Malachi Chapter Two, Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

 

Since this sickness began with the priesthood (Malachi 1:6) and spread to the people, the entire covenant had become corrupted, like the imperfect offerings they brought. Because of this God made the priesthood (represented then by the apostate priests) contemptible (loathsome, disgraceful) and base (disreputable, dishonorable). Verse 9 hinges with the conjunctive adverb “therefore.” I was taught once that when you see the word “therefore” in Scripture, figure out what it’s there for! Corny, I know, but it does make you stop and think about it. God determined to humiliate the priesthood since they were determined to reproach God and His altar, and that before all the people. The corrupt priests did all that they did publicly. Likewise, their punishment would not be hidden from public view. If such a judgment was visited upon them it would doubtless make the worshipers coming consider what had transpired and why.

One might say that God was about to profane them, just as the priests profaned the altar. And what is profane is excluded from entering into God’s presence, Revelation 21:27, 22:15. Their twofold sin is this: they did not keep God’s ways (you have departed from the way) and have shown partiality in the Law. Again to be partial is to show favoritism. We judge not based on what is true; rather, we base our decisions on our own biases. We curry favor. We look down on those we believe are beneath us. We seek gain, not good. James unflinchingly condemns this attitude when he writes, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors,” James 2:8, 9. Partiality is a clear indication that we have gone out of our way, we have circumvented or abrogated God’s clear command to do what WE believe is right. We rule by our own power and emancipate ourselves from God’s sovereignty. At least, so we would like to think.  Such thinking begins with a low view of God’s person. “And they say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?” “Yet they say, “The Lord does not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand,” Psalm 73:11, 94:7. God knows our hearts well, and this type of thinking He answers succinctly: “The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile,” Psalm 94:11. A right view of the Lord is necessary, utterly vital to a healthy Biblical worldview. Such a worldview only comes by the patient study of the word, led by the Holy Spirit, to bring us deeper into fellowship with our Savior so that we might know Him better.

 

Eventually, if the apostate is resisted by sound doctrine, they will physically depart just as they have already spiritually done. The apostate departs twice: first in his thoughts and heart, secondly in his person to seek like minded people to insulate himself with or manipulate. John wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us,” 1 John 2:19. Paul contributes: “Also, from among your own selves (professing Christians) men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves,” Acts 20:30. In years gone by we have seen the likes of Charles Taze Russell, a professing Christian who forsook his profession to found what would in 1931 become known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Abandoning orthodoxy, and replacing or reworking all that he found distasteful in the Bible, he erected a religion opposed to the message of the gospel. However, when an apostate departs it is easier and clearer to understand the dangerous error their religion espouses, as John indicated. While still within the host of God’s people men considered to be pillars of truth can confound and subvert faith more easily, pretending to be what they actually oppose. Malachi resisted them mightily. So ought we to do in our time.