God’s Promised Glory

Introduction

Good morning please turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter 2:1-9 that is Malachi 2:1-9. If you are using one of the Bibles scattered throughout the chairs that is on page 753. Again, that is page 753. God always keeps his promises. There is never a promise that makes that he will not see through. Now, when we hear that we probably think about his positive promises. Promises like he will never leave us or forsake us, the promise draw near to the broken hearted, or the promise of eternal life. But about His other promises, like the promise to judge the unrighteous. What do we make of these promises? Do we look at these promises and see them as negative, maybe even something we as Christians are ashamed of? What about the promise in today’s text in which God promises to curse the priests who do not obey his commands? Are pleased in these promises of God? Do we believe that God will really keep all of his promises?

And what do these promises that are harder for us to rejoice in, tell us about God? This morning I want us to see that God keeps all of his promises, even the promise to punish evil. And I want us to see that this is a good thing. God is determined to receive the glory that is due Him. And God will ensure that anything unholy is purged from his presence. He zealous for his glory and his holiness. Which means he is zealous for the holiness of his people. This zeal is what this text captures for us. God will ensure that His people are holy. He will make good on all of his promises. Let’s read Malachi 2:1-9

A Promise to Curse v. 1-4

Malachi 2:1–4 ““And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.”

God speaks directly to the priests and gives them a command. The command is to give honor to His is name. This section we are looking at today is part of 2 of a prophecy or oracle that Malachi gives to the people Israel. We covered part 1 last week in which God condemned the priests for allowing the people to offer blemished animals as sacrifices to Him. His law commanded the people to bring the unblemished from their flocks and herds, but instead the people would offer the blind, the sick, and lame animals as a sacrifice. In doing this they despised God’s name, and now God is declaring again that His name will be honored. He warns these priests that if they do not take this command to heart, He will curse them. When the text says, “if you will not take it to heart” and if you do not “lay it to heart” is does with the Hebrew understanding of the heart in mind. In the west we often only think of the heart as the emotions, but in ancient near eastern thought the heart was seen as the epicenter of all of human will. The heart included the rational and volitional aspects of a human being. That is to say that the heart was where a person would think, feel, and do. When God tells them to lay his command to heart He is instructing to to obey Him will all that they are. They are to think rightly about who He is, Feel rightly about who He is, and Do what is right in light of who God is. He is an honorable God, and therefore they are to bring honor to his name.

They are to do this by ensuring that is Word, His law, is followed, especially when it comes to how the people are to worship Him. He is telling the priests, fix this worship problem or I will remove you from the priesthood. In fact, the text tells us that He has already done this. They are meant to be a blessing to the people through their ministry in the temple, but because of their lack of faithfulness they will be curses instead. God will shame them and remove them. We see this when God says that He will rebuke their offspring, their children from the priesthood, and spread dung on their faces. This is a massive humiliation obvious reasons, but there is something going on a little deeper in the text. You see, the word translated dung is also used in the OT to refer to the parts of a sacrifice that would be removed from the animal, taken outside of the camp, and burned. These parts were taken outside of the camp because they were considered unclean. The unclean parts, the entrails, could not be sacrificed to God in the temple because they were unclean. God is going to take these unclean parts of these blemished sacrifices and wipe them on the faces of the these priests. It is a double shaming, God is saying your sacrifices are blemished so I will defile you with the worst parts of these defiled or polluted sacrifices. He then says that they will we taken away with it.

That is they will taken outside of the camp/city to be burned. This is a metaphor, but that doesn’t mean it is not real. The metaphor of being removed from the camp/city is symbolic of being removed from the people of God. To be in the city, is to a part of God’s people and receive God’s blessing. To be removed from the city is to be removed from God’s people and God. God’s presence was in the temple, which was in the middle of the city. The further you were from the temple, the further you were from God. God is saying, your worship is so defiling I must remove you from my presence. I believe God is promises to remove these specific priests and their offspring from the priesthood as means of preserving His priesthood, His people, and the glory of His name. We see this in verse 4 Malachi 2:4 “So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.” Levi is the name of the tribe from which the priests descended. God is preserving His covenant or promise to Levi, by removing these corrupt priest from their positions.

So we might ask, what does this have to do with me? What does the corruption and removal of priests in the 5th century BC have to do with Christians in 2025? First, I believe we need to see this in 1 Peter 2:4–7a “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe,…

Here we see that God in the new covenant is abolishing the old priesthood of Levi. Instead, Jesus is our high priest and those who are in him are being made into a holy priesthood meant offer God spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And who are these priests? Whoever believes in him (Jesus). So as we read this text and consider the unchanging character of God, and consider our role as priests through Christ we ask what kind of sacrifice are we to offer him? Now, I believe we should first consider this text corporately. What happens when a person says they are a Christian, but their spiritual sacrifice that is their life does not reflect that reality? What happens when sin is so pervasive in the life of the supposed Christians that they despise the name of God? Are we to put them out of the camp?

They answer for unrepentant egregious sin, is yes. In a sense, we are to do this. In 1 Corinthians 5 , Paul writes about a man who has committed sexual immorality with his step-mother. He has refused repentance and the church has seemingly ignored this offense. Paul writes this 1 Corinthians 5:3–5 “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 5:9 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—” and then 1 Corinthians 5:13 “…“Purge the evil person from among you.”” Now, Paul is not talking about those who are outside of the church or non-Christians or those who have failed but are repentant. He is talking about a man who is brining shame to Christ and the church because of his unrepentant sin. God promises to keep his people holy. This is the process of church discipline, and it is not optional. Praise God that we have never had to do this, but as we look at this text, we must consider are willing to do what God has told us? Or are we like these priests who would turn a blind eye as blemished sacrifices are brought into the temple?

This example is the worst case scenario, but church discipline should be happening way before this point. In Matthew 18:15–17 ““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” and Galatians 6:1–3 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” James 5:19–20 “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

I know that is a lot of text to read, but I want to make it abundantly clear that you as church members have a responsibility to help one another when you see each other struggle with sin and temptation. When you think about your best friends at RHC do know their struggles and do they know yours? We are a holy priesthood, make acceptable by the through Jesus Christ. So let us live like one. We will look like a people zealous for God’s glory or will we look like this priests in Malachi?

T/S- the priest in Malachi are a negative example to avoid, but God provides a positive example to follow as he reminds the people of what a priest was meant to be.

A Promise Remembered v. 5-7

Malachi 2:5–7 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”

God brings to memory the covenant/promise he made to Levi, that is the tribe of Israel who the priest descended from. This original promise isn’t even made to Levi the man, but rather to his descendant Aaron and his sons. Aaron is the brother of Moses and it is in Exodus that the Levitical priesthood is established. God chose to have his priest come from the ancestral line of Aaron, who was a Levite. God also chose to have the other Levites who were not Aaron’s sons minister at the temple and assist the priests in the sacrificial system. So, God made a promise with Levi their tribe would not own an land in the the promised land, but God would provide for Levi through the sacrificial system and Levi in turn would provide the rest of Israel with the means to worship God in the tabernacle/temple.

Therefore Levi’s ministry provided the tribe with life and peace and provided the nation with life and peace as they were able to worship the one true God. This promise is recounted in Deuteronomy 18:1–5 ““The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.” It was a situation that blessed God as we was rightly worshiped, blessed the tribe of Levi as they would be provided for through the offerings though they had no land, and it blessed the people of Israel as they were able to uphold God’s law and worship Him alone. Thus, allowing the nation to uphold their end of the old covenant in which God promised to bless them as long as they worshiped Him alone. Thus, it was a covenant of life and peace.

However, it was also a covenant of fear, but not a fear like being afraid of the dark. Rather it was a reverential fear of God. The covenant acknowledge that God was God. It acknowledged that God ruled the universe, that all things belonged to Him, that He declared what was right and wrong, that He was the creator and sustainer of all things. An in that acknowledgement Israel would stand in awe of God’s name, which His his very nature. In a word it was a covenant of worship. Worship is ascribing of worth to something. We worship God when we think, feel, and act like God is truly God. Right worship, the fear of the Lord, is the whole-hearted response of praise to the Lord. Its what we read from Romans 12:1 last week. It is to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. This worshipful disposition characterized the covenant between God and the tribe of Levi. And in the fear of the Lord the tribe of Levi also served Israel by being their judges in civil cases. They were able to administer justice in the nation with wisdom because Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” In honoring God in their hearts, the Levites were able to minister in the temple to worship God, they were able to administer justice in their places as judges in Israel, and they were able to teach the people the Word of God.

Malachi 2:6 “True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.” By providing instruction in the lives of the people of Israel the priest of Levi were about to keep the nation from wandering into sin and idolatry. Their ministry held together the old covenant. So long as Israel was faithful, God would bless them. However, the priests were not faithful, the nations kings were not faithful, the people of the nation were not faithful. So, God sent the Babylonians to conquer Israel and send the people into Exile. By God’s grace the people returned, and now here they are again on the cusp of breaking the covenant.

T/S- But thanks be to God, that though they like us are failures, God keeps his promises.

A Promise Kept v. 8-9

Malachi 2:8–9 “But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.””

They know what they ought to be, but they fail to be it. They have corrupted the covenant of Levi. Sound like anyone you know? Perhaps that person that looks back at you in the mirror. You know that your life should be one in which you offer spiritual sacrifice to God in your life, you know you should be sober in judgment, you know that your lips should guard knowledge and declare the instruction of God’s Word. But time and time again we don’t quite measure up, do we? As Christians who live under the new and better covenant, one of eternal life, eternal peace built upon the worship of the one true God who’s Son died for our sins we are to be a people who bring life and peace. Yet, we don’t always do that.

Yet we like these priests turn aside from the way, we cause others to stumble, we fail to live as we ought. In the old covenant God kept his promise. The people failed and so God made them despised and abased before all the people. They did not keep his ways, and so he let them be given over to their enemies. But the good news for us is that we are not under the old covenant.

You see the covenant of Levi was replaced with a better covenant with a better high priest. In Hebrews 7-8 the author explains that Jesus was the king of peace and that He was a priest on the basis of an indestructible life. Jesus was tempted in every way and in therefore a superior priests. These priests in Malachi cannot live up to the description we find in Malachi 2:5-7. God is describing the ideal priests and if you read the Old Testament the Levitical priests were rarely ideal. This moment in Israel’s history is not the first time the priest had failed. Yet, there is one who lives up to the description. In the next chapter Malachi tells us that the Lord himself with come to the temple. That’s the point of this book. The people even after exile can’t live up to God’s holy standards. You and I cannot in own strength live up to these standards. So the prophet Malachi points to his future in which God will purify the sons of Levi once and for all.

Listen to in Hebrews 13:10–15 “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent (priest of Levi) have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

Conclusion

Jesus came for sinners like me and you. We deserve to be smeared with entrails and taken outside the camp to be burned. That is we deserve judgment and an eternity in Hell. We are more like these priests than unlike them. We don’t measure up to the ideal, not even close. Yet, we are given a covenant of life and peace. Eternal life and peace with God through Jesus Christ our lord. Do you know this morning that you are a sinner? Do hear the perfect standard of God’s law and know that you do not measure up? You were made to worship the one true God, but instead you have chosen to worship self, kids, money, success, status, dreams the list could go on and on. Do you want to know? What can I do?

Repent of sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Jesus lived a perfect life, died in your place, and if you place your faith in him you can have eternal life. You can be at peace with God and God will be glorified in your life. That is the promise that He makes and God always keeps His promises. Let’s pray.