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And you say, ‘What weariness this is’…says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 1:13)

The second of six arguments in the book of Malachi begins in verse 6. The people ask “How have we shown contempt for your name?” The Lord replies with a three part answer.

First, their worship was apathetic. Worship had become boring and burdensome. So they cut corners and brought blemished sacrificed. The priests were particularly to blame, offering injured and diseased animals, which were unacceptable in the Lord’s sight.

The priests knew the right thing to do. But they weren’t interested in complete obedience.  That would have cost them something. “A little religious ceremony is one thing,” they thought, “but why give away the best and strongest animals when you can give your crippled animals? What does God care? It’ll be no big deal.” But it was a big deal, because God had told them what he desired, he was worthy of the best, and the sins of the people demanded a perfect sacrifice.

Thankfully, God has provided the perfect sacrifice for us in the person of Jesus Christ. But God still opposes apathetic worship. He does not want us to merely go through the motions Sunday after Sunday. He is not pleased with half-hearted songs, prayers, and sermons. “Stop lighting your useless fires!” say the Lord Almighty (1:10). The Lord is a great king and desires to worshiped, with our whole hearts, in spirit and truth.

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“…you do not lay it to heart.” (Malachi 2:2)

The people despised the Lord by coming with an apathetic attitude, and, secondly, by approaching God with irreverence. Specifically, the priests were not honoring his name, not standing in awe before him. Thus, the Lord promises to curse their blessings. “I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices” (v. 3). Offal is a nice word for animal innards and fecal matter–guts and dung  It doesn’t pay to cheat God in worship. He calls for reverence.

This doesn’t mean our services have to be somber and grave, but they should be weighty. Awe and reverence can be hard to come by, but they can be had in different ways. Traditional worshipers think reverence means old hymns and organs. Contemporary worshipers think reverence means raised hands and lots of emotion. Pomo worshipers think reverence means candles and darkness. Reverent worship can takes place in all these settings, but the fear of the Lord is something more. Truly reverent worship requires beholding the inviting and terrifying face of God.

When the Lord descended on Mt. Sinai, the people trembled. When Peter realized Jesus was the Messiah, he fell on his knees in a pile of smelly fish. When John beheld the glorified Christ, he fell at his feet as though dead. May the Lord give us such a sweet and startling glimpse of his glory that we might worship him with reverence.

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“For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge…for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 2:7)

Third, and finally, the priests showed contempt for the Lord with their unfaithful teaching. It is hard to overemphasize the importance of good teaching. One of the main causes of Israel’s waywardness was, as 2 Chronicles 15:3 puts it “[because] for a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law.” Without good teaching, the people faltered. In Amos, the Lord says “I gave you empty stomachs. I withheld rain from you. I struck your vineyards with blight and mildew. I sent plagues among you. And I overthrew your cities.” Those were dreadful. But worst of all “The days are coming, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine through the land–not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord” (8:11-12).

The church needs pastors devoted to “the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). The minister must a diligent student of the Bible and committed to its teachings. The story is told that the philosopher David Hume went to hear the evangelist George Whitefield preach. Someone said to Hume, “But surely you don’t believe what Whitefield preaches, do you?” To which Hume replied, “No I don’t, but he does.” Our world and our worship needs preachers who know and believe the word of God.

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