God's Covenant Love (Malachi 1:1-5)

Prayer

God, thank you for giving us Your Word. It’s a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And in it you give us promise after promise of your love. Help us lean in and hear what you would have for us in Your Word tonight. Would you help us cut out distraction , whether it’s social unrest, struggles at work, relational woes, stress, upcoming tests or more. Help us cut out distraction and focus on Your Truth tonight, God.

God we thank you for the ability to be able to worship together tonight. Thank you for the men and women you have used to secure that freedom for us. May we not take it for granted. Bless the efforts of those who cannot peacefully gather because of fear of persecution. Be with them as they seek to meet in Your name.

God, as I seek to preach your Word tonight, help me do so faithfully. If I say anything that is contrary to Your Word, erase it from the minds of all who hear it. But if I say anything that accord with your Word and glorifies your name, magnify it in the hearts and minds of all who hear this message.

We love you God. Thank you for showing your love for us in the death of Your Son Jesus. It’s in His name we pray by the power of the Spirit….Amen.

Introduction

It’s easy to look out at the world right now and fall into despair. The last year has shown us example after example of hatred and division. From conversations surrounding the election, to disagreements about masks and vaccines, to arguments about how to handle guidelines and family gatherings at holidays, to cancel culture on the left and the right on social media, and so much more, we’ve seen plenty of pictures of division and hate. In an atmosphere like ours, it’s good to remind ourselves of love, especially clear displays and affirmation of love and care. What’s a time you’ve seen a display of love? Think about it. Picture it. Let it bring comfort to your soul.

For me, one of the clearest and most profound display of love I’ve ever experienced came before I ever had conscious memory. My mother had dreamed of being a doctor. She was always a top student. She excelled in high school and on into college. She thrived in college and then entered med school. She finished nearly at the top of her class. She came into her residency firing on all cylinders. As she finished her residency and looked to begin her professional practice she was one of the most promising medical prospects in the area. Around that time, I was born. I was her first child. She had always dreamed of being a mother. But there was one problem. Because of her strenuous work schedule she essentially never saw me while I was awake for several months straight. This weighed on her so much. After lots of reflection and prayer with my dad, my mom made the incredible decision to step away from her childhood dream of being a doctor to fulfill another childhood dream: to be a stay at home mom; a homemaker. She wanted to spend time with me, and in future years, my sister as well. As someone who just finished a Master’s program and is pursuing their dream job, I can’t imagine the sacrifice it took for her to step away from her dreams and hard work to be with me. It still blows my mind. It was an incredible display of love.

Question 1

What’s an example of a time you have seen someone show their love for you? Maybe you had a surgery and your friends and family created a meal train for you. Or maybe you had a daddy-daughter date or spent intentional time with a parent and saw a clear picture of their care for you. Maybe a friend wrote you a letter and showed their love for you that way. I’ve seen pictures of this from folks in Twenty-Somethings in my own life. During some major moments and milestones in my life, people in Twenty-Somethings have written cards, given gifts, or even given me a calendar with pictures of sunsets to show their care for me. That’s meant the world to me. So what has it been for you? What displays of love and care have you experienced or been a part of this year?

Transition

What if it’s hard to seen actions and outworkings of love? Especially if it’s from God?

It’s easy to feel affirmed in love when you see clear and present displays of it. But what about when love is hard to see? What about when it’s difficult to see evidences of love at all? How do we respond then?

This is how the people of Israel felt about God’s love to them heading into the book of Malachi.

If you have your bible with you, turn or tap with me to Malachi 1:1. Malachi 1:1. While you turn there, let me give you the context of our passage tonight.

Context

Written in the middle of the 5th century B.C., the message of Malachi was proclaimed by God through the prophet Malachi to a people who struggled to see God’s love. They had recently returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile which had ended nearly 100 years before when King Cyrus uttered a decree allowing for their return and ending the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. In their captivity, the people of God had heard many prophecies and promises of God’s blessing, provision, peace, and presence when their exile had ended. But the people of God had not seen these promises come to pass yet. Instead, they faced poverty, drought, crop failure, and pestilence. The temple of God was rebuilt after the exile, but it was physically and spiritually inferior to the previously existing temple. Rather than experiencing the pulsating power of the promises of the prophets, they experienced poverty on every level. They felt as if God was distant. For all of their criticisms of God, the people themselves were falling short. They were neglecting to tithe, they offered lame and blind animals as sacrifices to God, and were unfaithful in their marriages. Their orthodoxy, their doctrine was solid. But their orthopraxy, their conduct, was not.

It is in this context that God delivers a message to them through the prophet Malachi .

Let’s read our passage tonight starting with the first verse in Malachi.

Malachi 1:1-5

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

“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 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!”

Summary

So here we have God addressing his people, a people who have right beliefs in theory, but in practice fall short. They are a people who are giving God their second best both religiously and morally. And notice how God begins his message to his people.

Aside

He doesn’t begin with condemnation or finger pointing. He begins with love. Look with me at verse 2 (Malachi 1:2). His first words to His people are, “I have loved you.”

Imagine if we treated our relationships that way. Rather than always beginning with condemnation in conflict, what if we begin with an affirmation of love? Imagine how that might change the tone and tenor of our relationships with family, and friends, and coworkers.

Summary (Continued)

But that let’s get back to summarizing the passage. Rather than responding to God’s affirmation of love with thanks, the people of Israel hurl back a stunning statement. They question God saying, “How have you loved us?” To that shocking reply, God responds with an unexpected answer that draws His people back to the history of Israel, many generations before. God closes the discussion with the powerful proclamation that His name is and will be made great beyond the borders of Israel.

So let’s break this passage down and see what God might want us to hear from it.

Questioning God’s Love

As we saw in verse 2 (Malachi 1:2), God explicitly affirms His love for His people and yet they fire back by questioning God’s claim. They angrily ask God, “How have you loved us?” That’s a serious question. But if we’re honest, we can all probably relate to that question. Maybe we’ve even asked it ourselves.

The Israelites looked out at their world and saw brokenness, hurt, pain, and promises that seemed unfulfilled. I imagine many or all of us have done the same before. Maybe we even feel that way right now. If we look out at our world we can see the ravaging effects of COVID, the division of the rhetoric surrounding an election, racial tension, rioting and protesting, the death of loved ones, a strange form of reality where faces and physical touch are forced to go by the wayside, and where church attendance is plummeting. Like the Israelites, it would be easy to look out at our world and question God’s love. Yes, we know He tells us that He loves us in His word. But where’s the proof? Maybe you’ve asked that question through tears. Maybe you’ve cried it out to God when you received the cancer diagnosis, or you lost your job, or the break up happened.

I’m not sure where in your life you are most prone to question God’s love, but you know. And I want us to talk about his for our next time of group questions.

Question 2

Where are you most tempted to question God’s love for you right now? Or, if you’re uncomfortable answering more specifically about yourself, where do you think people are most prone to look at their lives and our world and question God’s love for them? Is it because of COVID? Job loss? Civil unrest? Singleness? Where are you or other most prone to question God’s love for you?

Finding Our Faults

Wherever you are questioning God’s love most in your life, be aware of it. Keep it in mind so you can be mindful of it and seek after and look for God’s love in it.

If we were to look at the rest of the book of Malachi, we would find God through Malachi addressing the people of Israel about their sins; about how they’ve given God their second best by offering lame and blind sacrifices, neglecting to tithe, and being unfaithful in their marriages. They may have proclaimed right doctrine but they didn’t exhibit right practice. They may have claimed to have loved God, but their lives didn’t show it. And that lack of holiness undoubtedly created distance between them and God. You can claim to love God all you want, you can come to church, sing worship songs, and go through the motions, but giving God your second best is not loving Him as He deserves.

If Malachi were speaking to us today, what sins of worship and practice might he call out in us today? Would it be a lack of prayer? Would it be a lack of service and using our gifts and talents for the Lord? Would it be a neglect of tithing and living generously? Would it be that we spend hours scrolling through social media and bingeing Netflix while hardly ever opening our Bibles? Would it be that we haven’t shared the Gospel with an unbeliever in a long time or ever?

We might claim to love God and cry out to Him about why He feels distant, but if we consistently fall into these things, we can’t claim the higher ground. We can’t claim to love God as we ought to. Like the Israelites, it may be that our beliefs are correct, but our practice isn’t.

So where might you be falling short in your worship and love for God? Where might you be giving God second best? What area of your life might Malachi call your attention to if he were here with us today?

While pursuing God more deeply in any of the areas I mentioned, whether Bible reading, worship, prayer, generosity, or service is not guarantee that God will meet with us as we expect, typically God is faithful to meet us there when we earnestly pursue Him more deeply in those ways. You might be astonished how God might meet you and draw near if you committed to reading His words of love to you in the Bible every day. You might be surprised how God might meet you if you honestly sought Him in prayer every day and actually tried to listen to His voice rather than just speaking yours. You might be shocked at how God might meet you if you were generous with your time, money, and talents.

We should all strive to pursue God deeper in those things. But maybe you’re here tonight and you’re saying, “Caleb, I know I can be more faithful in all of those things, but you don’t understand my pain right now. I’m trying to feel God’s love but I can’t. He feels like He’s a million miles away.”

In your desperation you might be saying, “I can’t feel God’s love. I can’t see it, no matter how hard I try.”

Just like He said to the Israelites, tonight, God is proclaiming His love for you. But from the deep pain of your heart you’re saying,

“I’m watching my grandma slowly die of Alzheimer’s! How? How have you loved me, God?”

“I just lost my job and don’t know how I’m going to make ends meet. How? How have you loved me?”

“I’m going through a devastating break up. How? How have you loved me?

“I’m single and about to graduate college. I thought I would be married by now and I wonder if anyone can love me. How? How have you loved me, God?”

“I’m watching my family and friends descend into hatred and division because of disagreements about the election. I’m not sure if they’ll ever talk to me again. How? How have you loved me?

“I’m watching a family member die of COVID. How? How have you loved me, God?

How might God answer our cries of desperation? How might God affirm His love for us?

Turn with me to the second half of verse two and we’ll read through God’s reply to questions about His love.

Malachi 1:2b-5

“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!”

Covenant

What on earth is God saying here? What kind of response is this? When I cry out to God to ask about His love, this is not the response I would want or expect. But I think you’ll find that when you understand God’s answer, it is beautiful and profound.

Rather than calling their attention to recent displays of His provision and care, God draws the memory of His people way back; generations back.

And He draws them to two famous characters in Jewish history. Jacob and Esau became synonymous with two groups those who are faithful to God and those who are not. They became synonymous with the family of God and the enemies of God. Jacob being associated with the family of God and Esau and the Edomites being associated with the enemies of God.

The people who would descend from Jacob would be the great patriarchs of the faith. The descendants of Esau, the Edomites would be enemies of God’s people. I think it’s interesting the King Herod, the one who tried to exterminate Jesus by calling for all first born baby sons to be killed, was also an Edomite.

Why would God remind His people of Jacob and Esau? He does so because He is reminding them of the Covenant He made with Abraham, Jacob, and all of their descendants. God chose to make a covenant with Jacob and his descendants and not Esau’s.

God didn’t choose to place His covenant love upon Jacob and his descendants because of anything Jacob had done. Jacob and his people weren’t inherently better than the Edomites. Neither party deserved God’s covenant love. As Paul reminds us in Romans 9 while quoting from our passage tonight, God chose Jacob before he was ever born. Jacob didn’t deserve God’s love, but God lavished it upon Him.

God is drawing His people back to the covenant love He has for them.

Like the Israelites, we can often struggle to see the weight and beauty of covenant love because we see poor and imperfect pictures of love. We see parents who neglect us, friends who use and abuse us, and so much more. We struggle to trust love because we’ve never seen perfect love before.

Worst of all, marriage, the relationship that is supposed to be the epitome of covenant love and picture of God’s love for us, is treated lightly. Marriages break down in divorce all of the time. We have all probably been touch by divorce in one way or another. Spouses are unfaithful to one another or they neglect their partners. Our pictures of covenant love consistently fall short of the standard they are called to. Husbands and wives make vows to each other that get broken in the following years.

But this is not so with God. He never fails to fulfill his vows. No matter what happens, He is always faithful. When His people turned away and worshipped other Gods time and time again in the Old Testament, God remained faithful still. When God’s people trusted in the might of men instead of the power of God to save them, God remained faithful. When God’s people neglected the laws He had given them so that they would flourish, He remained faithful. When God’s people cursed His name, He remained faithful still.

Nothing will ever keep God from fulfilling His covenant vows to His people. Nothing.

In a world of no-fault divorce, affairs as headline news, and so much more, it’s hard for us to fathom the depths of God’s faithfulness to us.

And God didn’t just make the basic covenantal vows with His people. No, He did so much more; something unheard of.

In Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abraham, a forefather of Jacob. This covenant would apply not just to Abraham or Jacob, but to all of God’s people. As God makes this covenant, He had Abraham set out to confirm the covenant through a typical ancient near eastern covenant ceremony. In these ceremonies, they would cut up animals and create a lane to walk through by placing one half of the animals on each side. The cut animals represented the punishment one party of the covenant would face if they didn’t fulfill their covenant vows. They would be put to death. That’s how serious the covenant vows were. But when the time came for both God and Abraham to walk through the aisle of animals, Abraham fell asleep and only God passed through. This meant that God was not just saying that if He failed to uphold his end of the covenant He would be punished. It also meant that if Abraham and his descendants didn’t hold up their covenant vows, God would take on their punishment. Think about that! That’s astonishing!

As we said earlier, over the years, God’s people would fail to uphold their covenant vows time and time again. They were unfaithful, unthankful, and wicked. Yet God remained true to them. God continued to love them. He continued to uphold His covenant vows.

Over the history of God’s people, the people of Jacob, God would rescue them from the slavery of Egypt by splitting the sea and defeating Pharaoh. God would establish them as His people to tell the whole world about the covenant love God had for them. God would give them the victory in battle after battle where Israel was clearly the weaker party. God would provide for His people and show them grace year after year, despite all of their failures and wickedness and idolatry. God had lavished his loved upon His people. For them to question his love for them was unthinkable. But God remained faithful still. In the process of this shocking questioning of His love, God pointed His people back to His covenant with them; an eternal, sovereign, beautiful, and loving covenant.

Whether or not they felt it, God loved His people more than they could ever imagine. He had been faithful and would remain faithful. And yet his people cursed Him the very breath of life and love that He graciously gave them.

But God’s faithfulness to his people, his upholding of his covenant vows to them, would manifest itself in a way they could have never imagined.

A little more than 400 years after the time of Malachi, God would display His covenant faithfulness and love in a way that would change the world forever.

God sent His only Son Jesus to take on the punishment that God’s people deserved for failing to uphold their covenant vows. He died the death they deserved to die. But on the third day, He rose victoriously from the grave with victory over sin, Satan, death, and all the powers of Hell.

In our marriage ceremonies we always say that our commitment to our spouse will last until death do us part. The incredible thing is that in the quintessential marriage, the marriage of Christ and His bride, God and His people, it took death to bring them together. And because of the resurrection of Christ to defeat death forever, til death do us part means that we as the Church will never be without the infinite love of our groom Jesus.

Nothing and no one can thwart God’s covenant love for His people.

No matter what you face, no matter how much pain, no matter how much hurt and suffering, nothing you face can be evidence of a lack of God’s love for you.

Paul proclaims this powerfully in Romans 8:32 when He says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

God sent His only Son Jesus to die for you so that you could experience the love of God forever. He loves you more than you could every possibly imagine.

You may not be experiencing God’s love as you might have hoped in this season. But don’t confuse that with a lack of God’s love. The people in Malachi might not have been experiencing God’s love as they were expecting, but as history would show in the following years, at the cross God would show His love for them in a way greater than they could’ve ever imagined.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Not Coronoavirus. Not job loss. Not pain. Not political strife. Not even death.

It’s just as Paul tells us in Romans 8:

“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:28-39

No matter who you are or what you are going through, if you are a Christian here tonight you can be assured of God’s covenant love for you. He loves you with all of His heart and soul. You never have to question His love for you. It is eternal and undefeated.

But maybe you’re here and you’re not a Christian tonight. Maybe you’re checking this who Christianity thing out. But maybe things are going well. You have a good job, good family, plenty of money and comfort. It can almost feel as if you don’t need God. In reality, you are worshipping a god other than the God of the Bible, whether its money, sex, family, fame, politics, or more. None of these things will last. None of these gods love you. None of them would give all they have for you. In fact, in the end, all of these measly idols will fall. They will be utterly crushed under the eternal weight of God’s covenant love and justice. And no matter how many times you try to rebuild those idols, they would be destroyed in the end. It’s just as God says of the Edomites in Malachi 1:4 : “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.’ ”

If you’re not a Christian, God says those words of you. But he also says this: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

If you will give your life you Christ – all of your affection, your desires, your time, your talents, your anxieties, your dreams, your life- then God will take on your burden of sin and give you His everlasting covenant love.

This covenant was never just meant for the literal people of Jacob. It was meant for every person in every age who would place their faith in Jesus Christ. It’s meant for the whole world. Just as God says in Malachi 1:5, “Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!”

You may be a spiritual Edomite, a spiritual child of Esau, someone who is an enemy of God, but even then there is hope.

Romans 5:10 tell us that “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.”

If you are not a Christian but you want to know more about giving your life to Christ, or maybe you’re even ready to give your life to Christ tonight, there is nothing more that we would love to do than talk with you and pray with you.

God loves you. He sent His Son for you so that you could experience the perfect covenant love of God forever. May me rest in His covenant love for us no matter what comes.

Pray