The Bible Series Malachi
Notes
Transcript
We come to our final book of the Old Testament and final book of the Prophets…
It marks the end of God’s speaking to His people through prophets
The next prophet to speak would be John the Baptist 400 years later
His message would prepare the way for the Promised Messiah
It sets the tone for the coming Messenger of God’s truth in the flesh
It serves as the bridge between the Old and New Testaments...
Malachi is one of those books that causes one to examine their heart… The tone is heavy, we see just as we did last week in Nahum this is another oracle not to Nineveh but rather this time to Israel, God’s chosen people. Malachi 1:1
The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
ORACLE:
ORACLE:
It was a weighty or burdensome kind of message to deliver. It is a common term in the prophetic writings This oracle is a stern warning and correction to God’s people...
Nahum was one of the other prophetic books addressed as an ORACLE and that message was to Nineveh as you remember.
The book carries a serious and heavy tone, a Father calling His children before Him for correction, already knowing the arguments the kids will bring and He sits them down for a good talking to...
Wilkinson summarizes beautifully this oracle…
His [GOD] appeal in this oracle was that the people and priests would stop to realize that their lack of blessing was not caused by His lack of concern, but by their own compromise and disobedience to the covenant law. When they repent and return to God with sincere hearts, the obstacles to the flow of divine blessing will be removed. Malachi also reminds the people that a day of reckoning will surely come when God will judge the righteous and the wicked.
MY MESSENGER…
MY MESSENGER…
Malachi’s name means “My Messenger”… the priest were the one’s who were intended to be the messengers of God’s Word yet even they have failed
Now God was sending HIS MESSENGER with HIS MESSAGE to His people...
Interesting we will see in this book the One who would carry the message of God depicting Christ
We will also see the one who would go before this Messenger as the one who prepares the way with a message as well
There is a rebuke coming, the tone is heavy, YET as one reads this book of prophecy there is a feel of a conversation…
God Speaks to the Heart Issue
God Speaks to the Heart Issue
Malachi probes deeply into their problems of hypocrisy, infidelity, mixed marriages, divorce, false worship, and arrogance. So sinful has the nation become that God’s words to the people no longer have any impact.
God knows their hearts, God knows their thoughts
He addresses both!
We read in Hebrews 4:12-13a concerning God’s Word…
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
The Psalmist makes this observation of God in Psalm 44:21b
Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
100 years have passed after their return from captivity and God sends Malachi...They have all that is written in these pages of the Old Testament… Over 1500 years as a nation… WILL THE LISTEN TO THIS MESSAGE???
Overview
Overview
We see a repeated cycle in this “conversational” book of prophecy:
God makes a Claim concerning their hearts
The people respond by Disputing His claim questioning God
God Responds and answers them getting the final word
Claim: I Love You
Claim: I Love You
As God sends this Oracle He begins to remind them of His love...
HOW!!! Malachi 1:2-3
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”
Esau and Jacob… God has graciously chosen them
You are the ones I am bringing my Promise through
Claim: You Dishonor Me
Claim: You Dishonor Me
Malachi 1:6-7 we see this conversation again...
“ ‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is to be despised.’
They were going through the motions of worship… yet not honoring or respecting God at all
Sick and worthless offerings
The priest were okay with this too!
Claim: Unfaithful to Covenant
Claim: Unfaithful to Covenant
Malachi 2:10-16 mocks the covenant God established all the way back with Abraham and when He gave them the Law!!!
Married pagan women and worshiped their gods
They were hypocritical in their repentance Malachi 2:13-14 Look at what God says here...
“This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. “Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
They knew the words and actions but God saw their hearts
Do not think in your sin you can go before God and impress Him
Divorce was running rampant
Marriage was a picture of God’s Covenant relationship
They served a covenant keeping God yet broke theirs continually
Claim: Questioning God’s Justice
Claim: Questioning God’s Justice
Malachi 2:17
You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
Where is justice? you don’t judge evil… WHAT A JOKE!!!
God not only declares His justice He will bring, He shares a Hope and Promise!
Through this messenger Malachi God DECLARES… Malachi 3:1-2
“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
God declares his first messenger JOHN THE BAPTIST
God then declares His second messenger THE PROMISED MESSIAH
Claim: You Are Robbing Me
Claim: You Are Robbing Me
HOW!!?? Malachi 3:8-12 shows they were ROBBING: God, Themselves, & others...
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. “Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
The tithe was being neglected
I want to bless but only if you are faithful
Claim: You Despise Serving Me
Claim: You Despise Serving Me
They did not like the consequences for their actions, their pathetic worship, their SIN… and so they blame God!
God’s response points out that there are those who are complainers, those who do evil and that there are those...
A remnant who believe, who obey… who will serve Malachi 3:17-18
“They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
The scriptures are recorded for their purpose
These will also face “The Day of the Lord” with joy and anticipation as God deals our His wrath on sin!
Malachi 4:4-6 are set apart to themselves here…
Malachi wraps up not only this oracle to the people
Malachi wraps up the entire TORAH & PROPHETS of the Old Testament
“Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
Malachi...
Malachi...
Malachi closes with no offering of hope… they are left looking at their hearts…
God has sent His MESSENGER with HIS WORD… will they listen ???
Malachi closes looking ahead… to the Promised Messiah
He will heal their hearts
He is their ONLY hope
Over 400 years would pass with no prophets, no messages from God
They would hold on to this promise… AND HE CAME!
We too look for His second coming… THE DAY OF THE LORD
In Matthew 17:9-13 we see a conversation concerning Elijah and Christ...
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.
In the meantime… we have not only the Old Testament, we also have the New Testament…
Do we claim it as truth in our life…
Has it pierced your soul and spirit...
Is it impacting your heart…
If not then we are just going through the external motions for those around us. GOD IS NOT FOOLED... HE IS NOT TO BE MOCKED!
What claim would He make of your heart before Him today?