Malachi 1 -- It's The Same Today With Us

Malachi took on the complaints the people were secretly voicing against God.  The first sin he named was their lack of love for God.  They would recite the Shema – “Love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” – but “they doubted that God even loved them, so why should they love Him?”

Malachi showed them God’s clear statement of His love for them, along with His electing grace.  My commentary had great insight into what appears troubling in verses 2&3 where the Lord says, “I loved Jacob but I hated Esau.”  It said, “The verb hate must not be defined as a positive expression of the wrath of God.  God’s love for Jacob was so great that, in comparison, His actions toward Esau looked like hatred.”  When a person mentioned having a problem with “…but I hated Esau…”, one preacher responded, ‘I have a greater problem with verse 2, where God says, ‘Jacob, I have loved.’”

Upon returning from captivity in Babylon, the Jews failed to take advantage of God’s opportunity to witness to the world of His grace and mercy and lapsed into the sins Malachi speaks of here, my commentary said,  “They missed their opportunity to glorify God … The trials we experience … are also opportunities to glorify God before a watching world … and that’s the way we must look at the testings God sends our way.  Every difficulty is an opportunity to demonstrate to others what the Lord can do for those who put their trust in Him.”

The priests were terribly disrespectful of God, even saying impudently, “How have we despised Your name??”  They received part of the offerings as food, and they began to accept anything people offered – even sick and blind animals!  “Our offerings to God are an indication of what’s in our hearts,” my commentary said.  For Malachi, “Better there was no religion at all than a religion that fails to give God the very best.  If our concept of God is so low that we think He’s pleased with cheap, halfhearted worship, then we don’t know the God of the Bible.  In fact, a God who encourages us to do less than our best is a God who isn’t worthy of worship,” my commentary added.

Father, thank You for wanting not just my halfhearted efforts, but my best.  Stay on my case, Father.  Don’t settle.  I know where I’d be if You hadn’t let Your Son give His best on the cross!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford