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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Sjirk Bajema > The Lord Re-Claims His Ministers! | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
MALACHI 2:1-9
(Readings: 2 Timothy 3:10-4:1; Mal.1:6-2:9)
The Lord Re-Claims His Ministers!
Any church that claims to be Christian can be judged on its faithfulness to Christ by one simple test. It is a test that has got nothing to do with the Bible Version they use, the clothes they wear to church, how many of their folk go to church, or the way its members live during the week. Not even a Church’s Confessions is the answer here. Much as these are all important things you will find variations in them and other aspects that make up following the Lord.
The one simple test, however, is this: ‘What are her ministers like?’ When you come down to the key causes for the Church falling away from the Lord you always come back to those who are called the ministers of the Lord.
It’s no wonder that Paul in his first letter to Timothy goes to some extent to describe the qualities and gifts a leader in Christ’s Church must have. And when you study the different periods of church history you soon see that while revival starts from the bottom the opposite comes from the top – from the ministers in the church. Within a generation after the Great Disruption the Free Church of Scotland became wracked by liberalism because of what the ministers were taught in theological college.
It is this litmus test for the faithfulness of the Church that the Lord turns to now in chapter 2. And while it is set here in the context of the Levitical priesthood of the old covenant, it is yet very much about the ministry today. You see, Malachi deals here with the teaching role of the priest in his time – not their sacrificial duties.
And so it is we turn to considering, first of all, the first three verses here. From the verses 1 till 3 we note, THOSE MINISTERING NEED THE RIGHT HEART.
After ending chapter 1 with the sharpest exposé of the people’s false worship, and a most definitive proclamation of who he is and what he will do, the Lord returns to the priests. This time, however, as we’ve noted, it’s the message they are bringing that he takes them to task for. In the verses 1 till 3 he sets out the groundwork for this. For while it might seem the Lord isn’t speaking about their teaching here, yet it is from what they are within that comes what they say and do on the outside.
To highlight the priests themselves in verse 1 tells us who this is for but also it tells us a little of what this is for. The priests, along with the kings and the prophets, are the crucial leaders of the old covenant. They were those who could make a stand for the Lord, as a number of them did. But they were also those who could take the people so much away from the Lord – as many of them did!
It is this latter situation that is very much the case in Malachi’s time. As we’ve seen in chapter 1 the worship of the Lord was far from glorifying him anymore! It had become nothing more than an extension of their own defiled characters – whether priests or the people as a whole.
So there is this admonition for the priests. This admonition, as verse 2 says, is that they must have the right heart. But in case we think that now the Lord is really going to hammer them, look at that very small word beginning verse 2.
It is the word ‘if’. If they listen and take to heart the Lord’s words here, there will be mercy and blessing. If they don’t turn from their evil ways then there will be judgment and cursing.
So God’s love which is so strong earlier on in chapter 1 still shines through. The words God declares in verse 2 there, ‘I have loved you,’ keep echoing.
There’s no doubt this is a serious concern, though. The title used for the Lord – ‘the LORD Almighty’ is quite comprehensive. This takes in all he is and what he does. And it further emphasises how crucial this is because of the cursing they are already undergoing. While verse 2 half-way through speaks of sending a curse upon them it ends by clearly detailing the curse already upon them.
Now contrast this with what verse 2 began with. It spoke of their hearts honouring God. So the specific role of priests was to lay it upon their hearts the motivation to bring glory to God. It is this glory that comes to God when men honour him as Lord by trying to obey him in every part of their everyday lives. Priests are not to want to be popular or men-pleasers, or whatever people expect them to do. They are there to please God, to serve him, and so to hold to biblical principles because that glorifies him!
We only need to think here of the Aaronic benediction that we also so often use to conclude our worship services. How could those ministering say the words in Numbers 6 about blessing and keeping and grace and peace, when they themselves were cursed and insecure and at war with the Lord?
What the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 of us all, should especially be shown in his ministers. They must seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness.
The words Malachi 2:2 uses of the cursing for disobedience recalls what the law had long said before. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 have, in some detail, outlined the Lord’s punishment in these words.
And in case we think that it’s all rather too general here, the Lord in verse 3 becomes very clear! Three times there it is specified what will come of going against the Lord God. God’s name is absolutely serious business, and defiling it will be most definitely punished.
But how loving our God is that he is using this very punishment to drive us back to him! The very thing so much of covenant history has already shown God’s people!
The first specific punishment is regarding the rebuking of their descendants. As you’ll note from your Bible there are several footnotes with alternatives to the words in this phrase. So it could be describing the blighting of future crops as well.
Whichever way it’s taken, it is a curse on those who follow them. A curse which will reflect the way mankind was initially cursed in Genesis 3 when they went against God. And for an agrarian economy this would hit hard!
Then verse 3 speaks of their faces being smeared with what remained of the animals after they were sacrificed. The word translated ‘offal’ could be the entrails of the animal or its dung – or both.
We have the expression to be ‘left with egg on your face’ to describe humiliation. And this is exactly what will happen to them! Everyone would criticise and despise them, and the priesthood in general. The ministry would be regarded contemptuously, scornfully, and mockingly! People would see through their pretence at worship. They would know they weren’t for real!
But the most cutting punishment is the last part of verse 3. To declare that they “will be carried off with it” is to pronounce that they will be taken away from God altogether! As the waste from the sacrificed animal is put aside the camp so will they be! They who were meant to minister in the very presence of God! They didn’t bring glory to God – and so they will be totally inglorious!
No other prophet gets stuck into the priest as Malachi does here. Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah, are all tame in comparison!
Again, as in chapter 1, we see the end of all that physical Israel was meant to be. But it’s not – far from it!
And so it is the Lord’s prophet turns now to seeing what it was they should have been doing. In the verses 4 till 6, we see, secondly, THOSE MINISTERING NEED TO RETURN TO THE START.
It is noticeable that every time in church history the ministers have turned from God’s ways, they then make so little of his ways. Then they become so hypocritical – they are more than happy to have the title of a Christian minister – even some really fancy ones too – and yet they neither Christian nor honestly ministering. It has become all about them and those around them.
And don’t you want to cry out to them then, ‘What about your roots? Don’t you know where you come from?’ Even the very vows they declare tell them. And certainly the Confessions of the Church they are so busy denying everywhere!
Well, this is essentially what Malachi is doing. He is urging them to get back to basics – go back to what the priesthood was set up to be. That’s why the use of the name ‘Levi’ is not here a reference to one of Jacob’s sons. It is here referring to the Levitical priesthood.
Now, the covenant with Levi here isn’t a specific contract as we see God took with Abraham, but it does tie the blessing of the Lord on them in their service. And it has been a long time that Levi’s tribe ministered in giving guidance through the Urim and Thummim, teaching and officiating in worship. They had made up the choir and played the instruments in public worship.
It is this ministry that will continue, although it might not be with a certain physical race or tribe. God’s gracious arrangement with his own will stand though many who thought they were his fall away. In Jeremiah 33 he picture this covenant as certain to be fulfilled as the laws of nature would be (vv20f).
It is like what a lady said to a conservative minister when her denomination was going through a terrible time of heresy. She said to him, ‘Oh, the Lord will keep the Reformed Church.’ To that he replied, ‘Oh, the Lord will keep his Church alright – might not always be called Reformed though!’
God will take out those unfaithful priests to keep his faithful in. This is church discipline. It is this covenant which hasn’t changed. Verse 5 brings this out. The ‘life and peace’ spoken of here are the gifts God gives to obedient men.
Total commitment to God’s way brings fullness of life. Then you fully appreciate this life and get the most out of it. The books of Deuteronomy and Proverbs declare this time and again.
And this is a message of peace because at its very hearts it begins with men reconciled to God through faith in the coming Messiah. That’s what was shown in the blessed times of revival in their past. Then the people gave glory to God and the priests were right there helping then do that.
It is those earlier worthies Malachi turns to in verse 6. When it speaks of ‘he’ here it is representing whenever the priest truly led God’s people in obedient worship and service of him. This is what we see of Ezra in Ezra 7 verses 9 and 10. There it says of him, “…the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.”
Verse 6 in our text begins, “True instruction was in his mouth…” And how much doesn’t this mark out a faithful preacher? In the words of 2nd Timothy 1:8 he is not ashamed to testify about our Lord. Paul charges Timothy further on in that letter, that he is to “Preach the Word: be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Tim.4:2.)
And those who are faithful ministers for the Lord not only teach his way – they also live that way. This is what verse 6 means as it speaks of nothing false being found on his lips. And when it adds that “he walked in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin” we have the hallmarks of the godly man found throughout Scripture. This is the man of Psalm 15 whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from the heart and has no slander on his lips. He does his neighbour no wrong and despises the vile man but honours those who fear the Lord.
And you go to the other end of God’s Word and it’s still there – loud and clear! James 1 verse 26 says, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” This is what Jesus said in Luke 6:45: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.”
How much didn’t Jesus show this in his life? And isn’t him we show when we live this life?
The key here is that the faithful man of God is the true messenger of God. And this is what we turn to see in the verses 7 till 9. There it is we note, THOSE MINISTERING NEED TO FAITHFULLY IMPART.
Now when verse 7 speaks of preserving knowledge this is something that was part-and-parcel of being a priest. They had to know God’s law. And when they didn’t know it the nation was in a bad way. The prophet is clear about that in Hosea 4:6.
It was the priests who were primarily responsible for teaching the people God’s law. 2nd Chronicles 17 describes how during the revival under Jehoshaphat he sent priests throughout the land teaching the law. When the people returned from exile under Ezra, Levites assisted him in instructing the people in the Law. (Neh.8:7,8,11.)
Malachi takes this a step further by making the priest a type of personal counsellor as well. That meant he had to personally know God and his Word. I mean, who else can be a messenger of the Lord but one who has come from his presence?
This is the first time a priest is described in Scripture as a messenger of the LORD Almighty. Before, in the Old Testament, a messenger from the Lord was an angel, or an appearance of Christ, such as the fourth man with the three Hebrew lads in Daniel 3. Once it has been used as a title for the prophet.
So we see how much the scene is being set for the future. Malachi will use this same word for the one who came before Christ and for Christ himself (3:1). There is a line being drawn. But it is also the line which will drawn against the priests of Malachi’s own time. As verse 8 goes on to say, those priests “have turned from the way” and by their teaching “have caused many to stumble…”
We know the serious warning about leading his people astray from our Lord in the gospels. In Matthew 18:6 he warns that anyone causing any of his children to stumble would be better off with a large millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.
This all began when personally these priests went their own way. They were only playing an act when they performed their priestly duties. But that was as clear as day to the Lord and his prophet. They saw through it all! They recognised the rebellion against what Levi had been called and equipped to do.
These ministers have not ministered. How can they? Inside they themselves are not being ministered to by the Lord.
The promise of Numbers 18:20 had long gone from their hearts. For it says that the Lord would be their share and inheritance. And now the Lord’s prophet says to them, “But you have turned from the way…!”
So it is that the Lord can accuse them of violating the covenant with Levi. God has been faithful, but they have been faithless. No wonder that they have lost all respect in the eyes of the people!
That’s what verse 9 now turns our focus upon. God had known right from the beginning of what was in their hearts – or rather, what wasn’t their hearts. With the people it takes a bit longer – but don’t you worry, they will notice it! Even today the people know the difference between those who are faithfully God’s and does who aren’t. They might not like what the faithful say, but they respect it. For the unfaithful, however, there is only disrespect.
Verse 9 is clear how the people regard them now. And it is clear why the public regard them now this way. It ends by stating they have not followed the Lord’s ways but have shown partiality in matter of the law. You see, they had worshipped at the altar of another god. The god of human greed and indulgence.
It’s a warning for ministers today too. We must be those for whom ministry is not about churches and committees, organisations and budgets, buildings and drainage, but life and peace. If we don’t proclaim Jesus Christ to be who he truly is, we won’t have a life – or a moment of peace either! Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O LORD Almighty, how much aren’t we put in our place when we see you as you truly are? And how much don’t we then see how blessed we are to be yours – those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Whether that coming to faith was by being brought up in the covenant or coming from the outside in, we thank you, Lord.
We pray for the ministry of your Word – how vital it is! Please, raise up more men to minister that Word. And make them to be truly ministers of yours.
In the name of the one who perfectly ministered for you. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2022, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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