Meeting God, Again - Malachi - Sermon Manuscript

1 Meeting God, Again - Malachi - Sermon Manuscript We did it! We’ve made it to the end of this 15 week series! Along the way we’ve seen different themes crop up… themes like loyalty, faithfulness, idolatry, broken and restored relationships… But if you boil the minor prophets down to the basics: They invite us on a journey through history where the hearts of God’s people were far from Him, and yet God, in His love, constantly says: Return to Me, and I will return to you. So that’s what we’ve been focusing on - The idea of Meeting God, Again. I’m guessing this series resonated with each of us in different ways, but my main goal was to raise awareness that there is a real need for people to know Jesus. There are a lot of people in this world who have never heard about Jesus. But I’m guessing that for us, most people we know have at least heard about Him. I’m sure we could all think of people who have left God behind because they had questions about Him, but their questions were left unanswered or unsatisfied. Unfortunately what happens for some is that over time, those questions turn into accusations against God. Accusations like: God, why didn’t You answer my prayer? Why did you allow this horrible circumstance to happen to me? Why are so many of my non-Christians friends well off, but my family is struggling financially? This is what the book of Malachi is all about. It’s the last book in our Old Testament, and it was written about 100 years or so after the books of Haggai and Zechariah (the two previous books). Both Haggai and Zechariah wrote to motivate God’s people to worship God with a pure heart. But when we fast forward to Malachi, we see that their devotion to God was only temporary. 2 What I want to do today with the book of Malachi is to take you inside the head of God’s people: the Israelites. Because maybe your story isn’t one where you left God and eventually came back to Him. For some of us I know that’s the case - praise God that’s the case! But a lot of us can’t relate. So, Malachi provides us with a window inside the hearts of people who have deconstructed their faith and loyalty in Yahweh God. But Malachi does this in an interesting way... The whole book is set up like a courtroom case trial between God and the Israelites. If you have your Bible, or Bible app, go ahead and turn to Malachi with me. And while you get there, I want you to use your imagination… Place yourself inside a courtroom and imagine that God Himself is being put on trial. You’re not the jury - you’re just observing. Now picture the prophet Malachi as the mediator between Yahweh God and the Israelites. And I say “mediator” on purpose because Malachi isn’t like Judge Judy in this situation. Malachi is just the go-between... he’s the messenger for Yahweh God, who - let’s be real - is the ultimate Judge and Jury. The gavel comes down; Court is now in session. The Israelites (or the plaintiff’s) are bringing 5 allegations against Yahweh God, the Defendant. The Allegations go like this (check your sermon notes): 1. God doesn’t love me (1:2-5) 2. God asks too much of me (1:6-2:9, 3:6-12) 3. God won’t listen to me (2:10-16) 4. God isn’t fair (2:17-3:5) 5. God is a hypocrite (3:13-18) All of these boil down to the fact that God’s people thought He had abandoned them. But from God’s perspective, they left Him first! And let me just say… if you remember the show Judge Judy, those cases were said to be real (maybe?). But this case between Yahweh God and His people is 3 real… the people are real… this case is real, and the ruling is final! Let’s see how this plays out… Allegation #1 - God doesn’t love me! (1:2-5) Malachi 1:2-5 - “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ The Israelites’ question gives us a lot of insight. Despite their history with Yahweh God, they can’t see how He has loved them. Well, God answers by reminding them that He loved Jacob but hated Esau. This would have resonated with them but maybe it’s not so familiar with us... We talked about Jacob and Esau when I went through Obadiah about 8 weeks ago. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob who gave up his birthright for a plate of food. Eventually Esau moved from home and the land he and his wife settled in became known as the land of Edom. Jacob (aka Israel) also married and had 12 sons and they became known as the 12 tribes of Israel (“God’s people” = the Israelites). [Picture of High Places in Petra] So if you remember, the people from Esau’s family line were in Edom and made their homes in the high places. They thought they were untouchable. They thought that it didn’t matter who came against them, they lived high up in the rocks where no one could reach them. But God says in Malachi 1:4 that even if they are crushed by a foreign nation and try to rebuild, He will demolish them because of their wicked ways. They are not exempt from God’s judgement. The point here is that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from; if you don’t have a loving-loyalty to Yahweh God, then you will face judgment, because Yahweh God is the Almighty High God; His majesty extends beyond the borders of His people. He is the ultimate Creator God. Nothing is hidden from Him. 4 But despite the unfaithfulness of the Israelites, God still chooses to love them even in their judgement, because long ago He pronounced them to be His treasured possession. They were HIS nation! God promised that His nation would endure, and He keeps that promise! But that doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want. God requires absolute loyalty, and as we’ve seen in this series, the Israelites consistently chose other gods over Yahweh God. Every time they did that, they were breaking their end of the deal. That covenant promise was a two way street! And we’ve seen that God always held up His end of the deal, but the Israelites had a habit of breaking their end. So, when God chose to use His judgement against His own people, He was justified because they were the ones who broke the covenant with Him! But we know that Yahweh isn’t just this vengeful God because we’ve seen throughout the minor prophets that God has loved His people. He has protected them and sustained them throughout their history. So, for His people to say, “How have you loved us?” ...that must have been heartbreaking for God. It was a low-blow. They had no right to question how God has loved them. But the allegations continue - the Israelites were just getting started. Allegation #2 - God asks too much of me! (1:6-2:9, 3:6-12) This is the part of the case where God spends the most time with His defense. In Malachi 1:6 - 2:9 we see that the Israelites felt God was asking too much of them, so they decided to only give God their leftovers. God’s original commandment was that they were to offer the best of their flocks to Him, but instead they were offering Him blind, lame and diseased animals. God says in Malachi 1:8, “Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” 5 That’s like one of those questions that parents ask their children where the obvious answer is “no”. But what does it matter? So what if they weren’t giving God their best? Well, imagine paying your taxes with Monopoly money. Would our government accept that? No! Why? Because Monopoly money is worthless! If we’re honest with ourselves, the only reason we would consider giving Monopoly money to our government rather than real money is because giving real dollar bills is a real sacrifice. And that’s the point of God’s commandment. God wants His people to learn to depend on Him. Because the problem is that when they only depend on themselves, their hearts naturally wander far from Him. But let’s keep exploring this… Malachi 3:6-12 is another example of how God’s people were not depending on Him. Instead of giving a tenth of everything to the LORD as they were commanded in the Law (tithing, Leviticus 27:30), they decided to rob God of what was His. They kept everything for themselves. Now why would God - the Almighty, Infinite, Creator God - Why would He need anything from us? Well, He doesn’t. The whole purpose of the tithe was so that everyone supported everyone. It promoted equality (2 Corinthians 8:3, 13). The Old Testament teaches us that at least 10% of everybody’s earnings and possessions would go to support the priests and the poor (who didn’t own farms/fields/flocks).

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