Malachi Chapter One, Religious Formality

 

Malachi 1:8 And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the LORD of hosts. [9] “But now entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, will He accept you favorably?” says the LORD of hosts. [10] “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.

 

The object lesson is the degree of devotion demonstrated in the offering. God wants our all; He doesn’t want a tithe, or tenth of what we possess. He wants us. He wants us to, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you,” Matthew 6:33. The fact that the Jews were selecting the weakest or defective animals was indicative of their inner thoughts and beliefs toward God. It is no different today than it was in Malachi’s time. When I meet someone who claims to be Christian one of my first thoughts is, “I wonder how they live out their life?” Our tithe in today’s nomenclature would include church attendance, volunteer work, Bible reading, etc. These are forms of devotion that can be void of the subsequent faith they ought to kindle, or be inspired by. James tells us that demons believe there is a God, and that prospect terrifies them, James 2:19. Satan can just as eloquently quote Scripture as any believer, Luke 4:10, 11. Church attendance ought not to be for social pleasure but for sanctification, refreshing and worship. Volunteer work should be done in the selfless servant attitude Christ commanded His followers to gird themselves with. Bible reading should educate, and through that knowledge we disseminate His word to and for others.

Jesus once asked His Jewish audience, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46. As Yahweh, the God who led Israel out of Egypt and into Canaan, Jesus asked them by what right they lay claim to that title? If Christ was their Lord, as they claim, then obedience would ensue. If Jesus is our God and Savior, as we believe, then our faith would manifest in a desire to devote our lives to a selfless, faithful service to the God who saved us, Titus 2:13, 14. Our lives should be our offering. Our faith reveals our priesthood, that we are children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. If His own sons and daughters are no better at honoring their Father and Master, why expect receptivity from the unsaved? Why would the unsaved even listen, or care? Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,” Romans 12:1.

 

Malachi asks of his audience if any of them would venture to offer such a blemished animal to their governor as token of payment. Government in any time and any country is exacting. You owe what you owe, and leniency isn’t really the local policy. The Jews surrender material gain to those who lord over them in the flesh, and God confronts them for their hypocrisy. Since God is spirit and the reminder of His presence comes not from governmental servants knocking on the door but from Scripture and the wandering prophets, the people became lax. Not driven by spiritual priority they gave primacy to the human governor. Would the former rulers, who suffered long to establish Jerusalem once more and restore the temple anew be pleased with laxity in what the people owed those who governed them? No. It is a sign of open disrespect, to the title of governor and the man who wears it. Jesus confirmed that as citizens of a country it is our due to render to the government what is owed them, Matthew 22:21. Paul accentuates and says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God…For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing,” Romans 13:1, 6.

 

Now the people curry God’s favor so that He might be gracious to them while being willfully ignorant about the offering. This dilemma brings us back to the situation described above with church attendance and prayer substituting for actual godly living and obedience. Formality, and a puerile form of it, is the order of the day. God doesn’t want us to stand with our scorecard checking off boxes as if He’s impressed with how many motions we go through. He wants a personal, living relationship with each one of us. Our omnipresent God, living and abiding in us through the Holy Spirit He has given us, wants us, not our offerings. And when He receives us, our offerings become acceptable to Him, as Paul explained in Romans chapter 12. The prophet wonders if God will in fact accept such acts of “worship” or any such petitions when the petitioners have yet to absolve themselves of their hypocrisy and guilt! The same phrase is lifted when contrasting Israel’s human governor to God. “Would he (your governor) accept you favorably?” “Will He (God) accept you favorably?” If the human representative of the True Government would not, the answer for the latter is painfully clear. God dictates as much through Moses when He says, “Those (animals) that are blind or broken or maimed, or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to the Lord,” Leviticus 22:22.