Malachi: Conclusion and Applications

Recapitulation

The Lord is Faithful to his Covenant, while the people are not, but the Lord will remain faithful until the very end. The writing of Malachi is made up of six rebukes against the people of Israel in the post-exilic era. The first rebuke concerns the failure of Israel to see that God has loved them, and is being faithful to his covenant. Israel must only look to Edom to realize how God has loved them. Secondly, the priests are being rebuked for despising the name of the Lord by neglecting the offering and their task as ministers of the Law, they must repent. Thirdly, the people have acted treacherously against their wives by divorcing them and getting married to foreign women. The men must remain in a good disposition and not act treacherously towards their wives. The fifth rebukes concerns the tithe. The people have neglected the offering. They have not only robbed God, but the whole nation. The Lord invites them to test him, to see if he does not bless them, if they give him what he is due. In the sixth rebuke, the people are being corrected for putting into question the Lord’s justice.

Application

Six rebukes are being made in the writing of Malachi. Many applications can be drawn from them as they deal with a variety of topics. I think the rebukes can for the most part be explained by the fact that the people are not giving God their best.

1)      We must contemplate God’s love for us. Do we ever act like we forget that God loves us? Do we forget that while we were enemies of God, he sent his son to die for us? We can just look around us and see everything that is evil, all the misery and know that Christ was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and the one who heals us by his stripes. We can rejoice, knowing that God loves, and that he is indeed great in the whole world.

2)      Leaders in the church must take their role seriously. We see that those in leadership were despising the name of the Lord. Can we expect that from our pastors today? There are so many scandals, pastors falling into sin patterns. Pastors will have to give an account for those they are leading. They must be examples to the flock. It was the role of the priests to examine the animals being sacrifices, it was their responsibility to correct people, rather than please them. Leaders of the church have the same responsibility to be deeply indwelt by the word of God, and guide the people in the Christian walks in ways that are pleasing to the Lord, and correct when necessary.

3)      We must offer proper worship to God. We need to be careful in our worship services that we are not simply going through the motions. The words that we sing are one thing, but God looks to the heart, we cannot fool him. While the burn offerings were completely pointless, if they are just a ritual, so is our singing at church.

4)      We must honor God, rather that do a list of tasks. In Malachi 2:2 we see that the end of the law was to honor God. We can think that some behavior is more “Christian” than other kinds of behaviors. Being a Christian is not at all about following certain patterns of behavior, it is first of all about seeking to please the Lord, which will lead into living in a specific way, but not the other way around. You can live in ways that might seem right, but God knows the intentions of our hearts, if we are not living for him, our religious lifestyle is not worth anything.

5)      Let the Word of God abide in you. The Priests were ministers of God’s Word. People were to go to them for instruction. Pastors among other things must be known for their knowledge of God’s word. Because we now have a priesthood of all believers, we must also train all Christians in the word of God, to be keepers of his word.

6)      Be generous in your offering. It is interesting to see that the tithe not only robs God but the whole nation. We are very quick to jump to sayings such as: “I do not have to do anything, because I am not under the law!” When people do not give to the church, it hurts the church. More missionaries could be sent out, more ministries could be available in the church, if there was more money. When we refuse to give, we are robbing the whole church.

7)      Serve God because he is God, rather than what you get out of it. Often it does seem like there is no blessing that comes from serving the Lord. It is those who do not believe who seem to be prospering, maybe even those we know who are evil. We can remain steadfast in our faith, knowing that God is just. When final judgment does come on the day of the Lord, he will spare us as a father spares his son serving him.

8)      Live in a way, remembering the past, and looking forward to the future. How we live as Christians can be informed in two ways but us looking back to scripture and seeing how it teaches us to live, but also looking forward, to the return of Christ which is still to come. We must live in a way, they he would find us at any time, living in a manner worthy of his calling on our lives.