Malachi - a confession

WARNING: Extremely Introspective Blog Post.

WARNING: Bible Reading Required.

If you haven't done so in a while go read Malachi.  Carve out a solid half hour so you can read it, as it was intended to be read, beginning to end.  (Seriously, please don't read this post until you have read Malachi... Malachi is much better reading anyway.  Also while I have you hear in parenthesis, I will give my standard warning about annoyingly introspective )

If you are like me, and guilty of neglecting Old Testament books that don't start with the letter 'P', you may not notice what an excellent piece of literature this little book is. 

It is the perfect punctuation for the OT. 
It puts our sin right in our face, while giving us hope at the same time. 
It doesn't pull any punches.

This is a book of the Bible written to the religious. Bear that in mind.  The people being warned are do not belong to a wide world of those who do not know God, but to a people comfortable in their theology, content with their level of understanding and convinced of their own righteousness because of how they practiced religion.

I preached out of Malachi once.  It was my last series of messages before leaving the church I grew up in.  I was young(er), (more)arrogant and disillusioned. I used this book like a weapon, as a way of railing against all of the things I thought my church was doing wrong.  This morning I read Malachi, and was very tempted to apply what I read to others rather than to myself.  But as I have been meditating on it throughout the morning, I have been convicted that I need to use the word as a mirror.  Here are some of the verses that convicted me, and my accompanying confessions. 

"I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have You loved us?"

I am blessed beyond measure, but spend most of my time focused on my "problems".

 ***

"But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil?

Guilty.  How often do I turn in an effort that is "good enough" instead of giving my best to God?

 ***

You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied Him?"



So many hours spent talking about things of the Lord, but when it comes time to apply them, I shrink back, or stand silently by while others shrink back, and refuse to properly apply the word.

 ***

"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?

Tradition has been my filter for so long, that I am no longer sure what true worship even looks like.

 ***

"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings... Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse

I budget: "This time/energy/money is God's, this over here is for family, this is for pleasure, this is for work," etc...  I give what I feel obligated to give, and keep the rest for myself. I convince myself it is more than others give, but if I am honest I now it is less than my Great King is asking of me.  It is all His, but I treat it like it is all mine, and He should be happy with what I give Him.  I rob God.

 ***

Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name... So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

In a sea of those who are religious there is a smaller group made up of people who actually fear the Lord. I must learn to tell the difference.  I must fear the Lord and seek out others who do so.

 ***

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings..." 

 

Lord forgive my arrogance, teach me to fear you.