Malachi Chapter Three, Spiritual Myopia

 

Malachi 3:13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,” says the LORD, “Yet you say, What have we spoken against You?’ [14] You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts? [15] So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’”

 

Malachi’s oratory between degenerative Israel and their covenant God reaches fever pitch in this passage. One might say this is the final word the rebels have to offer. It details an insight into their perception of God and human sin as Israel pours out the abundance of their heart, deeming their acts of worship worthless since the wicked prosper and escape God’s judgment. Seeing an easier road, they wish to join with these bold offenders and cast off all restraint.

Tracing this debate backward, let us view the progression of events that led to this rather tragic and myopic statement on behalf of a people who had the oracles of God. In Malachi 1:2 God confirms His unconditional love for Israel. Israel in response questions God’s love. The same sin that overthrew the Ephesian church in Revelation overthrew Israel: they left their first love. “Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number,” Jeremiah 2:32. Works void of a love for God are also void of the Holy Spirit’s leading or election. They are done in the flesh, and are thus doomed to frustration and failure.

 

They moved away from genuine fellowship with the Lord and compromised in worship. Malachi 1:6, 7 demonstrate that having questioned and doubted God’s love, the practical effects of such departure manifest in our works. Cracks in the armor form, so to speak. Like the serpent whispering to Eve, we begin to wonder, “has God really said…?” Lovelessness precedes lawlessness, and the lukewarm nature of Israel’s offerings demonstrates that they are on this path. “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,” I will vomit you out of My mouth,” Revelation 3:16.

 

Malachi 1:12, 13 lead to the sterilization of faith. Religious obligation foments rebellion. Casting off our first faith compromises our ability to function. It paralyzes our spiritual vigor and leaves us vulnerable to Satanic influence and human conjecture, including our own sinful carnality. Compromised works come to be viewed with contempt. The institution that symbolizes said works is reviled. At first this is within, and then discreetly without, finding like-minded people to commiserate with. Obedience to God is construed as weariness, troubling our daily lives.

 

Malachi 2:14 traces the progression of human departure from God into the realm of general morality and spiritual adultery. Believers adopt religious pluralism when they no longer view God’s word as absolute truth, or God Himself as the ultimate arbitrator. If religion is subjective, received by the individual in a pragmatic, “what works best for me” model, then morality likewise follows suit. The loveless heart that corrupted faith and worship within the institution now takes its meandering, subjective conjectures “outside” it as well. Morality is what we make of it, not to be given by inspiration of God, but attained by the intuition of man.

 

A perverted morality will of course obscure or destroy a right view of God’s holiness and human accountability, as witnessed in Malachi 2:17. The former worshiper becomes a detractor. They mock at the institute they once professed and twist what is right into what is convenient. Many of these professors undoubtedly are not genuine saints, but false confessors.  It now seems that such individuals take delight in perverting truth, and are overtly hostile toward fundamental believers. “He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God,” 3 John 11.

 

If still within the institution the individual becomes so hardened by sin that they no longer understand that they have strayed and need to return, as evidenced in Malachi 3:7, 8. “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” Hebrews 3:12, 13. Every saint “robs from God” when we conduct our lives bereft of love for Him, His church, the brethren, and His kingdom. He has given us all, and we squander His resources on OUR endeavors. We have, like Israel, robbed God. The one talent He gave us shall be demanded back. But to the individual who no longer can tell that they have even departed, robbery becomes entitlement because our opinion supplants the Bible while self reigns over our hearts.

 

The word “harsh” is the Hebrew term “chazaq.” It is the same word used of Pharaoh when he hardened his heart against God, and when God in response hardened it as well. It implies strengthening, either for against a purpose. It also seems to intimate spiritual and moral stubbornness toward God.

 

When charged with harsh, or strong words, Israel asks what they could have said. I have heard this exchange before with my own children. When I challenge them about something that they said that was out of line, they react (seemingly by instinct) by asking, “What did I say?” My children are all old enough so I know the question is a smokescreen to avoid culpability. Reading beneath the question is the assertion, “Well, I didn’t say anything THAT bad.” Of course when we speak about someone else (in a hostile way) nothing we ever say is “that bad” in our own opinion. There are always valid reasons for saying what we said. Every word is justified, and honestly less than what the person deserved. Isn’t it interesting that when we’re in one of these moods our perspective on that person drastically shifts? We have nothing good to say or think. And if left to fester, our language goes from bad to worse.