Written by: Ruth Mills

Malachi 1 v 1-5
This message is the word of the LORD given to Israel through Malachi.
The LORD said, “I have loved you.”
But you ask, “How have you loved us?”
The LORD said, “Esau and Jacob were brothers. I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. I destroyed his mountain country and left his land to the wild dogs of the desert.”
The people of Edom might say, “We were destroyed, but we will go back and rebuild the ruins.”
But the LORD All-Powerful says, “If they rebuild them, I will destroy them. People will say, ‘Edom is a wicked country. The LORD is always angry with the Edomites.’ You will see these things with your own eyes. And you will say, ‘The LORD is great, even outside the borders of Israel!’ ”

Notes 
Malachi is one of the Prophets of the Old Testament and wrote to Israel God’s chosen nation. 

God chose Israel over Edom just as he chose Jacob over Esau. Edom could never rebuild their city as God was not for them but against them. This should have shown Israel both how powerful God was and how honoured they were to be loved by him.

Here we read that people will say ‘the Lord is great, even outside the borders of Israel’, God is powerful in the whole world, God does not only work in the confines of his chosen people, then, just like today God is powerful beyond those borders.

We are often blinded by love and can’t see when it is there. Like with parents, we can sometimes turn round and say to them, ‘you don’t love me’, especially if you’ve just been disciplined over something. Sometimes though the reason for the actions is because of the love that person has for us.

God chose Israel so he could demonstrate his love to all nations. Israel at that time did not respond to God’s love, God could neither love them nor love others through them. Doesn’t that make you wonder why God didn’t just destroy them like Edom?

God promises to love us no matter what we have done. We can either accept or reject that love. He wants us to love him and show his love to others. 

Malachi 1 v 6-9
The LORD All-Powerful says, “A child honors his father, and a servant honors his master. I am a father, so why don’t you honor me? I am a master, so why don’t you respect me? You priests do not respect me.
“But you ask, ‘How have we shown you disrespect?’
“You have shown it by bringing unclean food to my altar.
“But you ask, ‘What makes it unclean?’
“It is unclean because you don’t respect the altar of the LORD. When you bring blind animals as sacrifices, that is wrong. When you bring crippled and sick animals, that is wrong. Try giving them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? He wouldn’t accept you,” says the LORD All-Powerful.
“Now ask God to be kind to you, but he won’t accept you with such offerings,” says the LORD All-Powerful.

Notes 
Here God is accusing the priests of failing to honour and respect him. They were not obeying God’s law about sacrifice, that the offerings should be perfect gifts. The priests not only offered imperfect gifts but they allowed others to offer imperfect gifts to God. The priests don’t even seem to have noticed how this might disrespect God, but it showed God how little they really respected who he was.

The New Testament says that our lives should be living sacrifices to God (Romans 12 v 1). How often do we give God imperfect gifts though our lives, by only giving him the remnants of our time, money and energy? It’s often easy to neglect God and only give what we feel we have to, not giving him our best and our all. By our actions we also show others how much God means to us. If by our actions we disrespect God then how much will that affect others respecting God? Doesn’t God then have the right to say that if we don’t respect him we are just like the priests in Malachi’s time? 

Ask God to forgive you for not showing him how much you really respect who he is and what he means to you. Strive to me more respectful in your offerings to God not just in money but in the time you spend and the energy you give to him. Give God your best today, not just the leftover bits!

Malachi 1 v 10-12
“I wish one of you would close the Temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you and will not accept your gifts,” says the LORD All-Powerful. “From the east to the west I will be honored among the nations. Everywhere they will bring incense and clean offerings to me, because I will be honored among the nations,” says the LORD All-Powerful.
“But you don’t honor me. You say about the Lord’s altar, ‘It is unclean, and the food has no worth.’ 

Notes 
‘From the east to the west….I will be honored among the nations’ quite a powerful statement that no-one else but God could make. In Malachi’s time it was the Jewish nation who were chosen by God and through whom he planned to save and bless the world. Today it is us as Christians who are his chosen people, God still wants to save and bless the world through those who believe in him.

Are you prepared to be used by God so that others will hear the Good News about Jesus? 

As Christians we should all want to tell others of how God has made an impact on our lives. We are like the priests, responsible for reflecting God’s character. God calls us to be witnesses to friends, family and also to people we may not even know, this will not be solely through our words but also through our actions. 

Some people may feel called to go to another country and work as a missionary but not all of us are. There are mission fields at home as well as abroad wherever you may be, projects in your area, activities your church maybe involved in. There are many ways of being actively involved, you can pray for others you know who are actively doing something and support them in that way or by giving to mission organisations. What are you doing today to help spread the Good News about Jesus?

Malachi 1 v 13-14
You say, ‘We are tired of doing this,’ and you sniff at it in disgust,” says the LORD All-Powerful.
“And you bring hurt, crippled, and sick animals as gifts. You bring them as gifts, but I won’t accept them from you,” says the LORD. “The person who cheats will be cursed. He has a male animal in his flock and promises to offer it, but then he offers to the Lord an animal that has something wrong with it. I am a great king,” says the LORD All-Powerful, “and I am feared by all the nations.

Notes 
For the priests worship had become tiring and a burden. They had therefore become lax in what they were offering to God.

Many people expect that by following God their lives will be made easier and more comfortable, but God never promises life will be easier. In fact more commonly life can seem harder at times. 

Living a life to God’s standards is no mean feet. We often fail but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. If we ask him God will help and guide us. And thanks to God’s grace through Jesus we can still be saved. However we should still strive to be God like and continue to offer our life to God in what we do.

The good news is that God doesn’t leave us to strive on our own. Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit as a ‘helper’. We see the disciples given power by the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 and the same Holy Spirit of God is available to help us today, all we need to do is ask.

In life we often face decisions and choices, sometimes that may include standing up for what we believe in and following God. Those choices may be small or more major life changing issues, such as poverty or suffering. Decisions like these are never easy to make but if serving God is important to us we should be willing to give our all to God. What we have to give up now is nothing in comparison to what we will gain – eternal life with God.

Malachi 2 v 1-6
“Priests, this command is for you. Listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Honor my name,” says the LORD All-Powerful. “If you don’t, I will send a curse on you and on your blessings. I have already cursed them, because you don’t pay attention to what I say.
“I will punish your descendants. I will smear your faces with the animal insides left from your feasts, and you will be thrown away with it. Then you will know that I am giving you this command so my agreement with Levi will continue,” says the LORD All-Powerful. “My agreement for priests was with the tribe of Levi. I promised them life and peace so they would honor me. And they did honor me and fear me. They taught the true teachings and spoke no lies. With peace and honesty they did what I said they should do, and they kept many people from sinning.

Notes 
Here God says he is going to punish the priests descendants for the fact that they are neglecting him. They were not taking seriously the priority God was expecting from them although he had often reminded them. He had made an agreement with Levi who was the ancestor of the tribe of Levites who were set apart for service to God. God was specifically addressing the priests from that tribe, as they should have been listening to the laws given to their ancestor.

How do you know what is important to someone? Often you talk with them and listen to what they have to say. But sometimes its not as simple as that, we have to think about what they are saying through their words and what it really means, not just brushing over it lightly but taking it to heart and thinking it through. People are often good at giving out hints as to how they feel about something without saying clearly what they think. 

How then can we know what is important to God? Firstly we should love him and do that with all our heart, soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6 v5). Then we need to listen to what God is saying to us through his word, we shouldn’t just brush it aside but apply our heart, mind and will to what he is saying. 

What God is saying to us should be a light to the way we live. The priests that we read about here had stopped listening to God and therefore did not want to be guided by him. 

Are you willing to be guided by God? If so stop and listen, ask him to speak to you today.

Malachi 2 v 7-9
“A priest should teach what he knows, and people should learn the teachings from him, because he is the messenger of the LORD All-Powerful. But you priests have stopped obeying me. With your teachings you have caused many people to do wrong. You have broken the agreement with the tribe of Levi!” says the LORD All-Powerful. “You have not been careful to do what I say, but instead you take sides in court cases. So I have caused you to be hated and disgraced in front of everybody.”

Notes 
Imagine you were is a class at college being taught Economics and knew the lecturer had never done Economics before in their life, would you listen to them? Would you take careful note of what they were saying and then put it into practice? Hopefully you wouldn’t, you’d only want to take note of someone that really understood the subject, had taught it before and had experience.

Here the priests were God’s messengers but they weren’t listening to God and therefore didn’t know God’s will. However they were still teaching people and therefore leading them astray. God was certainly displeased with them not just for them not listening but because they were hindering others.

If we are going to be God’s witnesses and ‘teach’, sometimes by our actions more than our words, we need to teach what we know. We can only be a witness to God’s love in Jesus if we know it for ourselves.

The priests were also taking sides in issues, letting favoured people break the law. God was not happy with the double standards. How often have you heard children say “that’s not fair” but all of us get annoyed if we are treaded unjustly. As Christians we need to treat people properly and not live with ‘double standards’. For example, it is easy to only want to be sociable with certain ‘in’ people and exclude others. James (chapter 2 v 1-9) talks about not having favourites and how God sees us all as equals. We should strive to follow his example and treat everyone justly and equally.

Malachi 2 v 10-12
We all have the same father; the same God made us. So why do people break their promises to each other and show no respect for the agreement our ancestors made with God? The people of Judah have broken their promises. They have done something God hates in Israel and Jerusalem: The people of Judah did not respect the Temple that the LORD loves, and the men of Judah married women who worship foreign gods. Whoever does this might bring offerings to the LORD All-Powerful, but the LORD will still cut that person off from the community of Israel.

Notes 
You may be married, engaged or single but God needs to be a part of the relationships in your life. 

Imagine a football team where some players don’t want to score any goals, which is a fundamental part of the game, without that shared objective the game is much harder. Relationships can be similar.

Here the men of Judah were marrying women who worshipped foreign gods. Because they didn’t share the same beliefs Israel’s religion was gradually being lost. If you are in a relationship with a non-Christian it can be easier for you to find excuses not to go to Church, you can slowly be pulled away from what you believe, even if that is not your intention. This can be really hard especially if you genuinely love the person, perhaps you began the relationship or even got married before you became a Christian. 

As a Christian you should also add to your mental checklist of what you are looking for in someone ‘are they a Christian?’ Like with other aspects of a relationship, that other person can influence you and if you don’t have things in common it can cause divisions. 

Pray today that God will be working in your relationships. If you are in relationship with a non-Christian then ask God to show himself to that person through you. Marriage is a commitment for life but if you are not married to that person hold your relationship before God, as Christians God must come before anyone else.

This is not just true of those in non-Christian relationships, there are many relationships where both people are Christians and yet all is not well. Each one of us needs to put our relationship with God first, if we are more like Jesus then all our relationships will be better.


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes