Malachi 1:1-5 (2)

Today we are going to be in Malachi 1:1-5. But before we get started lets pray.

Personal Introduction

Casey Jones, Haleigh, Judy Annie, work at HKH been here at Grace Life for a little over a year.

Introduction

Over the years there has been a ton of time energy and resources poured into the study of love. People have studied the why behind it. THey have studied the how, they have studied what people love. They studied everything about it. There have even been millions of dollars invested in how to love others better by understanding someone better and understanding yourself better. You have probably at some point heard the phrase love languages. That is basically a test you can take to tell you how you like to be loved. Is it gift giving, is it words of affirmation, etc. Which I always found funny. I know what I like not by a test but by a feeling. I can feel that I like something I don’t need my test to show me that. THe point is, there is a lot of work that has been done and will continue to be done to try to improve loving one another.

You have probably also heard people ask, why do you love this or why do you love that? Its a valid question, one that is good to know. We throw around the word love a lot. I love this, I love the beach, I love pizza.

And while we usually have a reason behind our love. We love this person because they are sweet to us, we love them because they give us good gifts, we love them because they are kind, or we love them because they are family and we are told we have to. Whatever the reason is we have a reason. We as humans know and feel love because of what people do for us. We know love because actions show us love. If someone shows up for you and is there for you in a time of need then that can prove love to us. If your parents, care for you while your sick and provide for your needs on a daily basis then that can show us love. We know love because of the way people treat us.

The truth is, we only love because he first loved us. And we don’t understand love as clearly as God does. Our love for things is clouded by sin. There is usually a selfish motive behind our love but God in Christ gave us the ultimate show of love by sending his only son to die on a cross for our sins Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And that sacrifice we are told is the greatest display of love. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

So when Israel stops to look around for proof of God’s love today in this text they don’t see it because they are only seeing their immediate circumstances which we tend to do to. They are looking for proof and they stop today and question God and say well my life isn’t going like we planned.

How have you loved us? Almost demanding an answer because its not possible that you love us. Look what we have been through and God gives them proof that is pretty hard for us to comprehend.

Reading of Scripture

CAN SOMEONE READ MALACHI 1:1-5 for me?

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’ ” 5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!”

Context

Malachi-

So today we are going to begin the study through Malachi and its going to be a great study that I am happy you all are getting to study through. And I know you have already studied some background and context about this book but I wanted to give you a quick refresher before we jump into the text.

So who was Malachi?

Well some believe Malachi is written anonymously because the name Malachi actually means “My messanger” or “the Lord’s messanger which could make it a title rather than a proper name. However, since all other prophetic books have historically identified their author in the introductory heading, this suggests that Malachi was indeed the name of the last OT writing prophet in Israel.

When was this written?

Well by looking at the internal evidence of this book it points to the late fifth century BC most likely during Nehemiahs return to Persia. which would have been around 433- 424 BC. Nehemiah originally came to Jeruselum to rebuild the wall in 445 BC to rebuild the wall and returned to Persia in 433 BC. He later returned to Israel to deal with the sins Malachi described so it is likely that Malachi was written during the period of Nehemiah’s absence. God is writing through Malachi to impress upon Israel his thoughts about the nation.

Because at this time, after the return of 50,000 exiles returned to Judah from Babylon and the temple was rebuilt under the leadership of Zerubbabel that the sacrificial system renewed you see the jews falling into a routine that we can all fall into a religious routine that has led hard-heartedness toward God’s great love for them and to the widespread departure from his law by both people and priest.

So in steps Malachi to remind and rebuke Isreal.

So just understand that this was written in overlap to our study on Sunday mornings in Nehemiah and about 200 years after Zepheniah that we are studying with Pastor Jeff during the services on Sunday.

And as a review before we embark today on this study and you embark on this journey lets review Bro Jeff’s outline on Understanding Old Testament Prophecy. You won’t see all of this here today in my study but you will see it all throughout the study of this whole book so be on the lookout for all of this.

Denunciation of sin

Proclomation of Punishment

A Sure Hope of Forgiveness and Restoration

Deadlines that if crossed, God would not relent in Judgement(sometimes clearly given, sometimes not)

Judgement on Israel or Judah and Surrounding Nations

Meaning for the Original Audience

Promise to Preserve an Elect Remnant

Foreshadowing of Ultimate Fulfillment in Christ and His Work

So how does God start his last message to his people before Christ. He starts it with a reminder of his love.

Today we are going to start with basically the introduction and title of the book in verse 1 then we are going to hit on three main points

The Proclomation of the Love of God

Isreal’s Questioning of the Love of God

and God’s Proof of the Love of God

The Message

Malachi 1:1 ESV

The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

This is basically the title of the book. The word oracle here is translated in other versions as the word Burden.

This shows the weight and importance of this word. It was not just idle words. When a prophet spoke a word as the mouthpiece of God it was a heavy thing that was not easy to bear. THey had to take seriously the message they are carrying. It is the Lord’s so how could they not take it seriously.

But it doesn’t just show the importance of the message it also shows the difficulty of the message. This message will not be well received by most people. Jesus said in Matthew 23:37 ““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” It will be a burden to the speaker because they will encounter heartache by speaking God’s word and it could cost Malachi is life. and while we don’t face death or imprisonment for our faith in Christ and proclomation of it we will endure persecution from it. If you are being faithful then you will endure some persecution

The word burden also insuates that it would be a burden to those hearing it. They would feel reproach and feel grieved by this message. In fact it would grieve them to the grave and desperation if they do not repent.

And it was a burden because this was not the words of men. It was the word of the Lord. The word of Yahweh. This may have come out of Malachi’s mouth but it was a direct line from God. God’s word is hard to bear but the people needed to be reproved. But first they needed to be reminded of God’s love.

Which brings us to the Proclomation of the Love of God.

The Proclomation of the Love of God

How tender is message? How beautiful are these words. Malachi 1:2

Malachi 1:2 ESV

“I have loved you,” says the Lord.

I have loved you, says the Lord. The Lord who created the heavens and the earth, the Lord who created man and woman, the Lord who reigns above all, the Lord who is omnipresent, the Lord who is omniscient, the Lord who is omnipotent, the Lord who is sovereign. The Lord God all mighty is bending down like a tender father who is about to discipline his child and say I love you but I also have to teach you.

How magnificent is that.

Just stop for a minute and ponder how amazing that truth is. Before he rebukes them he is like a father, on his knee, looking directly into the eyes of the child he is about to discipline and reminding them that he is doing this out of love. I know as a father that is onee of the most difficult things you can do is discipline your child. I know that some of you think well it is easy for my parents but I guarantee you it isn’t. That is a burden that hurts us as parents but out of love we know we have to teach you right from wrong. So here is God the father reminding them of his love.

And this goes even deeper than just the word love. We misuse the word and use it flippently. God does nothing in that way.

The word love here means to have great affection towards, to desire deeply, to breathe after which just gives us a picture of a deep longing toward them. He is breathing after them. That is a deep love and a perfect love that we as humans can’t comprehend.

And also, lets not forget the context of who he is pouring his love out to. This is a rebellious people. They have forsaken their love of the Lord. They were the same group complaining in the wilderness about bellies full of quail and yet God says, in Jer 31:3-4

Jeremiah 31:3–4 ESV

the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.

These are the same people who have taken their worship and mixed it with worship of baal and not loved the Lord their God and yet he says, Zephaniah 3:17

Zephaniah 3:17 ESV

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

These are the same people who got to the promised land and didn’t trust God enought to protect them and take the promised land even after they saw the miracles he did in Egypt and he says,

Hosea 11:1–4 ESV

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

They didn’t deserve this love and yet God gave it and he had proven it to them over and over. But he wanted to remind them.

And before you start throwing dirt on the Isrealites lets not forget our own rebellion and sin. Let us not forget that we are constantly sinning against God.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and yet to us who rebel he says he loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son to bear our wrath that we deserved.

To us who’s hearts are idol factories, he says Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Praise God for his love for us.

Do you feel loved by God? What ways does God show his love for us?

Common grace blessings like

Heat on this cold day

a roof over your head

Loving family

great church

friends in this room

food to eat

Never forget though that the greatest display of God’s love is found in his son.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

As the great song says, “You the perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son Who drank the bitter cup reserved for me”

That is love.

But sometimes we don’t feel loved and thats where we see Isreal. Which brings us to Point 2

Isreals Questioning of the Love of God

Malachi 1:2 ESV

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob

So God, Yawheh has just proclaimed his love for Isreal and what is their response? To almost argue with him, to blasphemously say, “How have you loved us?”

How utterly disreptful is that? How much has he done for you?

This is the same God who brought you through the red sea, who rescued you from slavery, who led you in a pillar of fire, who fed you in the wilderness, who cracked a rock and water flowed, who turned bitter water into sweet water, who gave you a promised land, who has destroyed you enemies before you and yet you have the audacity to spit in his face and say, how have you loved us?

They want more proof. Basically saying, what more can you give me?

THey were seeing their current circumstances which were full of drought, full of captivity, full of death, they saw low crop yields, they saw their difficulties and said, well this doesn’t feel like love. This has been the constant in Isreals history, the Lord rescues them, they get fat and happy, they forget the Lord, they are punished for it and then they gripe and complain and forget how great their God is. And we are not much different we do the same thing.

How often does a temporary circumstance take our eyes away from our eternal God.

They are basically looking at God like a child and saying, if you loved us, then you would give us what we want.

They sowed sin and expect God to bless it and then whine about the consequences. They were reaping what they had sown but were mad at God for doing it.

They were challenging God to provide receipts of his love. What an evil it is, to look around and only see the bad and not see the good that God has given us.

They forgot that discipline is a part of Love. He knows what every good parent knows. It is unloving to let your children continue in sin and not help them put that sin to death. It is unloving to remove the discipline and let them continue down the path of sin.

God must discipline us to bring us back to him because we are wired to wait until we hit rock bottom to respond.

And we know now that God only disciplines those he loves. That is a way that he shows his love.

Hebrews 12:5–11 ESV

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Revelation 3:19 ESV

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

This discipline for sin is meant to lead us to repentance. The Isrealites didn’t repent they got bitter. They didn’t realize that this all a part of God’s love. So the very thing they were angry about was actually the thing that proved God’s love to them.

But why do we need discipline. Why is it important? Well God’s word tells us that…

Hebrews 12:11 ESV

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Proverbs 29:17 ESV

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

If God tells us that our discipline will result in this kind of fruit how much more will the right true and perfect discipline of the Lord help us. We are just called to repent of the sin and God is faithful and just to forgive and heal us from that sin. His discipline will drive out our bad behavior as long as we are faithful to repent and turn back to God.

Have you ever questioned God’s love? Maybe you are going through something right now and you look around and say, this can’t be love. I can’t be loved. Maybe you havent exactly said God do you really love me but I guarantee that your grumbling and complaining did enough questioning where you didn’t have to use the specific words. Your actions and your heart state did the questioning.

We tend to start questioning things when God allows bad things to happen to us. When difficulties arise we tend to look directly at them instead of keeping our eyes on our heavenly father. We are just like the Isrealites so I challenge you right now if that is you to

Look past your earthly circumstances and look to God and his goodness

Pray to God and ask him if what you are going through is discipline for sin and ask him to reveal the sin to you and by the power of his spirit put that sin to death.

Praise him for his goodness even during the difficult times.

God is loving even when we don’t feel it. Trust in his goodness today. So God could have pointed to a plethora of different things for proof of his love and we in our meek minds might expect him to but here we see the ultimate proof of his love.

God’s Proof of the Love of God

Malachi 1:2–5 ESV

“Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”

To some this may feel like a weird way to prove his love. Most people like we have talked about prove their love by actions and God did prove it by an action. His sovereign choice and sovereign action of choosing a people for himself as he has always done. First lets start with the negative proof of his love.

He proves his love by completely wiping out those who he has not chosen to love. God in his infinite wisdom has chosen some for eternal glory and some for eternal punishment before we have done anything Good or bad. To some this is a hard pill to swallow but it is all meant for the glory of God. As we are told in Romans. Both sides of this coin are explained further in Romans 9:10-24 so we will park here for a secon and look at it.

Romans 9:10–24 ESV

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

God is saying to us here that we have no right to question why he has made one lump for dishonorable use but it more richly shows us his mercy who are saved. We can see what we truly deserve thorough this which should give us a great appreciation for what he has done for us. It should give us vessels of mercy a great humility to know that we knew nothing of goodness apart from him and that his mercy and grace come completely from him. Not because of anything we have done. Not because of human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. He is saying to Isreal that I am proving my love to you because I will allow you to rebuild. I will build you back up and draw you to myself but Edom I will forever be against. He will use them like he used Pharoah above to show that his name would be proclaimed in all the earth. This destruction of Edom will cause Isreal to say great is the Lord beyond the borders of Isreal. He is using the vessels of dishonroable use to show Isreal what they deserve apart from his mercy.

God is saying. My love is not fickly like yours. My love does not depend on how you have treated me, on how you have loved me back. My love is based on my choice. I chose you before the foundation of the world to be mine and their is nothing you can do to earn this and nothing Jacob did to earn it.

Remember, Jacob was a swindler, a liar, he stole his brother’s birthright through lying and decietfulness.

In Genesis 27 for those that don’t know, Jacob is the younger brother of Esau but it has been declared by the Lord that the older will serve the younger and that he will make a name for himself through Jacob(later called Isreal). Well their mother, Rebeccah overheard Esau and Isaac discussing that Isaac was dying and he wanted one last meal from Esau’s hunting before he blessed him and died. Well when she hears this Rebecca and Jacob come up with a plan to trick Isaac who was blind at this point into thinking he is blessing Esau but he is really blessing Jacob. They even go so far as to cook the food requested, have him dress up in Esaus clothes and wear goats hair on his neck and arms to make it seem like the hairy esau. Well Isaac is suspicious but finally concedes, eats and blesses Jacob the younger son with the eldest sons blessing. Then Esau gets mad and says he will kill jacob and jacob has to run off to prevent his death. That my friends is the man that God says, Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.

One might even say, Lord, do you have that backwards but God’s purpose and plan was the build his chosen people out of the lineage of Jacob not the lineage of Esau.

Both Esau and Jacob rightuflly deserved wrath but God in his great mercy saved Jacob and chose Jacob to pour out his covenant love upon him. God cannot lie so once he decrees it that love is unchanging.

Praise God that he is unchanging despite our sin and wretchedness. You can’t earn God’s favor. It has to be freely given to you.

Malachi 3:6 ESV

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

God is saying that because of me and my covenant you will be preserved. That’s how I prove my love is by keeping my covenant even when you are evil and break yours. Romans 8:35

Romans 8:35 ESV

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Nothing can seperate us from the love of God if you are saved. If you are of the elect that he has saved.

God is soveriegn to reign and choose who he wants to choose. Praise God that his love for me does not depend on my faithfulness to him because I would have been sunk a long time ago.

Application

So what does all of this we have talked about mean for us here today.

First, if you are saved, this should produce in us gospel humility. It should humble us to be reminded that we are no different than our lost neighbor or friend or classmate or family memeber apart from God’s grace.

Ephesians 2:7–9 “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The more we learn about election and God’s sovereignty it should fill us with a deeper dependence on God, less reliance on ourself and more reliance on the Spirit. That should make us realize that God is gerat and we are not and we need to be humbled.

We can’t boast when it is only by grace that we have been saved.

Again, if you are saved it should fill us with joy to know that God has given us every spiritual gift in Christ Jesus and we should ne the most joyful people on earth. We have been given grace which is we who deserve eternal punishment have been given eternal goodness by a sovereign God. Shouldn’t that overflow from our hearts with joy. People should notice a difference in you.

Our pastor at our old church used to have a saying that he would say to those who were discontent. “Has christs death on the cross been enough for you to be happy today or do you need more?”

That sounds harsh but it is true. Truly, everything else in your life pails in comparison to the salvation we have been given through Jesus Christ. We are no longer God’s enemy and we have peace with God. How much more do we need?

If you are not joyful. Ask God to fill you with joy!

Have perserverence through trials. We know that God is sovereign and he is in control so we can trust that this is a part of his plan. He is putting us through this for a reason. It could be discipline as we talked about earlier it could be to accomplish a purpose for him and in you.

But just remember Romans 5:3-5

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

b. Trials and discipline as we talked about earlier produce great fruit in our lives as long as we by the power of the spirit endure them the right way. Our suffering puts on display the hope we have in Christ. Dont miss an opportunity to pour out God’s love that has been poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s shed blood to someone else by your joy in a trial.

Pray for to feel God’s love more and fill you with more love for Him.

God has given us more than we even realize. We take so much for granted and he is deserving of our love and devotion. So what should you do? Be thankful and love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength. Strive after that today. Pray to God to give you a keener sense of his love so that you can love him more because we know we only love because he first loved us.

Finally, and if you miss everything I have said today please stop what you are doing and listen right now. If you are unsaved at this moment, I beg you to come to Christ. If you are currently not saved then you are currently and enemy of God and praise God that as it says in Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Currently, if you are unsaved the wrath of God is upon you, all the bad things we talked about for Edom are currently your reality. That is a scary reality, we talked about earlier how amazing it is that the God of the universe would love us. Well it is equally scary to be standing under is all consuming wrath. Flee to the cross and find shelter and peace in Christ’s righteousness.

There is nothing you can do to earn God’s favor or work your way out of salvation. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ who left the riches of heaven, came to earth and lived a perfect sinless life that you could never live, died the death that you deserve, and is raised up by God confirming his power over death and hell.

Your sins can be forgiven and you can be reconciled to God and have peace with God all by simple repentance and faith in Jesus.

So while you are currently under his wrath. God loved you enough to give you patience to be sitting here tonight and hear the message of repentance and faith in Christ, he loved you enough to send his only son to die for your sins and he is willing to clothe you with Christ’s righteousness not youw own. Right now you are being offered a pardon to cross over from death to life. You are currently dead in your tresspasses and sins in which you are walkign but praise be to God he is offering you life in Christ today.

Romans 2:4–5 “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

Today is the day of salvation. Dont store up wrath. Use God’s patience, kindness and forbearance to lead you to repentance not the storing up of wrath.

Call on the name of the Lord and be saved.

Let us pray.