Malachi 2 - Faithfully married in the LORD

Malachi 2:1-17

Introduction:

The Bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage.

It begins with Adam & Eve as a picture of Christ & the Church… and ends with the marriage feast of the Lamb, when Christ gets married to Church at the end of all things.

The heart of the Gospel - the meaning of Church - is that we are married to the Living God.

Religion is about rules - rituals - respectability - “righteousness”.

The Way of Jesus is about reality & romance; love & life.

The Book of Malachi is all about the ancient Church becoming cold towards the LORD God, because they “love” they wanted from Him was all about the pleasures and treasures of this earthly life.

They saw that the temple they were building was not as majestic and “impressive” as they wanted. They kind of nation or community they had was small and ignored… overlooked… unimpressive.

What is the point of serving the LORD God is He doesn’t fulfil our dreams?

They had forgotten that the real glory and wonder of the temple was the LORD God Himself.

Their dreams had become corrupt - sordid fantasies filled with fleshly treasures and pleasures… and so they felt frustrated.

The challenge of this chapter is this: if we feel far from the Living God… who has moved?

Point 1: Malachi 2:1-9 - Corrupt Church leaders

The Church ministers - the Levitical priests - were not doing what the LORD had appointed them to do.… and it seems that the people were content with that.

Verse 2 - Their hearts were supposed to be captured by the glory of God.

They were supposed to carry on the pattern of ancient Levi and Aaron - the way that the LORD had commanded for the Church ministers , the priests of Israel.

Verse 5 - Reverence for the LORD. Standing in AWE of His Name.

Verse 6 - True instruction from the minister’s lips. A life of integrity - calling for repentance (turning people from iniquity).

Verse 7 - guarding knowledge.

Notice that people seek instruction from the Church minister - because they have been sent by the LORD of Hosts to teach His truth.

So… Church ministers are not respected - verse 9. They are powerless (verse 2) so that their “blessings” bring no blessing… in fact their “blessings” bring curses.

Verse 3 - all that they produce and do is unclean - covered in dung.

Can we get the crisis of the beginning of Malachi chapter 2?

The leaders of the ancient Church had completely lost connection with what they were supposed to do: they did not teach the truth; people could not get instruction from them; they had no awe or reverence for the Name of the LORD… they treated Him casually, as if He did not matter.… and so they had no power in their ministry.

Everything they did was… dung.

The key truth here is that the awe and reverence for the Living God had gone… and so why bother with teaching His truth? Why bother taking His words seriously?

The rot was deep in the leadership of the ancient Church - and so the people were drawn into it as well.

Point 2 - Malachi 2:10-16 - Corrupt Church people

Church is supposed to be all about holiness and love.

The engine at the heart of Church life is that awe and reverence for the Name of the LORD… and from THAT we have reverence and respect for one another.

We LOVE the LORD God with all our heart and mind, soul and strength… and THEN we LOVE each other as we should.

So… if there was no awe and reverence for the Name of the LORD at the heart of Church life… so the way they treated one another also had rotted away.

The question of verse 10 is essentially asking - If you are all children of the Living God… then why are you treating one another so badly?

Notice in verse 11: the sanctuary of the LORD has been profaned; the worship of the Living God has been disgusting (abominable) to Him.… and so they no longer took Him seriously.

They were allowing the worship of other gods to come into Church life.

They THOUGHT that they could keep their worldly, pagan lives in one compartment, but then go up to the temple to make offerings to the LORD.… as if the LORD didn’t know how they were really living away from the Church gatherings (verse 12)

Look at verses 13-14.

They were weeping and wailing - at least outwardly - because it was obvious the LORD God was not blessing them. They were moaning and depressed because He seemed so far away from them: they had no power or respect in the world.

YET… their faithlessness and adultery towards HIM had leaked out into their own lives… and they were not faithful to one another, especially in their marriages.

They were supposed to be passionate for the LORD God… and from that awe and reverence towards HIM, they would have respect and reverence for one another, especially within marriage and family.

There is that old wisdom that says that when Jesus is at the centre of marriage, He pulls husband and wife closer together as they come closer to HIM.

When He is NOT at the centre of Christian marriage - then our own fleshly desires and selfish agendas come into the centre… and this pushes us AWAY from one another.

Children learn from their parents - mostly not from what they SAY but from what they DO.

So, verse 15, the LORD was not finding godly children coming from these Church couples…because the children could see what was REALLY going on at home.

Verse 16 says that the LORD God hates divorce, but the divorce that He hates most of all is the divorce from HIM.

The problem wasn’t just that they had divorced one another - but that they had divorced HIM.

Remember that they were supposed to be in LOVE with Him - Christ & Church, the cosmic Husband and Wife… the divine romance.

BUT… that ancient Church had committed adultery against Him, and they had broken their marriage relationship with HIM.

NOW, that brokenness and faithlessness was showing up in all their lives - breaking marriages, families and children.

THIS is what was so grieving the Living God.

Point 3 - Malachi 2:17 - Corrupt Judgement

Verse 17 brings all of this to a conclusion - the LORD was weary of the fake religion and hypocritical performances that the ancient Church were bringing before Him.

He could see through all their emotion and performances.

When they went to “Church” they were puttiing in a “good show” - but when they went back home, the truth about them came out:

They didn’t treasure His words.

They didn’t have awe and reverence for His Name.

They treated evil behaviour as if it were good.

They cried out for justice… complaining to God about all the injustice around them, or how unfair they thought their own lives were (like an angst-ridden teenager)… and yet the big source of injustice and unfaithfulness was THEM.

Yes, their society was riddled with injustice.

Yes, evil was on the rise and goodness was fading away.

BUT… THEY were the cause of the disease, NOT the Living God, the Holy One of the Most High.

The cure was to return to Him… to turn away from the false gods and the selfish desires, and to turn towards Him.

Yes, our hearts may be so hard and damaged that at this moment we do not feel the awe and reverence for the Name of the LORD that we should… and yet, can we cry out to Him for HELP.

Malachi chapter 2 shines the bright light of holiness and truth into our lives… and we respond by crying out to the Living God for HELP.

The LORD Jesus died for Church and even if we have wandered away from Him, He will receive us back with grace and forgiveness.

He will wash us and cleanse away the spiritual dung that we are covered in… and He will bring us back to reality and refreshment.