Malachi – Chapter 2
A Warning to the Priests
“Listen, you priests—this command is for you!
As we asked in Mal 1:6 – Why does it matter today what God said to priests nearly 2500 years ago?
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Revelation 1:5b-6 (NIV) To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father–to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
2 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.
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I will curse even the blessings you receive. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you have not taken my warning to heart.
Have you ever gotten a good thing, but it turns out it wasn’t such a good thing?
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3 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. 4 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.
Exodus 20:4–6 (NLT) 4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
- Sins get passed down
- Hurt people hurt people.
- No matter what was passed down to you
- It can be broken off of you, your children, and their children
Write down generational hurts and sins that you want the Lord to break, starting with you.
5 “The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and 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.
- God’s desire is always for our good
- He made a covenant with the Levites (priests) in order to bring them (1) life and (2) peace
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- And he fulfilled his part of it
- But this covenant required reverence (obedience) from them
- This covenant probably refers to an incident from Numbers 25 that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 10 involving a man called Phinehas.
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What was God honoring that we can learn from?
Why is it important that men take similar stands against corruption today?
6 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 turned many from lives of sin.
What did they do that was good?
Which of these do you think was the hardest & most difficult?
Deuteronomy 6:1–9 (NIV84) These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
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- Who in particular should be taught?
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- Another thing priests (we) should do:
7 “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.
How does this verse relate to us as a “nation of priests”?
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8 But you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused many to stumble into sin.
- Don’t just take the professional Christian’s word for it; Check it out yourself!
Acts 17:11 (NIV84) Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
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You have corrupted the covenant I made with the Levites,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 9 “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.”
- (This refers back to Malachi 2:3)
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A Call to Faithfulness
10 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?
- Every person is an image bearer of our Father in heaven
- Whenever any fail to keep the covenant, we betray each other
- Sin spreads!
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11 Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.
- Nehemiah had just dealt with this about 20 years earlier, and it was STILL going on! (see Nehemiah 13:23ff)
12 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.
- To worship means
- To honor or esteem highly
- To build your life upon
- To make central in your life and values
What are some of the things our culture worships besides God?
13 Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure.
14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” 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 remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows.
- God takes marriage seriously
Mark 10:6-9 (ESV) 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
- Refers back to Genesis 2:20-25
Matthew 5:27–28 (NLT) 27 “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
How serious is God about marriage?
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(1) Don’t jump into too fast
- Be patient – wait until you’re ready
- Seek the Lord
- Make a good choice
- Get pre-marital counseling
- When you marry, as much as it relies on you determine that you’ll die before you dishonor your wife or get divorced
(2) Don’t jump into too fast
- Pick your fights
- Fight fair
- Fight FOR YOUR MARRIAGE instead of AGAINST YOUR WIFE
- Get counseling
- Seek the Lord
15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In 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. 16 “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; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT2) Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.