Malachi 2 -- Losing The Specialness

God gave Malachi a message for the priests who were dishonoring His name.  They’d let their specialness slip away.  “They despised the very privilege of being priests.  They were taking for granted the high calling God had given them … Serving at the altar was a job, not a ministry, and they did it to please themselves, not to please and glorify the Lord.”  They received part of the offerings for their own us as food, and that’s about all they cared about.  They kept the people happy so that the offerings would continue to roll in.

God had already brought insects to ruin their crops (which shorted the offerings), and now He even suggested that He could make their seed not germinate.  My commentary also said, “It’s possible that the word seed may refer to their children…. God could prevent even the human seed from being productive… God would turn their children, who should be a blessing, into a burden and a curse.  It would be painful not to have children, but it would also be painful to have children who daily broke your heart and created grief in the home.”

I also read, “Nothing is so deadening to the divine as an habitual dealing with the outside of spiritual things.  What the priests were doing wasn’t ministry; it was only ritual, empty religious formality that disgusted the Lord.”

Jewish men were also divorcing their wives to marry pagan women.  “After committing these sins, the men then brought offerings to the Lord and wept at the altar, seeking His help and blessing.  Perhaps they had the idea that they could sin blatantly with the intention of coming to God for forgiveness.  But if they were truly repentant, they would have forsaken their heathen wives and taken their true wives back… These men were guilty of hypocritical worship that has nothing to do with a changed heart.”

Father, I’ve watched lately in my own life as my opportunities to teach about You have greatly diminished, and without that constant “holy pressure” that teachers feel when teaching Your word to others, I’ve seen my own life slipping.  I don’t want to lose the specialness of the calling to ministry.  I’ve also experienced the pain of my children breaking my heart through their choices.  I want to be careful now not to let anything deaden the divine in my heart, and that’s what comes from not dealing with spiritual things, but with worldly things.  I don’t want my worship to become ritual, empty religious formality.  I don’t want to sin blatantly with the intention of coming to You for forgiveness.  Help me to forsake anything that threatens to pull me away from You.  Don’t let anything tear my heart away from You.  Keep it changed.  Don’t let my worship become hypocritical.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford