The Religious Nerd

Malachi, along with the other prophetic books, is stuffed full of the voice of God thundering down on His people, the Jews.  The prophetic books generally contain indictments against the unrepentant sin of the people, and prophecy of future events that will occur.  In the book of Malachi (the last book of the Old Testament right before Matthew) God get’s right to the point and launches His case against the outright disobedience and carelessness of the Jewish people.  In chapters 1-2, God focuses specifically on the Priesthood. Throughout the Old Testament, God lays out the specific ways He expects the priests to complete their work.  These priests are trained thoroughly, and from a young age.  There is no excuse for ignorance as they knew precisely what God expected from them and yet they got lazy.  How did they get lazy?  Read here:

⁶ “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’⁷ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s Table may be despised. ⁸ When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? Says the Lord of hosts. ⁹ And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. ¹⁰ Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.¹¹ For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be^[b] great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. ¹² But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. ¹³ But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. ¹⁴ Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”  Malachi 1:6-14

You may be wondering what this Old Testament scripture speaking on the failures of the priesthood has to do with you. I put together a list of 8 reasons why this text is relevant to you today as a Christian.  Keep in mind the original context of Malachi 1-2 is the worthiness of God in receiving acceptable sacrifices/worship.  Ask yourself this question as you go down the list: “Is my worship acceptable to God?”

1. Do you really believe God is worthy of praise or are you just saying it? Vs. 6b.  God uses the example of the relationship between a father and his son and a master and his slave to remind Israel of who exactly is in charge.  We often forget our place in the family of God. Consider this, our relationship with our earthly father often represents our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  If we do not respect and revere our earthly father, how can we possibly respect and revere our Heavenly Father? The two go hand in hand.  The same goes for our governing authorities.  I have heard things like “Barack Obama is not my president” or “I hate that guy”.  I hate to break it to you, but yes, as of today Barack Obama is your president and you should treat him with respect as he is an authority figure over you, and no authority figures are allowed to take office outside of the providence of God (see Romans 13). If you aren’t respectful of those people who are over you, you aren’t worshiping God either.
2. Religious people are often the problem . Vs. 6b. It’s often the people who consider themselves to be extremely religious or who appear extremely Godly in Church on Sunday morning who are secretly guilty of being lazy in their walk with God.  Anyone can put on a show Sunday morning, but if your actions do not live up to the Sunday morning performance, God knows what you are up to.  Religious people are offended by a girl who shows up to church in pants, and then they wear sweatpants at home later that same day.  They say “God’s house is holy” to justify their judgment forgetting that God is omnipresent and is with us every minute of every hour of the day. If you rely on outward appearance to gain you respect in your local church community, you aren’t worshiping God in Spirit and truth ( See John 4:24)
3. God tells us what He expects from us Vs.7  We knowingly choose to disobey Him, and then we question God ” How have we polluted you?”  God lays out what is expected from us in His Word.  Like the priests, we cannot claim ignorance.  We cannot justify our sinful actions before God.  For example, the Bible says that sexual immorality is a sin.  Young unmarried’s engage in oral sex and try to justify it saying it isn’t sexual intercourse.  To God, any sexual act outside of the marriage covenant is a sin.  He knows what you are up to in secret, you can’t hide it from Him. As Christians we need to study His Word and work diligently to obey it even if it seems inconvenient to us. If you have no interest in learning what He expects from you, you likewise have no interest in worshiping God.
4. Often times we offer more to our boss than we do to God. Vs. 8.  Have you ever gone to a job interview before?  If you are smart, you likely dressed up in your best clothes, got a hair cut, clipped your finger nails, and prepared for the interview the day before. You likely showed up early.  You were probably nervous as you didn’t know what questions to expect or if you would impress the hiring manager.  When was the last time you went through that sort of ordeal for God?  We often show up to church late, leave early, focus on the wrong things while there, or simply skip church all together for something else that seemed more fun at the time (such as sleep or a football game).  Why it is that we give more of ourselves to our manager than we give to God?  Why do we fear our manager more than we fear God?  The response is often “my manager controls my salary”.  You wouldn’t have one penny if God didn’t give it to you! If you don’t tithe to your local church, you aren’t worshiping God, you are worshiping your money.
5. If you get lazy with God, He won’t accept your worship! Vs. 10.  If you have spent the week involved in unrepentant sin and then on Sunday morning you show up to church so that you can feel good, God will not accept your worship and He takes no pleasure in it.  People do not realize that worshiping God is an event that takes place 7 days a week.  Worship isn’t simply allocated to 2 hours on Sunday morning.  We are to strive to glorify God in every area of our lives.  If you are involved in unrepentant sin (sex before marriage, getting drunk all the time, porn addiction, drug use, gossip, stealing cable/internet, etc) God knows about it and will not accept your worship of Him until you repent.  The priests in Malachi were not repentant of their sinful behavior, and God called them out on it.  Repent of your sins and then worship God. A lifestyle of unrepentant sin is not acceptable to God and therefore is not worshiping Him.
6. God’s excellence is visible 24 hours a day. Vs. 11.  If you can’t see it your heart is in the wrong place. Often times we need some sort of external encouragement to motivate us to improve.  Our encouragement exists both internally and externally. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit who empowers us to grow in Godliness on a daily basis.  We also have the hope that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  God is all around us and operating through us.  We need to be constantly aware especially in those difficult times in life so that we can overcome sin and get through the rough times. If you don’t worship God during the tough times, you aren’t truly worshiping Him in the good times.
7. God knows what resources are available to you. Vs.14a  He knows if you’re poor.  He know’s if you’re comfortable, He know’s if you’re rich.  He knows what you do with your time.  If you give Him a blemished offering He knows.  There is no excuse for not tithing to your local church.  In fact, if you willfully chose to hold back your tithe to God, He is grossly offended by it.  Tithing is a delight, not a burden. “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,” 1 John 5:3. If you don’t tithe, you are failing at offering acceptable worship to God.
8. You are a member of the royal priesthood! While you aren’t an Old Testament priest, you are a member of the “royal priesthood, a people belonging to God” 1 Peter 2:9.  It’s always important to consider what application can be made while studying any scripture regardless of whether it’s OT or NT.  Yes, you do have to consider context, that is an essential step in good Bible study methods.  While Malachi is largely God indicting the Jewish priesthood for their disobedience and laziness, there are many lessons that we can learn from it as Christians today!  We have to strive to worship God in an acceptable way.  We can’t pretend to be ignorant, and we can’t get away with being lazy. (See Romans 12:1) We must seek to discover the areas of our lives that aren’t being lived to the glory of God and work hard at improving those things.

Just remember, there is a difference between acceptable and unacceptable worship.  If you are failing to worship God in anyway, I encourage you to think about it and make a decision to change. I hope this has been encouraging to you and would love to read your comments!