Nielsen’s Nook

Translation
“O that there were also one among you who would shut the doors that not kindle fire on my altar in vain,” says YHWH of Hosts, “I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun until its setting my name will be great among the nations and in every place incense will be presented to my name, a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations,” says YHWH of Hosts. “But you are the ones who are profaning it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is unclean and it’s fruit, it’s food is despised.’ But you say, ‘Behold such a burden!’ And you snort at it,” says YHWH of Hosts. “And you bring what has been violently stolen or is lame or sick. You bring this as an offering!? Will I accept it from your hand?” says YHWH.

Reflection
I need a little more time for the reflection. Come back tomorrow for the reflection.

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.

7 מַגִּישִׁ֤ים עַֽל־מִזְבְּחִי֙ לֶ֣חֶם מְגֹאָ֔ל וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם בַּמֶּ֣ה גֵֽאַלְ� ֑וּךָ בֶּאֱמָרְכֶ֕ם שֻׁלְחַ֥ן יְהוָ֖ה � ִבְזֶ֥ה הֽוּא׃

8 וְכִֽי־תַגִּשׁ֨וּן עִוֵּ֤ר לִזְבֹּ֙חַ֙ אֵ֣ין רָ֔ע וְכִ֥י תַגִּ֛ישׁוּ פִּסֵּ֥חַ וְחֹלֶ֖ה אֵ֣ין רָ֑ע הַקְרִיבֵ֨הוּ � ָ֜א לְפֶחָתֶ֗ךָ הֲיִרְצְךָ֙ א֚וֹ הֲיִשָּׂ֣א פָ� ֶ֔יךָ אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת׃

Translation

“In presenting defiled food upon my altar.”

But you say, “How have we defiled you?”

“In saying the table of YHWH may be despised. So when you present blind animals for sacrifice - is that not evil? And when you present lame and sickly animals - is that not evil? Go ahead, present that to your governor; will he accept you or honor your presence?” says YHWH of Hosts.

Reflection

Do we not have great parallel in this today? God’s people, myself at the top of this list, will use a spoon to address sin in their own lives rather than wield the sword given us in the sacraments, the word and prayer. I am cut to the quick as I think about this. We so quickly come to the Law of God as mere mechanical prescription, failing to see that YHWH’s disturbance here is that the priests failed to see that the matter of the Law was and always will be concerned with the heart.

Often I find myself obeying the speed limit not because I want to further my relationship with the state troopers but because I want to avoid a relationship with them. This is the kind of obedience that brings our worst to the altar of God, seeking to appease him and avoid relationship with him. “I brought your stupid lamb so leave me alone,” is essentially what the priests were saying.

Worse than that they brought animals from which they had no benefit, that cost them nothing. In such acts the priests declare to God that sin is not costly; it is easily brushed aside. This, of course, was an all around perversion of obedience. One would ask the question to the priests (and perhaps to ourselves), “If you care nothing about the Law of God, such that you bring sacrifices that are contrary to the ones set forth in that Law, then why bother pretending? Why continue the masquerade?”

I think if we are honest, we find this is precisely what the Lord is asking, not only the priests, but ourselves also. He is exposing the mask behind which we hide from him. We wear it to give us an appearance of obedience or goodness, much like the way we do not speed when we see a police officer, and yet our hearts want nothing to do with God. We are beggarly inside and happy that way. Yet the Lord wants more for us than this. He will pursue His people behind every mask and evil pretense, that we may stand in his glory made again after his likeness.

Lord have mercy upon us, your people, for our obedience is imperfect. We hunger and thirst for righteousness and a thousand other things. Let us lay down the spoons and take up swords, not to shed the blood of others, but that they would be as a scalpel in the hands of a loving Physician who would work in us that we would be enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. Amen.

6� � � � � בֵּ֛ן יְכַבֵּ֥ד אָ֖ב וְעֶ֣בֶד אֲדֹ� ָ֑יו וְאִם־אָ֣ב אָ֣� ִי אַיֵּ֣ה כְבוֹדִ֡י וְאִם־אֲדוֹ� ִ֣ים אָ� ִי֩ אַיֵּ֨ה מוֹרָאִ֜י אָמַ֣ר׀ יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֗וֹת לָכֶם֙ הַכֹּֽהֲ� ִים֙ בּוֹזֵ֣י שְׁמִ֔י וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֕ם בַּמֶּ֥ה בָזִ֖י� וּ אֶת־שְׁמֶֽךָ׃

Translation

“A son will honor a father and a servant his master. So if I am father where is my honor? And if I am master where is my reverence?” says YHWH, Lord of Hosts, to you, the priests who despise my name. But you say, “In what way have we despised your name?”

Reflection

There are two important points that seem to be impressed upon me as I consider this verse, which both fall under the rubric of the transcendence of God’s majestic glory. His glory is weighty and we are want to apprehend just how majestic and weighty that it is.

Honor and fear are due God simply because he is who he is. In other words, as a father deserves honor simply because he is a father who fulfills his position as father with honor, so God deserves honor as our Heavenly Father. As a master is to be revered and feared by his servant whom he owns, so also God as our Creator, who made and sustains us, innately requires our fear and reverence.

Second, as the priests found themselves corrupt, unable to see how they dishonored God’s sacred name, so - I fear - the church today, the so-called priesthood of believers, does not see how we disgrace and dishonor the holy name of God. It would seem that on account of both our lack of reverence for God and our failure to take sin seriously, we have opened ourselves up to the very thing for which Malachi condemns the priests of his time. Perhaps if we would present God in a true representation, one which entails both transcendence and immanence, we would help the church to regain the honor and fear that is due God as both their Creator and Redeemer.

O God, have mercy, that your Church might see such reverence and honor for your name regained in this generation. Amen.

¹ מַשָּׂ֥א דְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל בְּיַ֖ד מַלְאָכִֽי׃

2� � � � � אָהַ֤בְתִּי אֶתְכֶם֙ אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה וַאֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם בַּמָּ֣ה אֲהַבְתָּ֑� וּ הֲלוֹא־אָ֨ח עֵשָׂ֤ו לְיַֽעֲקֹב֙ � ְאֻם־יְהוָ֔ה וָאֹהַ֖ב אֶֽת־יַעֲקֹֽב׃

3� � � � � וְאֶת־עֵשָׂ֖ו שָׂ� ֵ֑אתִי וָאָשִׂ֤ים אֶת־הָרָיו֙ שְׁמָמָ֔ה וְאֶת־� ַחֲלָת֖וֹ לְתַ� ּ֥וֹת מִדְבָּֽר׃

4� � � � � כִּֽי־תֹאמַ֨ר אֱד֜וֹם רֻשַּׁ֗שְׁ� וּ וְ� ָשׁוּב֙ וְ� ִבְ� ֶ֣ה חֳרָב֔וֹת כֹּ֤ה אָמַר֙ יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת הֵ֥מָּה יִבְ� ֖וּ וַאֲ� ִ֣י אֶהֱר֑וֹס וְקָרְא֤וּ לָהֶם֙ גְּב֣וּל רִשְׁעָ֔ה וְהָעָ֛ם אֲשֶׁר־זָעַ֥ם יְהוָ֖ה עַד־עוֹלָֽם׃

5� � � � � וְעֵי� ֵיכֶ֖ם תִּרְאֶ֑י� ָה וְאַתֶּ֤ם תֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ יִגְדַּ֣ל יְהוָ֔ה מֵעַ֖ל לִגְב֥וּל יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

Translation

1. An oracle of the Word of YHWH to Israel by means of Malachi:
2. “I have loved you,” says YHWH.
   But you say, “In what way have you loved us?”
   “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares YHWH. “Yet while loving Jacob,
3. so I have hated Esau. I have caused desolation in the hill country and caused his inheritance to be for jackals in the wilderness.”
4. If Edom is saying, “We have been destroyed, so we will return and we will rebuild the ruins.” Thus says YHWH, Lord of Hosts, “They may build up but I will tear down and they will be called ‘Wicked Territory’ and ‘The people with whom YHWH is wrathful forever’”.
5. Your eyes will see this and you will say, “Great is YHWH beyond the borders of Israel!”

Reflection

O how this is indicative of us all who are born of women! The sin of Adam has so corrupted us that we rail against the very one who created and sustains us. “In what way have you loved us?” we say seeking to call God to account. All the while, it is our own eyes that cannot see and in presuming that our Creator owes us such account, in seeking to bring him under us, we sin in graver ways still.

The wonder that we find even here in a Prophet is that mixed with the message of just condemnation we find a divinely sourced hope. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I have hated.” ‘How is this hope?’ one might ask, ‘Esau does not seem to have a chance! For what ever he would build up, YHWH vows to tear down.’ Yet I say to you that this text is teaching us what is true for all of us. God’s hatred of Esau is deserved and just and is the norm for all who sinned in Adam, all humanity without exception. But, his love of Jacob, now that is something to be amazed about. Jacob was a liar and a cheat, but God chose to love him unto redemption in Christ Jesus. Yet was not Ruth an Edomite? Did not some of that rebellious land of Esau find the Grace of God in the Redeemer of the Lord, the go’el YHWH? Indeed, we see that even in the desolation of Edom, the light of God’s redemption for us in Jesus shines brightly.

Unfortunately, in our current estate of sin and misery God must tear down all that we would build that we might see that he is God and we are not; that he is King and we are his subjects. It is at this time that we will see God is more than Israelite mythology, but indeed is great beyond the border of Israel.