Malachi Chapter One, Covenant Breaking

 

Malachi 1:14 “But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished—for I am a great King,” says the LORD of hosts, “And My name is to be feared among the nations.

 

Verse 14 begins with God pronouncing a curse upon the one who enters into covenant with Adonai. The word curse in various tenses is used 7 times in Malachi, with three different Hebrew definitions for, “curse or cursed.” However, the meaning differs in the context of the passage. Here, the word “curse” is “arar” (used two more times in Malachi 2:2 and again on 3:9) and is the same word God used to curse the serpent in the Garden and also the ground for Adam’s sake. The term seems to be used by God when someone who covenanted with Him reneges on their part. In this instance, the worshiper practices deception. Making a vow to the Lord, he withholds the best male of his flock and sacrifices what is blemished. This individual is doubly guilty since the Jews were told that anyone who makes a vow is obligated to perform that vow. “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you,” Deuteronomy 23:21. The curse comes on the heels of disobedience; it is an imprecation for defying God’s will and challenging His authority as one’s Lord. “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey my voice,’” Jeremiah 11:3, 4. The same usage applies here upon Israel as a whole, being covenant breakers. They vowed, or pledged, and did not perform, and this conditional covenant was ratified upon the contingency of their national (and individual) obedience to Yahweh.

God reminds the trespassing worshiper that He is a great King. “The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and everyone in His temple says, “Glory!” The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood, and the Lord sits as King forever,” Psalm 29:9, 10. Worship is an act of reverence. Whatever the act, if it is directed to God to magnify Him beyond the boundary of our lives, is worship. The true worshiper ascribes glory where it is due. God acts on behalf of His people. God sat enthroned during the global Flood of Noah’s time. The flood was a divine judgment, a curse upon men who had corrupted their way and whose thoughts were only evil all of the time. The people of Noah’s time received what they deserved for their sin. Noah received what he did not deserve. Noah found grace, Genesis 6:8. Grace isn’t earned. Grace isn’t payment for services rendered. It cannot be bargained for, paid for by installments or leveraged. Grace is freely given by God, who is King of all, reigned as King over the Flood, and later in Israel’s temple. When God informs Moses that He will not travel with Israel because He would destroy them for their perpetual, wanton rebellion, Moses pleads with Him. God tells Moses that he has “found grace” in God’s sight, and God knows Him by name, Exodus 33:17. In other words, it seems as though God will go because Moses pleads with Him on Israel’s behalf, and God is receptive to the prayers of His saints. But God reminds Moses, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” Exodus 33:19. Grace is not something earned or bought; grace is God’s prerogative, and He may freely dispense it when and to whom He will. Returning to Malachi’s burden we see that Israel seems to have largely forgotten this simple and profound truth. Malachi 1:9, 13 reveal a distinct and disturbing lack of reverence or fear of God. The token gestures of animal sacrifice and their possession of the temple (and the God “within” the temple) made them lazy and spiritually arrogant.

 

This attitude was overwhelmingly prevalent in the days of Jeremiah’s ministry. God ordains Jeremiah to remind the people of Judah that their covenant with Him was provisional. God did give Canaan to Abraham and his seed forever, being the only one to partake in the covenant agreement when God met with the patriarch. “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it…to your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt, to the great river, the River Euphrates,” Genesis 15:7, 18. Abraham witnessed God pass between the sundered portions of the calf in an ancient rite that declared a covenant between parties (see Jeremiah 34:18); note however that Abraham did not walk between the halves with God. The Lord went alone between them, effectually declaring that the covenant was contingent on His promise, with nothing contributed from Abraham. But the situation between God and His people under the Law was different. Terms were offered and accepted at Sinai between God and Jacob. The provisional covenant separates in effect genuine believers from false confessors.