Our text this week, Malachi 1:6–14, is a stinging indictment of the priests and people of Israel for their careless worship. They’re offering him “polluted worship” in the form of lame animals and diseased fruit. It’s so bad that God says he wishes someone would just shut the doors and pull the plug on the whole deal. In other words, God tells them their services are so bad they should just cancel church! And to top it off, the people have the audacity to complain about how burdensome his demands are on them!
Dear ones, we can’t overstate how important this was and is! Whether it be Israel in the Old Testament or the Church in the New, God has gathered a people to himself so that they might bring glory and honor to him through their lives. In other words, we were created to worship—to put on display the goodness of God through our response to him. He uses the worship of his people to be the means by which he draws others to himself. That’s the point of his promise to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12, that he will bless all the world through Abraham’s seed. God glorifies himself by turning spiritually dead rebels into spiritually alive worshipers. That’s why we exist.
So, if God’s people are not living out that purpose because they’re offering polluted worship, that’s a huge problem! And that’s the point of this text and the point of this Sunday’s message. Let’s ask the Lord to help us take this ancient text, understand it, apply it, and humble ourselves under it. There’s a truck-load of truth in it for us. Pray that God would make us more like his Son as a result of our time together in this passage.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all!
Grace and peace,
Brad