Malachi 2:1-9

Good evening, church. If you get your Bibles,

you want to turn to the Old Testament, we'll

be in the book of Malachi, chapter 2 tonight.

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

We finished chapter 1 last week, and as we move

into chapter 2, I think just very quickly, it's

important to remember where we left off, as this

is one continuous letter. In chapter 1, we see

God confront the nation and the priests because

they had stopped treating him as worthy of their

best. They were offering sacrifices that were

blind and lame and sick and animals that the

Lord challenged them that they would have never

offered to any sort of earthly governor or reigning

authority. And yet they expected God to accept

their worship. essentially things that had no

value to them at all. They had no commercial

value. They couldn't plow with these animals.

They were no good for anything. They were wanting

to give those things to God. And the problem

was deeper than just the animals placed on the

altar. It was that the outward actions of the

nation and the priests reflected what was already

going on in their hearts. They had grown very

dull towards the Lord. They went through the

religious motions. These priests were still serving

in the temple. They performed religious duties,

but yet they had lost a proper fear and reverence

for the Lord. Their worship had become convenient.

It had become very routine rather than genuine.

And it no longer flowed from a heart that truly

valued God, His law, and true, sincere worship.

Now in chapter 2, Malachi is going to turn his

attention off the nation and to the priests.

Very directly. These men were not ordinary worshipers,

these priests. They had been entrusted with the

responsibility to teach God's people. They were

to represent the Lord before the nation and to

lead them in proper worship. And the nation was

being influenced negatively by the spiritual

condition of these priests. These priests had

been given a very sacred responsibility, but

they were treating it very casually. In fact,

the Lord said in verse 10 through Malachi that

it would be better to shut the temple doors than

to continue offering empty, polluted worship.

Tonight we see... God charged the priest with

failing to keep the terms and conditions of the

Levitic covenant. God had appointed priests to

perform two fundamental duties. First, administering

worship and teaching the law. God rebuked him

in a previous section, but this is really a continuation

of that same dispute. with the sole focus really

on the priest here. Three main sections. First,

I think we see God will hold these priests accountable.

They'll be held responsible. We see ideal priestly

duties, how they were carried out previously,

originally, and then the failures of the current

priests, but what God also desires. Let's look

at verses 1 and 2 together. It says, Malachi

2, verse 22, Now, the issue at hand is that God

deserves glory, honor, praise, and proper worship.

And He was not getting it. And as a result, a

curse was going to be sent here on the nation.

Many times in the Old Testament, we do see blessing

with obedience. cursing or a lack of blessing

with disobedience. And these priests here were

to teach God's word. They had a job of knowing,

studying, and applying the commands of the law

to specific experiences and questions that God's

people had. If you remember not too long ago

in Haggai, we saw a reference to that. If there

was something not explicitly spelled out in the

law, they could go to the priests and ask for

an interpretation, and that's how they would

get that. But they were also, one of their duties

was to pronounce God's. Blessings upon the people.

Number 6, 24, 25, and 26. The Lord bless you

and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift

up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Familiar words. That is a benediction that we

give every Sunday, every Lord's Day, every Sunday

worship gathering here. But it was given to Aaron

and then his descendants. And it was a way of

putting God's name upon the people of Israel.

In fact, the Lord said in verse 27 in number

6, So shall they put my name upon the people

of Israel, I will bless them. But these priests

had misappropriated God's words to others. They

had eased the demands of God's law for those

who were well off, and they had made it burdensome

for those who were already burdened and impoverished.

there were several consequences for those foolish

enough to ignore the Lord's commands. The priests

base their answer so far, I believe would have

testified, knowing that they believed in God's

greatness, that they were walking through the

law, yet their actions betray their words. At

the end of chapter 1 and now in chapter 2, and

they point to more of a superficial faith. As

a result, God will send a curse on their disobedience.

And that's strong language. He will frustrate

the person. purposes of their ministry. Their

labors would be frustrated in spite of their

hard work. They would prove to be in vain. But

God goes farther and he said, this judgment's

already upon you. In fact, in verse 2, he said,

indeed, I have already cursed them. Cursed what?

Your blessings. And even longer reaching, he

said, and your offspring. Not only would their

conduct have an impact on these priests, but

it would have negative ramifications on future

generations of the priesthood. Sin is complicated.

It is ugly, it is messy, and it can have very

long -reaching tentacles. And the benefits of

God's gracious hand and blessing would not be

as they had been, is what the Lord is saying

to these priests. Verse 3, Now, Getting deeper

here, and we're going to spend a little time

here on verse 3 to really unpack this. The word,

depending on your translation, might be refuse.

It might be a fall. And he said, I will spread

a fall on your faces, the a fall of your feasts.

Now, what is that word a fall or refuse referring

to here? It is referring to the entrails, the

intestines, the dung of animals after they had

been sacrificed at particular feasts. And this

is very intense language, but the Lord is so

put off, he uses this intense language, a very

strong language, where he says he will spread

the dung, the inner waste of these animals from

the feasts. the faces of these priests and imagine

particular festivals and feasts there would have

been thousands if not even tens of thousands

of animals sacrificed so it would have been an

innumerable amount of you know waste and excrement

there and the idea is that these priests who

by virtue of their office were supposed to be

visibly set apart as holy and ceremonially clean

before the nation are going to be made unclean

the lord is going to smear this over their faces

and defile them so that they would suffer humiliation.

of this unclean sacrificial waste which had been

removed and disposed outside the camp. So let's

go a little further. When an animal was slaughtered

at a particular feast or festival, its blood

and fat were offered. The flesh, the hide, and

the fall were burned outside the camp. They were

considered ceremonial unclean. So they were taken

outside the camp. They were burned there. And

it was really a most unthinkable disgrace for

something like this to happen to these priests

to have some of this waste smeared upon their

face or their body. because it would have then

made them unclean. It would have defiled them.

But the Lord is saying that they deserve to be

taken outside the camp with the rest of this

waste, suffer humiliation, and ultimately lose

their office. Now, this feels harsh. But recall

that it was these same priests who we looked

at last week who dealt with the Lord with contempt

in verse 6 of chapter 1. And they also defiled

his altar with corrupted, useless sacrifices

in verse 7. So the Lord's going to treat them

with the same contempt. He said he will smear

their faces, rendering them useless to the priesthood.

They can no longer perform the duties in which

they were supposed to do while they were defiled.

So they considered, as we saw last week, such

a burden to serve the Lord. He would free them

from that obligation, take them outside the camp

where they would no longer be part of the priesthood,

and they could not perform the duties of that

service. Look at verse 4. This covenant with

Levi, verse 4 and 5, we'll hold them together.

Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment

to you, that my covenant with Levi may continue,

says the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with

him, one of peace, and I gave them to him that

he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent

before my name. The Bible presents Levi as a

tribe of Israel within which the clan descending

from Aaron was to serve as priests. the balance

were referred to as Levites and who were responsible

for assisting the priest in service of the tabernacle.

If we had the time, we could look back in the

Old Testament a couple places. Numbers chapter

Numbers 3 · chapter mention

3 specifically, God sets this entire tribe apart,

this tribe of Levi to serve in the place of the

firstborn of Israel. That's really the origin

point. And then Moses affirms in Deuteronomy

33 where he puts a blessing on Levi, affirming

their role of guardians over the law and the

covenant. John MacArthur said this, thinking

about this covenant. He said this covenant was

one of mutual responsibility in which God expected

reverence for himself in exchange for life and

peace for the priests. Now, the Jewish priests

of Malachi's day had deceived themselves by claiming

the privileges of this covenant while neglecting

the conditions of this particular covenant, as

if God was somehow bound to bless them even while

they rejected the obligations to serve him in

the way that he was to be served. The priest's

tasks included leading worship, offering sacrifices,

administrating cities of refuge, and the Levites

were to assist in the sacrifices, and they also

served as simple temple guards. This is very

interesting. to keep anything unholy from defiling

the sacred places. This covenant is one of peace,

but it also says it's one of fear. Not fear as

in a cringing way, we don't think about it that

way, but a fear that is founded in awe, one that's

founded in respect, one that's founded in reverence

for the one true God of heaven, and we would

correctly say a healthy fear of God. Verse 6,

the law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice

was not found on his lips. He walked with me

in peace and equity, if you have the ESV that

would say uprightness, and turned many away from

iniquity. So God in this covenant has pledged

to serve and protect by his grace, wisdom, and

power. But in return, he expected fear and reverence.

The early priesthood stood in stark contrast

to those who were in the priesthood of Malachi's

day. They had wisely feared no one and nothing

but God alone. They had a healthy fear for him,

they had a healthy reference for him, and did

what he had accorded them to do. Now there's

one specific task listed here, and it is teaching

God's word to God's people. A priest, biblically

and even now, so to speak, is to be a speaker

or a teacher of God's law, but beyond just teaching

it... He should also practice God's law, meaning

that what he says God's law, or we would say

God's word says, he then should practice it in

his own life. One following God's ways would

carry God's word on his lips and be someone who

is walking with God, walking in accordance with

the way God would call his people to do so. And

words and actions going together demonstrate

uniformity and integrity. But God has called

some of these priests from Malachi's day out

as hypocrites, essentially, in chapters 1 and

2, that they are saying one thing, but yet they

are secretly and even somewhat publicly doing

quite another. This puts us in mind of the Pharisees

very quickly in the New Testament. It was Jesus

who called them whitewashed. On the outside,

they appeared ornately decorated, very religious,

very educated, yet Jesus said on the inside they

were full of dead men's bones. There's a huge

importance in consistency from someone in a teaching

position, that what they teach in their lives

being... And not just for someone teaching to

flourish, but also for their listening audience

to flourish as well, to be able to trust that

person who is teaching them weekly from God's

Word. Verse 7, For the lips of the priests should

keep knowledge, and the people should seek the

law from his mouth, for he is a messenger of

the Lord of hosts. Malachi was referred to as

my messenger. It's what his name means. But the

word messenger was used to describe someone who

carries God's word in some instances that had

been the prophets in the Old Testament. But it

can also be the priests in particular instances.

The messenger was expected to preserve, watch

over, guard, and keep the knowledge that had

been entrusted to them. making sure that it was

faithfully delivered and unchanged in its entirety,

to exercise great care over the word that had

been entrusted to them, the law, to interpret

it as such. The life of Israel depended on these

priests. They did not all have copies of the

Scriptures. To preserve God's written word and

dispense it, the Bible says, as men should seek

it. To carry the word in any capacity is very

serious business, is a very reverent task, one

that should be handled with great humility and

great responsibility. We're going to spend quite

a bit of time in verses 8 and 9, the failures

of the current priest and then also what God

desires out of his servants. But you departed

from the way. You have caused many to stumble

at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of

Levi, says the Lord of hosts. I have made you

contemptible and base before all the people because

you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality

in the law. God here charges these priests with

a dereliction of duty. Now we saw previously

that a faithful priest would teach the word faithfully.

and then practiced God's word. Now, these priests

of Judah had turned away and, first of all, caused

others to stumble. So we have a double -edged

negative here. They turned away, and then also

others stumbled because of their not following

the Lord. They might say one thing, but their

lives were doing another. It was causing a lot

of harm. In verse 8, we see that many were turned

away from their iniquity or by their iniquity.

And this is very dangerous ground. It was really

an abuse of power. They had been born into a

particular tribe and set to a particular set

of offices with a particular set of duties. And

when we see an abuse of power, whether in the

scriptures or I think even in our society today,

it outrages us. And when we read about these

priests and the way that they were not doing

what the Lord had called them to do, that they

might have been saying one thing, they were still

going to the temple, they were still offering

sacrifices, but they were not in accordance with

God's law. They were not praising and honoring

God. They were not giving reverence to Him. It

outrages us a little bit. We think, how dare

they? No different when we see an abuse in our

society, specifically a corruption in power or

something like this. We get outraged. It's in

our nature to feel that way. God would hold these

priests responsible for the abuse of position

that was entrusted to them. Now, when it comes

to teaching, which was one of their chief responsibilities,

there were matters of the law that were not clearly

spelled out that you would go to the priests

and ask them to expound upon the law for your

particular situation, and then they would render

some sort of instruction or judgment. When it

comes to teaching, God still calls and puts upon

the hearts of individuals now to teach God's

word to God's people. That office is still ongoing.

But God will hold teachers accountable and responsible

for every word they teach. Now, to teach in any

capacity is a wonderful thing. It is a needed

position through the Sunday school, Wednesday

nights, from the pulpit, various avenues. It

is a wonderful thing. But even James said that

many should not presume to be teachers, that

it must be handled with great responsibility.

Much the same, God has entrusted men to the office

of pastoring. Now, where the priests failed by

looking the other way, by... favoring particular

people who had means and then burdening those

who were already oppressed. Someone in spiritual

leadership, as opposed to these priests in Malachi's

day, should never give preferential favor to

any particular pocket or population of the church

or any segment of the church, especially not

showing favor to... friends or family or anything

like that, to serve in a capacity of pastoral

ministry, you must be impartial towards all of

God's people and show the same care and consideration

to everyone. Now, these priests had also failed

to teach the law completely. accurately. That's

a big problem. As anyone stands to teach, there

must be sufficient preparation to rightly divide

the Word of God. At no point can we amend it

or can we soften the text because we think, oh

no. This might land a little hard here. We must

keep the word intact as it is and in context

as it is and not try to pull things out and make

them say what we want them to say or go hunt

down verses to go chase an agenda that we may

have in our mind. Paul asked a very good rhetorical

question in the New Testament when he was writing

to his sons in the faith. And he said, of whom

am I to be in awe as I teach and preach, God

or man? Who is it that I should satisfy with

my preaching? Anyone who preaches or teaches,

while it is to a congregation certainly, it ultimately

is to an audience of one. And we must ever be

faithful to the text. Now, keep in mind, this

was a people in these priests here in Malachi

who had been through a very tough road. Their

ancestors have returned from exile. They faced

oppression. They've rebuilt the temple. They

faced more oppression. They have remained impoverished

for a couple hundred years after returning from

exile. They are still under foreign powers. They

still have foreign governors in their land kind

of dictating what they can do and not do. So

they're not really seeing the promises of God

fulfilled here, at least in their eyes, in the

way they would have liked to have seen them coming

back out of exile, even though the Lord has been

very faithful. to them already, but yet that

is still no excuse. There is no excuse to become

lax in the holy duties prescribed by God. How

you feel does not change what God has said. We

cannot let our emotions drive how we fulfill

God's commandments. The church at some level

has always experienced seasons of persecution

and difficulty, and at no point has it ever been

okay to sort of slack off of God's holy standards,

regardless of what the church as a whole global

was going through. These were men who unfortunately

were duplicitous. Rather than being faithful

shepherds who protect the sheep and guard them,

they had been shepherds who destroyed. They scattered

the sheep. It said many had fallen away. Many

had stumbled because of their actions. Ultimately,

their failure in ministry began in their own

lives and carried over. And it caused many to

stumble. And stumbling in the Bible is often

described by a failure in sin with its disastrous

effects. One key thing to point out about this

covenant is even though it had been rendered

useless by these priests because it had been

violated, it had been profaned, it had been defiled,

a covenant was a relationship between two parties.

It was established by an oath of obligation.

And there are some covenants that... the Lord

would keep fully, and there are some covenants

of participation. This covenant was not destroyed,

but it was broken and rendered inoperative for

a time. While these priests had felt in multiple

ways to be the Lord's servants, they and their

descendants would ultimately pay the cost for

their transgressions. And we say, that seems

harsh. God is a God of justice. And at times,

God must call us to task for the sins that we

commit. Sin must be punished. Is God a God of

love? He absolutely is. It would be a violation

of his holy nature if he wasn't. Must God deal

in justice? He absolutely must, or it would be

a violation of his holy nature. And we hold those

two things in tension very tightly. But amidst

all this failure, we talk about these priests

and everything that they have failed to do, there's

hope. And as the Levitical priesthood, fails,

it points us toward a greater priest. One the

Bible would refer to as a prophet, priest, and

king. Jesus is the messenger of the Lord, who

is himself the Lord. As the Son of God himself,

Jesus taught with authority because he was not

simply another human teacher. He himself was

the law giver. He is referred to as the great

high priest who will bring an end to the Levitical

priesthood because, as Hebrews would tell us,

he fulfills the purpose of their work. It was

not necessary any longer. As opposed to the priests

addressed in Malachi, Christ was never partial

in his teaching. He did not show any favor. He

was deeply honest before those He always walked

in awe and reverence of his father. His father's

words were always true instruction, bringing

life and peace, leading many to repentance. None

stumbled by listening to his words. None trampled

off into iniquity by listening to the words of

our Lord. But yet he suffered. He suffered the

curse that we, his failed people, deserved. He

was taken outside the city gates. You remember

the curse that the Lord said he was going to

put on these priests. They deserved to be taken

away from the festivals, outside the city gates

with all of this waste. Where was Christ taken?

He was taken outside the city gates. He was taken

away from the festival. seen by the religious

leaders as someone who was defiled, that had

spoken blasphemies and all these things, and

then he was publicly executed on a cross for

your and my transgressions, none that he had

committed on his own. You say, okay, what about

us? Where do we line up with these priests? How

is this helpful? Christ today at the Father's

right hand is still teaching us through the work

of the Holy Spirit. And he begins to fashion

us into the royal priests that we were designed

to be. In every way that these priests of Malachi's

day fell short, Christ never did. Through the

history of the church, we find in Scripture that

all of God's people are his. priests and messengers

to the rest of the world. Christ said he left

that the Comforter could come, that he would

send the Spirit to us. In fact, Peter said in

1 Peter 2 .9, But you are a chosen generation,

a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special

people, that you may proclaim the praises of

him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous

light. Paul would go on in 2 Corinthians 5 .20.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though

God were pleading through us, we implore you

on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. As

the people of God, we are then... a priesthood

of believers, and we are ambassadors of Christ.

And we have an opportunity to carry the message

of the gospel wherever we go. For some people,

that is to the nations. It is all over the world.

For some of us, it is to our jobs. And for some

of us, it is right in our very home. Every Christian

has been made to carry the good news in Christ

to those in our sphere of influence, those we

come into contact with. contact with as the priesthood

of all believers. We are called in our everyday

lives to know God's word, to read it for ourselves,

to understand it, to be versed in it. to let

it deeply embed our conversation as we talk with

one another, and then live it out. That what

we read in God's Word is then defined by the

way we live out our lives here in this world.

As opposed to the priests of Malachi's day, we

should be a people of integrity. We should not

be duplicitous as they were. We should not say

one thing here on Sunday and then do something

else the other days of the week. No, we should

live consistent lives in accordance with the

way God has called us to live as best we can

while we are actively putting to death sin in

our lives as best we can only by God. God's help

alone. Because in our flesh, we fail all the

time. But Christ has given us his spirit that

we may prevail. We must be a humble people, church.

That even though we might be ambassadors for

Christ, even though we have been called priests

or priesthood of all believers, we must be a

humble people, submitting ourselves to the authority

and the sovereignty of God. Ian Duguid said this

in his commentary. I thought it was so good.

He said, the message that has been entrusted

to us is not about how good we are. but rather

that we were all so lost that God had to rescue

us out of our darkness and bring us into his

marvelous light. This is the message that God

uses and used to lead us and others to turn from

iniquity, to repent, so that we can find life

and peace in him. Church, Christ, the true messenger,

has come. The true prophet, priest, and king.

It is Christ who is our high priest and it is

Christ who qualifies us, redeemed sinners, for

the privilege of teaching his life -giving commandment

to ourselves, our children, grandchildren, our

communities, and for some to the nations, and

to do so until he returns in glory. Last word.

But until that day, until Christ does ultimately

return for his church, for his bride, for his

people, we must guard the truth, the message,

the law that has been given to us in the Holy

Scriptures. We must labor long to rightly divide

them, to hold them in their proper context, hiding

God's word in our heart that we might not sin

against him, and willingly teach it freely to

all who will hear it with great joy for his glory.

Nothing of ourselves, all of Christ, our great

high priest. Amen. Good word there in Malachi

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. And we'll continue on next week. Very

interesting book as we find ourselves here at

the end of the Old Testament. The last words

that Israel will hear for about 400 silent years.

No more announcements. I don't think this evening.

Ryan's already done a really nice job of bringing

all those things up earlier. If you're able to

stand, we would invite you to do so. We'll be

dismissed with a benediction prayer. Certainly

appreciate every one of you making it out here

tonight, Brian, Becky, and Shelby, leading us

in worship. We would be lost without you all

each and every week and appreciate the talents

that God has given you and your willingness to

share them with God's people as we meet at the

bookend of this Lord's Day to worship him again.

Jared, do you care to offer that benediction

prayer for us?