God's Blunt Warning | Malachi 2:1-17

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris,

I am, and we are the Bible Guys today. Because

Jeff is out of pocket. Uh, he actually has something,

a little little voice thing happening.

I kind of feel like we should call it the

Bible Guys Platinum Edition.

Ooh, ooh, the Platinum Edition. So it so this is

the upgrade, the upgrades. Nice. Nice, Wow, I like the confidence.

That's awesome. Okay, well, welcome to the Bible Guys, Platinum Edition.

We are Chris and Wesley. Yes, and today we are

your Bible guys. And so before we dive into Malachi

chapter two, which is a lot of serious warning from

God against the real the worst leaders, Yes, blunt warnings

to tell it like it is, we are going to

dive into a segment that our beloved death Ray has

chosen for us called Who's most Likely.

I feel like Desiree is like world like renowned.

She is well when it comes to the Bible guys. Uh,

you know, listeners, they hear Desiree's number or not number

they hear. I hope not her number. That'd be bad.

But they hear her five five five one two one two.

But they hear her name all the time. You know,

you know we should do we should because she's right there.

We should ask her to come on the Bible Guys tomorrow.

I think we should.

So if you've missed the one time that Desiree has

appeared on the Bible Guys, tune in tomorrow and hopefully

Desiree will come and be our guest and possible.

You look excited about that.

No, she is not. She does not. She's behind the scenes.

She's the one that controls and runs all of the

Bible Guys podcast. She does a great Josh Shenanigans. So

this this segment is called Who's most Likely? And I

look forward to doing this with you because it's gonna

help me get to I mean, obviously, I know you

for you know years, I've known you for gosh, how

long have we known each other.

I first met you when we were at the retreat center.

Oh yeah, when you got sick. Oh yeah, well I

was in your room.

There's a whole story that we have to share sometime

about don't eat bad beef jerky from a gas station.

That's we're just going to leave it right there.

That was bad too, It was bad. But anyway, yeah, so,

I mean, it's been probably close to twenty years, I

would say so. But anyway that this helps me to

get to know you even better. Who's most likely here,

here's the first thing, Wesley, who's most likely to talk

their way out of a speeding ticket? Who do you

think me or you?

I'll say you on that one. Yeah.

You know what's so funny is that I would say

me too. Yeah, because just by the nature of who

I am. But strangely enough, I don't think I've ever

ever tried to talk my way out of a speedy tabe.

Normally, I'm just like I did it, you know, like

whatever it is, like I did it.

And I've gotten Unfortunately, I've had my share of speeding tickets.

I hate to say that loud. My wife right now

is saying things audibly to the to the to her

phone right now. Yeah, she doesn't like that part of me,

as she should not. But but I've never tried to

talk my way out of a speeding ticket ever. I've

normally just said yes, sir, no, sir, sorry, thank you,

and then just moved on. I probably should try to

talk myself out of it.

But the funny thing is, I think officers appreciate when

you're just honest. Yeah.

One time I was in California and I was with

my whole family going to Universal and I remember there

was an h o V lane and you know how

they have those double lines. I just I just literally

crossed out, not realizing they were dashed double lines, but

not realizing that you can't enter in and out of

an h o V lane. Yeah, not really, at least

not first anyway. So this guy, and by the way,

it was my birthday. Yeah, and so my cop pulls

me over, a police officer and uh and he says, hey,

you can't go in and out of those lines. Well,

I wasn't speeding, and I said, and I said, hey,

I said, I'm so sorry. I'm not from here. I

don't necessarily have these where I live. I said, And

it's my birthday today, you know. I said, I'm so sorry.

You know, could you cut me a break? And he goes, nope,

oh he gave me ticket. Oh wow, I'm a guest.

I'm just thinking, Wow, that guy must have really been desperate.

On his quote a bit, he's probably heard every story. Yeah,

he's just like, nope, I'm not I'm not doing it.

But he saw it was a rental car. I'm good gravy.

So anyway, okay, Number two, you want to read the

second one, you don't have it with you.

I'll read this second. It is who's most likely to

ex who's most likely to adopt a pet raccoon? Not it?

Not it?

I'm out.

Okay, Well, it depends that if my daughter Tory is

living with us, If she's still with us, the answer

is deaf. No, she is definitely afraid of.

So she's not an animal person.

Well, there are certain animals. She loves animals, but she

calls them raccoons. She hates raccoons and wolves and coyotes.

Those are the three things. I'm not kidding those that

I can call her right now and say what are

the three animals you hate? She say, wolves, coyotes and raccoons. Yeah,

but if she's not there, my wife would definitely take

them in.

Yeah.

All they have babies.

You can't let the babies stay out there.

Right right? Okay? Number three, who's most likely to survive

on a desert, deserted island the longest. Now, that was

probably written for Jeff.

That would have been Jeff is the hunter, the outdoors man.

Yeah, that would definitely be him. But what about me

or you?

That'll be tough. I'm not really like a outdoorsy kind

of person, but I think but here's the thing with

me though, with my personality profile, I'm a figure it

out person. Okay, so I would figure out something. I mean,

we could maybe extract, you know, liquid from boiling a plant.

I don't know, I'd figure out something to survive.

Yeah. Well, then I'm gonna go with you because I

think I would die in the first week. I would

die in the first week. I I don't think you.

Can get water from coconuts. Yeah, you can't coconut water

whatever you want to call it.

Well, and my only my only knowledge would come from movies,

Like I would say, yeah, I've seen I've seen Castaway

with Tom Hanks.

And maybe that is not the best movie to yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because it took a while for him to get rescue, well.

Said, yeah, so well, you know, to be fair, he

just he was a sailor too. Yeah, he just couldn't

get off the island. Yeah, so okay, number four. You

want to read number four.

I read it. Who's most likely to win a reality show?

I'm going to say you one hundred percent.

Yeah, I'm gonna say me because I've seen my share

of reality, right, And.

I'm not a reality I'm not a just uh. I'm

a documentary person and think, but I'm not just like.

I won't just sit down and watch a lot of

just normal sit coms TV shows. I just don't.

Yeah, you know, my daughters loved their guilty pleasure was

The Bachelor. I had two daughters. I still do obviously,

but but you know, growing up in high school, they

would watch The Bachelor, and so that was one thing

that I did with them. And let me tell you something.

I I I love hated it. I love to hate it.

I loved to hate it.

And I remember you made a reference. It went right

over my head. It was something about a rose and

I'm like, I have no idea what he's talking about.

Those those that that is probably the worst reality show

I have ever subjected myself to in my life. And

I watched and I saw all the seasons, and I

just watched it with them and I love to hate it,

but it was It's the same question all the time,

you know. So what so getting the rose? What would

that mean to you? This rose ceremony? Well, it would

mean everything. It's the same answer, it's just a different character. Anyway,

here's number five. Who's most likely to order dessert before dinner?

Now see that this is complicated because it depends on

where I am. Like, if I'm on vacation, I might

order it. Like if you go to a really nice

I love Italian food, So you go to a nice

Italian restaurant, you see they got like Canoli's. Well, I

mean I could have a canol before you know, ma

lasagna comes, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well hey you're you're you're my people, Yeah,

because I am Italian and I love Italian food is

one of my favorites. Yeah, I would. I'm gonna go

with you then, because for some reason, I don't ever

eat dessert before dinner. Jeff definitely would. Yeah, but I'm

not a dessert guy, which is sort of weird. I'm

really not a dessert guy overall. I'm not a sweets guy.

Oh man, but just stre that's me all day. Yeah, brownies, cookies.

Yeah, I'm not a sweet skuy, so so it is.

It is a little strange for even me to say

that out loud, even to myself. So I'm gonna go

with you. So all right, Well, hey, we're at our time.

We're actually past our time, so we need to move

on to Malachi Chapter.

Two Malachai two. This is one through seventeen.

Oh, I forgot the bad transition yesterday. Oh oh yeah yeah. Hey, hey,

speaking of not being a sweet guy, this is not

a very sweet message to the people of Eatam.

That wins the record for worse transition.

Yes, yeah, there you go. I totally forgot the transition

yesterday between me and Jeff. One of us always remember, yeah,

and so help me remember that tomorrow.

That is good.

Go ahead.

Malachi second chapter and again this is God being blunt

and direct. Verse two says I'm sorry. Chapter two, starting

at verse one, says, listen, you, priest. This command is

for you. Listen to me and make up your minds

to honor my name, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies,

or I will bring a terrible curse against you. I

will curse even the blessings you receive. Indeed, I have

already cursed them. Because you have not taken my warning

to heart. I will punish your descendants and splatter your

faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I

will throw you on the manure pile. I think that's

pretty's pretty direct.

It's pretty direct.

Verse four. Then at last you will know it was

I who sent you this warning, so that my covenant

with the Levites can continue, says the Lord of Heaven's

Armies verse five. The purpose of my covenant with the

Levites was to bring life in peace, and that is

what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and

they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name.

They passed on to the people the truth of the

instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat.

They walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and

they turn many from lives of sin. The words of

a priest's lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people

should go to him for instruction. For the priest is

the messenger of the Lord of Heaven's Armies. But you, priests,

have left God's paths. Your instructions have caused many to

stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made

with the Levites, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. So

I have made you despised and humiliated in the eyes

of all the people, for you have not obeyed me,

but have shown favoritism in the way you carry out

my instructions. Are we not all children of the same Father.

Are we not all created by the same God? Then

why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of

our ancestors. Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing

has been done in Israel and in Jerusale. The men

of Judah have defiled the Lord's beloved sanctuary by marrying

women who worship idols. May the Lord cut off from

the nation of Israel every last man who has done

this and yet brings an offering to the Lord of

Heaven's Armies Verse thirteen. Here is another thing you do,

so God is on a role. Here here's another thing

you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, weeping

and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings

and does not accept them with pleasure. You cry out,

why doesn't the Lord accept my offering? I'll tell you

Why Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your

wife made when you were young, But you have been

unfaithful to her, though she remain your faithful partner, the

wife of your marriage vows. Didn't the Lord make you

one with your wife and body and spirit? You are his?

And what does he want? Godly children from your union?

So guard your heart, remain loyal to the wife of

your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the

God of Israel. To divorce your wife is to overwhelm

her with cruelty, says the Lord of Heaven's armies. So

guard your heart and do not be unfaithful to your wife.

You have wearied the Lord with your words. How have

we wearied him? You ask? You have wearied him by

saying that all who do evil are good in the

Lord's sight, and he and he is pleased with them.

You have wearied him by saying, where is the God

of justice?

Wow?

Yeah? So God was a little clear, blunt.

Yeah, man, And you could definitely sense God God's you know,

anybody who talks that way, even even from a human standpoint. Yeah,

you can tell that the hurt. Yeah right, you could

sense God's pain and all he wants is a relationship,

and so he says, you know, hey, I've been good

to you and I've given you statutes, I've given you decrees,

I've given you laws, and I've just asked that you

just obey them. And they're not It's not exactly as

if God is giving them laws that are hard to obey. Right,

They're just they're honoring laws. They're definitely faithful laws, right,

you know, to be faithful to your wife, to to

not divulge in sin and wicked you know, idolatry practices.

So you know, it takes discipline. It takes resisting of

temptation and you know, you know, rejecting what other people

around you do. So it does take discipline. But these

aren't exactly you know, hard things compared to the author

and giver of life and blessing. Right, you could sense

God's pain.

And I want to just pause there for a second, Chris,

because I think that's something that people need to understand,

is we can hurt God's feelings. That's right, God has emotions.

I think for some people we think of God as

being almost like this statue like figure far off and

you know, he speaks with a very deep voice and

things like that. But God has emotions.

It says, I'm a jealous God. Yeah. So when people,

you know, when when when everybody, you know, his creation,

his beloved creation, whom he loves, you know, worships somebody

else in place of him, he flat out says, I

am a jealous God. Yeah. Yeah. And so you know

it's so interesting is that? Uh you know again, this

is this is sort of the last bits. These are

the last bits of the transition between the Old Covenant

and the New Covenant. So the Old Covenant is, you know,

the system that God set up, you know, the sacrifices

for sin were you know, temporary offerings, you know. And

what I mean by that is they would shed the

blood of the animals and they would cover the altar,

and it was a temporary covering, right. The new Covenant

is Jesus Christ. You know, God himself becomes flesh and

and and and makes the ultimate sacrifice and says about

himself that this sacrifice is once and for all. So

the new promise, the new Covenant to his people, is

made by Jesus Christ. And so I always say this, like,

how can God talk like this? People say the God

of the Old Testament is so harsh compared to the

New The God of the New Testament, the God of

the Old Testament was so you know, just like God

would never say this today, to which I would say,

God has never changed. Right, So the Bible says that

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I think God for that, yes, that we don't

have a God that flip flops.

And that's right, that's right. The only difference is God's

reaction to our sin has changed drastically, yes, right, So

it's and it's because of Jesus Christ. Right, whereas before,

you know, God is like there's a punishment, there is

a curse, there is a penalty, you know, and and

and the disobedience of people, and and and and I

do believe that God still has some of that, right,

Like there there are some things that God reserves to,

you know, to do. God can do whatever he wants

want to do. God can discipline his children. God can

bring about hardship. I've always said that there are three

things that can turn you back to God, but always

choose the first one. There's conviction, misery, and tragedy. Right.

Conviction is the Holy Spirit convicting you, and God uses

a myriad of things through conviction, right, but God forbid

it should come to misery or tragedy. So God can

still do those things, of course, but we have to

understand that Jesus Christ has paid for all of our sins.

And the Bible actually says there's no condemnation. There's none

who are in Christ Jesus. Right, So that's the new promise.

So you could almost sense the Old Covenant, the frustration

of the Old Covenant. People not obeying the Old Covenant,

not even in this point, understanding the Old Covenant, not

understanding much of anything, even down to the priests and

the people who are supposed to be in forcing the

God's laws don't even understand them.

Yeah, can we touch on something in verse two, it

says listen to me and make up your minds to

honor my name. When I read that, I think about

the fact that there might be some listeners right now

listening to us, and they're kind of on the fence

with God. They're on the fence in their Christian walk.

They're trying to straddle both sides of the fence. And

later on in the Bible it talks about how God says,

I would rather you be hot or cold, but a

lukewarm person I will spew out of my mouth. So

there's a listener right now, and you're thinking, you know,

like you're playing both sides of the fence. You're trying

to be holy, you know, on Sunday, but Saturday is

a different story. You got to make up your mind.

You got to make up your mind. Will I serve God?

Or am I not gonna serve God? But you can't

straddle the fence. Listen to me and make up your

minds to eyes under my names is what God is

saying right here.

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

That's really good.

And so God's called a faithfulness is the same call

that we should have in our lives. Right and by

the way, when he was talking about the city of Edom,

there's a note here that says Malachi's first prophecy pertained

to the Lord's judgment of Edom, where Petra is located.

You've seen Petro, right, you know. Petra is most famous

I think in our generation for Indiana Jones and the

people of Doom. Yeah right, yeah, that's where the that's

where the Cup of Christ was being held in that movie. Right, yea,

But it says Petro was the capital of the Nebutaeans,

who first appeared in history in three twelve b C.

The Nebuteans were of Arabic origin, and they occupied the

old land of Edom and made Petra their capital. Petra

lay in an impressive valley about one thousand yards wide

among the mountains of western Edom, some sixty miles north

of the Gulf of Aquaba. So's that's just a little

cool tidbit that you know that here we have, you know,

the remains and the ruins of a city. And even

today people who go to Petra can see the houses

that were still carved out of the sand, the red

sandy stone, and the mountains that are right along the walls.

That just line up with you know, you know everything

that history, you know, the Bible in the history line

up right, Yeah, And so it's kind of neat.

Yeah, one more thing, because we're running out of time

verse thirteen, when God says, and here's another thing you do.

God is just on a roll here, just listing out

everything they've done wrong. But that one line you cover

the Lord's altar with your tears, weeping and groaning, and

I think about how I've done that in my life

where I'll go to God and I'm complaining about, you know,

what God didn't do and how he didn't do this,

and it's like, well, wait a minute, did I do

what he told me to do?

Right?

So it's kind of hard to be angry at him

and say he's not doing what he's supposed to do

when we're not doing what we're supposed to do. Sometimes

it's kind of like, and I'm speaking for myself, we

want to live our lives however we want to live.

But God, on the back end, can you still bless

my mess?

Right?

And that's kind of how we live sometimes, and God

is saying, no, you got to choose. It's either me

or the other way. But you got to make a choice.

Yeah. And and it's one thing to say, God, please

bless my mess, because I pray that way all the time, God,

please bless my mess. But it's another thing to get

angry at God for not blessing your mess, right because.

And when you are happily in your.

Mess right right? Right? Yeah? Because because it says it says,

you know you're weeping and you shed tears on the

altar and you're and you're wondering. You're confused as to

why God doesn't accept your worship, right, And that's really

the that's really the heart of it, right, because the

people were confused thinking that God should behave, like you said,

right conveniently according to whatever they want.

I do whatever I want to do, but God still

blessed me on the back end, right, right.

Yeah, Well that's that's the people who Jeff Jeff's favorite phrases,

people who treat God like a GD in a bottle.

They just say, they just say, God, just just please

just grant me these five things, you know, and then

and then I'll be happy, you know, not even really

caring about much of anything else. But but yeah, so

you know, chapter three, believe it or not, Tomorrow we're

going to find out that the coming day of Judgment

is on its way and that's not going to be

a pretty sight. But that's where we are. So hopefully

our time is up and we will see you tomorrow

on the Bible.

Guys,