Pastor: Okay, if you will, remain standing now. And we're going to turn to Malachi. If you don't know where Malachi is, I find it very helpful to find Matthew, and then just go back.
Pastor: I also, too, put the page number for the church Bible in front of you. It is page 801 there, and the church Bible. We're going to look at Malachi 1, verses 1-5.
Pastor: But let me, before we dive into Malachi, I just want to give you a little bit of a background, because I think it is helpful to understand where Israel is in history, as well as their kind of spiritual condition. What they are wrestling with. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. After Malachi, it'll be 400 years of silence before John the Baptist appears, announcing the coming of the Christ, so these are the final words of that God's people will hear before John the Baptist arrives on the scene. And if you remember Israel's history, God had delivered his people from Egypt, they were brought to a promised land, and they were blessed there. Yet for centuries God's people rebelled against him. They worshiped idols, they ignored his word, they rejected his prophets, and broke his covenant time and time again.
Pastor: Eventually, God did what he said he would do, and he disciplined his people. The northern kingdom would be carried away to Assyria, and later Judah would be taken into exile by Babylon, Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed, the temple would be burned. Yet even in that discipline, God never abandoned His covenant promises. There would be other prophets like Ezekiel and Haggai, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Zechariah, promising that the exile would not be permanent. One day, God would bring his people home. In fact, God would bring his people to Jerusalem and allow the temple to be rebuilt, and there was also the promise that the Messiah would come. Now, eventually, where we find ourselves here in Malachi is that return has happened, and the temple has been rebuilt. The walls are restored under Nehemiah. Outwardly, it looked like everything was going well, moving in the right direction.
Pastor: It's been about 100 years since they've been brought back to Jerusalem from exile, but things are not as peachy. Maybe it's probably a better word I could have chosen there. It's not as grand as they thought. The those who had remembered the temple before it got destroyed were quite disappointed in the current temple, just didn't have quite the glory. Israel is actually still under Persian rule, even though they are allowed back in Jerusalem. They don't have a king, there's no David, and there's no one sitting on the throne of David.
Pastor: Their economy is very much struggling, their crops are not doing well, they have enemies surrounding them. The glory that the prophets had one day talked about they don't really see it, and their slow disappointment and failed expectations of being back in Jerusalem and having a temple is has just not panned out how they thought, and so they have failed expectations.
Pastor: There's a lot of disappointment because they thought we're going to make Israel great again, and it's not happening, and so it's turned to disillusionment and cynicism, and that's where we find ourselves here in Malachi.
Pastor: So I'm read verses 1-5 in Chapter 1. Hear now, God's word,[1] The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
Pastor: [2] “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob's brother?” declares the Lord.
Pastor: “Yet I have loved Jacob [3] but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” [4] If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’” [5] Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!” He who has ears, let him hear the word of God, please be seated. Maybe you've never said it verbally or out loud, but I do wonder if, like many of us, you have said in your heart I.
Pastor: Don't know if God really loves me.
Pastor: I'm not sure when I get that medical diagnosis, when I feel like I keep praying time and time and time again, and I don't see anything changing in myself or around me when marriage gets hard, when children seem to rebel, when life is just not turning out any way like you thought it would, or you hoped it would, when other people's lives seem to be so much better, so much more comfortable than your own. The question we might ask is not so much as does God exist, but does He care? Does He care about us? Does He does He love us? Does He actually love us? Because so often when we look around at our circumstances, you might think he doesn't. Sometimes your circumstances might preach to you a sermon that seems so loud, and the sermon that you hear your circumstances telling you is that God indeed does not love me. And this was Israel's question nearly 2500 years ago.
Pastor: I don't know that God loves me.
Pastor: In fact, I don't think He does, because when I look at my life and I look at my circumstances, it's evident it's evident He's absent. It's evident He doesn't love us, because if he did, things would look quite different. Now, this book begins chapter one, verse one, at the very beginning, as we know, a very good place to start, and it begins with the Oracle of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi, so this is God's word given to Malachi to give to the people of Israel. The word oracle is a technical word there. It actually means burden, so it's a burden that the Lord is placing on Malachi to present to the people of Israel, that's important too, because as God comes to talk to his people, it is not a light conversation.
Pastor: When God comes to talk to his people, it is not casual advice.
Pastor: Here's some things I just want you guys to consider. Take it or leave it. It is not that it is a burden from God on Malachi that must be delivered to and shared with God's people. Charles Spurgeon once observed that God's true servants never treated preaching as entertainment because they carried a burden, they were not delivering amusing stories or clever speeches. They carried the weight of eternal realities of God speaking to His people.
Pastor: So here we have this burden now coming to God's people, coming even now to you this morning. It is like a loving heavenly Father bringing his child into a room and saying, come here, have a seat, we need to talk. That's how this book begins. Children, your father calls you to have a seat, and he's going to talk with you. The book of Malachi is really six conversations, six disputes, disputations - they is often how it's called six times as we work our way through it.
Pastor: You know, I wasn't intending to do a summer series, but just in God's providence and timing, here we are. We will probably be here in Malachi for the next few months to the rest of the summer, and it's broken into these six different disputes that God is exposing the heart of His people. This is what I see happening in your heart, and you know what, how Israel responds. Nah, no, they don't humbly submit to the Lord. They don't listen, and we'll see that even this morning. But I also want you to notice, too, how this conversation with God begins. He is the one that initiates it, and He starts, and but He doesn't even start with a command. It doesn't start with even with an accusation, it starts with this statement, I have loved you, I have loved you, and the word love there too is not simply that this is something I have once done and I'll do it anymore, it is a continual act. Love isn't this amazing of people who have rebelled against him time and time and time again, and God's first word to them is I have loved you, I love you.
Pastor: Now you can imagine again that loving parent, not permitting maybe his teenager, if any of you have teenagers, to go to a certain party or have access to a particular social media platform, and the parent says,"Honey, I love you, and the teenager turns around and says,"No, you don't, you don't love me, you're ruining my life, and that's how Israel is responding, and maybe even how we respond at times. God, if you really loved us, things would be different.
Pastor: We'd be doing this, and we wouldn't have that. We often measure God's love by prosperity and success and health and wealth and a growing church and easy marriages and obedient children and comfortable lives, and if we had all those things, we would know certainly God loves us. I think, also, too, is, you know, a teenager might say, I don't love you, you don't love me, and trying to manipulate you, you know, to you know, you know, honey, I do love you. Okay, okay, fine, fine, you know, go do that, go do what you want, and I think we do that too, you know, and I think Israel could be even trying to manipulate God at this point and trying to spit back into his face, and say, okay, you know, just calm down, I may be all right, you do deserve this or that, and but that's not how God responds. I know how I would respond if I was God. Malachi would, my response to the people of Israel would, something would go something like you spoiled rotten ungrateful entitled dust of the earth. That's probably how I would respond if I was God. Malachi again would be a very short book. It would probably only have two verses, probably a third, the third verse would simply end the book of Malachi, which would say, and judgment fell upon them, and that would be the end for Malachi, if I was God, and if you were God, kind of like Jonah. Remember how we looked at the book of Jonah? Remember, if you and I were God, the book of Jonah would be very short. Jonah rebels, I'm gonna find a new prophet, Jonah, you're done.
Pastor: Judgment. I'm going to find someone else to actually listen to me. But God is patient, long suffering, loving. God doesn't even respond with a list again, which I probably would have at least done. Like God could have said, 'Well, I look, I've made you, I've given you life and breath, I've delivered you from slavery in Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember the whole Red Sea. I parted, and I even had it fall back and crush your enemies. I have given you bread from heaven. I made water come out of a rock, so you wouldn't, you wouldn't starve and die of thirst in the desert. I brought you into a land that was flowing with a milk and honey. I dwelt among you in the tabernacle and in the temple. I've kept you as a people for myself. Your very existence, the very reason you're here, is a testimony to my love, and all that is true. I also think, for many of them, that's also a lot of these things are such a long time ago.
Pastor: I think maybe they might be asking, what have you done for us lately? Maybe it's like the wife who said, you know, honey, you used to do these things when we first got married, but what have you done for us lately? You know, I think that's maybe how Israel is feeling maybe these wonderful things God has done, but they just feel so, so long ago. Maybe that's how you feel too. God's maybe done some wonderful things, but it's been such a long time. What about now? What about today? What about my life now? Well, God's response to them is there in verse two, is not Esau's Jacob's brother, declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. Now they ask and say, How have you loved us? And God responds, Jacob and Esau.
Pastor: That makes sense, right? No, it's kind of a peculiar way to respond to someone who says,'You don't love me, and he says,'Well, remember Jacob and Esau.
Pastor: What does this mean? God is actually reminding them here what love looks like. God's love does not always..
Pastor: God's love is not. A feeling or an emotion, it's not an expression of just really liking something. God's love here is reminding him is covenantal, that is, it is steadfast, it is faithful, it is loyal to his people. He will never abandon his people, and in fact all things must work together for your salvation. God's love looks like Jacob. Remember Jacob and Esau? They were twins, they have the same parents, they were raised under the same roof. If you had to choose one of the two sons, which one would you choose? They are both sinners, they are both messed up in their own ways. They both deserve God's judgment. But if you had to choose, which one would you choose? Well, you'd probably choose Esau. He's the first born, that at least makes sense.
Pastor: You know, the heritage would inheritance would go to the firstborn. Esau was stronger, incredibly impulsive, and also very hairy, but he's manly. You wouldn't choose Jacob, that's for sure. Jacob is a deceiver, he is a manipulator, he cheats his brother, he lies to his father, he spends much of his life creating problems for himself and others. Jacob is a weasel, and it is hard to like or root for Jacob in any way.
Pastor: When you read about Jacob in Genesis, you're just waiting for Jacob to get what's coming to him. It's like it's about time to get this little lying thieving little weasel, you would have no earthly reason to like or choose Jacob, especially over Esau. Yet we are told here, before either child had been born, when before either of them had been had done anything good or bad, God set his covenant love on Jacob. Why? It's certainly not because Jacob deserved it. It's not because God somehow was able to look into the future and see Jacob become a better man or have a divine spark of some sort within him. God chose Jacob out of his mere good pleasure and sovereign grace. Paul explains this very passage in Romans nine, you can take more time to look at Romans nine later in this afternoon, but says so that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works, but because of Him who calls. It might, you might not remember, but back in Psalm 46 remember often the Psalms mentioned this theme of the God of Jacob, it's a reminder to us that God chose chooses the vilest sinners to call to himself at times that the chief of sinners, not because they have done anything deserving of themselves, but because of Him who calls, it pleases God to choose people and bring them to Himself. If God's love began with you, who deserved it, it could very end with you, who, when you failed to not deserve it any longer. In other words, someone said there is nothing you can do to make God stop loving you, because there was nothing in you that made God start loving you. This is exactly what God is reminding Israel and us today. His covenant love rests on his eternal purposes, not on our performances, not on our circumstances, not on our faithfulness. His love began before there was anything we had done at all. And God keeps intervening in Jacob's life, and it's frustrating to Jacob. If you look at the two of their lives, Jacob's life, he wrestles with God in Genesis chapter 18.
Pastor: He has this dream, and he's afraid, and he sees a ladder ascending up to heaven, and he's sleepless. God renews his covenant with Jacob later, and he confronts Jacob has to confront his family about idolatry, Jacob wrestles with God, and God even breaks Jacob's hip, but his life gradually becomes one of dependence on God. On his death bed, he worships God. He, he continues to speak of the God who, who has shepherded me my whole life, but Esau, if you look at the life of Esau, Esau's life is one of ease for the most part. Later on, he has a prosperous life. He, he, he's fairly wealthy, but he never seeks God. He never personally encounters God.
Pastor: There's never a recorded prayer of Esau, he never thanks God.
Pastor: He, he receives earthly prosperity, but appears spiritually indifferent. And I'll look at verses three through five.
Pastor: God gives some further evidences, but Esau, I have hated, I have laid waste his hill country and left his hair.
Pastor: Heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says they may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see, and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. Now again, it seems a little strange. Why does God start talking about Edomites? Well, these are the descendants of Esau. Just as Israel was a descendant of Jacob, Edom is a descendant of Esau. The two nations now have become rivals for hundreds of years, and throughout Israel's history, Edomites are oppressing God's people when Jerusalem was invaded by Babylon in 586 Edom didn't come to help Israel.
Pastor: Instead, they helped and assisted Babylon in the destruction of Jerusalem. Psalm 137 even has the Edomites cry there, their battle cry. It says, 'Lay it bare, lay it bare to its foundations. So the Edomites would come into Jerusalem and let it let it lay bare. We're going to wipe every brick down and destroy it. These are the enemies of Israel. And from Israel's perspective, Edom, Edom has seemed to prosper, but they're suffering, right? They have gone into exile. The Edomites have simply kind of..
Pastor: they're doing quite well in their little mountain hill country area. And so their question is, Lord, we're your covenant people, but we're the ones who have gone into exile.
Pastor: Why are we the ones suffering and not Edom? Now, have you ever wrestled with this question? Why do the people of God suffer?
Pastor: Where it seems like those who oppress God's people, or even against God, why aren't they suffering? David wrestles with this question. Jeremiah wrestles with this question. Habakkuk wrestles with this question. I think it's good for us to wrestle with this question. Why do the ones who mock Christ seem to flourish, while believers endure trial after trial? And
notice what God says: Edom may try to rebuild them, they may think they have a secured future, but they don't. They will ultimately fall, and I think that is our hope too, is resting in the Lord. Is the Lord often in our trials, is is wrestling idols away from our hand. He's preparing us for heaven. The things of this world are temporary, they are fleeting, they are passing away, but those who have the covenantal love of Christ, they have an inheritance waiting for them that will not be taken away, that will not perish. They have Christ himself, the people of here on earth. This is the best they will ever have, but for the Christian, this is the worst we will ever experience, and these are light, as Paul says, light and momentary afflictions are are not yet to be compared to the glories that wait for us. The Edomites, they enjoyed material blessings, but they never enjoyed the presence of God, they never enjoyed the true and living God. They, they never belonged to Him. They do not have that eternal inheritance. You know, we often misinterpret God's providence.
notice what God says: Is you think about Joseph back in Genesis, did God love Joseph when his brothers sold him into Egypt? Absolutely. Absolutely, he did. Did God love Joseph in Potiphar's prison? Yes, he did.
notice what God says: Remember, and Joseph would even, towards the end of his life, say to his brothers, they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Did God love Job when he lost everything? Absolutely, he did, and I think that's, you know, Job's kind of an important picture for us too, because sometimes we just see the one page in history of our lives where God sees the entire story, and so we have to trust our Lord that He does love us, you know, Malachi points back to Jacob, the father of Israel, to remind the people of Israel about God's love, but Jacob actually points us to Jesus, doesn't he?
notice what God says: Remember, Jacob had that vision of a ladder ascending to heaven and angels ascending and descending on the ladder, and that was a picture of of God, who would, who would dwell with his people, Emmanuel with us.
notice what God says: It was a picture of Christ, and Jacob himself is a picture, not in his deceit, but Jacob, who would be the father of Israel.
notice what God says: Jesus is, is the one who draws and creates a people. For himself, Jesus himself is the faithful Israel. Everything that Israel failed to do, Jesus succeeds and fulfills it. Jesus is the perfect Israelite. And if ever you begin asking, and your circumstances start preaching to you, does God really love me?
notice what God says: God directs our eyes to the cross, and this is where we need to let the word preach to us, and not our circumstances. As we read earlier in Romans chapter five, God shows his love for us, and that's why we were still sinners. Christ died for us.
notice what God says: Notice, Paul doesn't say God shows his love for us in this because our lives are easier, he shows your love for us in this, that you became wealthy, or you don't have painful things happening. No, God shows his perfect love for us, and not bringing judgment down upon us, but why we were yet sinners, that he would send his son to redeem us and cleanse us, and to usher us into His kingdom that is waiting for us. Romans eight asks the same question. Malachi answers, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? You know, Paul immediately lists the very things we think would disprove God's love: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Do those things mean God has stopped loving his people? And Paul says no. And all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And then he reaches one of the greatest conclusions of all in Scripture. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things that come nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that's Malachi's answer here in New Testament language that Paul writes, God's love rests upon His eternal purposes. It's secure to us in Christ. It's applied by the Holy Spirit, and therefore it cannot be undone. There is no circumstance in your life that can undo God's perfect love for His people. You know, as we, as I close here, just remember how this book began. It doesn't begin with an angry judge or father speaking to strangers.
notice what God says: It's a loving father speaking to his covenant people. God knows they're discouraged. God knows that they are maybe disappointed in expectations that have not come to fruition, but he loves them, and he refuses to leave them in their unbelief. And again, kind of parents, we, we understand that sometimes your children misunderstand your love, is that right? Sometimes, as a parent, you do, you're doing something you know is, is loving and good for your children, but your children misunderstand it. Remember, the teenager might say, "If you really loved me, you would let me go to that party or do whatever I wanted. I thought I wanted to do. But a loving parent knows better, and love is not measured by granting every request. Love is measured by a faithful commitment to seek another's good, and you and me, who are evil, we know that as parents, but how much more does our perfect heavenly Father know that that there are prayers that He has not answered the way that we have wanted, because it's not good for us right now, but he will give us exactly what we need at exactly the right time.
notice what God says: He will provide for our every need. He has given us his son.
notice what God says: How much more will he freely give us all things? If he was going to withhold one good thing from you, it would have been his son, but he spared not, and gave you his son. He'll provide for you, he'll protect you, he'll bring you through the right trials at the right time to strengthen your faith, to refine your faith as gold. You know, taking the things again not fit for heaven, refining you, helping you to rest upon him alone. You know, there are dreams that we have that he has hindered. There are trials that he has allowed, and it's not because he has stopped loving us, but it's because he does love us, and his love is wiser than our understanding.
notice what God says: Remember, his ways are higher than our ways, his purposes are deeper than our perspective. His covenant faithfulness is stronger than our feelings. So let us go to Jesus again. Let us stand beneath the cross again.
notice what God says: Let's look to the Son of God again, who died for us. Why we were yet sinners. Let us hear the words of God for us again, who. Says I have loved you, and it ends here just with this phrase, Great is the Lord beyond the borders of Israel. You know what would be interesting too, and this could be a separate sermon, but I'm not going to do that to you this morning, that Israel would, and then in turn begin to love their enemies like the Edomites, the mercy of God is going to extend, and this is what happens immediately after Malachi, as we know it, the love of God blows up in throughout the world from Israel, and it then goes to Edomites, Egyptians, and it even makes it all the way to those Americans, and we're proof of what God promises to the people of Israel here in Malachi, that great is the Lord beyond the border of Joseph of Israel. Isn't that a wonderful thing that you and I get to sit here outside of a particular land and say, great is the Lord who has been merciful to a sinner like me.
notice what God says: Indeed, His love is true, indeed his love is faithful, and great is the Lord. Let's pray.
notice what God says: Our heavenly Father, we thank you for your covenant love, Lord. We do often confess, we confess that often we do doubt your love. We allow the circumstances around us to preach to us that very message, that you are absent, that you do not care, but let us remember your word, that it changes not.
notice what God says: Let us remember who you are, that you change not. Let us remember Christ. Let us remember that why we were yet sinners, that He would come and die for us, and Lord, help us to remember that you have promised to provide for your people, and I pray that you will encourage us who are discouraged, those who are weary, that you will strengthen, that we will find rest and comfort in your word, Lord. Be merciful now to your people in Jesus's name. Amen.