Sermon Tone Analysis

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{{{"
*6 *“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
*7 *From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
*8 *Will man rob God?
Yet you are robbing me.
But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’
In your tithes and contributions.
*9 *You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
*10 *Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.
And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
*11 *I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.
*12 *Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
}}}
It has been said that the only thing predictable in life is that nothing is predictable.
Everything is constantly changing.
So is change a good thing or not?
Depends on who you ask, I suppose.
Change is one of those things that some people like but others don’t.
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, and she does!
The question, “Is change good?” also depends on what we are talking about.
It is good that seasons change, bringing cooler temperatures to hot summers and warmer air to cold winters.
But change is not good when we think about the relationships that are ruined by changes in human feelings, emotions, and commitments.
Our passage today begins with the assertion that the Lord does not change.
That is a good thing.
Or is it?
First, let’s look deeper into the implications of God’s unchangeableness.
Then we will see why we ought to change and how we can go about doing so.
!
GOD DOES NOT CHANGE
The unchangeableness of God is called God’s immutability.
It is an attribute of God that is unique to himself.
John Calvin pointed out that men are forced to change because they remember things previously forgotten or because they wish they could undo what they have already done or they discover new ways to do things previously performed.[1]
But God is not like that.
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/God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
/(Num 23:19)
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This characteristic of God is extremely important to our right understanding of who he is.
Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck stated it this way:
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‎The doctrine of God’s immutability is of the highest significance for religion.
The contrast between being and becoming marks the difference between the Creator and the creature.
Every creature is continually becoming.
It is changeable, constantly striving, seeks rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest in God, in him alone, for only he is pure being and no becoming.
Hence, in Scripture God is often called the Rock.[2]
}}}
!! God’s immutability and this text
But what does God’s immutability have to do with this text?
Verse 6 is a transitional verse, as it serves to both conclude verses 1-5 and to introduce the next oracle in verses 7-12.
So there are two ways to see how God’s unchangeableness fits into the argument of the text.
First, God’s immutability is the summary answer to the question asked in Malachi 2:17.
“Where is the God of justice?” the people asked.
And God responds by reminding the people that he is never changing.
He remains the God of justice and guarantees that justice will be done.
We can be sure of that.
But we also saw last week that when God comes to execute justice, he will deal with the injustices perpetrated by the sinfulness of the human heart.
And because of that, the immutability of God is bad news.
That very well may be the point being made in verse 6.
The last word in the verse may be translated “consumed” as most English versions have it, but it also may be translated “stop” or “come to an end.”
So verse 6 may well be understood this way, “For I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed; but you, the sons of Jacob, have not refrained from the iniquities of your fathers.”[3]
As verse 7 explains, “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.”
In other words, God does not change, and that is good.
The problem is that God’s people haven’t changed either, and that is not good.
So the fact that God does not change is bad news for sinners who don’t change because God will always be viciously angry at sin.
!! The problem of not knowing that change is needed
Now this is particularly bad news for sinners who don’t know they are sinners.
God pleads with his people in verse 7, “Return to me, and I will return to you.”
But the people respond, “How shall we return?”
They did not believe that they were guilty of turning aside from God’s statutes.
These are God’s chosen people we are talking about!
They sincerely thought their religious duties were acceptable to God.
But they were wrong.
Dreadfully wrong.
Calvin noted, “It is an evidence of perverseness, when men answer that they see not that they have erred, and that hence conversion is to no purpose required of them.”[4]
And this is a problem to which the religious are particularly susceptible.
The irreligious know that their behavior does not meet God’s approval.
But the religious are easily deceived into thinking that God has been appeased by their religious activity.
They are like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son, believing that they never disobey God’s commands (Luke 15:29).
But God urges them to return to him.
How can the religious turn back to God when it appears they have not turned away from him to begin with?
They do not need to repent for the bad things they’ve done, but for the wrong reasons why they have done good things.
It is not enough to do good; we must do good for the right reason.
Failing to do so is sin and merits the wrath of a just God.
!
WHY WE OUGHT TO CHANGE
So because God does not sin, we should be glad that he does not change.
But because we /do/ sin, we desperately /need/ to change.
Sin is the cause of all the problems we face.
God’s justice is not poured out on sin only in the future, as Malachi’s audience was discovering.
Because of their sin they were already separated from God, needing to return to him (v.
7).
They were also living under a curse (v.
9) and missing out on God’s abundant blessings (vv. 10, 12).
!! The sin of robbing God
In verse 8 God gets specific about where his people were falling short.
He accuses them of stealing from him by withholding a portion of their tithes and offerings.
They were guilty of robbing God, not because God needed their contributions but because their assets rightly belonged to him and were to be used for his purposes.
So while the people were making some contributions, they were not paying the “full tithe” (v.
10) and consequently God’s purposes were not being achieved.
!! The purpose of the tithe
This is the kind of text every preacher gets excited about because here we have our basis for guilting congregants into submission and increasing the church budget!
That is true so long as we don’t consider the real purpose of the tithe.
First of all we find that tithing, giving away 10% of one’s income, was not unique to ancient Judaism.
The Egyptians and the Mesopotamians also practiced tithing.[5]
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