Malachi Lesson #03

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Malachi

September 21, 2015

Malachi Lesson 01

January 11, 2010

Malachi Lesson #02

January 11, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

MALACHI 1:6c-14
Lesson #03
DESECRATED WORSHIP

• Memory Verse: 1Pet 2:9

 

• Background: The priesthood.
• God initiated the pattern of the priesthood with Aaron, the brother of Moses. Aaron was the first high priest. All the priests were to be from the tribe of Levi.
  • The priests had the responsibility to be intermediaries between God and the people, and they had the responsibility to maintain the temple.
    • They represented the people before God = They offered animal sacrifice to God to cover the sins of the people.
    • They represented God before the people = They conveyed the blessings, love, and mercy from God to the people.
  • The priests had the highest position in the land as there was no Israelite king at the time of Malachi.
    • They had the responsibility to teach the people holiness and the Law of God.
    • They functioned as judges in the court.
  • The ceremony to establish a priest in his position was elaborate and had the purpose of impressing upon him the importance of his position between God and the people.
• After the Israelites RETURN ed from 70 years in captivity, they rebuilt the temple and reestablished the priesthood according to the Law of Moses.
• By the time Malachi wrote this book, the priests had desecrated their position, disgraced the name of God, and the people had no respect for them.
• Read Mal 1:6-10

 

• “where is my honor….where is my fear….?”

 

(6)
• The Hebrew word, “honor”, means = glory.
  • The people did not respect the priests and therefore did not give glory to God.
  • The Mosaic Law said that a son must honor his father, but the priests broke that law when did not honor their heavenly father.
    • As a result, they defamed the name of God before the people.

 

• “…O priests that despise my name. And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name?”

 

(6c)
• The Israelites considered this to be a shocking statement, and in their blinded innocence they asked for evidence.
  • When the Israelites RETURN ed to the Promised Land, they rebuilt the temple and reestablished the priesthood.
    • They reestablished the priesthood without including the idolatry that they had fallen into before the captivity. Because of that, they considered their actions to be holy and acceptable to God.
    • However, the priests did not maintain personal holiness and personal integrity which were to be good examples to the people. Therefore, the priesthood was a corrupt system internally.
      • They did not teach the people God’s standards of worship.
    • The priests were spiritually blind. (Mat 15:14)
  • The corrupt priesthood:
    • What practices made their system corrupt?
      • Polluted animal sacrifice on the altar (the brazen altar) (7-8)
        • These sacrifices were considered “bread” to the Lord. (Lev 21:6 Eze 44:7)
        • The animals that were offered as a sacrifice to God cost the animal his life, but it did not cost the worshipper.
          • The word “sacrifice” means = to surrender something of value for the sake of something of higher value.
          • An animal had an intrinsic value that the worshipper offered to God who had a higher value. Therefore, in contrast, the value of the animal called attention to God’s higher value. The more valuable the animal, the more value and honor did God receive.
        • The people brought their animals as an offering to God, but those animals were inferior in value. They were not perfect animals. They were blind, lame, or sick.
          • Read Deu 15:21
          • In other words, the animal had no value to the worshipper. Therefore when he offered it to God, its lower value depreciated the value of God himself in the eyes of the people.
          • If they took that same poor animal without any value as a gift to the governor, how would he receive it? (8) It would not honor the governor nor would he look with favor upon the giver of such a gift. Then, isn’t God worthy of more honor than the governor?
        • The priests offered these sick animals without washing their hands or changing their clothes between the sacrifices. In that way the contaminated priests made the offerings contaminated. They were considered unclean to God and made everything they touched unclean.
      • Sacrificed animals were to be a prefigure of Jesus Christ as the final and ultimate sacrifice.
        • Jesus was God’s son in perfect humanity without sin, and without deformity.
        • Therefore, when imperfect animals were sacrificed, they pictured Jesus as imperfect humanity plagued with sin and imperfection.
          • Depreciating the Son of God was not pleasing to God.

 

• “…neither will I accept an offering at your hand.”

 

(10)
• God told the Israelites that if they did not give God their best, it is better not to give at all because He would not accept their depreciated sacrifices. It would be better to shut the doors of the temple and to put out the fire on the altar than to continue in contaminated worship.
• The priests were so corrupt they would not do even the smallest duty without being paid for it. Even then, after being paid, they neglected their duties.
• How did the people dishonor God?
  • They did not give God their best. Their offerings were not a sacrifice that cost them something.
  • They did not give God something that cost them in the true meaning of the word sacrifice.
    • As New Testament believers, we do not bring God animals or bread as an offering. We give God our lives, our time, our efforts, our talents, and our money. Those things should cost us. If they are causally given and not our best, we are like the Israelites in the book of Malachi.
  • We must remember that worship that does not cost us anything, is worship that is worth nothing. If there is no blood, sweat, or tears on our offerings to God, it has no value. Our worship should honor God for who He is with offerings of high value.
    • Read Rom 12:1-2
  • Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God sacrificed for us. He gave His life as a sacrifice. Our sacrifice should be the very best of our lives in the same manner.
    • If we are paying more taxes to the governor than offerings to God, we are in the same category as the Israelites of Malachi’s day.
• Read Mal 1:11-14

 

• “…my name shall be great among the Gentiles….a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen…”

 

(11)
• God intended that Israel should be a light to the Gentiles and a testimony to all nations of the love of God. The Israelites failed in this responsibility. However, God will bring to fulfillment what the Israelites could not do.
• This verse is a prophecy of the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
  • God looks forward to a time of true worship where His name will be glorified in all nations, not just in Israel.
  • When Jesus RETURN s to establish His kingdom on this earth for 1000 years, all nations and all people will worship him in spirit and in truth. God’s name will be valued as evidence of the value of their offerings to Him.
  • Through Jesus Christ God will bring glory to himself.
• In verse 10 there is a promise of this New Testament age of grace.
  • Verse 10 is a promise fulfilled in the Millennial Kingdom. However, it is in the Age of Grace in which we now live that multitudes of Gentiles are coming to have faith in Jesus Christ. It is all of these believers from the Age of Grace that will worship God in the Millennial Kingdom.
• Summary and Application:

• God charged the priests with 4 spiritual crimes:
  • =1= The priests approached ministry halfheartedly. (13) “…Behold what a weariness is it!…”
  • =2= The priests belittled their ministry of serving God. (13) “…and ye have sniffed at it, saith the Lord…”
  • =3= The priests allowed the people to bring defective animals for sacrifice. (13) “…ye brought that which was torn…lame…and sick…”
  • =4= The priests made deceptive vows before God (14).
    • They vowed to offer good animals but at the last minute substituted them with sick ones for monetary gain.
• Today through Jesus Christ we are able to approach God without an intermediary priest. In fact, the New Testament tells us that the believer in Jesus Christ is a New Testament priest. (Your memory verse 1Pet 2:9).
  • In this light, the believer must consider Malachi’s message as a personal message to him that is relevant to our service and worship of God.
    • Do you approach serving God halfheartedly?
    • Do you belittle the things done to serve God?
    • Does your worship cost you something or does it depreciate the value of God before others?
    • Do you keep your promises to serve, to pray, to tithe, to give, to help?
  • Read Luk 6:46
• Today the believer in Jesus Christ should consider seriously his worship of God in the same way as Malachi called his people to account.
  • What have we learned about worship?
    • Our worship of God should be a sacrifice that costs us something. (2Sam 24:24)
    • Our worship should be sincere based on our love for a God who loves us so abundantly.
    • Our worship should be the very best from our lives in the form of our time, our effort, our talents, and our money.
    • Our worship is a daily event of a committed life. (Rom 12:1-2)
• Did the Israelites consider Malachi’s message seriously? No.
  • We find that 400 years later, Jesus rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees strongly for the same kind of hypocritical worship and the corruption in the priesthood.
    • Read Mat 21:13
    • Read Mat 23:25-29
• Conclusion: Does your life, your service, and your worship honor God or dishonor Him?
  • Remember that Christ is either Lord of all or not Lord at all!

HOMEWORK
Malachi 2:1-9
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Mal 1:6c-14
  • In considering your own personal style of worship, in what ways can you make your worship less routine and more authentic from the heart?

 

• In what ways do you give God your very best?

 

• In what ways is your worship a sacrifice?

 

• Preparation for Mal 2
• Read Mal 2:1-9
  • What were the three parts to the curse that God would put upon the priesthood?
  • What was the intended nature of the covenant that God made with the tribe of Levi?
• Read Mal 2:10-17
  • What practice did God condemn among the Israelites? Why?

 

• Memory Verse: Mal 2:7