Un Mensaje Urgente
Notes
Transcript
Esta profecía es la palabra del Señor dirigida a Israel por medio de Malaquías.
«Yo los he amado», dice el Señor.
« “¿Y cómo nos has amado?”, replican ustedes.
»¿No era Esaú hermano de Jacob? Sin embargo, amé a Jacob pero aborrecí a Esaú, y convertí sus montañas en desolación y entregué su heredad a los chacales del desierto.»
Edom dice: «Aunque nos han hecho pedazos, reconstruiremos sobre las ruinas.» Pero el Señor Todopoderoso dice: «Ustedes podrán reconstruir, pero yo derribaré. Serán llamados territorio malvado, pueblo contra el cual siempre estará indignado el Señor. Ustedes lo verán con sus propios ojos y dirán: “¡Se ha engrandecido el Señor aun más allá de las fronteras de Israel!”
1 Profecía de la palabra de Jehová contra Israel, por medio de Malaquías.
Malachi means ‘messenger’. ‘Malachi’ is never used as a name anywhere else in the Old Testament, but it’s frequently used to mean ‘messenger’. So he’s just an anonymous messenger, a ‘nobody’ who brings God’s last word to his people in Israel. The Jews suspected that the author was Ezra, but we have no evidence to decide one way or another.
2 Yo os he amado, dice Jehová; y dijisteis: ¿En qué nos amaste? ¿No era Esaú hermano de Jacob? dice Jehová. Y amé a Jacob,
Cuando Malaquias escribe han pasado 100 años desde que los israelitas regresaron del exilio de Babilonia y tristemente las cosas no marchan bien.
Jerusalem was still relatively deserted and the farmland was largely barren and uncultivated. Recent harvests had been poor and swarms of locusts and lack of food made life hard and precarious.
The temple had been finished in 520 BC, but it was so small compared to Solomon’s that it had done little to lift morale.
Although Nehemiah had repaired the walls, the people still preferred living out in the country, where they could more easily hide from attack.
They had not built a palace because they didn’t have a king
So Judah now comprised a small hill town and some surrounding villages – a pale reflection of the kingdom of David in its heyday.
The people were disappointed, disillusioned and even despairing. They were beginning to ask whether it had been worthwhile returning to Judah at all. They said, ‘We’ve been back 100 years, and where’s this kingdom we were going to build?’
There was just one piece of good news – they had learned their lesson about idolatry in the exile. Never again did they go after other gods or seek to change their religion.
But having said that, the practice of this religion had become a formality. The people attended the temple, but it was largely out of tradition – a ritual without reality, and certainly no longer a priority.
They were now asking what was the minimum amount of time they needed to spend on religious activity, and what was the minimum amount of money they could get away with.
Furthermore, the priests were like the people. They were not bothered about how many people came to attend the services, as long as they just got through it and made their living.
The services were conducted in a casual and careless manner, as if anything would do for God.
With this attitude in the religious life, it was no surprise that it affected their moral life too.
When people question the purpose of bothering about God, it’s not long before they stop bothering to be godly.
Or to put it more simply, when one generation is asking, ‘Why bother about God?’ the next generation will be asking, ‘Why be good?’
So, for example, even though they knew that trading on the Sabbath was wrong, they built their equivalent of out-of-town supermarkets just outside the gates so they could open them on the Sabbath.
Consumerism took over, with a devastating effect on family life. The question, ‘Why be faithful to God?’ soon became ‘Why be faithful to your wife?’ –
especially when your wife gets older and loses her sex appeal. Why not trade her in for a newer model?!
Furthermore, the nation was short of women following the return from Babylon, so they were marrying outside of the people of God. Not only were they divorcing and remarrying, but also they were remarrying non-Jewish women, in contravention of the Law of God. The city of Jerusalem was being filled with abandoned wives and, since there was no welfare state, widows, orphans and abandoned wives had an especially hard time.
They didn’t have a government to blame but they did have a God to blame, which is precisely what they did. They said, ‘God’s not bothered about us, so we’re not bothered about him.’ It sounded very impressive. ‘God has stopped loving us, so we’ve just stopped loving him. We can’t believe in a God of love – just look at the situation we’re in. We have to look after ourselves. He’s abandoned us, so we might as well just look after number one.’
Their criticism of God had two sides to it. On the one hand they said, ‘God doesn’t reward good living’, and on the other hand, ‘He doesn’t punish bad living. So why bother?’
This was the situation that Malachi had to deal with. His whole prophecy was in prose, not poetry – an indication that God had lost his feelings for his people – so much so that he wouldn’t talk to them again for another 400 years! This was his last word, and a very cool word at that.
The fifth feature is that this is God’s last word. Perhaps the Christian order of the books in the Old Testament is right after all. (The Hebrew Scriptures finish with Chronicles.) This was God’s last message to them, and the last word in it was ‘curse’. To this day, whenever the Jews read Malachi in the synagogue they do not read the last verse: ‘lest he smite the land with a curse’. Instead they return to verse 5 so that they don’t end with the word ‘curse’. They refuse to end with God’s last word.
Y amé a Jacob, 3 y a Esaú aborrecí, y convertí sus montes en desolación, y abandoné su heredad para los chacales del desierto.
It is important to realize that in the Bible the words ‘loved’ and ‘hated’ do not mean what they mean in English.
To love someone is to care for them and seek their highest good. To hate someone in biblical language is not to care for someone and not to seek his or her good.
God is not just talking about Jacob and Esau in the past but about the two nations of Israel and Edom in Malachi’s day. He’s reminding them that over the previous 100 years he has done nothing but good for Israel and has punished Edom.
When the Babylonians came to take the Jews into exile, the Edomites – the descendants of Esau living over the Jordan – were delighted and joined in. Their cry was, ‘Hooray! They’re finished!’ They joined in the horrific destruction, taking the babies of the Jews by the heels and bashing their brains out against the Jerusalem wall. Since that day Edom had been under God’s judgement.
It came over a long period of time. God threw them out of their home city of Petra by bringing the Arabs against them. They were forced to scratch a living in the Negev desert, where there were no crops. So in Malachi, God told Israel that he had done all this to Edom because of what they had done to the Jews. ‘I have loved you and I haven’t cared for them.’ Malachi is asking them to think about their survival in comparison to Edom, and to be grateful to God.
5 Y vuestros ojos lo verán, y diréis: Sea Jehová engrandecido más allá de los límites de Israel.
The lesson is clear. When we complain to God, we should think about what he’s done to other people and reflect on what he’s done for us, and be grateful. Behind all of Malachi’s preaching there is a particular idea of God that we do well to grasp.
He sees God in three functions, as the whole Old Testament does – areas easily forgotten by those who don’t read the Old Testament. We read the New Testament and think God is the loving Father, but these three dimensions of God as seen in the Old Testament are vital.
He is the Creator in our past,
the King in our present and the
Judge of our future.
We must remember this framework when we approach issues concerning God.
Amar a Dios Fielmente (Mat. 22:37-38)
Amar a las Personas Sacrificadamente (Mat. 22:39)
Hacer Discípulos Fervientemente (Mateo 28:19-20)