The Lord accused the people in yesterday's passage of bringing offerings and sacrifices that don't meet the criteria of the law. The people were going through the motions of worship but had lost the heart of their worship, becoming lukewarm in their devotion to God. Today the Lord further explores the topic of their failure to give Him their best. They have been bringing the worst of their herds and flocks to the temple, offering animals that are blind or sick or lame. The Lord pointed out in yesterday's study that they wouldn't dare offer such animals to their governor (pechath, indicating a Persian lieutenant or viceroy). In ancient times a person could pay his taxes with animals or goods instead of money. A vassal state, such as Malachi's nation was at the time, could pay tribute with animals. But they had to be the best, and no citizen of Jerusalem would have even thought of offering a blind or lame or sick animal to a Persian official, yet they were offering these to Almighty God.
The Lord looks on the inappropriate offerings that are brought to Him at the temple and remarks sarcastically, "'Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will He accept you?'---says the Lord Almighty." (Malachi 1:9) This verse causes me to picture someone bringing the least valuable lamb from his flock and presenting it to the Lord, then stepping back and piously praying, "Lord, show us grace! Show us mercy!" Such a thing is offensive to the Lord. If we refuse to give Him our best, how can we expect to receive His favor? The refusal to give God our best...to give Him something that costs us...is a symptom of a lukewarm heart. The bringing of inappropriate offerings and sacrifices in the book of Malachi is an outward symptom of an inward problem: the people are withholding their best offerings from God because they are withholding their hearts from God.
The people's insincerity makes the Lord feel weary. Have you ever known someone whose professed devotion to you was fake and whose compliments were insincere? It's wearisome to deal with a person like that. It makes us wish they'd just leave us alone. The Lord knows that feeling! "'Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on My altar! I am not pleased with you,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to Me, because My name will be great among the nations,' says the Lord Almighty." (Malachi 1:10-11)
When we studied the book of Isaiah we noted a number of references to a time when the Gentiles would come to believe on the God of Israel. Here in Malachi we find more proof that something is going to happen that will turn the world upside down. In Malachi's day the Gentiles were still bowing down to idols, engaging in useless and repetitive pagan rituals, and calling out the names of gods who did not exist. In Malachi's day the hearts of the Gentiles did not belong to the Lord, but then neither did the hearts of many of God's people Israel. The "pure offering" the Lord is looking for is the heart that is completely devoted to Him. The literal offerings and sacrifices made at the temple in Malachi's times reflect a coolness of the heart, so the Lord points out that although His name doesn't appear to be revered very much at Jerusalem in those days, His name is going to be great among the Gentiles.
Why is this going to happen? Because God is going to give His best! He's going to give His only Son. Because God did not withhold His very best from mankind, millions of hearts from "the nations" have turned to Him and have devoted to Him the "pure offering" of faith and devotion. This does not mean that the Lord has rejected Israel or that any of His promises to her have been made void. The Apostle Paul, a man of the tribe of Benjamin and a former Pharisee, vehemently refutes the very idea that God has turned His favor from Israel. "Did God reject His people? By no means!" (Romans 11:1) Chapter 11 of the book of Romans deals with the great mystery in which salvation came to the Gentiles through the Jews and how salvation will come to the Jews through the Gentiles. It is too lengthy to include in our study today, but if you have the time it would be good to read it along with our passage from Malachi. From the very beginning it was always God's intention to make Jews and Gentiles part of the same family. His family will be made up of the natural children (the Jews) and the adopted children (the Gentiles). How will He do this? Through the best gift He ever gave: His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord now concludes His discourse on the pitiful offerings He has been receiving at the temple. He says that by bringing inappropriate offerings the people have profaned His name. "But you profane it by saying, 'The Lord's table is defiled,' and, 'Its food is contemptible.' And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously,' says the Lord Almighty. 'When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?' says the Lord. 'Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and My name is to be feared among the nations.'" (Malachi 1:12-14) The people who are engaging in insincere worship are as weary of it as the Lord is. (This is not to say that all the people were insincere; God has always had His faithful ones in every era. In our own times there are those in the church whose hearts are sincerely on fire for God and then there are those who are active in church work for reasons of their own.) Good works done in our own strength are wearying to both body and mind, but good works done through the power of the Holy Spirit are invigorating and energizing.
Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. We find the Lord's grace displayed in the fact that He ends the Old Testament by pointing out what a sacrifice should not be, and that He begins the New Testament by providing mankind with everything a sacrifice should be. He hands down a stinging indictment in Malachi over the blemished sacrifices the people are bringing to the temple, yet He is still willing to offer the "acceptable male" of His own flock for the sins of mankind. An "acceptable male" had to be without defect or blemish according to the laws found in Leviticus 22, and so God offered His only Son, the perfect and holy Lamb of God, in whom was found no fault or defect or blemish. After reading the derisive commentary we find in the short book of Malachi on the state of the people's hearts, we might expect the Lord to throw up His hands in defeat and say, "I'm done!" But instead the New Testament opens with this surprising and welcome announcement, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)
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