October 19, 2008

Malachi 1

"The Measure of Our Worth and Success" 

Mike Tyson:  Do you remember that name?  In the late 1980's he was the world heavyweight-boxing champion.  An aggressive strong athlete, it looked as if he would have a long bright future.  He, however, was far from a champion in his personal life.  He even spent time in prison on a rape conviction.  After that he never regained his title and retired from boxing in 2005.  Shortly thereafter Jon Saraceno wrote an article on him in USA Today.  In that article he said,

"Almost 39, he is anything but at peace.  Confused and humiliated after a decadent lifestyle left him with broken relationships, shattered finances, and a reputation in ruin, the fighter cannot hide his insecurities, stacked as high as his legendary knockouts....

‘I'll never be happy,' he says. ‘I believe I'll die alone. I would want it that way. I've been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain. I'm really lost, but I'm trying to find myself. I'm really a sad, pathetic case.'

The divorced father of six is blunt, gregarious, funny, vulgar, outrageous, sad, angry, bitter, and, at times, introspective about the opportunities he squandered over the last two decades. He discusses his drug use..., lack of self-esteem, and sexual addiction.

During his heavyweight boxing career it is estimated that Tyson won over 300 million dollars, but in 2003 he filed for bankruptcy.

He says, ‘My whole life has been a waste-I've been a failure.'"

"I've been a failure."  Undoubtedly many of the people of Judah during Malachi's could have identified with that statement.  Little is known about Malachi, except that he wrote around the time of Nehemiah, when Judah was still part of the Persian Empire.  Nehemiah was the Persian king's cupbearer, who managed to get the king to support an effort to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem.

As I was saying many of the people of Judah during this time felt like failures.  Most were living in poverty.  They had just endured a drought and famine.  Even before that, most were barely scratching out a living.  But now things had gone from bad to worse.  Some of the poor had even been forced to sell their own children into slavery to pay off their debts. 

But, probably the worst affliction was that nothing happened.  By that I mean, that when they had first come back to the land of Judah from Babylon, they were all excited.  God had kept his promise that he would allow them to return after 70 years.  They even had rebuilt the temple.  And they were waiting with anticipation for the other promises to be fulfilled.  They were waiting for the great king from David's line to be born and for him to conquer all the proud nations around.  They were waiting for the wealth of these nations to come pouring into Jerusalem.  But nothing happened.  They remained under Persian rule and paying taxes to the Persian government.

The people, however, had not conformed to God's expectations either.  Although they had not turned to idols, what Jesus said years later about the church in Laodocia could also be said of them.  They were neither cold nor hot.  They practiced their faith, but with little enthusiasm.  They failed to pay their tithes; they brought diseased and maimed animals to sacrifice and the priests accepted them.  And their religion did not seem to affect their everyday lives.  In short the people felt like failures and acted like failures. 

Into such a situation God sent his prophet Malachi.

In verse one we read,

An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

What is translated "oracle" here is translated burden in the King James.  Literally, it means "weighty message."  This is a weighty or very important message from God to his people.

Note what the first part of that message is. 

"I have loved you," says the LORD.

In spite of your sins and failures throughout your history, I have loved you. In spite of your present sins, I have loved you.  In spite of your present failures I have loved you.  In spite of the fact that you are poor and destitute, I love you.  In spite of the fact that you are living among ruins of a city that has not been rebuilt, I love you.

In chapter 3: 17 God calls his beloved people his treasured possession.  Through his prophet the Lord explained to these suffering people that their worth was not based on anything they had done, but on the fact that he had loved them and had chosen them as his own.

In telling his people this, the Lord repeated what he had told their ancestors many years before, while they were still in the wilderness.  In Deuteronomy 7: 6-8 we read,

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh King of Egypt.

People of God, our worth are not based on what we have accomplished or on the good things we have done or on the time when he refrained from doing evil.  Our worth is based on the fact that we are God's special possession.  We are the people God has loved.  We are the people for whom he paid a terrible price to redeem. 

God did not choose Israel because of their great accomplishments or their loyalty to him.  They were self-centered and rebellious.  God chose them and he chooses his people today solely out of his sovereign love.  We are who we are solely because God is who he is.

And how did God show his love?  That's the question that some of the people were asking?  In verse 2, the Lord goes on to say,

"'But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, ³but Esau I have hated,

Jacob was the ancestor of the Israelites and Jews; Esau was the ancestor of the Edomites.  Before these boys were born, God chose to love Jacob and hate Esau.

God...hate?  Yes, any whom the Lord does not choose are those whom he hates.  One whom the Lord hates is one who is his enemy.  In Hebrew the word enemy and the verb hate have the same root.  People chose to become enemies of God, when they chose to rebel in the Garden of Eden. 

But, out of these enemies, God chooses some to love.  He made this choice before time began.  It is not based on heredity: Jacob and Esau were brothers.  It is solely based on God's sovereign love. 

Think about it.  Many people have heard the gospel.  Why do you believe it, while most don't?  Not because you are smarter or more insightful or better.  But, solely because God in love has given you through his Spirit the power to believe.  In Ephesians 1: 4-5 we read a verse I have so often quoted,

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-

There is a lot of mystery here.  But, one thing is not a mystery.  And that is that the Creator God loves us and has chosen us from before the foundation of the world.  Before he made the world, he knew that we would be sinners and failures and in spite of that and, indeed, because of that, he already decided that he would sacrifice his Son to save us.  He knew that even our best sacrifices would be imperfect, but he would give the perfect sacrifice to claim us for his own.

Ultimately only those whom God loves and has chosen have a secure future.  Our future also does not depend on our great accomplishments or on what we build for ourselves here on earth. 

Edom looked prosperous at the moment and the people there were doing much to rebuild their country.  But God declared in verses 3- 4

Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals." Edom may say, "Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins."  But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD.

As God's enemies who had done evil in his sight, the Lord promised to punish them.  All of their great heroic deeds and their aggressiveness and industry didn't make a bit of difference.  God had determined that they would be destroyed.  There are no Edomites today.  Only some ruins where they once lived.

There are many today who are trying so hard to secure their futures.  There are many who are working so diligently to achieve their goals.  Yet in the end everything they worked for will die with them.  But, our future does not depend on our efforts.  If we are God's special possession, then he has made a future for us in the New Jerusalem.  We didn't build that city.  Its founder and builder is God, who because of his love will give us a place there.

But there's something else about Esau that we should know.  Esau once was given the same wonderful promise that God had given to his father Isaac.  He was part of that chosen family.  In fact he was originally the one through whom that promise would be passed on to future generations.  But Genesis 25: 34 says,

Esau despised his birthright.

It happened this way.  Esau was out hunting and came back hungry.  Jacob was making some stew. 

"Hey can I have some of that?"

"Yes, you can, but you should ask whether you may have some stew."

"May I have some of that?"

Yes, you may, but you got to give me something in return.

What do I have that you want?

Your birthright.

What good is that birthright to me now?  I'm starved!  Take it.  It's yours.  Give me the stew.

And so Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.  The history of God's people is the sad history of those who took God's special favor and like Esau sold it for temporary gain-to satisfy temporary appetites.  That's the reason why Judah in Malachi's day was in the shape it was in.

What about God's people today?  Do we ever take the wonderful love and favor God gives us and sell it to satisfy our temporary appetites?  Or should we ask, how many times have we done that?  A binge with the guys?  A one night stand?  Or perhaps have we done that as we chase after our fleeting material dreams or our hobbies or recreations?  God gave his all for us; yet, how often don't we merely give him our leftovers.

A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  If I am a father, where is the honor due me?  If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty.

In future weeks as we discuss the rest of this prophecy we will discuss what we owe him for all he has given us.  Today, however, as those who confess our failures, admitting that often we don't give what he deserves, let us listen to a picture of our heavenly Father that was given us by his Son.

There was a man who had two sons. ²The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.'  So he divided his property between them.

¹³"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

"When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.'  So he got up and went to his father.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

"The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

"But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let's have a feast and celebrate. ⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

Today our Heavenly Father is looking out the window for us to come home and know his loving embrace.  More than that, he in love compels and his Spirit is calling us home.  He calls us in our sin, in our failures, in our unfaithfulness.  This is also the message he calls us to pass on to all spiritual failures we meet this week.  But we are not to do this as those who are spiritually enlightened, but rather as fellow failures whose success comes only by his mercy and grace.  Let us heed his call.  AMEN!