A Call to Spiritual Integrity
Notes
Transcript
1. A Failure in Ministry, vs. 1-4.
1. A Failure in Ministry, vs. 1-4.
v.1 - This is a bold, confrontational statement. The “commandment” include more than just a command; it includes a rebuke, a warning, and an instruction from the LORD through His prophet Malachi. The priests are being singled out, from among the people in the temple complex, who are probably hearing this commandment from God’s messenger.
V.2 - There are two conditional clauses to begin this verse and they are powerful. The first, “if you do not listen” means “if you do not obey” (not just listen). The second, “if you do not take it to heart,” stresses the intention to take heed, to determine a course of action based on information previously received.
Right belief produces right behavior, but the implication here is that the priests have no intention of obeying to give God the glory by treating Him with honor and respect. Their hearts were not in it.
To honor God’s name, the priests must realize once again that God’s name is worthy to be praised. They are evidencing a warped understanding of God’s very nature by what they are offering in sacrifice,
“ ‘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.’
“But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King,” says the Lord of hosts, “and My name is feared among the nations.”
They offered polluted, inadequate sacrifices. We see in their improper devotion that wrong belief produces wrong behavior.
If the priests continue to dishonor God, then He will send “the curse;” it is intentional and particular.
“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
“Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
“Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
“The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.
For the priests, and those serving in the temple complex, God will remove them from the place of blessing. That is the ministry given to them and its privileges. They had been granted a gift that came with empowerment and enablement as God’s representatives. When God sends the curse, it makes them unfit and ineffective for ministry. The blessings they give to the people will have no benefit to them.
The priests have heard, but they continued in their ways of disobedience. Therefore,they have given the people a faulty understanding of God’s Nature and Person
In Numbers 20, the people murmured against God because there was no water. God told Moses to speak to the rock in the presence of the people so that water would come out for them. Moses lost his temper, striking the rock twice, and water came out. Because of this, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. What did Moses do wrong? Angry, impatient, took credit for the provision of the water, and disobeyed the word of God in the presence of the people. This was not the picture of God Moses was to convey, so God made sure he was sanctified in the eyes of the people by punishing Moses.
Those who are called to represent God must be sure to represent Him. If by our words or our works we bring down God’s reputation or character, we fail to glorify His name. And God will not let anyone destroy His reputation.
v. 3 - The term “behold” is emphatic. As a result of the priests choosing to continue with their status quo, there will be two consequences:
their descendants will suffer because of the sins of their father. The term “seed” is used figuratively here. The term “rebuke” is more than a criticism or a reproach, for if God rebukes something, it means He stops it. In Zechariah 3, when the LORD rebuked Satan for accusing Joshua, he stopped immediately.
They will experience personal humiliation. There is an implied comparison here. The priests will be treated the same way as the unclean intestines and feces of the sacrificial animals would be handled—taken out of the city and burnt. This is how God views their disobedience. Their handling of His commands brings them humiliation. They would be spiritually unclean and unfit for service. All that was left is to remove them from the temple complex with the rest of the refuse.
V. 4 - Then they will know experientially the holy source of this commandment, so that God’s covenant with Levi - the ministry of the priests - would remain intact.
“For the Levites have no portion among you, because the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance. Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh also have received their inheritance eastward beyond the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.”
The descendents of Levi have been granted the privilege and responsibility of leading God’s people in worship.
“Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the Lord; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them.
The Levites were to serve God, to bless the people on behalf of the LORD, and to settle disputes between brethren. They ministered as those who would, on behalf of an unholy people, “go between” them and before a Holy God.
Who said of his father and his mother, ‘I did not consider them’; And he did not acknowledge his brothers, Nor did he regard his own sons, For they observed Your word, And kept Your covenant.
“They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, And Your law to Israel. They shall put incense before You, And whole burnt offerings on Your altar.
Here is the central focus of their ministry: to teach Israel the Law, to make intercessory prayers (stated as burning incense) and to keep the provision of atonement through the burnt offerings always available to the people.
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
They performed a role that now has been replaced by Jesus Christ. He is our mediator, who is our “go between”.
2. The Standard for Ministry, vs. 5-7.
2. The Standard for Ministry, vs. 5-7.
Using the covenant made with the sons of Levi, the LORD through His messenger Malachi, reminds these priests of the high standard of ministry that God expects.
v. 5 - The faithful service of the priests would bear life and peace with God for those who worship Him. This is what the covenant was designed to do. Peace came from forgiveness and atonement. Life is the physical, spiritual, eternal life of God’s blessing and provision.
The Levites were recipients as well as they worshipped God with the right heart attitude. The early priests were overcome by the presence of the power and the glory of God. As a result they revered God and respected Him; they were afraid in the proper and healthy sense.
Now the LORD brings up the distinctive characteristics of these early Levites. Here is the evidence: faithful and effective ministry. How?
“true instruction” The term “true” is literally “truth”; they taught the truth, God’s word, and their teaching was faithful to that revelation. The teaching would guide people through life, as the word “instruction” signifies a pointing in the right direction.
The effectiveness of the teaching is evidenced in the walk/living. They lived truth that they taught;
They walked with God in peace and uprightness.
They turned many back from iniquity.
The results of their teaching and lifestyle demonstrated effective spiritual leadership and ministry:
They started with their own reverential fear of God,
they taught God’s truth faithfully,
living in obedience to the truth that they taught, while
bringing people to saving faith through their faithful ministry.
v. 7 - This is the work of a priests/ minister
and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”
to faithful preserve the truth given by God through teaching. This is a “must do” for them. They must study it, memorize it, and teach it.
people should seek the instruction, or be able to seek it. The priests could help:
“If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
“So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case.
“You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you.
“According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left.
3. The Charge: They Missed the Standard, vs. 8-9.
3. The Charge: They Missed the Standard, vs. 8-9.
v. 8 - But in contrast to what the faithful priests did, the priests Malachi addressed as the LORD’s messenger made a deliberate choice and continue in it.
They turned aside, remaining apart from the right course of ministry “the way”.
In their practice they caused many to falter and fail in their faith (“sin”).
Their unfaithfulness and disobedience destroyed the ministry by no longer causing the people to turn from sin to righteousness.
v. 9 - as a result God exposed the corruption of the priests, bringing them down and making them the lowest in the eyes of the people. They would be left in office, but in the opinion of the congregation, they were contemptible and base.
There is no turning back God’s hand, the divine punishment will continue because they persist in disobedience, providing favor to some over others in their instruction.
Today, as those who say we follow Jesus, we need to take a good look at ourselves.
