Nielsen’s Nook

Translation
“And now seek the favor of God that he might show us mercy. With this from your hands, will show favor among you?” says YHWH of Hosts.

Reflection
I continue to be impressed with the indictment that Malachi is leveling with God’s people. It impresses me because of the way it speaks to the area of worship today. I fear that much of the church of God (including myself) has disregarded the nature of holy worship and has settled for blind and lame worship. We have offered what seems right to us, at least in our own estimation, and we are left with only immanent intimations, hollow holes in what otherwise has been the fabric by which God has lifted his people to himself.

What does God require of us to escape his wrath and curse (and yes His wrath and curse are still in force regardless of whether we like to speak of them or not)? To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requires of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, and the diligent use of all the outward means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

While some might think such confessions of faith as wooden, what we often forget is that they are rooted in a burden to worship God rightly. I am one who has not been raised to even remotely appreciate all the outward means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption. Generally these outward means have been presented to me as either 1) Roman Catholic (used in a way to scare me away from them) or 2) they are obscure historical rites that we do because others who came before us did them.

Protestants often profess that the Word of God is so important - and it is - but it is given us in the context of three - the Word, Sacrament and Prayer. I am beginning to think that to not receive Communion is akin to insisting that the Bible and prayer not be part of the worship service. Thus, I wonder if we offer anemic worship to God because we refuse the elements of worship that he has divinely established for us as his creatures and take up man-made imitations of our own imaginations. If so, Malachi speaks to us today who offer up blind and lame worship to a most holy God. “With this from [our] hands,” I wonder if these words are not asking us, “Will he show favor among you?”

Lord, have mercy that your people, that I, would turn from our vain imaginations of who you are and embrace the Lord of Glory, the Lord of Hosts, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who has made us in covenant with himself. Father forgive us that we are by nature covenant breakers and may this realization drive us to Christ, the only covenant keeper. Amen.