Malachi Lesson #02

Related Articles

Malachi

September 21, 2015

Malachi Lesson 01

January 11, 2010

Malachi Lesson #03

January 11, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

MALACHI 1:1-6b
Lesson #02
GOD’S LOVE, SO GREAT!

• Memory Verse: Mal 1:5

• Read Mal 1:1-6b

 

• “The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel…”

 

(1)
• The word “burden” (massa) has a very special meaning that requires some explanation.
  • This word has the idea of something heavy to be lifted up.
  • The “burden” is the Word of God, but it has a special aspect in view. In other words, the burden is not all of the Word of God, but that part that relates to judgment.
    • Therefore, the burden that Malachi brings to the people is the Word of God that specifically relates to a judgment that God will bring upon His people.
    • For the prophet, it is a burden he must carry to the people that God has called him to deliver.
      • Because the nature of the Word or message is judgment, it is a heavy burden for the prophet to bear to his own people.
      • It is not a happy message that people will gladly receive. Instead it is an unpopular message that cost many an Old Testament prophet his life.
• The burden or word of judgment is addressed to Israel.
  • Because God uses the name Israel, He refers to all the 12 tribes of Israel.
    • This is an important point because there are some people who say that there are the lost tribes of Israel.
    • There are no lost tribes of Israel. All of the 12 tribes went into captivity in Babylon. Yes, they entered into captivity at different times, but they all ended up in Babylon.
      • First the Northern Kingdom was defeated by the Assyrians and taken to Babylon in 720-721 BC.
      • Then the Southern Kingdom was defeated by the Babylonians and taken to Babylon in 586 BC.
    • Some from each of the 12 tribes RETURN ed from the Babylonian captivity to the Promised Land to become one unified nation called Israel.
      • All the tribes were represented in “Judah” when they RETURN ed to the Promised Land. (2Chr 12:6; 21:2; 28:19)
    • While in Malachi’s day there were still some Israelites that remained in Babylon and had not RETURN ed to the Promised Land, God considered all of them to be His people of the nation of Israel.
    • When Jesus Christ came 400 years after Malachi, He offered himself to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (all the tribes) in Mat 10:6.
    • All the tribes existed in the land during the New Testament times. (Mat 4:13,15 Luk 2:36 Act 4:36 Phi 3:5 Jam 1:1)
    • Peter used the terms “Jews”, “Judea”, “men of Israel”, and ‘house of Israel” interchangeably and synonymous in Acts 2:5, 14, 22, and 36.

 

• “I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?”

 

(2)
• God declares His love for His people:
  • In these Hebrew words, God’s love is in the past and in the present. It is the unconditional “agape” love that did not depend on Israel’s actions. (Deu 7:7-8 Deu 10:15 Deu 23:5)
    • God’s love was sovereignly given to His people forever. (Jer 31:3)
      • God has engraved them on the palms of his hands. (Isa 49:14-16)
      • God’s love is expressed to Israel as the “apple of God’s eye” (Deu 32:10)
        • The pupil of the eye acts like a mirror. Israel is the reflected image in the eye of God. Israel is so precious that she is in the center of God’s attention and quickly protected.
    • God’s love for Israel is like:
      • A husband for a wife. (Mal 2:11 Hosea)
      • A father for a son (Mal 1:6 Exo 4:22 Hos 11:1)
• The reason for God’s declaration:
  • You can imagine the great trauma and disappointment of a people that believed in God’s love for them to suddenly find themselves as defeated slaves in a foreign land. Even though God gave them warning after warning about the coming judgment of the Babylonian captivity because of their idolatry, the people were in denial. They said that a loving God would never allow the destruction of Jerusalem and the beautiful temple.
  • That loving God permitted the consequences of sin to run its course. Now the people are back in the Promised Land and they no longer believe in the love of God. For that reason we find God’s declaration of love at the beginning of this book.
  • The prophets had told the people that the kingdom would be restored to Israel when they were again in the Promised Land, but after 100 years since the Babylonian captivity, they were still under foreign domination.
  • The prophets had promised prosperity to the people when they were in the land, but Israel was not prospering to the extent that they expected. The quality and beauty of the rebuilt temple was an example of a decreased prosperity.
  • Read Eph 3:17-19
    • God’s love fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
    • This declaration of the love of God reminds us of an old hymn entitled “The Love of God” by F. M. Lehman (1916). The third stanza was found written on the walls of an insane asylum and incorporated into the hymn by F. M. Lehman. The hymn that included the third stanza was actually written nearly 1000 years ago by Rabbi Mayer, a Jewish songwriter in 1096. His poem (Hadamut) has 90 couplets in the form of an acrostic. Rabbi Mayer’s son was a cantor in Worms, Germany.

“[1] The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
CHORUS:
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall for evermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
[2] When years of time shall pass away, and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race-The saints’ and angels’ song.
[3] Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.”

• It is this kind of love that the Israelites needed to believe and trust once more, for they say in verse 2, “Wherein has thou loved us?”
  • This statement comes from discouragement. It is this kind of all encompassing love that we see in this hymn that all men need when coming through difficult times in life.
  • This statement questioning God’s love is the result of ingratitude for what God had done for them. He had permitted them to continue to exist as a people. He RETURN ed them to the Promised Land, He had given them revival under Ezra and Nehemiah, and He had given them rest from enemy attacks.
  • Where love is most manifested, it is often least appreciated.
• God gives them an interesting answer, “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau…” (2-3)
  • God, by divine selection, chose Jacob instead of Esau. Neither one was worth choosing for Jacob was a deceiver and an opportunist. Esau had no heart for the things of God. However, God specifically chose Jacob, and it is through Jacob that the twelve tribes of Israel were brought into existence.
  • Therefore, God’s answer to the Israelites is that they could know of God’s love by his choice of Jacob.
    • But what about Esau? Didn’t God love Esau?

• Read Rom 9:10-15
• Read Heb 12:15-17

• How do we explain God’s hatred for Esau?
  • Esau hated the things of God, while Jacob desired them even though he went about getting them in a dishonest way. God loves the sinner but he hates the sin. God sees the potential in man’s heart. He saw the potential in Jacob while there was no spiritual potential in Esau.
  • It is through opposites that we come to understand the depth of a concept. If God simply said that he loved Jacob we would not get the depth of that love without the concept that He hated Esau. It is by contrast that we come to understand the great depth of God’s love for Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel.
    • Jesus used this same concept of exaggeration in Luk 14:26:

 

• “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

 

• By the word “hate” Jesus means in contrast to an infinitely greater love.

• Actions speak louder than words. (4-5)
  • God told them that His actions prove his love for Jacob.
    • Edom was the nation founded from Esau and his descendants.
    • Through their history, God never favored Edom. Instead God protected and preserved Jacob and his descendants. God permitted the failure of Edom to the point that eventually this nation disappeared. They were destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and finally by the Nabataeans. (550-400 BC.) However, Jacob’s descendants still exist today as a testimony of God’s great love for Israel.
      • Seven events led to the complete destruction of Edom:
        • They did not allow Moses and his people to pass through the land.
        • Many of Israel’s kings had to defend Israel against these people, the Edomites.
        • Edom did not help Judah when Jerusalem was invaded by Babylon.
        • Edom rejoiced over Judah’s captivity in Babylon.
        • Edom looted Jerusalem after the Babylonians destroyed it.
        • Edom helped Israel’s enemies by preventing the Jews to flee.
        • Edom delivered the Israelites to their enemies.

 

• “The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel”

 

(5)
• Through all history Israel is at the center of God’s plan, so that finally in the Millennial Kingdom to come, the Jews will honor Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord (Zec 12:10), so that God will bless them with all the Promised Land and the fulfillment of his promises to Abraham.
• The word, “from” means beyond. Believers will come from all parts of the world to worship God in the Millennial Kingdom.

 

• “…if I then be a father, where is mine honor?

 

(6)
• God considered the Israelites His children. However, the Israelites never thought of God as a father. They never considered their relationship with God as a parent / child relationship. They thought of God as a master and they were His servants.
  • However, in that concept, the Israelites did not fear God as they would fear a master. (6)
• It is the father / son relationship that God had in mind throughout history.
  • We see Jesus explain it more fully.
    • Read Mat 6:6-9

• Summary and Application:
  • In the New Testament, the believer in Jesus Christ profits from the same abundant and unconditional love given by grace that God gave to Israel.
    • God’s love was so great that he sent His son to this earth to die on the cross for us. (Joh 3:16 Rom 5:8 Gal 2:20 Eph 5:2 1Joh 3:16)
    • God’s love is given to believers in Jesus Christ (Rom 5:5)
    • Nothing can separate the believer from God’s love. (Rom 8:35, 39)
    • God’s love in the believer makes the believer a conqueror. (Rom 8:37)
    • God’s love to the believer is by grace and mercy. (Eph 2:4)
    • Through love God makes us part of His family (1Joh 3:1)
    • Through God’s love He gives us eternal life. (1Joh 4:9-10)
    • God is love. (1Joh 4:16)
  • Unlike Israel, we must have gratitude for God’s abundant love that touches our lives every day.

HOMEWORK
Malachi 1:6c-14
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Mal 1:1-6b
  • What is your level of gratitude for the love that God has for you?

 

• Do you question God’s love when you do not get your way?

 

• Do you murmur and complain because your life is not as blessed as others?

 

• Make it a project this week to look for God’s love and blessings in your life.
• Thank Him daily for the love and blessings you discovered and previously forgot.

 

• Preparation for Mal 1:6c-14
• Read Mal 1:6c-14
  • How did the people dishonor God?

• What were the failures of the priests?

• In which verse is there a promise of this New Testament age of grace?

• Memory Verse: 1Pet 2:9