think of Malachi as being a sort of In fact, there are some people who think that Malachi was just sort of tacked on to the end of the Old Testament and really Malachi wasn't a very significant character at all. There were no great battles, there were no great revelations, there were no great mighty things happened. There was very little happening in the land at the time. Well, that's to misunderstand, of course, what Malachi is doing. It wasn't an easy task for him. He comes with a word of rebuke. with a word of judgement, with a word of restoration, but he has to begin with a word of rebuke. And God has laid this burden upon him. We saw something of that last time in verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord, the burden, the heavy burden. And it was, he felt as though it was a heavy burden. It's significant, well no, I'll come to that later. Significant that later they come to God and they speak about God's commands being a burden to them and they We'll fill that out a bit later when we get there, a little bit later in chapter one. So what does Malachi do in these verses? Well, he begins first by talking about God's love. That's the first thing, God's love, verse two. I have loved you, says the Lord. I have loved you. God declares his love for his wayward people. What an amazing thing. What a wonderful thing actually. There's something very tender about God's words in this passage. God is rebuking them and yet he speaks with great compassion. He reveals the yearning of his heart towards them. Thomas More in the Banner of Truth commentary reprints says this, it is like the language of some weeping parent who seeks to woo back a prodigal child by recalling to his memory the love that has been lavished upon him. But the trouble is that people don't recognise God's love. In fact, they react almost insolently. Now, I think we have to be a little bit careful not to read too much into this passage, because as I was saying last time, often the concerns of the people in Malachi is not so much this is arrogant defiance of God, but we can't understand what God is doing. And I think sometimes we feel like that, don't we, friends? Well, maybe, as I said the other day, maybe you're more spiritual than I am, but sometimes I feel that. I feel, well, Lord, what are you doing? Why don't you work? Why don't you, you know, I've spent my life preaching and ministering, and why don't we see blessing? What's gone wrong? Is it me? And we do, I think, rightly, I think there's a right sense in which sometimes we need to question Now of course they went further than this and they were wrong in their questions but you can understand in a sense where they're coming from. In fact they're quite astounded that God thinks that they're in error. In fact they consider that this is quite unjust and we get this in these verses here but we get it later in the chapter, we get it particularly a little bit later in the chapter when they can't understand. But the thing is this, their whole history abounds with evidences of the love of God and God's grace and very often when they least deserved it. In fact, they have dishonoured God's love and despised his name and they have not acted like the children of God but like the ungodly. They've enjoyed his mercies towards them But when those mercies are withdrawn, they object and they can't understand why this has happened. What they needed to realise was this, God's love was utterly unmerited. And even the best of us, when God comes to us, his love to us is utterly unmerited. We do not deserve God's love at all. And what God does here is he doesn't, as it were, he does rebuke them, but he doesn't slap them down. He comes very gently, very graciously, very kindly, and he illustrates how they should understand that his love to them is very patient. So he uses the example of Esau and Jacob. Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Now why was this? What was the situation with Jacob and Esau? Was Jacob better than Esau? Was Jacob more lovable than Esau? Was Jacob somehow more attractive than Esau? No, they were both bad. They were both wicked. In fact, we could almost argue that at the beginning of the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob is more wicked than Esau. Now, of course, when time went on, Esau becomes more wicked. But to begin with, it almost seems as though Jacob is the rogue and Esau is the one who's doing what is right until he goes off and marries the Hittite wives in deliberate defiance of his parents. But until then, Jacob's almost the worst. It's certainly not that they were both innocent and arbitrarily neutral and God decides, whoop, I'll have Jacob and I'll kick Esau out as some kind of utterly unreasonable decision. They were both wrong, they were both bad, they were both sinful and yet God in his mercy and for reasons well known to himself puts his hand upon Jacob and saves him. And what's more Malachi is speaking of the nations here of Jacob and Esau, not simply the persons. because he goes on to speak about Edom, the people, and Israel, the nation. God shows grace to Jacob. Jacob didn't deserve it. God shows grace to us, we don't deserve it. But he's shown us his grace. And what God is saying to these people here is, how can you doubt my love when you understand what I've done for you? How irrational was their understanding? God's love. Secondly, God's choice. Look at verses 3 to 5, or, well, 3 to 4, particularly into verse 5. Esau, I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Even though Edom has said we have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they may build, but I will throw down. they shall be called the territory of wickednesses and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever and you will see it. God chose you, Jacob, the people the Malachi is speaking to, the Israelites, by his grace rather than his While Jacob was worse than Esau at the first, Edom, the nation, totally rejected God. In fact, they planned and plotted according to their own ideas and took no account of God and in fact despised God's people and opposed God's people. You remember when they came through the, when they were coming to the borders of the Promised Land, their greatest opponents as they drew near to the Promised Land were the Edomites, their brethren. and they opposed the purposes of God. They took no account of God. They were full of their own self-righteousness, and they became a thorn in the side of the Israelites constantly, and they did everything to thwart the purposes of God. And now the ungrateful Israelites are showing exactly the same attitude towards God that the Edomites did. And they didn't deserve God's grace any more than Edom did. But they had received his grace, and now they're ungrateful for such mercy, such ingratitude. God says, yet Jacob I have loved, but he saw I have hated. Now the word hate there is used in a negative sense, not as a positive hatred. It's the same sense that Paul uses in this quotation in Romans 9.13, which we read in our reading. It's the same sense when our Lord says, if any man follows me, comes after me, and hates not his father and mother, and it's a matter of putting things on priority. It's not you're gonna hate your family. It's with that kind of sense in which we would sometimes use the word hatred. It's essentially saying put God first. How do we know that God loves us? That's what they were saying. Well consider God's choice of you. And with tender care, God shows his love for them. Israel deserved to be cut off just as Edom did, but God shows grace. Edom's judgment, verse 3, is only what they deserved. But God had rescued the descendants of Jacob. Edom set their faces against God and determined to build in defiance of God. And the phrase there at the end of verse three, laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Whenever the jackals are used in that sense is a description of utter abandonment. Isaiah talks about the place where the jackals dwell. It's a place of utter desolation. And whatever Esau decided, whatever Edom decided, It would not succeed because you cannot fight against God. And verse four demonstrates that. God shows that their fight against him is hopeless. Their defiance and their arrogance God will bring to nothing. Now how did God do it? Well, they said, we will return and build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord, they may build, but I will throw down. Now what happened? Did God throw down their buildings? No. What did Edom do? They built the city of Petra. I don't know if you know anything about the city of Petra, but it's one of the wonders of the world. But it's derelict today. It's a place of utter safety and security. It's a fortress that could never be attacked. It is utterly, it is one of the most secure places in the world. And it was on the major trade route. But what happened? The trade route shifted. And the place became worthless. And it was abandoned. It was a wonderful place of defense. It was a place of utter security. We will build and we'll build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord, they may build, but I will throw down and it'll be called the Territory of Wickedness. And that's what happened. That's what happened. Nobody could destroy Petra, it still stands today, but the trade routes changed, the fortress became of no value because it ended up being in the wrong place. God overruled in the affairs of men and of nations and brought all their devastating boasting to nothing. And Petra remains today as an evidence of the power of God and that man cannot get away with defying God. God overruled. And yet the men of Jacob, the Israelites, were spared. They were punished but not abandoned. They were delivered, although they didn't deserve to be delivered, but they were. And although they could not see it at the time, God had not forsaken them. God was still caring for them. And God says in verse five, the day will come when you will recognise this. Your eyes shall see and you shall say, the Lord is magnified beyond the borders of Israel. You will come to understand that God is to be worshipped for all that he has done for you. You may not see it yet, but you will do. You may not understand what he's doing with you, but you will one day. then you will be overwhelmed with his love for you and you'll recognise just how ungrateful you've been. And there's a sense in which God says that today, doesn't he, to us? there's a day coming when we will recognise how wonderful God has been to us. And there are many things that happen in this, I'm sure there are going to be many things that happen to us in this life and we haven't got a clue, but when we get to heaven we'll see how God kept us safe through all kinds of situations and we'll fall down in wonder at his feet because we'll suddenly realise even more how wonderful his grace was to us than we could ever have imagined. as he's watched over us and cared for us and kept us safe through all the changing scenes of life in trouble and in joy. God loves you with an everlasting love if you're a child of God. He will never fail his own. So what's God saying? Stop arguing, learn to trust him. All right, and that's a word for us, isn't it, today? Now friends, I'm not saying you're arguing against God, but the point is, you know, Just learn to trust. Keep on keeping on. Because of God's love and because of God's choice. And we don't deserve either. But isn't it wonderful? Thirdly, God's honour. Verses 5 and the first part of verse 6. We'll come back to verse 6 because it has further references to the priests later. But I think it's important to include, I know most people divide it there, but I think it's important to include these first verses. So verse five again, your eyes shall see and you shall say the Lord is magnified beyond the borders of Israel. A son honors his father and a servant his master. If I then am the father, where is my honor? My third point is God's honor. God's love, God's choice, God's honor. You see, the great tragedy was their broken relationship with God. God was their father, but they had despised him. Back in Exodus 4, verse 22, God comes to Pharaoh through Moses and commands Moses to, or commands Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people, to let God's people go. And God's word to Pharaoh in Exodus 4 and verse 22, or God's word to Moses to take to Pharaoh in Exodus 4 verse 22, thus you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. And Moses does that in chapter 5 and then again in chapter 6 when he speaks to Pharaoh. Israel, Isaiah, sorry, Isaiah had called them rebellious sons. But yet again, God watched over them. Time and again, they despised him and they dishonoured his name. They expected his blessings automatically, but God's blessings were dependent upon obedience. And they could not continue with willful sin and expect to God to go on blessing them and of course neither can we. Willful sin, deliberate sin, continuing in sin, persistently doing what we know to be wrong brings dishonour to the name of God. Now friends I don't know about you but confession is good for the soul. I find it still very hard You may say, how do you find, how can you say this after all these years? You've been a Christian for donkey's years. I still find it hard, my friends, personally, sometimes, to stop doing things that I know jolly well are wrong, or thinking thoughts that I know are jolly well wrong. And I feel rebuked by these words, because I know I don't honor God as I ought to. I was telling you the other day about this man down in Cornwall, Peter was his name, and how he used to say, oh, you must be a good man because you're a minister. Well, I said, I'm not, I'm not. And I know the deceitfulness of my own heart, and I just, I get, do you talk to yourself? When I was a child, people said if you talk to yourself, that's the first sign of lunacy. Well, the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says it's good to talk to yourself. It's good to tell yourself what the Bible says. The psalmist often spoke to himself. I speak to myself sometimes, I say, Denjim, you're an idiot. Why do you do that again? Why do you sin in that way? Why do you think like that? And if you're honest with yourself, well, I say, you're probably far too spiritual to feel like that. And I find that I sin in ways, and I sometimes think, am I committing willful sin? I just, I can't. It's wrong, isn't it? It brings dishonour to the name of the Lord our God. And we want to be honourable, and we want to honour our Saviour, and we want to honour our Lord, and we want the Lord to be magnified. And if God is to be magnified beyond the borders of Israel, verse 5, then his people must be holy. God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he will also reap. And if we don't give God the honour that is his due, we can't assume that he will bless us. And so we are to respect him and honour him and to obey him. And when we do that, we find perfect joy and perfect freedom and perfect blessing. He is our Father. He is our loving Heavenly Father. A son honours his father and a servant his master. But above all, he is the Lord of hosts. And so we bow down before him, don't we? We remember his love for us. You deserved to be rejected. You deserved to be hated. But he set his love upon you. He loves you with an everlasting love. Come, let us sing of a wonderful love, tender and true, out of the heart of the Father above, streaming to me and to you, wonderful love. dwells in the heart of the Father above. Jesus came to bring it, the Son, that it's the love of the Father. Of course it's the love of the Son as well, but it's wonderful, isn't it? His sovereign choice of you and of me. You have received his grace. So, I say to myself, and you can listen in, and if it applies to you, say it to yourself. Stop arguing with him and learn to trust him. Remember his honour. Do not despise the many blessings he has showered upon you. And turn your back upon sin that his name may be magnified and glorified in all the earth beyond the border of Israel, verse five. How is he to be glorified? by the testimony of his obedient people and as sinners are saved unto him. And that's the point, isn't it, of verse 5? Your eyes shall see and you shall say, the Lord is magnified beyond the borders of Israel.