Well, as Steve has prayed and asked the Lord's blessing on us, let's then open his word to the prophecy of Malachi. Right before the white space, before Matthew, I usually flip to Matthew, and then I try to flip back to Malachi, and I end up in Zechariah, and then you've got to head back toward Matthew a little bit. And then there's Malachi, occupying a couple of pages at the close of the Old Testament. What I want to do in the few weeks we have together in the Lord's Day mornings is to do an exposition of Malachi. We'll take some larger sections. This morning's sermon will actually be smaller, just covering verses two to five of chapter one. But I want to use this first. hour we have together in Sunday School as a way of orientation toward the prophecy of Malachi, a little bit of background where Malachi fits in the canon, in the history of Israel, and then what are the particular issues in the prophecy of Malachi. And again, some of these themes will be revisited in more depth in the weeks to follow. But again, just a way to orient ourselves. I'll just begin with the first opening statement of Malachi. He says in chapter 1, verse 1, the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. Literally, if you're reading like I am in the New American Standard, the oracle could literally be translated burden. A few of the prophets call their prophecies a burden. There's a kind of urgency in this message. And I think standing where we do in redemptive history, we appreciate Malachi as really the last words of the Old Testament before the appearance of John the Baptist. John the Baptist is really the next prophet after Malachi. And so if you can think of it this way, Malachi's burden that he's going to deliver, and there is an urgency and a really dynamic interchange throughout this short prophecy. These are the words that are going to ring in the ears of God's people for over 400 years before the coming of John the Baptist and then the immediate advent of the Messiah at that time. So there is a significance. These are the words that God gives his people to carry them through those 400 years expecting and anticipating the Messiah. And like most prophecies, while there is a great deal of encouragement and anticipation of the future in the prophecy, there's also an immediate concern that the Lord is addressing through Malachi with his people Israel. Now, sometimes when we read the prophets, they're addressing the nation. Jonah, which we've studied already, is actually quite different than all of them. It's dealing primarily with the prophet Jonah. His narrative, his experience is the prophecy. But most often in the prophets, the prophet is the mouthpiece speaking to the people of Israel, addressing a particular challenge. And for most of the prophecies, the challenge is a kind of a lawsuit, an accusation, a charge, a rebuke, maybe a promise of punishment, and always seasoned with promise as well, if we'll return in faithfulness. And Malachi is no different in that respect. The condition of the nation is somewhat different with respect to Malachi, in that he's speaking to a post-exilic people. That is to say, people who have already been vomited out of the promised land in the Babylonian exile in 586 BC. They've already undergone the judgments that Isaiah and some of the other prophets were speaking of, and they've gone through the time of Daniel, who's actually an exilic as a prophet in exile. This is a people who has returned, and Malachi probably is perhaps 70 years or more into that return. So this is Israel very late in its history, 450 years perhaps before the coming of Christ. Now, a few words about Malachi. Malachi is one of the most personal prophecies in the Old Testament. By that, I don't mean personal in the sense that Malachi himself is very personal. In fact, Malachi is a virtual unknown to us. We have his name in verse 1. He's not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. In fact, The name Malachi means my messenger, and there's some debate as to whether this is just a description of his function or whether this is a proper name. Most agree that this is a proper name. John Calvin actually thought that Malachi might have been Ezra, and certainly Malachi is right around the time of Ezra. Was Ezra a messenger? Perhaps. Probably best to just see this as an individual prophet who is making these series of proclamations. When I say personal, though, I don't mean that Malachi personally factors into the prophecy. In fact, he personally factors into the prophecy less than any of the other prophets. You can contrast this with Jonah, where Jonah's experience and Jonah's attitudes and God's dealings with Jonah, that is the prophecy of Jonah. That is the message. Jeremiah, who is a herald who delivers a message, Jeremiah himself embodies a certain measure of prophecy. You think of all the strange commands that God gives to Jeremiah to lie on one side for a certain number of days and then turn and lie on the other side. number of strange and sometimes even grotesque things that he requires Jeremiah to do. Jeremiah as the weeping prophet, his personal experience sinking, do you think of Jeremiah sinking down into the mud in the pit? Jeremiah's experiences is a is a big piece of the message of Jeremiah. For Malachi, when we say that it's one of the most personal, we don't mean that Malachi as the messenger, as a person, is very much a part of the prophecy. When we say it's personal, it's the way that God speaks of himself with respect to Israel that is charged with first-person language. In fact, depending on how you count the verses in the different translations of the Old Testament, the 55 or 54 verses of Malachi, in 47 of the 55 verses of this prophecy, the Lord speaks and refers to Himself in the first person. The concern or the burden of Malachi is God. God and His honor and the affront of Israel to Him as God is front and center. There's a vividness, there's an intensity that is unsurpassed in the prophets. The Lord has been disgraced and dishonored by His people and He's bringing a complaint against them and the complaint is, have been dishonored. And this eye, this focus on God, this one who is God's person, is central to the prophecy of Malachi in a unique and enforceable way. And everything is written from this point of reference. Everything actually first preached and then written is with this point of reference, God himself, as the focus. The centrality of God in the life of his people is the concern of the prophet. He doesn't give a lot of moral direction in the book. There are not a number of thou shalts. In fact, the rebuke is that they know what they should be doing and they're not doing it. There are a few places. He says, return to me. I'll return to you. There's an exhortation. There's a command. There are some others. If you bring in the full amount of the tithe or the offering, then I will bless you overflowing, you know, pressed full and overflowing. I'll bless you beyond capacity. So there are some commands, commands of repentance to be sure. But again, this isn't like Leviticus or something like this, where the Lord is rehearsing the religious or moral expectations of the people. The problem is they're fully aware of what's expected and they aren't giving the full amount of what's expected to God. Primarily there is a neglect of God's covenant and to that extent a neglect of God himself. God is not being taken seriously. That's the problem. Now, I should say with that, and in some ways this sets Malachi out from others, sometimes when we see God not taken seriously, Israel has gone the full measure in the opposite extreme and they have engaged in idolatry. Malachi is not a book of out-and-out idolatry. They're on the way there. There does seem to be a slippery slope on which Israel finds itself when God's confronting them, but they haven't gone into full-fledged open idolatry. There is still the ministry of the priests in Malachi. There's still the offering of sacrifices. The temple doors are open to transact the business of God in the temple. The problem is that this is being done half-heartedly, insincerely. The offerings that the people bring are weak and sick. They're not serving God with their whole heart, mind, soul, strength. They're giving to God simply a paltry token of obedience, but not from the heart. A little bit of background. We'll just enlarge on this somewhat. What's the immediate occasion for the writing of the book? Malachi is writing, as I said, late in the post-exilic period, the return from exile. In 586, in 712 BC, the northern kingdom, the ten tribes were taken away into Assyrian exile. And then, 30, 120 years later, the southern kingdom of Judah also was carried away into exile in 586 BC under the Babylonians. Now, if you remember, during their time in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was king, but even during the lifetime of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is He dies, his son is the king, and then his son is overthrown by the Persians. And we have a number of Persian kings that come onto the scene, Darius, the Mede, and then after him Cyrus and others. Cyrus is the king of the period later of Ezra and Nehemiah. And Cyrus is the one who allows the Jews to begin to return to their homeland, to leave that exile in Babylon and go back. And in 539 BC, there's the first small wave of returned exiles coming back to re-inhabit the promised land. And there are a series of returns. So this is why we call this the post-exilic period. The exile outside of the land is over. Jews are coming back to inhabit the land. And not only are they inhabiting the land, but with the blessing of the Persian kings, they're actually rebuilding or trying to recapture something of the glory of old Israel. When they return, they begin to build the temple, and the building of the temple is a great undertaking of the people of the returned exiles. And in 516, about 516 BC, the temple has been rebuilt and is dedicated. And Ezra in Ezra 3 records this dedication. Now, this is important because the reason I bring this up in 516 is the people have come back and they really have come out from under the shame of exile. They're back in their own promised land, in their own ancestral homeland, and they're rebuilding even that most glorious centerpiece of what it means to be an Israelite, the temple itself. Ezra records this in Ezra 3, verses 1 to 3. Now, when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in the cities. The people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. Then Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and his brothers, the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, and his brothers, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God." I'm going to pause there for a second. This is covenant fidelity. This is covenant faithfulness. These returned exiles are doing what they ought to be doing. They are reinstating the worship of God and not haphazardly. And this is important for understanding what's gone wrong by the time of Malachi. When they rebuild the altar, the priests are apparently, according to Ezra, fastidious about doing things according to the law. So that little phrase in Ezra 3.2 where it says, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God, what's being spotlighted with that kind of language is that they're doing this in a way that is pleasing to God. The rebuilding of the temple, the reinstitution of sacrifices was, at that initial return from exile, a pleasing thing. It was done according to the law of God, as he said. Again, it does not seem that this is just a kind of token going through the motions, but that there is a real concern to honor the Lord on the part of the priests and the people who are backing them. Verse three, then of Ezra three, so they set up the altar on its foundation for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands. Now, here's the point. The peoples of the lands are threatening them. And if you read Ezra and Nehemiah, a lot of what they're contending with, they have the blessing of the Persians. They are still contending with all of these enemies, these foes around them who are trying to undo their work. So, they set up the altar on the foundations in order to seek the blessing of God in the face of hostile enemies. By the time of Malachi, we'll see that this resorting to God to protect them from the nations has begun to erode. And they have become cynical about God's protection in the face of the nations. They grow cynical. The wicked abound and the Lord does nothing about it. And that kind of becomes the attitude. Whereas this does not seem to be the mentality in 516. They're erecting the altar on the foundations. because they were terrified of the people, the lands, and the idea is God is their protector, God is their Lord, God is their father, their sovereign, their governor. Yes, the Persians are their human rulers still, but they're seeking their confidence in the Lord. Think of Ezra. Even when Ezra was opposed, he didn't go running back to the Persian king saying, hey, people are bothering us. He was praying and seeking the Lord. So it says, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. That is to say, at the time of day when they were to be offering continuously, they're in the temple offering according to the law of Moses, the man of God. If you remember elsewhere, when the Old Testament describes the rebuilding of Solomon's temple, this post-exilic temple, do you remember what was the response of the majority of the people when the Temple after the exile was rebuilt? Very happy. Some were disappointed. There's a mix. The older people were disappointed. And who were the happy ones? The younger ones. Why were the younger ones happy? They had never seen Solomon's temple. They had never seen the old temple in all of its glory. And what I would submit is the younger generation came back with expectation, with hope. And when they saw the rebuilding of the temple and the reinstitution of sacrifices, they rejoiced. And I think it's right to read that as a rejoicing in real faith, an expectation of God in the midst of his people, dwelling among his people. And the outward signs of all that with the temple and the sacrifices reinstated. Now, the older people, there were those that wept at the dedication of the second temple. And they wept because they had seen the glory of Solomon's temple and This was not Solomon's temple. If you had seen the glory of that first temple, you would know that this post-exilic temple was nothing in comparison to that. So there is perhaps the seeds of disappointment in some of the older returned exiles, those that were old enough to remember the temple that had been destroyed. For them, perhaps there is a sense that this is not quite the fulfillment of the promise. If you read the prophets, and they talk about a future temple of the Lord that's going to be built, into which all the nations will come. Read the end of Ezekiel's prophecy, chapters 40-48. if you can handle all the furlongs in the stadia and all the dimensions that come chapter after chapter. But what you get is the picture of something grand and something glorious. And there's a feeling in those who had seen Solomon's temple that were looking forward to this future temple that perhaps this wasn't it. And this is the point. There's perhaps the temptation, because the post-exilic temple is not the full eschatological realization that they've been hearing about from prophets like Ezekiel and others, there is perhaps, or the potential, to be disillusioned with the promise of God. Now, that doesn't seem to have been the majority of these returned exiles. The younger generation seems to be rejoicing in faith and expectation. But there is perhaps this situation in which they were expecting something grand and glorious. Here they show up to the dedication of the temple, and this temple doesn't even look as good as the one we remember as children, at least for some of the older. What I'm going to suggest is that by the time of Malachi's prophecy, perhaps as much as 70 years later after this dedication, This disillusionment had hardened, had become an epidemic. It wasn't a few people with a few doubts or a few disappointments because some of the old grandeur was gone. It was an epidemic among God's covenant people of disillusionment in his covenant promise. And a lot of what you find in Malachi is, especially in the words of the people as they respond to God's accusations, are hard bitten, jaded and cynical. You're supposed and you are supposed to be offended by this. I mean, this is this is supposed to strike you as as petulant and ungrateful. But understand, understand what's happening. They're not. They're not waiting on the Lord. They're looking at their immediate circumstances and things are not developing as grandly or as timely as they would like them to be. And what happens is that a kind of perhaps doubt and then later cynicism sets in. Now, we'll find there are references to the faithful, so it's not like this is absolutely universal, but it seems that it becomes the dominant problem in that post-exilic Israel living in the land. So, the fervor of the dedication that Ezra speaks of in 516 seems to have gone through a period of cooling. That devotion has just... We're off the boiling point and the temperature is dropping. And 70 years later when The nations are still prominent. Things haven't gotten better. The people themselves begin to be lackadaisical and half-hearted in their worship. cynical about the Lord. Now, the form of Malachi's prophecy. Malachi's prophecy is made up of seven oracles. Six of those seven oracles are in the form of prosecution. So Malachi is the DA, so to speak. He's speaking on behalf of God. And he's bringing a series of accusations, but it's God speaking through Malachi in the first person. As we'll consider in this morning's sermon, the first charge, I have loved you. And then a series of other accusations. The second dialogue or diatribe is, if I am a master, where is my respect? If I'm a father, where's my honor? He's challenging the people. And then what we hear after that is the Lord brings six challenges, six big challenges to His people, and then there are six responses that come from the people. Now, interestingly, it's the Lord Himself who records the response of the people. And I think this is interesting because some have read Malachi as a dialogue. While Malachi reads like a dialogue, I have said, but you say. That's how you read Malachi. That's what you get. I have said, but you say. But it's actually the Lord summarizing what they say. It's the Lord saying what you say. In other words, the searcher of hearts, the one who knows what's in your heart, is setting before, in a certain way, he's setting before Israel, maybe even before us, the ugliness and the hardness of our own hearts. He's showing Israel what they're really thinking. Maybe they were really saying these things. Maybe they were really saying, wherein has God loved us? How have we dishonored you? They're sort of surprised that the Lord is charging them with any of these offenses. Perhaps things like this were really being said, but they were certainly being fought. This was certainly the attitude of Israel's heart. So the Lord summarizes their response, and then after each response from this cynical people, He responds with a demonstration or an explanation of that first statement. I'm a father. I'm a master. How have you dishonored me? Then He answers, this is how you have dishonored me. Or how have you loved us? This is how I have loved you. So that there is... I'll make the point again in the sermon this morning, Malachi is a prophecy that demonstrates the patience of the Lord, the long-suffering of the Lord. The fact that he will endure, so to speak, all of these responses from his people, I doubt most of us have this kind of patience. That someone shoots back with a sharp and cynical reply in the face of obvious good that you have done to them, our tendency would be to say, I'm done with you. The patience of the Lord is seen in that the Lord patiently gives them answers and is patient to expose to them the sin of their heart and also even to spread his promises throughout. So let's do this. We have about Twenty-five, maybe thirty minutes left. What I want to do is I just want to look at three themes that unfold through the book and we'll turn a little bit through the prophecy of Malachi. So, you want to have your Bibles open there. And I just want to see, I just want to observe three things. Because the Lord and His person are the center of this prophecy, Just three things I want to see. First, that he is the covenant Lord and we'll look at a few ways in which his covenant is being violated and disdained by his people. Secondly, more briefly, that he's the covetous Lord. We'll talk about what we mean by that. And then finally, in closing, that he's the coming Lord. So first, that he is the covenant Lord. This is a big theme in Malachi. We see this, first of all, in his opening arguments. And this will be our topic in the next hour, where he says, I have loved you, chapter 1, verse 2. And Israel responds, how have you loved us? And then he responds to them with a question, but a rhetorical question, was not Esau Jacob's brother? Everyone, yes, we all know Esau was Jacob's brother. And he says this. Yet I have loved Jacob, the first part of verse 3, but I have hated Esau. What he's doing is he's setting out, he's framing the entire prophecy in terms of this covenantal relation. The prophecy comes to Abraham and to his seed, and then that prophecy is not through Ishmael, but is realized through Isaac, who is the promised seed, and then Isaac by Rebekah bears two children, Esau and Jacob, and Esau, who has as much seemingly has as much natural prerogative and right to the covenant as Jacob. Esau is rejected and Jacob is loved. Jacob receives a special covenant favor placed upon him by the Lord. So the whole framing of Malachi is with this emphasis on the Lord who has chosen a people for himself, on the Lord who has entered into a relationship of love with In this case, his point, and I'll draw it out later, an undeserving people, but an undeserving people who have been, for no good reason in and of themselves, the objects of God's covenant love and His faithfulness. And then he's going to go on and explain this faithfulness. First of all, that Israel is going to be made great among the nations. Then he says, and if you want to see if this is true, look at what I'm doing with Edom, which are the descendants of Esau. I've loved Jacob. Jerusalem is being rebuilt. I've hated Esau. Edom says they're going to rebuild after Babylonian exile, and they won't. So there's a sense in which he's demonstrating to them his covenant faithfulness as the God who is keeping promise with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He says, and he makes a big deal of this, that his grace toward Israel is due to his covenant promises to the patriarchs. Exodus chapter 2. We see this love that He has for His people. He sees them languishing in Egypt. And in verses 24 and 25 of Exodus 2, it says, So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. That is not to say God was unaware and then, oh, by the way, that's right, I have a covenant people. What's going on with them? It's not that taking notice. It's saying that He's demonstrating, He's being attentive to and taking care of them in their plight. Deuteronomy 23, we find God's disposition toward His covenant people in verse 5. Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam. If you remember, Balaam was the prophet who was called by the king to curse Israel, and he was unable to curse Israel, and God actually turned Balaam's curses into blessings to the frustration of the king who'd hired him. He says, God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, again, because the Lord your God loves you. Think of Israel, 39th year of wandering through the wilderness. Are they a lovely people? They're not lovely people. Ask Moses. This people. This burden of this grumbling, complaining people. We want meat. We should have stayed in Egypt. It was so great in Egypt. This grumbling and this complaining through the wilderness. And yet, here at the very end of that sojourn, Balaam's curses are turned to blessings because the Lord your God loves you. Again, this theme of loving them should conjure up memories of covenant faithfulness when there's nothing lovely about this people that makes God want to be faithful to them except that He is a covenant-keeping God, a promise-keeping God. And because of the promises to the fathers, He loves them. In fact, in Deuteronomy 26, verses 18 and 19, He even uses this tender language of calling them a treasure. The Lord has today declared you to be His people. This is Moses preaching to the people before they enter the Promised Land, the end of his career. He says, the Lord has declared you to be His people, a treasured possession. Wow, who would have, you know, is this the people you'd want? If you were picking the nations of the earth, would you have picked this grumbling group of sojourners and then called them treasured? Not an endured possession, not a possession that, you know, is shameful to God, that God would rather not think about, treasured, cared for. It says, as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above the nations which He has made for praise, fame, and honor, and that you should be a consecrated people to the Lord your God. Why should you be a consecrated people to the Lord your God? Why should you keep His commandments? Because He treasures you. Because He's called you a treasured possession. Now, interesting, Malachi picks up on that same language in chapter 3, verse 17. Go ahead and turn over there. In chapter 317, the Lord again speaks of those who will fear the Lord and esteem His name, and He says, "...and they will be Mine." There's that possessive language, says the Lord of hosts. On the day that I prepare My own possession, or literally, My special treasure. That's the exact same language that Moses is using before Israel has entered the Promised Land. Now, the last prophet of the Old Testament period, the last of Israel, I mean, Moses is the first prophet to the nation of Israel. Malachi is the last prophet to the nation of Israel. And if you think about the history of Israel spanning between the Exodus and right before what we call the Silent Years, the end of that Old Testament narrative, The history of Israel, and we've said it so many times but needs to be emphasized, is not a history of a glorious and noble and grateful and obedient people, for the most part. There are those exceptions. There are a few periods of faithfulness, but there are many more of unfaithfulness. And yet he continues at the end of this long narrative of the Old Testament. And you know what I'm talking about if you've read through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel Lamentations. It is a long and a dark history. For the most part now filled with promise anticipation. Yes But in terms of the people you think by the time of Malachi perhaps they wouldn't be so special You see what I'm saying by the time of Malachi would the Lord have so wearied of them as to cast them off forever. I But here he still uses this language, the same language Moses used in Deuteronomy. Malachi rehabilitates that same language to speak to the people at the end of this Old Testament period. my special treasure, or my treasured possession. Again, this is what we mean when we talk about the covenant God. Again, there are the echoes of so many ages of covenant fidelity. The echoes of God's faithfulness down the ages is resounding throughout the prophecy. throughout the prophecy of Malachi. Now, also, it's not just his covenant with the nation, but also his covenant with the priest that is a flashpoint in the prophecy of Malachi. Look over at chapter 2. Malachi chapter 2. First they ask in chapter 1, how have you loved us? Now, we find out that it's not just the people who have grown cynical, you know, the laymen, as it were, It's the priests also. It's the religious leaders as well. So in Malachi chapter 2, there's a contrast starting about verse 4 down through verse 9, the most of chapter 2, in which he brings up Levi. And the covenant with Levi, he says in verse 4, he says he's going to rebuke the priests and he even threatens to spread refuse on their face that's either dung or vomit. I mean this is really graphic language that they will bring down horrific curses on themselves. And then he says, then you will know that I have set this commandment, verse four, that my covenant may continue with Levi. He's talking here about a particular bond that he has established between himself and the tribe of Levi as the covenant, as the ministers, as the ones who are in the temple worship administering this covenant. mediating this covenant between God and the people. They have this special role. And he says that he wants that they should have this commandment that that his covenant may continue with Levi. And then he elaborates on this covenant. My covenant with him was one of life and peace. And I gave to him as an object of reverence. So and what does he say about early Levi? And I think here he's probably thinking of Aaron. But that would speculate a little bit, but I think Aaron particularly is in view. He says this, that I gave them as an object of reverence, so he, speaking about Levi or the early Levi, so he revered me and stood in awe of my name. Now that's the point. I gave him this ministry and he carried it out faithfully. While there are a few instances of Aaron's faults, Aaron does seem to be, for the most part, a faithful priest. He faithfully executes this office of mediation. Now, the Lord is comparing this post-exilic Levitical priesthood to the early Levites, perhaps Aaron most prominently. And he's saying this is the difference. Not that they offered sacrifices and you don't. Everyone's offering sacrifices and going through the motions. But Aaron and those early Levites did it in a way that revered and honored my name. And you don't. That's what he's saying. Now, the way that they don't is in that they are willing to offer the weak and the blind and the sick. That is to say, they're not bringing the best. They're not bringing the first fruits. They're not bringing the best lamb, the best animals. They're offering the weak and the broken. And there's a lack of reverence for God's sanctuary. We see this a little earlier, chapter 1. Verse 8, he says to the people, when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and the sick, is it not evil? And then there's this challenge. Why not offer it to your governor? He's talking about their Persian governor now. Would you have to give some sort of honorarium to this governor? He's going to tax you in some way. Why don't you bring him the offcasts of your flocks and of your herds? See if he would like that. What he's saying is, you give more honor to a heathen governor then you give to me. You bring better taxes, as it were, to him than you bring into my house. Why not offer it to your governor? Of course, everyone, oh boy, you'd be in political hot water and you'd lose your financial advantages and privileges and all of this. Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of Hosts? And yet you revere him more than me. This is the point. And the Levites were the gatekeepers. The Levites should have said, no, this is not acceptable. You need to come back and bring something acceptable. They should have refused to put that on the altar. See what I'm saying? They should have been the ones to say to the people, this is an unacceptable sacrifice. This does not reverence or honor God. No, that's not what they do. They sacrifice it. Interestingly, this is what the Lord says in response to this. God is not going to shrug his shoulders, as it were, and say, OK, well, what can you expect? This is the best I can hope from this unfaithful people. I guess I'll take what I can get. God's honor is not such where he can be demoted, where he says, I'll just take what I can get. Now, look at what he does in verse 10. Chapter 1, O that there were one among you who would shut the gates that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from you." What is he saying? He's saying, I would rather you shut the temple down, close the gates, put out the fires, hang it up and go home, then come to me with this leftover half-hearted worship and devotion. This is not loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When it says strength there, it probably has the idea of your physical bounty. Your muchness would be one way of translating that. Honoring the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength is to honor Him and reverence Him with the best of what you have, both in terms of material bounty, but also the devotion of your heart. And the one will hopefully manifest itself in the other. He says, you bring in the offcast, the leftovers, the despised. You couldn't even sell these for much in the marketplace. And you bring them into my temple. The Lord does the Lord. The Lord is not one to go and gather up the crumbs of the leftovers. That is below and beneath his dignity. And he says, shut up. You think the temple is such a great thing? I say close the temple. That's that's what he's saying. This is this is not the Lord is not interested in this kind of of half hearted worship. Now, Israel is there are other manifestations of how they've grown cynical. They question at the end of. Well, here's the problem. The problem is his sanctuary is not being revered. They were all celebrating back in 516, the opening of the new temple, the reinstitution of sacrifices morning and evening according to the law of Moses, the man of God. Everything looks to be on the up and up and pleasing to God. And within a generation and a half, perhaps two generations, the people have grown cynical and the Lord is saying, you might as well shut the temple down if this is what you're bringing me. Again, the covenant has been broken and violated on their behalf. And the Lord is not going to demean himself and his honor by accepting this. In fact, he says that explicitly, I will not accept this from your hand. Then he chastises the Levites for being willing to facilitate this sort of dishonor. Again, I think perhaps here the message is for the leaders. who are supposed to look after and care for the people and direct them and instruct them and point them in the way of the true worship of God, they themselves have failed. In fact, it's reminiscent of Jeremiah's prophecy about the false shepherds. We talk about the shepherds who have failed his people. They don't feed the flock. Again, this is perhaps the same idea here after the exile. And he talks about the Levites, and this is interesting. It's not just that the Levites offered the good sacrifices, but in chapter 2, verse 6, true instruction was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. That is to say, he taught the people. When he says true instruction was found in his mouth, those early Levites required holiness from the people to approach God. They should have been, they had the responsibility of instructing the people and they did it well. And unrighteousness was not found in their lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. And he turned, this is the point. He turned back many from iniquity. You aren't turning back any from iniquity. You're facilitating their iniquity. This is again, a breach of that Levitical covenant. For the lips of the priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Interestingly, that's Malachi's name, God's messenger, the Lord's messenger. That's what the priest should be. Malachi is here what the priest ought to be. In this sense, Malachi stands as a rebuke to the priest, but they're the messenger of the Lord. But as for you, you've turned aside from the way, you have caused many to stumble by the instruction, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi. This is the point. The covenant with the nation is being disdained by the nation bringing these unworthy sacrifices and they're showing that they dishonor God as a father and as a ruler. The priests are breaking the covenant with Levi by facilitating the nation's infidelity to the covenant with Jacob. So there are multiple levels of covenant infraction on the part of the people. Not just the people, but the priests as well. And then there are other social ills he speaks about. The problem of divorce. People are putting away their Hebrew wives and taking Gentile pagan wives to themselves. This is the context where he says, I the Lord hate divorce. speaking again against their self-seeking, seeking advantage for themselves by allying themselves with the nations around them. How different? When Israel comes back into the land, they were terrified of the nations, so they built the temple on its foundations and cried out to the Lord for protection. Within 70 years, these marriages are likely a kind of brokering a peace with the nations. Putting away the wives of their youth, the wives of the promised people, their Jewish wives, and taking to themselves the wives of idolatrous pagans, what they're doing is these marriages are probably meant to broker a peace with these people before terrifying them. It's something like this. If you can't beat them, join them. And what's happened though, I mean, that's not good advice in this case, because God is faithful. The problem is they have grown cynical and doubtful that God indeed will protect them from the nations. And so instead, they have decided they're going to go out and broker peace on their own terms. So they put away the wives of their youth and enter into alliances via these, uh, these, uh, illicit marriages with, with pagan wives. Um, and then there's, and then there's this, why would Israel do this? Why would they begin to, why would they distrust the Lord? Why would they make such a compromise? In fact, you see this in verse 17 of chapter two, you have wearied the Lord with your words. You have said, and you say, how have we wearied him again? This is the, like I said, they are petulant through this, through this book. This is how you've done it. In that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them. See that cynicism there? The evil prosper. Apparently, God is on their side. And if God is on the side of the wicked, then we might as well make our peace with the wicked. You see the point? God favors the wicked. The wicked prosper all around us. If they're prospering, then we're going to have to negotiate some sort of peace with them. And I believe this is probably the context in which the wives of their youth are being put away and they're taking the wives of the pagans. Look, God honors these people. There's this law, there's this impatience with the justice of the Lord. If you are really going to fight for us against these people who once terrified us, then why aren't you doing something about it? And if you're not, then we're not either. And we're going to have to make our own way, make our own peace. And then they said, where is the God of justice? This is the heart of the people. Where's God and his justice? The Lord graciously says to them that He's coming. In fact, chapter three, familiar words to us because we read them in the light of John the Baptist. Behold, I'm going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. All three of the Synoptic Gospels refer this to John the Baptist. And the Lord whom you seek. Now, there's a little bit of irony in this. He says the Lord whom you seek. Do they seek the Lord? Well, yeah, in an ironic sort of way. Look at one verse earlier, chapter 2, verse 17. Where is the God of justice? Now, they're saying this, where is the God of justice, in the way that people say, it's a rhetorical question. He's not around. He's not here. And he's saying, the Lord whom you seek, when you say, where is the Lord? Where is the God of justice? He is, in fact, coming. You say, where is God's justice? God's justice will come. You say you want God's justice. It's coming now. This is good and bad. OK, good. First, chapter two or verse two, chapter three, who can endure the day of his coming? This is a point, the coming Lord. You want the Lord to come in justice? Do you really? Those who demand justice from God, would they really want justice from God? At least in their case. But who can endure the day of His coming? The Lord is going to come, but when He comes, are you, you complaining, ungrateful people who bring in a dishonorable sacrifice? Do you really want Him to appear in justice? Can you stand before Him? Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? Now, the answer is class. No one. When the Lord stands and the Lord comes, you're not going to stand before Him righteous, especially this grumbling and this complaining and unfaithful people. He is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap. He comes and He comes as a burning fire. Now, there's a good side to this. Verse 3. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver so that they may present to them. Here's what he's doing. He's going to come and he's going to purify the sons of Levi. That is to say, the sons who are dishonoring the fathers. This is an important point. I'll just make this point in closing. The sons are dishonoring the fathers. Israel is not living up to the faithfulness of the patriarchs and of the early generations. Levi, the tribe of Levi, is not keeping faith with the early Levites who obeyed the voice of the Lord and instructed the people in righteousness. They aren't doing this. If we can put it this way, the sons, that is the Levites and the latter generation Israelites that we're talking to in Malachi's prophecy, these sons have not been faithful to the ways of the patriarchs and to the ways of the fathers. And so he says that he's going to sit as a smelter and purifier and he's going to purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Basically, I'm going to restore to them the faithfulness of that early generation of Levites that he was describing in chapter 2 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord and this is an important little clause as in the days of old and as in former years Now there's this there's this looking back to Israel in decline Israel departing from the ways of earlier faithfulness There's a there's an interesting There's an interesting statement that's very similar to this over in Isaiah 63. And I won't go at length, but as Isaiah perceives the people having departed from the old paths, the ways of God's people, in Isaiah 63, verse 15, Isaiah's praying to God and he's asking God to intercede in mercy. And there's this interesting statement here. In verse 16, he says, For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us. This is that unfaithful generation right before the exile. What does he mean when he says Abraham does not know us? What he's saying is... Abraham would not recognize us as his offspring. Abraham who obeyed God in faith and left Ur of the Chaldees and went to the land not knowing where he was going, but in faith obeying. Abraham who in faith put Isaac on the altar. Abraham who obeyed God would not recognize disobedient Israel as his offspring. There's a breach between the patriarchs, between the fathers, the early generations and the latter generations. The latter generations are not keeping faith with the early generations in honoring God. So he's indicting their fidelity as Israel in Malachi, and Isaiah does the same. He's saying, you're not good children. You aren't good children to me, and you aren't good children to your patriarchs. Don't hide in your identity as Israel. You aren't keeping faith with Israel, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He says, Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us. That's Isaiah speaking. But this is the same idea here. Levi kept my promises and you Levites don't. Levi wouldn't know you. This is kind of the idea. But when he says that he will purify the sons of Levi and that they will offer sacrifices pleasing as in the former days, what he's saying is that he will again, through the coming Messiah, reconcile the hearts of the later generation to the faithfulness of the previous generations. So, last point. Look over at chapter 4. Verse 6, the very last words. These are the last words of Yahweh through the prophet ringing in the ears of Israel as they anticipate the Messiah. And He says, He will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse. Those are the last words of the prophet. Now, this reconciliation that they should anticipate, I would submit, is with respect to fidelity to earlier generations. So that when he says that he's going to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children, children to the fathers, he's not suddenly, out of nowhere, introducing this idea that there's some kind of intergenerational strife, fathers and kids aren't getting along. And I mean, of course, the gospel does address family relations. Yes. And of course, the gospel, to the extent that it transforms parents and children, can bring a reconciliation and unity in the household. And often, Malachi has been preached that way. I submit that that's not exactly what he's getting at in chapter 4, verse 6. When he says that he's going to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children, he's picking up on this theme already in his prophecy that this generation of Israel is not keeping faith with that earlier generation. The former days. The days of old. Levi who was faithful. This idea that the sons are not faithful to the fathers. And again, as Isaiah says, the fathers don't even know the sons. Israel doesn't know us. Abraham doesn't recognize us. What he's saying is when the Gospel comes, he'll restore faithfulness so that the faith of the patriarchs will again be united to the faith of this latter generation. And that together they will serve God in faithfulness. And this is the accomplishment of the Gospel. So this is Malachi's prophecy addressing an unfaithful people who have in many ways made breach of the covenant. The Lord is reasserting his covenant prerogatives and honor. He will not stand for this. At the same time, he's filling the prophecy with hope and anticipation that the one who can clean up this mess is coming. Now, one little encouragement. We'll bring this up again through our series of Malachi. He says, chapter 3, verse 7, For from the days of the fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them." From the days of the fathers, saying the fathers were faithful, but since that time, there's just been a cycle of increasing unfaithfulness in Israel. Here's the exhortation, return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And this is the promise. He's telling this to this people, to this cynical and sarcastic and unbelieving people. He's saying, I will open wide to you if you will open wide to me. Return to me, I'll return to you. All right, let's pray and we'll go to our break.