©2013 York Alliance Church - Clover Sitesstorage.cloversites.com/yorkalliancechurch... · ©2013 York Alliance Church 2 Why Malachi? This tiny oracle (1:1) that acts as the final

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Why Malachi?

This tiny oracle (1:1) that acts as the final word in the Old Testament is often

skipped over by preachers and casual Bible readers alike. The few familiar verses

in Malachi are almost always quoted out of context—used to say something quite

different than they meant to Malachi’s original audience. (see 1:11, 2:16a, and

3:10-12) The rest of the book is chock full of odd images of crippled animals,

altars, dung, fire, and leaping calves. Weird stuff! So, why study this odd book?

Malachi was written in what scholars call the “postexilic” period. That simply

means it came after a remnant, or portion, of Israel returned to their homeland

after being taken and placed as inhabitants of first the Assyrian, then the

Babylonian, and finally the Persian empires. Therefore, Malachi was written

roughly within the same time period as Ezra and Nehemiah, which are historical

books, and Haggai and Zechariah, which are prophetic books. Most scholars

agree that some time had passed since the return from exile at the time of

Malachi’s writing, and the people had become complacent. A few of the

characteristics that seemed to be common in Israel at the time:

• While they had plenty of material goods, particularly in comparison to some

of their neighbors, they felt like they didn’t have enough.

• They had been blessed by God through the return from captivity and the

reconstruction of the temple, but they took those things for granted and had

a hard time seeing the blessing of God.

• Worship had become a routine add-on to otherwise very busy lives that had

very little to do with worship.

• The sacrifices that they made before God, if they were honest, didn’t really

cost them much. Life continued in much the same way whether they were

engaging in worship or not.

• There was very little fear of God within their community, whether among the

people or within the priesthood.

• Worship had become a routine exercise that they regularly, but apathetically,

engaged and didn’t have any real impact on their lives.

• They felt as though they couldn’t be sacrificial in worship or generous with

one another because they needed to provide for themselves.

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So, why Malachi? That list probably gives a good indication! In many ways, we

find ourselves today in a very similar situation to that which Israel found herself

during the time of Malachi’s writing. As we enter into this profound and

challenging book, I believe we’ll often hear God’s word to us as well.

Malachi is somewhat unique in its structure. The book is really a series of

“disputations,” or charges, that God makes against Israel, Israel’s questioning of

His charge, and His response to their questioning. The questioning takes an

almost legal form, as though the hearts of the people have been put “on trial” and

are being tried. However, rather than their verbal responses being their defense,

the testimony of their lives and their actions are provided as the primary evidence

against them.

In all, only two verses in the entire book don’t record God’s voice in them.

Malachi is, quite literally, God’s Word spoken to His people, and His words are full

of challenge and warning. However, despite the difficulty of the words, the book

ends full of promise. The day of the Lord will come. God will provide healing and

freedom and peace to His people. All that is wrong will be made right.

My prayer for this study is simple: May God shake us from our cultural apathy and

create deep and true worship within us. We must come to grips with the fact that

our lives look far more like the culture around us than the Savior we purport to

follow; despite all that we say we believe, our actions quite often tell a different

story. May we hear the challenge and warning in the voice of God to His people

and be shaken out of our malaise. And may we embrace the Savior sent to show

us the Way out, as well as the One who gives us the ability to walk in that Way.

Grace and peace,

Brian Kannel

York Alliance Church

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This book is designed to be used as a companion resource to the July/August

2013 sermon series at York Alliance Church. Each Sunday’s message will provide

the central teaching of the Scripture passage for that week. You will receive most

benefit from this study as you utilize it in conjunction with both the Sunday

messages and a weekly LIFE group gathering, a small community with whom you

are able to discuss and apply these truths. If you are unable to attend the one of

the Sunday morning gatherings for any reason, the sermon audio can be found

at www.yorkalliance.org/resources.

Please be aware that studying the Bible can be a challenging endeavor. Of

course, there are very few worthwhile things in life that don’t require some effort

on our part. But beyond the difficulty of study in general is the fact that we have

a very real enemy who is actively opposed to our understanding of the Word of

God. Paul tells us that our battle is not “against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, again the cosmic powers over the present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

Therefore, if you find yourself feeling discouraged, frustrated, or unable to

understand something, I want to strongly encourage you to stop and pray. Ask

God to guide your heart and thoughts, and to give you understanding. Also,

don’t do this study in isolation. While most will complete the actual studies

individually, I would encourage you to get connected to someone else who is

doing this study, and connect with them each week to talk about what you’re

learning. Along the way, if you have frustrations or are confused about

something you’re studying, they can provide encouragement and guidance as

you journey through the study together. If you get stuck along the way, you

should feel free and encouraged to skip a section, or even an entire study, and

move to the next one.

This particular study guide is taking a different form than many of the previous

York Alliance studies. Therefore, a few specific notes are in order, which may be

helpful as you begin your study using this guide:

• Each week is a mixture of action, study, meditation, and application.

• On the opening page of each week’s study, you’ll find a central thought, a

Psalm that you are encouraged to read often and strive to memorize through

the week, and an activity that you are encouraged to engage over the course

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of the week. Most of the activities are not one-time actions but, rather,

things that you will engage repeatedly over the course of the week which

will parallel the study in Malachi.

• There is a two-page study on the passage itself, which will often take you

throughout the Bible as well. As this is the only true “Bible Study” portion of

the week, there is no need to rush to complete it in a single day.

• Following the study, there is a meditation on the Malachi passage,

challenging you to think and apply the truths of the Word to your life. Many

thanks to Matt Blumhard for his great work on these meditations!

• Finally, at the end of the week, you’ll find a reflection on the Psalm that you

were asked to read and memorize over the course of the week. After a week

of thought on that specific Psalm, I think you’ll find these reflections deeply

meaningful. Thanks to Scott King, who very ably conceived and authored

these reflections.

• There are blank pages within each week for you to journal your thoughts on

these meditations and the application you find for your own life.

• A blank sermon note sheet (for use on Sunday mornings and/or with the

sermon audio available online) as well as a “Facilitation/Application” sheet

will be included. The primary intent of this page is that it be used within

York Alliance Church LIFE groups, but it could be used in a variety of settings.

• Although the English Standard Version will be utilized within this study, feel

free to use any English translation with which you are comfortable. In fact,

you are encouraged to read from multiple translations, particularly with

passages that you are struggling to understand fully.

If you have questions about how to best utilize the book or have comments on

what you’re finding in it and/or on your experiences with it, they are welcomed!

Email me at [email protected].

“God, we confess that we far too often find ourselves in the position of the nation of

Israel during Malachi’s time: apathetic, self-consumed, arrogant, and bored. As we

study, stimulate our minds and convict our hearts. Show us where we’ve doubted

Your love, despised You in our worship, profaned Your covenant, chosen our own

ways over Yours, wearied You with our habitual sin, and robbed You of our resources.

Through the love and grace of Jesus Christ, the perfect, unblemished sacrifice,

transform us! Reveal to us the unbridled joy of passionate pursuit of Your glory. May

we be those for whom ‘the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings’

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and who ‘will go out leaping like calves from the stall.’ (4:2) Jesus, try our hearts and

find in us a willing home for Your Spirit. Amen.”

In the end, everything that we have and everything that we are depends on

God. There is nothing that we can do to earn the love of God; so the grace

that we experience is solely reliant on Him, not on us. We love because He

first loved us. Therefore, the cross is the ultimate objective evidence of the

good that God desires for us. In the cross we find hope, even in the midst of

our suffering and pain.

For Meditation and Contemplation:

Read Psalm 103 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize verses 1-5

by the end of the week.

For Action:

Often, in the midst of the challenges of our daily living, we forget the

immensity of the grace we have received. As we scrape funds together in

order to pay bills, we can miss the blessing of abundance. As we scramble to

prepare an evening meal in the rush of the day, we can miss the blessing of

choice. Beauty, love between friends and family, freedom, peace… all these

become taken for granted in the midst of our hectic lives.

This week, be intentional about the blessings you have received from the

hand of God. Each day, list at least 10 things for which you are thankful.

However, don’t just write down a word or a phrase—write down why you’re

thankful for that aspect of your life. Over the course of the week, continue to

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do this without repeating any items! At the end of each day, write a prayer of

thanks to God for His love and grace toward you.

For Study: Read Malachi 1:1-5 slowly. What are some of the things that

immediately stand out to you in the text?

The love of God for Israel is immediately and clearly declared, yet it is also

quickly questioned. However, God’s love for Israel was a key part of their

history, and should have been easily recognized. What do the following

verses show about the love of God for Israel?

• Deuteronomy 7:6-8, 10:15

• Jeremiah 31:3, Isaiah 49:14-16

• Exodus 4:22, Hosea 11:1

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The love of God for Israel is contrasted with the hatred of God for Edom, or

the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. However, is hatred truly the feeling

that God has for Edom?

Look up Genesis 29:31. How does the Lord categorize Jacob’s feeling for

Leah?

Now, look at the previous verse, Genesis 29:30. How is Jacob’s feeling for

Leah described?

The divine choice of Israel is a clear parallel for God’s sovereign choice of all

who will follow Him. Read Romans 8:29-30. What is the progression of God’s

work in the life of the believer?

The fact that some are chosen and others are not is a divine mystery that we

cannot fully comprehend. Paul goes on in Romans 9 to explore this mystery.

Read Romans 9:1-24. What is the final conclusion to which Paul comes?

Within our limited scope of understanding, it’s easy for us to come to the

conclusion that God is not acting justly. However, earlier in the letter to the

Romans, Paul makes it clear that cannot be the case. Read Romans 3:22-25.

What is true about all of us?

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The fact of God’s displeasure with Edom, and all who are not chosen by God,

is not unjust. Rather, what is miraculous is that any have been chosen at all!

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Meditation on Malachi 1:1-5

One of the dangers we face by living in a society with an overabundance of

media is that words lose their weightiness. It was by the use of words that the

world was spoken into being, and it is the constant speaking of God that keeps us

alive from second to second. But rather than thinking of each word we speak as a

reflection of the mighty power that spoke the universe into existence, we use

words in light, meaningless ways, and thereby diminish their importance and

power. Words simply no longer bear weight on us.

The word “love” is a good example of this. In a society where you can “love” pizza

and then use the very same word to describe your affection towards your spouse,

there is a problem with the way we use language. The problem that we face as

Christians is that this attitude is spilling over into the way we read scripture. We

brush off the verses of scripture as trite and meaningless, when we should revere

each and every word, letting its full weight press onto our hearts—molding us

into the image of Christ. As we read Malachi, let us bear in mind that these are

the words of the living God who spoke and the mountains were lifted up from

the sea. The opening verse of Malachi introduces the prophecy as “the burden of

the word of the Lord.” God’s words are heavy; they are full of meaning and

strength.

Now through this lens (the understanding that God means what He says and

means it in a big, hearty, robust way), read the opening verses of Malachi.

Though throughout the words of Malachi, we will see God rebuke the nation of

Israel and address the many sins that they were struggling with, that is not the

place where God begins. Rather, the anchor of Malachi is God’s love for the

children of Jacob. Now, if we have any knowledge of God’s character and the

way that the Israelites responded to His blessing and His commands over the

course of their history, these words should be both shocking and a great

encouragement to the soul.

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Time and time again, God spoke directly to the nation of Israel, but each and

every time Israel fell away. In the days of Moses, the presence of God led them on

each step of the journey and made the night as day through the guiding light of

a pillar of fire. However, the same people who witnessed these incredible

miracles soon fashioned an idol made of gold and forsook their God. Often while

reading these stories, we think to ourselves, “How could they have been so

foolish? If I had seen God work like that, I would never have done such a thing!”

But, oh Christian, the story of Israel is a perfect picture of our own lives. We

witness the power and majesty of God, and before long we are crying with the

Israelites, “How have You loved us?” So may it be an encouragement for us that

God can begin the book of Malachi with a declaration of love for a stubborn,

hardhearted people.

When God says that He loves you, He really, truly means it. He means it in a much

stronger way than the way you say it to your coffee each morning. God knows all

that you have been through. He knows about the deceptive things that you’ve

done. He knows about the secret sins that hold you back from Him. In spite of all

of this, before you were even born, He chose to love you in His son and make you

perfect and spotless and holy. Countless times in scripture, it is pointed out that

it was not through our own work that we were saved from our sins and past, but

that God, because of His goodness, made us alive through the gift of faith. These

are not small, light words.

The problem is that though we know that God loves us, it often seems like the

love of God is not as near to us as it once was. We became Christians and hoped

that the deserts we walked through would give way to lands flowing with milk

and honey. Instead, we find battles and hardships, and the circumstances around

us begin to crush the hearts we had for Jesus. This is the position that the

Israelites found themselves in. The love of God for Israel manifested in such a way

that the people could shout back, “How have You loved us?”

At times it does not look like God loves us, and we end up making the same

mistake as the Israelites. The Israelites were judging God’s love for them based on

their external circumstances: whether they had food on the table, whether they

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had two cars in the garage, whether their kids were doing well in school. They

were not looking at God’s concern for their holiness. We fall into this same trap.

All too often we scream with the Israelites, “How have You loved me? I started

following You and things just got harder!” Rather than looking at the hardships

we face as the loving rebuke of a Father who is more concerned for our heart and

our eternity than where we live or how many cars we have, we see hardship as

evidence of divine apathy. God’s love is sure, free, and goes beyond situation.

Thoughts about this reading:

What’s a practical way that this applies to my life?

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Meditation on Psalm 103

When we attempt to understand the unfathomable, or take hold of the infinite,

when we reach for the things that are beyond our grasp, we, like a fish

attempting to fly out from its salt water prison, find ourselves bound to the

temporal. So it is when we attempt to grasp the love of God. Continually, the

Bible tells of the immeasurable, infinite, reckless love with which God pursues us.

In Psalm 103, David endeavors to do the same by unraveling the greatness of

God’s compassion for His people.

There is a kind of compassion that is biological, rooted and overwhelmed in love.

Dante called it a love that “moves the sun and all the stars” (Paradisio). In truth,

God’s love is an objective reality that changes everything. The love of God is as

objective as light: because the star at the center of our solar system is the source

of physical light, it truly does light the earth. Just as absolutely, because God is

love, God gives love to us. Objectively, we are actually being changed from

darkness into light. We are “born again,” receiving new life from God’s love: “If

anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

When David declares the “overture” of the works of God at the beginning of

Psalm 103, he is addressing his own heart: “O my soul, forget not all His benefits.”

David knows that the glories and benefits of God’s compassion have become lost

in his own heart. He knows that he often forgets, but this is the love that moves

everything. The love that is everlasting: the love of God.

Of all the things God has done, all the works that He has accomplished, forgiving

iniquity, healing diseases, redeeming from the pit, crowning with love and mercy,

and satisfying with good, David summarizes all of the “benefits” of God’s work

into a celebration of God’s compassion for His children. Even when he is most

distant, when his heart is drawn by the lure of sin and temptation is most

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apparent, God’s compassion is on those who fear Him (Psalm 103:17).

Compassion is a very precise form of loving because it recognizes that something

is broken. To express compassion is to desire to alleviate the suffering of others.

When God sees us, He sees us as we are and deals with our sin, though not

according to our sin. He wants our hearts, and His compassion is for our broken

hearts that have lost their focus.

Why does He have such great compassion for us? There is another story of

compassion in the Bible that helps aid the question. In the story, a woman’s

infant baby boy dies at night, and in her despair and anger she goes to another

mother who is asleep with her infant baby boy and steals the child while the

mother is sleeping. The next day, the mother of the true child realizes what has

happened and drags the mother who has stolen the child to King Solomon, who

hears the dispute. After listening, Solomon declares that the child should be cut

in half, each half being given to one of the women. The true mother upon

hearing this is viscerally moved with compassion and lies, telling the King that

the other woman is the mother and she should have the child. Lying in front of

the King could have been a capital offense, but the prodigal love of the mother

triumphed over any fear because she would rather have been put to death than

see her child die before her. This is the compassion that God has for His children.

God sees us in our state and has compassion for us. He sees our hearts, and as the

Psalm says, “He remembers that we are dust.” God loves those who fear Him.

Fearing and being His children are the same thing. To be in fear is to be in awe

and wonder, which is what it means to be children. Dust is a metaphor for

brokenness. He loves us because we are broken, sinful, falling apart. We are

foolish, helpless children. We need love because we are children. God is

emotionally involved, and it doesn’t matter what His children do. You are

absolutely loved no matter how broken you are.

The love of God is the home. It is the only place that is forever: “I go to prepare a

place for you […] in my father’s house there are many rooms.” (John 14:2-3) The

ultimate safety, the ultimate compassion, the ultimate belonging is there. The

Father invites His children, and He is making all things new.

Could we with ink the ocean fill

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Or were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above

Would drain the oceans dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.



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LIFE Group Facilitation Sheet

Welcome one another in Jesus’ name! Icebreaker: “What’s your favorite game to play?”

Worship Jesus through Scripture, music, singing, and prayer. Be creative!

Invite Him to the center of your gathering.

Word: Malachi 1:1-5

• How is Jesus working in your life right now?

• Has anything specific jumped out to you, either in this passage or in

the study guide this week?

• Are there situations in your life when you’re tempted to believe that

God doesn’t truly love you? How do you combat that belief?

• How can the community around us help us to experientially know the

love of God for us? Do we do a good job of that? Why or why not?

• God’s Word is clear that there are some that He has predestined to

pursue Him (Romans 8:29) and that we are called to proclaim the gospel to those who don’t follow Jesus (Romans 10:9-15). How do

those two things balance in your life?

• What’s something that you are very thankful for, but can tend to take

for granted? Why is that?

• How can we help one another remember and experience the love of

God for us? How can we help those around us?

Works: We’ve hit the mid-point of the summer, and for many of us, we feel like the summer has only begun. Think about the community around you—neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc. Have you connected as much this

summer as you had hoped? What are some ways that you can be intentional

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about declaring the goodness of God and His love for the world in the next few weeks? Pray intentionally for opportunities to connect with those who need to know the love of Christ!

Note: Please check the website for

any announcements and upcoming events!

www.yorkalliance.org

Sermon Notes: Sermon Notes: Sermon Notes: Sermon Notes:

How Have You Loved Us?How Have You Loved Us?How Have You Loved Us?How Have You Loved Us?

Malachi 1:1Malachi 1:1Malachi 1:1Malachi 1:1----5555

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The worship and sacrifice that we offer to God is a clear indicator of the level

to which we love and fear Him. When our worship comes from our leftovers,

be it leftover time, resources, energy, or passion, we indicate that God is not

central and not worthy of priority in our lives. No worship is better than half-

hearted worship, and no sacrifice is better than a blemished one. The

perfection of Jesus’ sacrifice for us calls for extravagant and costly worship.


Read Psalm 6 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize as much of

the psalm as you are able to this week.

For Action:

Worship can easily become a Sunday morning activity, an adjective to

describe certain nouns like “service” or “Pastor”, or it can even become a

name for a genre of music. However, worship is intended to be a lifestyle

response to that which we value most highly, expressed in sacrifice and

devotion. Under that definition, we can easily see that God is often not the

true object of our worship.

This week, think about what you offer to God in your life. Think about an area

where you give Him the “leftovers” and commit this week to give Him

priority. It might be a prime timeslot during the day for prayer, giving up an

activity that can tend to have undue priority, selling or giving away an

overvalued possession, etc. Commit to valuing God in a specific way this

week, and then let someone else (spouse, accountability partner, LIFE group

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member, close friend, etc.) know that you’re doing it, and ask them to follow

up with you to see how it went.



The sacrifices of the people are clearly inappropriate in the eyes of God. In

verse 10, God makes a request that would have seemed incredible to

Malachi’s first hearers—what is it?

However, that wasn’t the first time such a request was made through the

prophets. Read the following two passages:

• Isaiah 1:11-17

• Amos 5:21-24

What seems to be the reason in both of these instances for God to make a

prohibition on the ceremony of worship?

As you read the charges that God is leveling against the worshipers and the

priests in Malachi’s day, how might the root issue be the same?

God is always interested in our hearts, not our ceremonies. Blemished,

degraded, stolen, and worthless sacrifices show hearts that do not fear or

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honor the Lord. In the same way, well-executed worship services that have

no impact on our daily lives show the same thing.

Beginning in Malachi 1:4, go through and circle the times the reverential

name “Lord” (which will likely be in all capital letters within your Bible,

denoting it is “YHWH”, or the personal and most holy name of God. How

many times does this name occur from vs. 4-16?

Why do you think that it is repeated so often?

It’s important to note that the worshipers are still coming to worship, still

bringing sacrifices, and still (despite their “snorting” in vs. 13!) are going

through the motions of the “sacrifice.” However, the irony is clear in our

English vocabulary—this sacrifice is “not even a ‘sacrifice’ in the English

connotation of the term as something that costs the giver.”1

Read 2 Samuel 24:10-25. How does David qualify the offering that he will

make before the Lord?

For followers of Jesus, the call is not less—in fact, it’s far greater.

Read Romans 11:36-12:1.

• What statement does 11:36 make about God?

• What, then, is the called for response in 12:1?

1 David W. Baker, NIV Application Commentary: Joel, Obadiah, Malachi, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2006.), Location 5195, Kindle version.

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God is ferociously after our hearts and, though we often act otherwise, He will

not be fooled by our religious games or pretense. It is not that He covets our

desires and seeks that which isn’t His; but our hearts, which were made to be

fulfilled in communion with Him, have become wayward and need to be drawn

back. All too often we are satisfied with religious action, which externally may

appear beautiful and full of life but, in reality, only serves to cover up a cold heart.

Rather than run to the One who can rekindle the love that has been snuffed out

by hardship or apathy, we cover it up and hope that our actions will either be

pleasing enough or will eventually fix the problem.

In medicine, if a doctor does not address the actual cause of disease but rather

only seeks to alleviate symptoms, the patient’s disease is never actually cured,

just managed. The patient comes in with pain in his chest and numbness on his

left side and, instead of doing tests and searching for the cause of the pain, the

doctor simply sends him home with some Advil and hopes that the pain does not

come back. The disease will continue to do damage and will ultimately cause the

death of the patient. In order for real healing to take place, the doctor has to

move past what seems to be the obvious problem and move deeper to find the

actual cause. Unless the root is severed, there will be no relief.

In our spiritual lives, we often focus on the symptoms of sin instead of looking for

a cure to the root of it. We become content with controlling behavior rather than

addressing the deeper issues that cause the behavior. The fact is that evil actions,

all of the sins that so easily entangle us, spring forth from evil hearts. The priests

addressed in the book of Malachi were offering up stolen, sick, and blemished

lambs as sacrifice. Though the word of God stated that such offerings were an

abomination, the priests were so wearied with service at the temple that they

would not repent of their evil. These actions were dark and wicked, but God

quickly jumped to addressing the heart behind it. They were offering up

insufficient sacrifices because their heart towards the table of the lord was evil.

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So, as we deal with sin, we must never be content with merely addressing

symptoms; rather, we must, in the boldness of Christ, war against the heart that

gives rise to our sin. Christ has cleansed us from all of our sin and

unrighteousness, but as we are being continually shaped more and more into the

image of Christ, we must face the heart that leads us to stress and that seeks for

meaning in lesser gods. How tiring would it be to each day fight the symptoms of

sin (anger, lust, impatience) but to never kill the root, and thus not allow Christ to

free us from the slavery that we have been subject to? Even in Christ, we will still

fight our flesh, but our great King will be glorified and His mercies are new every

morning. Robert Robinson, the hymn writer behind “Come Thou Fount of Every

Blessing”, perfectly worded the Christian struggle and God’s goodness towards

our wayward hearts:

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

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In our culture, it is much more “appropriate” to convey a disposition of

satisfaction than to appear in utter turmoil. It’s difficult for most of us to bear with

the pain of others; how much more so our own pain. Despair is a very real

emotion, yet it is also one from which we tend to distance ourselves. To despair is

to insist on there being goodness and beauty and meaning in life, and then to be

so severely malcontented because there seems to be no hope of finding such

perfection. If we don’t want there to be more, we won’t despair. If we are

satisfied with the world around us as it is, we will not despair. If we are contented

with ourselves as we are, we will not despair. So surely, as believers in an eternal

God who repeatedly reminds us that this world is not our true dwelling,

reminding us that we were created for so much more than what we daily

experience, despair should be a fairly regularly occurring state of our being. How

do we order our hearts in a way that prepares us for the state of despair, allowing

us to render our hearts before God, and to love our neighbor in his despair? We

look to the Psalms.

In Psalm 6, we see David in complete desperation, repenting before the Lord:

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;

Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.

My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, O Lord—how long?

Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;

Save me for the sake of your steadfast love. (Psalm 6:2-4)

God knows how we speak when we are desperate. The very presence of prayer

like this tells us that it is safe to talk to God. This Psalm shows us where our

deepest fears and our most sorrowful tears belong—not confined to a rote

prayer but outbursts of weeping from our very being, the very core of our souls: “I

am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my

couch with weeping” (Psalm 6:6).

Jesus understands what it is like to be desperate. God himself became a man of

sorrows who was acquainted with grief. In the garden before His crucifixion,

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Christ says that His soul is sorrowful even unto death. He is so burdened by grief

that He is convinced that His sorrows will kill Him even before He arrives at the

cross. Jesus knows what it is like to pray to God and have heaven closed off

completely, to experience a God who has abandoned His son. When Jesus asked

God to have mercy, God looked away. Now, when we ask God to turn His face

away, He comes. He is with us in our suffering because Christ was alone in His.

Christ bore the loneliness of that torture so that we would never again be alone

in the very real sorrow that breaks us.

Even when we feel like we are abandoned in our sin, we aren’t because Christ

experienced true abandonment. God does not reject us; Jesus was rejected for

us. God does not condemn us; Christ was condemned for us. God does not

abandon us; Christ was abandoned for us. Grief is a very real emotion that

deserves the true presence of God. Because Christ is with us in our suffering, He is

making us more like Himself. The Bible says that our trials, our suffering, our

despair, our “momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory

beyond all comparison.” Our despair makes us like Jesus.

The Psalms show us that all prayer, no matter how sorrowful, pursued to its very

end, will become praise to God. All prayer, no matter how angry, mournful, or

distressed will become praise. At times we are afraid to weep because we are

certain that we will never stop, so we hide our despair from God. But if we hold

on to the promise of God and the sacrifice of Christ, we know that our sorrow

ends in joy—that sorrow produces joy—we can dare to weep.

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Welcome one another in Jesus’ name! Icebreaker: “What’s the most expensive item that you ever paid cash for?”

Worship Jesus through Scripture, music, singing, and prayer. Be creative! Invite Him to the center of your gathering.

Word: Malachi 1:6-14


• Has anything specific jumped out to you, either in this passage or in the study guide this week?

• What are some examples of “polluted sacrifices” that we offer before the Lord?

• What’s one practical way that God could have higher priority in your life than He does right now?

• What is one example of a way that your life says that what you say in worship is actually true? What’s an example that says it’s not true?

• If God doesn’t need our worship, why is it still important for us to

worship?

• What does it mean to fear the Lord? Are our lives characterized by

the fear of the Lord? Why or why not?

• Does your participation in this group reflect worship within this

community as a high priority with high sacrifice, or not? Why is that?

Works: Part of our worship is obedience to the clear command to reach out with the Good News of Jesus to the world around us. (Mt. 28:19, Acts 1:8, 1 Peter 3:15) Who is your life connected to that needs to fully experience the

love of Jesus in their lives? Get specific! Pray God’s blessing over these people by name—and more to the point, pray that you will have the opportunity to be the conduit of that blessing! Think about ways that you could reach out with the truth of Jesus as a group, and plan for it!

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How Have We Despised and How Have We Despised and How Have We Despised and How Have We Despised and

Polluted You?Polluted You?Polluted You?Polluted You?


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Worship is to be a lifestyle activity, not simply a portion of our time during

any given week. When our lives no longer reflect the reality of Jesus’ reign,

we are subject to the stern rebuke of God. However, His rebuke is always

intended to bring us to repentance. As representatives of God before a

watching world, we must see ourselves as a “kingdom of priests” charged

with living lives of integrity and free from idolatry.


Read Psalm 115 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize verses 16-

18 by the end of the week.

For Action:

Micah 6:8 is one of the most famous proclamations in the entire Old

Testament: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does

the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk

humbly with your God?” These very admonitions are the heart of where the

priests and the people had failed in Malachi’s day—their lives bore no

reflection of the justice, mercy, and love of God.

This week, look for opportunities to be intentional in each of these three

areas each day. Do some research on each term (justice, mercy, humility) and

think about ways, from simple and small ways to larger ways, to engage

these activities over the course of this week. Take a few moments at the

beginning of each day to plan ways to engage these areas. Then, take a few

moments at the end of each day to journal about your experiences, failures,

and successes throughout the day, and what you’ve learned in the process!

WWWWWWWWeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkk TTTTTTTThhhhhhhhrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee::::::::

PPrrooffaanniinngg tthhee CCoovveennaanntt

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This section begins with a blazing rebuke to the priests for their failure to

honor God by guarding the purity of the temple and the heart of worship.

What are the four elements of the threat God makes to them if they do not

repent and change their behavior? (vs. 2-3)

1.

2.

3.

4.

In order to understand the nature of this odd threat, it’s important to have a

sense of the proper method of sacrifice that God prescribed.

• Read Leviticus 4:1-12. What is to be done with the dung of the animal in

a proper sacrifice?

Zechariah, who wrote at a similar time historically as Malachi, records a vision

of a priest covered in dung. Read Zechariah 3:1-10.

• What does Satan do when he sees the priest covered in filth?

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• What does God do in response?

• When Joshua is re-clothed, the angel of the Lord speaks to him in a way

that recalls the covenantal nature of the love of God. (vs. 7) In what way

does the prophet say this will happen? (vs. 8-9)

Righteousness, however, doesn’t seem to be enough to cleanse us.

• Read Isaiah 64:6. What does he state about our righteous acts?

Even our righteousness is filthy before the Lord, because we fail to do right in

righteous ways and our best efforts can’t measure up to the perfection of

God Himself.

• Read Philippians 3:7-11. What does Paul say about our righteousness?

Where does it come from?

Malachi calls the priests to alignment with the covenant of God, and to

behavior which matches their teaching. However, Paul’s words make it clear

that we’re not called to perfect living, but, rather, to complete repentance

and reliance on Jesus for our righteousness.

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There are few things that we respond to more aggressively or flee from with

more energy than words of rebuke. We have these words in great abundance for

others, our brothers sitting a few seats down from us who have been wayward,

but if these words are ever spoken in our direction, our hearts readily twist,

misrepresent, and take offense. We have been distorted in such a way that,

though these words may bring life and freedom to us, we cannot bear to hear

them. After we come to Christ, there is a process that begins, and through the

power of the Holy Spirit, God uproots the years or decades worth of sin in which

we once walked. However, if we cannot hear His words which expose our sin,

than the process cannot start. Our souls must be open to the loving rebuke of

the Lord.

The way that we perceive and understand rebuke will greatly shape how our

hearts respond. If rebuke is the use of words in a degrading, insulting way, then

perhaps is it good that we brush them off. However, if rebuke is the use of hard

words by a loving God in order to bring life to the dead, and if a loving purpose is

always behind those harsh words, then we would be fools not to take heed.

As believers in Christ, the Lord rebukes us in order to call us back to Himself. The

way He speaks to us may be jarring at times, but there is purpose and love in

each word. In Malachi, God is calling back His priesthood which had gone astray.

Many of would say the words He uses are strong ones (spreading the dung from

a sacrificial animal on someone’s face is usually seen as a bold act), but it is

important to see that He is not simply saying “What are you idiots doing? Get

your act together, or I’m done with you.” Instead He calls them back, saying that

their actions and their sacrifices should be as humiliating to them as it would be

to have dung spread on their faces. However, if they will engage wholeheartedly

in the relationship that His is calling them into, there is life and peace in covenant

with Him. It may sound severe, but which would be more loving: to harshly

rebuke the nation so that they may repent and have life, or to allow them to go

their own way, and to ultimately cause for themselves pain and death?

As a father rebukes His children, so the Lord rebukes those He loves. (Hebrews

12:6) How evil would a father have to be to never warn His son about the

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decisions he was making? Instead, a wise father rebukes and leads away from the

paths that lead to pain, while encouraging and guiding toward those which lead

to life. When we hear the strongest words of God and the possibility of

punishment is the greatest, we tend to empathize more with the children of

Israel than with God (maybe because we are guilty of many of the same sins!).

However, God only offers those harsh words because the actions of Israel are evil.

A father will never rebuke a child for loving and caring for his brother. However,

if that same child begins to teach his brother how to fight, then a different

reaction is in order. He is purposefully calling His children back to walk in true

instruction and in the fear of the Lord, which is clean and perfect. He is inviting

them to obey the commandments of the Lord which are more to be desired than

gold, and to speak the commandments of the Lord which are sweeter than

honey, sweeter than drippings from the honey comb. (Psalm 19:10) He is calling

them back into the joy and rest of the King.

We must allow God to work in us in such a way that we whole-heartedly embrace

the loving rebuke of our Father. Our hearts must be trained and disciplined in the

love and grace of the Lord so that we accept His guidance with humility. We are

full of sins that come about from sleeping hearts. Like the priests of Malachi’s day,

many of us have become hard to our Savior’s voice—we must begin to allow the

hard words of Scripture, the rebuke that is shaper than any sword, to cut away at

our hearts. The process is painful, but it is not without purpose and a future joy.

Like a skilled gardener pruning a fruit tree, our God removes all that does not

give life. However, at times, that means a knife must be used to carefully cut the

dead places away. Words of rebuke call us back into the covenant of life and

peace, and our hearts must learn to embrace these words. Although He was

speaking about the trials we face in life, I think Spurgeon’s words could not be

more relevant. “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of

ages.” May we learn to desire those hard words that reveal our secret sins and

thrust us back upon the grace of God.

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In the moment when a groom faces his bride on the day of their wedding and

looks her in the eye and makes a promise to her, the declaration is not only a

passionate vow that commits to a future relationship; it is also a reflection on the

past and what has brought them together, recognizing a promise to continue

that journey. What changes is the declaration of the promise of commitment.

What the groom says is “There is no one else”—no substitute for this beautiful

bride, and his is vowing his whole life, his very purpose to her. If in the middle of

that ceremony another man were to stand, walk up to the platform, step in front

of the groom, begin making vows to the bride, and following suit, the bride were

to do the same, the groom would not just be confused and upset, but filled with

an inexorable jealousy. He would be enraged that anyone else could take his

place, and he would do anything that he could to stop it.

As God pursues us as children, He romances us with the same restless jealousy. It

is not jealousy that is rooted in anger that seeks to create separation in a

relationship, but the opposite. Godly jealousy is angered love that continually

stays loving; it is love fighting against extinction. In the end, God’s jealousy is

unique from human jealousy in that He continually pursues us to renew

relationship and restore brokenness. He wants exclusive commitment—a

marriage that unites us to Him forever.

In Psalm 115, the psalmist describes two different attitudes of the heart: one that

pursues the temporal and one that pursues holiness. The distinction makes it

evident that God’s desire is for us to be like Him, and when we forget what we

were created for, we lose sight of what we are to live for. We allow our idols to

form us rather than allowing God to transform us: “Their idols are silver and gold,

the work of human hands [...] Those who make them become like them; so do all

who trust in them.” (Psalm 115:4,8) When the things around us become more

lovely than the One who created us, we fall into the lie that tells us that those

things can also satisfy us just the same.

The jealousy of God means that He is calling for a relationship, which is marked

by priority, fidelity and intimacy. We can make idols out of anything, and God

says that if we love anything more than we love Him, we have become idolaters.

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Just like in a marriage, if true joy is not found in the spouse, the marriage will not

thrive. If the spouse does not give the other first priority, the marriage starts to

fall apart. So it is with God. He is asking for what a spouse would ask—not to

follow the rules and do things the right way, but to be the highest desire, the

greatest love that our heart pursues. Jesus must become more beautiful than our

idols

When we forget that we are created to love and worship God, to give Him all that

we have and all that we are, we become spiritually dead people. When we put

our hearts in the hands of other loves, we are committing spiritual adultery. God

wants our heart. He wants to be second to none. God is committed to making us

into beautiful, holy people. If He were just meeting our needs, He wouldn’t be a

jealous God. His jealous love longs to turn us into the kind of person who is wise

and good. Only when He can love us without impediment will we finally find true

joy.

The psalmist goes on to describe the attitude of love that God has toward those

who love and obey Him. God helps, remembers, and blesses. (Psalm 115:11-12) It

is out of trust and obedience that God responds mightily to his people. The

jealousy of God calls for relationship because we are not called to obey Him and

then look for His blessings. We are called to love Him:

“You asked for a loving God: you have one… not a senile benevolence

that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold

philanthropy of conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who

feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire

Himself, the Love that made the worlds.”2

God is a jealous God, and He is after our holiness. Human jealousy will kill the

lover who rejects the pursuit, but God’s love when rejected will die for the one

who rejects Him. This is the jealous love of God. In spite of our spiritual adultery,

God accepts us and pursues us. He has died so that He could have us as His own.

2 Lewis, C.S. The Problem of Pain. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1962. pp 46-47.

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Welcome one another in Jesus’ name! Icebreaker: “Do you have a most embarrassing moment?”


Word: Malachi 2:1-9




• What are some practical ways that we can intentionally honor God in

our lives?

• How might “blessings” be “cursed?” Can you think of blessings in

your life that can easily become curses as well?

• Do you fear God? Why or why not?

• Are there ways that our celebration gatherings, LIFE group,

preaching, and other activities reflect a fear of the Lord? Are there ways that they reflect a lack of that fear?

• How do you spot inconsistencies in your life? How do you handle

those? Can we help one another with that as a group?

Works: There are many opportunities in the remaining days of summer to engage neighbors, friends, co-workers, etc. Begin to pray about some specific opportunities that you might be able to engage: a back to school

party, an end of summer cookout or block party, collecting school supplies as a blessing to those who are unable to afford basic supplies, etc. Praying God’s blessing through you to the world around you!




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Profaning the CovenantProfaning the CovenantProfaning the CovenantProfaning the Covenant


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Personal decisions and ways of living have ramifications far beyond ourselves

and even beyond our sphere of influence. The covenant love of God, which

we are called to respond to as believers, is reflected by the faithfulness of our

response! When we have fully grasped the gospel, we recognize that we are

called to be a unique people, living in a counter-cultural way that reflects the

reality of the Kingdom of which we are a part.


Read Psalm 42 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize verses 1-5a


For Action:

Malachi is addressing the vital importance of the covenants that hold our

relationships together. At the very center of these relationships is the

marriage relationship, which reflects the relationship between God and His

people. The lack of purity and health of the marriages and family units in

Israel provided a clear reflection of their broken relationship with God.

Take time this week to evaluate and invest in the relationships closest to you.

If you are married, take some time at the beginning of the week to consider

the way that you are treating your spouse. Then, over the course of the week,

take intentional steps toward honoring and cherishing your spouse, serving

and loving them as unto the Lord. (Ephesians 6:7) If you’re not married, look

at your next closest family relationships, and think about ways to invest in

those. However you choose to engage this discipline, make your actions

intentional as you go through the week.

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There are a series of rhetorical questions that introduce this section of

Malachi. What are the questions?

1.

2.

3.

What do you think Malachi is trying to get the people to understand through

these questions?

Paul uses a similar tactic in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16. What are the questions that

Paul asks of the Corinthian church?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Summarize what you think Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to

understand.

In Ezra 9, this same problem of intermarriage is being addressed. However,

the people responded quite differently in these two instances! Read Ezra 9-

10. What is the response of the people to God’s accusation through Ezra?

While this passage is clearly intended to tell us about a specific historical

instance, not prescribe the way that we should act, the obedience of the

people is seen in their action—in this case, their willingness to divorce their

foreign wives. In Malachi 2, the people also come to the Lord with weeping.

(vs. 13) However, what does verse 14 declare about the action that is behind

their weeping?

Jesus speaks clearly of this in the last phrase of Matthew 11:19: “Wisdom is

justified by her deeds.” How would you paraphrase that statement?

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If we truly believe something, it will ultimately change our behavior. God’s

anger with the people in Malachi 2 was because they wept in “repentance”

but never changed their behavior. Where do we do the same?


Illustrations and metaphors can act as extraordinarily powerful tools for

communicating meaning and character. The phrase “a picture is worth a

thousand words” captures the essence of this truth. It is often when we see

something with our own eyes that the true meaning behind it lands on us. There

is something about examples of truth being displayed in the “walking

metaphors” of everyday objects and situations that makes that truth more

accessible. They often reveal a level of meaning that we would not have been

able to comprehend otherwise. The Scriptures grab hold of this way in which we

are all wired. Throughout the Scriptures, pictures are painted using illustrations

and metaphors taken from everyday life. When Jesus presents a child to the

disciples and says that in order to inherit the Kingdom, they must all become like

this child, there is a piece of their hearts that grabs hold of this truth in a new

way. Jesus uses the imagery of childhood, and all that is enfolded within it, to

create a picture in our minds of how submission to God and His Kingdom looks.

Through it we understand more intimately the nature of sonship. Within this

picture, we now have something to look back on and continually learn from. We

relate more deeply to truth when we have a picture to grab hold of, and we often

experience God in new and profoundly deeper ways when these concrete

images truly land on our hearts.

One of the most powerful teaching illustrations in the Scriptures is the living

example of the marriage relationship. When God wishes to describe what His

relationship with His people is truly like, He describes the relationship as a

marriage. How does God care for His people? He cares for them as the perfect

loving husband, giving Himself up for His people. What does He desire for them?

He longs to see His people spotless and pure, like a wife in the glory of her

wedding dress; His joy is the joy of a bridegroom seeing His wife walk down the

aisle on their wedding day. When His people abandon His teachings and

commandments, how does that press and pull at His heart? It is like a wife leaving

her husband to spend the night with another man. Marriage in its very essence

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reflects the love and faithfulness of God, providing a living example of our

Creator and Husband.

What we see in Malachi is that marriage, an image meant to reflect the beauty

and glory of God, is instead reflecting the brokenness of the people of Israel. God

has strong words concerning marriage not simply because there were negative

effects on the nation of Israel and the way they were able to relate to God. That

was certainly a major grievance, but the larger issue was that the marriage

relationships in the nation of Israel were intended to reflect the relationship

between God and His people. From Israel’s marriages, what would we say about

God, the loving husband of His people? What does it say about God when

husbands are leaving their godly wives in order to marry younger women? Not

only that, but women who also worship other gods and will teach their children

to do so as well? What does it say about God when the men of His chosen nation

are being unfaithful to their wives and treating them harshly? It is not only that

they are being evil to their wives, but they are showing the nation and the whole

world a picture that does not look anything like the relationship between God

and His people.

What we must ultimately grapple with, is that every area of our life is a reflection

upon our Savior. If we are married, what does our relationship with our spouse

say about the One who cares for His people as a husband cares for His wife? If we

are single, what does our singleness show the world about the One who sustains

us each and every day by His grace alone? That is not to say that our pictures will

be perfect, for on this side of heaven there will always be flaws, but do our

marriages, do our everyday pictures, reflect the grace and faithfulness of our

God? Or, instead, do we go about marrying the daughters of Baal and shaming

the wives of our youth? As “little Christs” do we live in a way that shows Him to

be who He says He is?

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The desert is an image that the Bible uses continually to express depravity,

spiritual longing and despair. The dryness of the desert is often used as a

metaphor for our hearts. Very few things thrive in the desert unless they are well

equipped; so it is with our own hearts. Without the divine intervention of the

Spirit of God in us, we are unable to survive the times when we are most

distraught and lost in our own despair. Moments of spiritual dryness and

disillusionment are inevitable in life, and they often don’t seem to coincide with

the person of the loving and holy God who we worship. In Psalm 42, God offers

the perfect prescription for our wounded and distant hearts.

The state of the heart of the psalmist is clear from the onset of the passage: “As a

deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1) We

are like the deer searching for water and God is the water that satisfies us in our

weakness. The psalmist has lost the sight of God within himself. The thoughts of

God that used to strengthen and empower him no longer satisfy. He has lost the

sense of the presence of God and is experiencing spiritual dryness.

In most Psalms when we encounter the psalmist who is distant from God, it is

often because of something he has done. He is experiencing guilt over a sin he

has committed, and therefore God is distant. In Psalm 42, that is not the case.

There is a languishing, a longing for restoration to the presence of God—not

because of an act committed against God, but because of a spiritual distance that

has been established. Often in our lives we get to a place where we don’t have

the same longing, the same desire that we once had. We seek restoration with

God because we know that is where our hearts long to be. Even the psalmist

takes a moment to remember in the middle of his doubt. He asks “Where is God?”

The answer comes as he reminds himself: “These things I remember, as I pour out

my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the

house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.”

(Psalm 42:4) Deeply tied to the longing for God is the memory of what He has

done. So it is with us when we experience spiritual dryness. We long for God to

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work in our hearts as He once did, to remember, to taste the presence of God as

we formerly knew Him.

“Where is your God?” is the question that comes from his tears. If He really is God,

if He really is for us, why is this happening? This is not only a question from

outside, but it is a question from within. The psalmist wants to know why these

things happen, and it begins by pouring out the soul before God.

How often do we find ourselves in the exact same state as the psalmist in verses 7

and 8? Clearly God’s presence is evident. He has not forgotten us; He has not

abandoned us, but our response to Him is indifference. The evidence is clear: “By

day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a

prayer to the God of my life,” yet the attitude is still one of distance when he asks,

“Why have you forgotten me?” (Psalm 42:8-9) The most important struggle that

the psalmist enters into is discipline. He first pours out his soul before God. We

must learn to continue to pour out our souls in worship even if we seem to be

receiving nothing from it, even if we are weak and our souls are dry. Talk to God

about feeling empty in worship. Talk to Him about how much you miss Him.

Discipline produces worship in us, and our experience of God will change as we

understand our hope.

Spiritual dryness reveals false hopes within our own hearts. As we pour out our

souls before God we will more closely understand the condition of our souls and

the reason for our dryness. We must consider the hope that we have in the midst

of our despair: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil

within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

(Psalm 42:11) During a time of despair, he is not beating himself up, repenting or

agonizing over his condition, but he remembers who God is and what He has

done.

We will never quench spiritual dryness in our souls unless we learn to speak truth

to our own hearts. The Psalm doesn’t say, “hope in God, for I do praise him”—that

would be denial. It doesn’t say, “hope in God, for I will never praise Him”—that

would be despondency. It says, “hope in God, for I will praise Him.” When we

admit to ourselves, despite the condition of our heart, that God loves us and

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desires us above all else, we will find rest for our souls and hope for our lives

because we will find Him as He is when we seek with all of our heart.



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Welcome one another in Jesus’ name! Icebreaker: “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”






• Do you feel like you can connect easily with other Christians? Why or

why not?

• Are you more driven by spiritual desires or material/worldly

aspirations? What motivates you day to day? (Be honest!)

• Have there been times in your life where it feels like God has

abandoned you? How has that affected your life? What about the lives of those around you?

• What does it mean that our relationship with God is a covenant

relationship? What about our relationship to one another?

• Do we treat one another within this group as though we truly belong

to one another? Why or why not?

Works: Malachi states that God’s purposes for covenant relationship are “generative”—meaning, they are to generate something! Covenant marriage

is designed to be a place where children can grow and be nurtured. (Malachi 2:15) Covenant community is designed to be a place where spiritual re-birth happens! Pray for those around you, that this community would be a place where people would be able to find peace, joy, and reconciliation with God. Think about opportunities that you have to share this covenant community with the world around—make a plan, pray into it, and do it!




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Sermon Notes:

Why Don’t You Accept our OWhy Don’t You Accept our OWhy Don’t You Accept our OWhy Don’t You Accept our Offerings?fferings?fferings?fferings?


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In order to appear righteous before a holy God, there are only two possible

options: become perfect, or make Him less than perfect. Israel chose the

latter—accusing God of embracing evil and forsaking justice. However,

Malachi promises that the righteous character of God will prevail, and it will

come in the form of judgment against evil and justice for the oppressed. It’s

in the fearful coming of the Messenger that we have hope for righteousness

and can enter into His work of justice in the world around us.


Read Psalm 139 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize verses 1-

16 by the end of the week.

For Action:

God’s heart for the oppressed is clear throughout the breadth of the Bible,

both Old Testament and New. Like Israel in Malachi’s day, it’s easy for us to

look around at the world and accuse God of being absent in His justice—

maybe even in our own lives! However, we are called by God to remember

how much that He’s given us, to move our eyes off ourselves (and our

sometimes very real concerns and problems!) and become His hands and feet

in the world around us.

This week, engage the God of justice, particularly in the areas that are listed

in Malachi 3:5: “the hired worker [oppressed] in his wages, the widow and the

fatherless, [and] the sojourner.” (Sojourner means traveler—in our case,

immigrant or refugee.) Be intentional about serving someone in one of these

categories this week—be creative! Think of those your life connects with,

and you’ll likely be surprised to find some of these are a part of your circle!

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For Study: Read Malachi 2:17 – 3:5 slowly. What are some of the things that


What two claims do the people make of God?

1.

2.

The Mosaic law is a vital backdrop to truly understanding the prophetic

messages, because the law was clearly known and understood by the

people.3 Look up the following passages:

• Deuteronomy 4:25, 9:18, 17:2, 31:29

• Deuteronomy 6:18, 12:25, 12:28, and 13:18

What is the constant refrain in these two sets of passages?

The people are turning the “moral spectrum completely on its head”4 by their

claims! However, God responds swiftly, promising judgment. In fact, the

promise is that “the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple…”

(Malachi 3:1). Should that promise bring comfort and joy?

• Read Joshua 10:9 and 11:7

Each time that word is used in the Old Testament, it “is in the context of

calamity.”5

3 David W. Baker, NIV Application Commentary: Joel, Obadiah, Malachi, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI,

2006.), Location 6006, Kindle version. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid.

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Malachi is sending a clear message, which he’s going to back up with two

illustrations. What two images does he use for the judgment of the Lord?

1.

2.

The picture of refining and cleansing can be found throughout the prophets.6

Look at one such example in Ezekiel 22:17-22.

• Is the refining that Ezekiel prophecies a pleasant one?

In Malachi 3:5, God is spoken of as a “swift witness,” which is parallel to the

legal term “witness” in our day. Jeremiah 29:23 also speaks of God as a

“witness.” Read that verse in the context of Jeremiah’s prophecy.

• What does Jeremiah infer about the knowledge that God has? Does

anyone else possess this knowledge?

Psalm 139 tells us, in reassuring fashion, that God knows everything about us.

However, the comfort of that reality is paired with fear, as we recognize that

God knows everything about us. Malachi 3:5 makes a list of those against

whom judgment is coming, and at the end of the verse, gives a phrase that

acts as a summary for every person against which judgment is coming. What

is the phrase?

Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 9:10 both admonish the same thing. How do

those verses state it?

Only when we recognize the greatness and power of the Lord are we able to

remain in right relationship with Him. Wisdom and blessing is found in the

fear of the Lord.

6 Joyce G. Baldwin, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, (IVP, Downer’s Grove, IL, 1972.), pg. 243.

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Meditation on Malachi 2:17–3:5

Our God is an all-consuming fire. (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29) His passion

and His glory shine so brilliantly that even the angels who dwell near to Him are

known as “the Seraphim,” or literally in English, the “burning ones.” Continually

burning with the light of God’s holiness, they praise Him day and night singing

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” If the

angels who simply dwell near to Him are set on fire by His goodness, how can a

sinful man possibly stand before God and not be wholly consumed? If we come

before God bearing the full weight of our iniquity, we have no hope. Our own evil

deeds and darkened hearts have undone us. Into this reality, Malachi speaks of

One who will come—not as an all-consuming fire but as a refiner’s fire, or

launder’s soap. So then, our hope is not in atoning for our own deeds or purifying

ourselves, but rather, allowing ourselves to be washed by the One who came,

died, and rose again.

It is only through Christ that we can approach the Father and not be consumed

by His goodness. Jesus comes to us as a fire that purifies us from our sins,

creating in us clean hearts so that, along with the seraphim, we may stand before

God holy and blameless. It is in Jesus alone that we can have hope on the day we

stand before the Lord. Isaiah, one of the most holy and devout men who has ever

lived, was taken up and shown the throne room of God. Isaiah stood before the

Lord, and as He was in the presence of God, he began to call woes down on

himself, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the

midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of

hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5) Isaiah was so in awe of the holiness and goodness of God that

He could not even look at God without realizing the depths of his own

brokenness. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning

coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and

said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sins

are atoned for.’” (Isaiah 6:6-7) God does not abandon us. Instead, He sends us a

burning fire that touches us and takes away our guilt. Only through grace are we

able to stand in the presence of the King, confident that He himself has made us

clean. No one can raise a charge against us, because our Refiner has done His

work.

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Our hope in the refining work of Christ is beyond simply a positional or future

hope. Rather, Jesus works in us this very day, heating us like silver or gold,

removing the impurities, and shaping us ever more into the image of Christ. As

we walk with Jesus, His presence in our lives reveals to us sin and, in a way, heats

us and stretches us, just as a smith shapes metal. As we daily submit more and

more of our lives into His hands, we allow the fire of His presence to refine and

mold us. As we are continually in His presence, through time in prayer, Scripture

reading, and serving, His refining fire burns away all that which is not able to be

in His presence. This, of course, means the obvious sins that we struggle with, but

it also means creating in us hearts that push into the hard work of becoming

more life Jesus. We begin to long for the coal to touch our lips; to cleanse us from

the evil attitudes and words that have ruled over us.

In Jesus we can confidently stand in the presence of God without fear of being

completely consumed. We know that the fire of God, while terrifyingly holy and

pure, will refine us. As we seriously press into Christ, there will be moments when

we feel as though we are in the crucible. These are part of the process that leads

us daily into the joy of following Christ and which will one day lead us into the joy

of His Presence for eternity..

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What does it really mean when we say that God is in control? We understand

that God is omnipotent, that He has complete power and authority over

everything. We know that “from Him and through Him and for Him are all things,”

(Romans 11:36) and His greatness is beyond our ability to comprehend. Consider

the words of the hymn:

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,

That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;

The moon shines full at His command, and all the stars obey.7

Once we’ve considered the vastness of God’s power, how does that truth

undergird the pragmatic functioning of our lives? How is God both the Ruler of

the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth, and simultaneously a loving,

caring Father. The answer is in His grace.

Psalm 139 displays that vastness of God’s glory as it is tied to our weakness

through His great love for us. It tells us that He is both all-powerful and all-loving

at the same time. He is in control; He knows our frame (Psalm 103:14), so that in

the midst of our uncertainty we know that He is both powerful over our

circumstance and loving enough to meet us in our struggle:

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your

presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol,

you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the

uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your

right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:7-10)

David’s praise in Psalm 139 is twofold: God is both greater than and present in our

circumstance. He is in control, but not controlling. What this means is that God’s

love is so great that in the midst of our most dire feeling of separation from God,

we can rely on the fact that He is with us and understands our needs. He is not

surprised by anything that will happen because He is Lord over those things.

David explains this very situation: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night

is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” (Psalm 139:11-12) Nothing

7 Watts, Isaac. “I Sing the Mighty Power of God.” 1715.

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that happens in our lives is a surprise to God. Yes, our suffering causes us to

question that truth, but it remains unchanged. When everything around us

seems dark, clouded, and full of death, God sees that there is life. He is with us

and He is above us: present and in control.

Perhaps the Old Testament story of Joseph is the most pertinent example of this.

Joseph was spoiled. He was egocentric and out of touch with reality because he

was favored by his father, so his brothers took him and sold him into slavery in

Egypt where he was falsely accused and put in prison. There, he met a man who

was on his way out of prison. Joseph asked the man to remember him when he

was released from prison, but the man forgot. Certainly over the years, Joseph

must have prayed not to be sold into slavery, or not to be placed in a prison, or

for the man to remember him before Pharaoh, but none of those things came to

be. Everything went wrong. Every circumstance was terrible, and he was as

miserable as he could have ever imagined himself being. Yet because all of those

circumstances, Joseph was able to interpret Pharaoh's dream, to be put in a

position of leadership in Egypt, to develop a system of famine relief and save

thousands of people, which would allow him to meet and reconcile with the very

brothers who disowned him. What his brothers intended for evil, God redeemed

for good—not just for Joseph, but for an entire civilization—all because God was

both greater than and present in his circumstances. (Genesis 37-50)

What the remaining half of Psalm 139 does is unveil the true feeling that is within

all of our hearts when we encounter situations that are clouded by our suffering.

We echo the cry of David to destroy wickedness, malice, and hatred. (Psalm

139:19-21) When it seems that death is prevailing in our lives, we cry out to God

for those things to cease so that we can taste true life. However, what God is

saying is that life does not vanish; His presence does not recede when we suffer.

He is in complete control. So in our doubt we must, like David, search ourselves

so that we might truly find Him: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me

and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me

in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24) In Psalm 139, David arrives where he

began by asking God to search him. When that happens, what we find is that the

God of the universe has already seen us in our state, and he knows where we are,

and he longs to be there with us. And He leads us.

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Welcome one another in Jesus’ name!

Icebreaker: “What’s the most tired you’ve ever been?”


Word: Malachi 2:17 – 3:5




• Have you ever been frustrated with God? What was that like?

• Are there areas of your life where you know what God’s standard is,

but you give yourself permission to do less? What are they, and why do you think you do that?

• What does God’s refining fire look like in your life? Are there areas

that He’s refining on you right now?

• Is there a practical way that you can be involved in the desire of God

for justice for the oppressed? How might you do that?

• Do you fear God? In what ways?

• How can we help one another as a group engage the heart of God

for the broken and hurting in the world around us?

Works: As the summer starts to wind down, look back at your hopes and prayers at the beginning of the summer. Where have you taken advantage of opportunities, and where have you missed them? Be very intentional about

these last few weeks—consider an “End of Summer” party, providing free childcare for a young family so parents can take care of details before school, or just inviting neighbors or co-workers to your home for a meal. Pray about where to invest time and energy over these next few weeks, and pray blessing on those who are a part of your lives.




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How Have We Wearied You?How Have We Wearied You?How Have We Wearied You?How Have We Wearied You?

Malachi 2:17Malachi 2:17Malachi 2:17Malachi 2:17----3:53:53:53:5

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Honoring God with our lives requires deep faith. When we believe that God

is faithful to us, we find ourselves being faithful to Him. However, when we

believe that God does not desire, or is not able to deliver, what is best for

us—what will truly make us happy—we pursue our own ways instead of His.

God will not settle for a portion of what belongs to Him. This isn’t because of

His need, but because of our joy.


Read Psalm 50 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize verses 1-3


For Action:

In the midst of our daily lives, it’s tough to believe where we fit on the global

economic scale. Even the poorest among us are incredibly wealthy in the

eyes of the surrounding world. Although we often feel as though we can’t

possibly spare an extra dime, in reality, there are many, many choices we

make each day that would be considered luxuries throughout history.

This week, make an intentional effort to use an additional portion of your

finances as a tool of blessing in the world. At the beginning of the week,

decide among your family (or on your own, if you are single) how much you

are going to use for “blessing” this week. Be generous—and radical! What

can be cut to make room in the budget? Then, all week, keep your eyes open

for opportunities to use your finances to be a blessing to those around you.

You might find yourselves meeting very intense, practical needs that you can

see—or you might find yourselves caring for those you will never see on the

other side of the world. But either way, you’ll find a new, deeper trust in God!

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God’s call to Israel in vs. 7 is a call to repentance, which literally means “to

turn.” Upon this call to repentance, with what question do the people

respond?

Now, look up Mark 1:15, which are Jesus’ first words in the gospel of Mark.

What action are we, the hearers, called to?

God’s answer to this question, therefore, is vitally important in our

understanding of what it means to repent, which is vitally important in us

understanding what it means to embrace the Kingdom of God! How does

God answer their question?

What does the lack of giving the “full tithe” show about the nation?

While they are saying that they trust God, their actions are showing that they

don’t truly trust Him. Rather, they are choosing to try to provide for

themselves by keeping some of what belongs to God and using it to meet

their own needs. As we studied a few weeks ago, Jesus was clear that true

heart attitudes are proven by actions more than belief. (See Matthew 11:19

and the “For Study” section of Week Four in this study guide.)

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Not only does their disobedience betray their lack of trust in God, they also

are never satisfied in what they have. The prophet Haggai, a contemporary

of Malachi, made a similar statement:

• Look at Haggai 1:5-6. How might you paraphrase those verses?

In response, God says that they are to put Him to the test. This verse has

been misused by many within a specific movement within our day often

called “prosperity theology” or “the health-and-wealth gospel.” They read

Malachi 3:10 this way: “In tithing, you are laying the foundation for financial

security and abundance. You are establishing deposits with God which can

be used when you need them.”8 Not only is this “gospel” a false one, but it

fails to understand the context of this bold statement to “put me [God] to the

test.”

• Read Malachi 3:10 completely, particularly noting the last part of the

sentence. Now, read Deuteronomy 28:12. What similarities do you see?

Rather than “testing” the Lord, which is clearly forbidden (see Deuteronomy

6:16), God is clearly referencing His covenant promises to Israel, which are

embedded within His covenant love. Another way of stating “put me to the

test” might be “obey the commands I’ve given you, and see if the blessings

I’ve promised don’t also come!” When we line ourselves up with God’s heart,

8 Kenneth Copeland in “Laws of Prosperity,” quoted by David W. Baker, NIV Application Commentary:

Joel, Obadiah, Malachi, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2006.), Location 6525, Kindle version.

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we are then positioned to receive the joy and blessing He has promised.


All too quickly our sinful hearts hear the word “tithe” and jump to some magic

percentage of our income that we feel God must be demanding from us. Often it

is something we hold up as the number all “true Christians” must reach in their

giving, as though by giving that much of our money God will somehow be more

pleased with us, and we will have contributed towards our salvation (which

sounds a little like bribing God). Or sometimes, we purposefully avoid the topic,

believing it is not God’s place (or the church’s) to demand any amount of money.

We seem to say that there is a place for God to place on us burdens, and there is a

place where we have reign, and somehow we believe that those two areas must

not overlap or conflict. Both of these sadly miss the point of tithing. If we go

either way, we are trying to be in control—either of God’s feelings towards us, or

of the resources that He has given us. If we focus on reaching that point where

we have “given enough,” then our hearts are not being captured by the grace

and abundance of God. If we draw boundaries around what is ours and what is

God’s, then we are not grasping His complete Lordship over every area of life.

In Malachi, God says that the full tithe must be brought in—but what is the full

tithe? Most jump immediately to that specific percentage of monetary income,

but in speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus said, “You tithe your mint, dill, and cumin

but have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and

faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23) When Jesus was addressing the tithe, He was not

solely concerned about money. (Although that was addressed later in that same

verse: “these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”) He is not

after 10 percent of your income; He is after your heart. Everything that exists is

and will always be God’s. That includes your finances and the heart that is

behind the management of those finances. When we give money but hold back

our hearts from God, either by neglecting issues of character, or through seeking

to control our own lives, we are robbing God. That is part of what Malachi is

addressing. Was it evil that the people of Israel were disobeying the command of

the Lord by not giving the prescribed amount? Yes. But how much more evil is a

heart that seeks to simply pacify God—giving, but not actually wishing to be

submitted to His Lordship. What He is seeking is a heart that says “There is so

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much goodness in serving the Lord that He can have all my resources, my time,

my money, my heart and my attitudes. In fact, they’re really His anyway.”

Most of our hearts are not there, however. We are far from having the completely

transformed hearts that result in joyfully giving the whole of our finances to God,

let alone in the weightier matters of justice and mercy and faithfulness. Again,

we must train our hearts not to take control of what does not ultimately belong

to us. We must recognize the weight of creating that level of heart change is not

even a burden we can carry. How many of us have woken up and said to

ourselves, “I am completely surrendered today; have your way, Lord,” and then

failed Him within the hour. That is not to say that our broken state is something

to be content with, but it is certainly something we must press into God for Him

to change, for we will always be unable to change it ourselves. Our brokenness

should be a signal that we need to go to our Father in prayer and ask Him to

change our hearts; to show us a picture of Him that makes everything else look

pathetically small in comparison, so that giving up all that we hold onto is a

logical decision. If we are going to let go of our finances, we will find ourselves

no longer asking the question “How much must I give?” but instead “How much

can I give?” But first, we must, through the power of the Holy Spirit, learn to let

go of the rebellious heart that desires to hold onto created things, when the

infinitely more worthy Creator stands right in front of us. If we are going to

surrender our lives completely, seeking to fulfill the “full tithe,” we will give our

entire lives to God who loves and cares for us. It is then we will find that Christ is

having His way in our hearts.

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When we think on the biblical warnings against hypocrisy, it is easy to exclude

ourselves from the conviction of that label. Jesus often admonishes His followers

in the gospels to avoid acting like hypocrites, condemning the behavior of those

who do things for the approval of those around them rather than for the glory of

God. But when we really examine our lives and see the way that we live, we see

that our world is prone to hypocrisy, and not just from a biblical sense.

Technology has seemingly made our lives more transparent, but truly only

selectively. It’s easier now more than ever to live hypocritically in that we can

literally choose what we want people to see, what we want to be recognized for,

even what we want other people to be jealous of. We can live two separate lives

by clicking a button. Of course, it is not this specific behavior that Christ is

condemning, but the attitude behind it. How do we keep ourselves from

becoming like the hypocrites? The writer of Psalm 50 tells us that thanksgiving to

God and remembering His faithfulness is what grounds us in humility and saves

us from attitudes that Christ warns against.

In the 50th Psalm, God is speaking to his people about their sacrifices to Him. He

does not condemn the sacrifices themselves, but the attitudes behind them,

mainly the attitudes of His people when they not offering sacrifices in the temple.

God speaks very clearly: “I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke

you.” (Psalm 50:7-8) His concern is not with what is being brought before Him in

worship; God takes no issue with that. In fact, there are other places in scripture

where God speaks to the specific nature of offerings that are being brought

before Him, even calling them meaningless, unbearable and burdensome, (Isaiah

1:13-14) but in Psalm 50, that is not the case. Here, God fully accepts the gifts of

His people - it is the attitude of their hearts and the example of their lives that He

is truly concerned with:

For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a

thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.

You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.

You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s

son. (Psalm 50:17-20)

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In the eyes of God, the hearts and lives of His children have become bifurcated in

their approach to worship. The actual discipline of worship, as it regards the

giving of physical offering to God, is separate from the living a life that is holy and

pleasing to God. When that happens, we enter in to the life of hypocrisy. We are

concerned with holiness only when it matters to other people, not to the God of

the Universe. St. Augustine addresses this very problem in his writing:

It is not the being seen of men that is wrong, but doing these things for

the purpose of being seen of men. The problem with the hypocrite is his

motivation. He does not want to be holy; he only wants to seem to be

holy. He is more concerned with his reputation for righteousness than

about actually becoming righteous. The approbation of men matters

more to him than the approval of God.9

Until we are willing to understand that God already owns our sacrifices, that His

divinity has already captured any offering we can bring, our hearts will never

truly change. If worship continues to be about how our actions are perceived by

those around us, we will never be able to enter into true worship because God is

not after our stuff; it’s already His: “I will not accept a bull from your house or

goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a

thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the fields is

mine.” (Psalm 50:9-11) Anything that you could possibly dream of sacrificing to

God in worship belongs to Him. He wants our hearts. He wants an attitude of

sacrificial giving, that surrenders constantly to the reality of the presence of Jesus

Christ in every moment, every possession, every relationship, every action: “The

one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his

way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” (Psalm 50:23)

Worship, at its core, is about thanksgiving. It is recognizing that everything

comes from the Lord of the universe. When we are able to recognize that

profound truth, it will change the way we interact with everything from the

people around us to the things that we own. When we are able to admit that

without the presence of God in us we have nothing, our worship will flow freely.

No longer will we be inhibited by our desire for recognition, because all that we

need is found in the One whom we worship. Seek first the Kingdom of God and

9 Source Unknown.

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the righteousness of God, and then everything else will be added. Worship is

about priority.



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Welcome one another in Jesus’ name! Icebreaker: “If you had to give away $1000, where would you give it?”






• Do you feel like you trust God? Is there tangible proof of that trust in

your life?

• Is financial giving difficult for you? Why or why not?

• Why is giving an important part of worship for believers in Jesus?

• Are there areas where it’s hard for you to believe that God has your

joy and your best in mind? Why those areas?

• Are there times that you feel like it’s “vain to serve God?” How can

we help one another during those times?

• What’s one thing that we can do as a group to grow our trust in God?

Are we willing to do it?

Works: Take time this week to be very intentional about prayer. Have each person share a name of one person who needs to meet Jesus that they would like to be intentional about connecting with in the coming week. If no one comes to mind, pray intentionally that God would bring someone into their lives this week with whom they could share the hope and trust that they have

in God. Follow-up with one another through the week and report back next week on the things that you saw God accomplish!




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Sermon Notes:

How Have We Robbed You?How Have We Robbed You?How Have We Robbed You?How Have We Robbed You?


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Israel’s final complaint against God is that He is not acting justly and that

serving Him is in vain. He answers this charge by pointing to the future—a

day is coming when all wrongs will be made right. For those who fear the

Lord, this is a day of joy. But for those who don’t’ fear the Lord, the day will

be one of judgment and complete destruction. The love and justice of God

are fully embodied in the person of Jesus, our only hope.


Read Psalm 126 at least once each day this week. Try to memorize the entire

Psalm this week.

For Action:

Our lives are often dictated by what sociologists call the “Tyranny of the

Urgent”—basically, that things that are time sensitive become priority in our

lives, whether or not they are truly important. Pairing that with a culture that

demands instant gratification, we often don’t actually do the things that we

long to do, or act consistently with the people that we’d like to become.

Early this week, do a simple exercise: write the funeral speech that you’d like

the person closest to you to be able to deliver when you have died. Sound

morbid? By looking all the way to the end of our lives, it’s much easier to see

past the “urgent” and the “immediate” that tend to obscure our view of life

and see into the important. As you look at the person that you long to be

someday, make a simple list: what are three things you can do this week to

start to become that person? Do them! Consider doing the same thing for

the next month or two, and you’ll be on the way to becoming that person.

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For Study: Read Malachi 3:13 – 4:6 slowly. What are some of the things that


In your own words, what charge is Israel making before God? (3:14-15)

Maybe the clearest illustration of this way of thinking is within Psalm 73.

Read that entire psalm slowly.

• How would you summarize Psalm 73:3-15?

• How would you summarize Psalm 73: 18-28?

• What is it in Psalm 73:16-17 that creates such a dramatic change?

Looking all the way to the end can help us to truly understand the present.

Israel was criticizing God for the injustice that they perceived. How does God

respond at the beginning of chapter 4?

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The “day” that is coming is one that would have had a variety of connotations

for the people of Israel, even within this passage.

• What are the parallel promises in this passages, first for the arrogant and

the evildoer, and then for those who fear the Lord?

Look at this partial list of Old Testament references to the Day—some reflect

judgment, and some reflect blessing. As you look these up, mark them with a

“J” for judgment or a “B” for blessing:

• Isaiah 11:11 _____

• Ezekiel 13:5 _____

• Joel 1:15 _____

• Joel 2:1, 11, 31 _____

• Joel 3:18 _____

• Zephaniah 1:7-18 _____

• Zechariah 14:1 _____

• Zechariah 14:6-11 _____

The New Testament adds another dimension to the “day” that will come.

Read Romans 8:19-23, Ephesians 1:9-10, and Colossians 1:15-20. What seems

to be the promise of God when the “day” comes?

Beyond judgment and blessing, the promised Messiah, will restore and

reconcile all things to Himself. In Jesus, all things made new!

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Meditation on Malachi 3:13–4:6

No matter how hard we try to shake the feeling, there is always the thought in

the back of our minds that there is something not entirely right with the world.

Those who cheat and steal seem to flourish. Widows and orphans are left to cling

to life with barely enough to live on. Men who commit great evil are acclaimed by

the whole world, and those who eagerly try to be servants of God are forgotten

or even killed. We struggle daily with the evils our hearts run to, whether

addictions, violence, destructive relationships, or simply discouraged apathy. We

long for a world that is not the one we find ourselves in, and it is so easy to fall

into despair. God can’t be listening! He must be asleep! Why isn’t He acting? The

entire book of Malachi, and actually the Bible as a whole, testifies that God is

taking note of what is going on, and that things will not always be as they are.

Though throughout the majority of Malachi the sins of Israel draw the focus, the

oracle ends by highlighting the coming day of the Lord and the restoration of all

things. Armed with the truths that God is good and all-powerful and all-wise, we

learn that He is working in His time and in His wisdom to bring about the

redemption of His people and the healing of their wounds. When our hearts cry

out, “Are you listening? Do you see what is happening?” we can know that when

“those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention to

them and heard them.” (Malachi 3:16) Our God is not a God who sleeps or does

not hear. We can ask and truly wrestle with what He’s doing, but we can always

be assured that He is good and that He is listening.

It is important to recognize that we may not always know what He is doing.

Though the Lord heard and paid attention to those who feared His name, He did

not act in a way that would make sense. His people were crying out to Him

concerning the sins and evils of those around them and concerning their own

pains and their groaning. However, the Lord’s response, in this case, was not to

act in power as He did in Egypt, when He sent plagues to the Egyptian nation and

parted the Red Sea. Instead “a book of remembrance was written before Him of

those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name. ‘They shall be mine, says the

Lord of host, in the day when I make up my treasured possession.’” (Malachi 3:16-

17) He very well could have acted in big, powerful ways as He did when the

Israelites were in Egypt. However, God, in accordance with His good and perfect

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reasons, acted in way that did not involve immediately taking His people from

their sufferings. We will not always understand what God is doing in the here

and now, but can certainly we know the direction in which He is ultimately

heading: redemption for His people and the restoration of the world.

The prophecy with which the book of Malachi ends is perhaps to the most

amazing, unexpected answer to the brokenness the weight of which we now

feel. God is coming and will act in our time, not just in future. He is sending a

messenger who will prepare the way and who will turn the hearts of the people.

This messenger has come. The Lord has come to His temple. The hope and

restoration of the day of the Lord is now here—and yet, not fully complete. We

have hope in the future restoration of all things, the day when Christ returns to

the earth and sets right all that has been broken. The messenger has come.

Jesus has died and been raised. It’s through this we now have hope for current

restoration in our lives. The day of the Lord is both now and not yet. We may

long for the ultimate redemption, but as we live each day, we can be confident

that God has heard our cries and is fixing the brokenness of the world. And first

and foremost, that brokenness is within us.

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Hope. It is a deceptively powerful thing. Hope is the life of our souls - it gives us

meaning and purpose - it gives us a reason. The New Testament appeals to Godly

hope, continuously reminding us that our true place is not in this world, but in

the Kingdom of Heaven. Modernity views this not only as reverie, but foolishness.

If our true place is not in this world, how can we be faithful to it? Belief trains our

spiritual selves for a fixed reality. Unfortunately, just as belief usually connotes

feeling, so does hope imply wishful thinking. But true hope, that is the virtue

itself, is not a feeling; it is a certainty, a guarantee of our spiritual home. Theology

of hope tells us absolutely that God is working on our behalf, so there is no

wishful plea or feeling of anticipation, but a steadfast anchor that grounds us in

an absolute expectation.

Glimpses of heaven are given to us all throughout scripture. God’s people bear

witness to the fixed reality of God’s working, the absolute, tangible presence of

God fulfilling the promises that He made to His people. The mystery of God’s

word is that it continues to defy reason and understanding, while simultaneously

taking us into a deeper knowledge of who God is. Again and again throughout

scripture, people are seen crying out before God, expecting Him to work, though

not understanding exactly how that will happen. Reason continually recedes to

hope, and hope shows us the promises of God.

Psalm 126 expresses both the unfathomable works of God and His unfailing

promises. First, the works: “when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were

like those who dream.” (Psalm 126:1) From the onset of the Psalm, the works of

God have already been established - God has restored the fortunes of His people.

No longer does Israel struggle in the depths of the wilderness; they prosper in a

land that is their own.

Not only are God’s works celebrated, but there is an admission of hope—His

people dream. Not just wishful thinking, not a solemn longing, but a certainty of

the work of God. His faithfulness keeps us in the dream of His glory, and we long

for it more and more because we have seen the mighty works of His hands! And

that dream, that hope produces evidence of God’s work: “Then our mouth was

filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the

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nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’” (Psalm 126:2) As God works,

as we experience the hope of his glory, we are changed. We do not hope in vain.

God works; He hears our prayers, and He answers them. In keeping the promises

that He makes to His people, we experience joy. The Psalmist paints a beautiful

picture of the evidence of encountering the presence of God: joy.

When we enter into hope, the fixed reality that expresses a certain future, our

hearts are filled with the joy that can only come from life in the Kingdom of God.

True joy changes us. It is not the end, but it points to Him. As we experience joy,

we experience the works of God. One philosopher puts it this way: “Joy is the

touch of God’s finger. The object of our longing is not the touch, but the Toucher.

This is true of all good things—they are all God’s touch.”10 When we experience

joy—God’s touch—we are participants in His work, and when we are a part of the

work of our Father, He makes all things new. That work began before the

foundation of the world, when God planned to give His Son so that we could

taste true newness that comes through the joy of knowing Christ.

The complete fullness of life, the highest knowing comes through experiencing

God through Christ Jesus. When the Psalmist proclaims the truth that, “Those

who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping bearing

the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy,” (Psalm 126:6) he is

ultimately pointing to the promise of God that is made complete in Christ Jesus.

The Bible gives us the most beautiful of all possible hopes that on the day that

Christ comes again in His glory, the presence of God will be with us:

They shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He

will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be

any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the

first things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3-4)

All of our sorrow will turn to joy; our despair will become dancing; our weakness

will be His strength because the Hope that we long for will become our fixed

reality. From then on, our faith will be sight and only one thing will remain:

“Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

10 Kreeft, Peter. Heaven: The Heart’s Deepest Longing, (San Fransisco: Ignatius Press. 1989.), p 156.

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Welcome one another in Jesus’ name!

Icebreaker: “What’s a future event or milestone to which you’re looking forward?”


Word: Malachi 3:13 - 4:6




• How would you describe the life that you’d like to be living 10 years

from now? In what ways are you on the right path? In what ways do you need to change paths?

• Does the return of Jesus have a positive or negative connotation to

you? Why?

• What role does “remembering” play in fearing God and worshiping

Him? How does that work in your own life?

• Malachi promises that “Elijah” would come before the day of the

Lord, preparing the way. What would it look like for you to prepare the way for God’s activity in the lives of those around you?

• How could we as a group act as “Elijahs” in our community?

Works: As we wrap up this study, consider the truths that have stood out

over the last two months. Are there specific areas where God has called you into obedience, but you have delayed? Are there people to whom you are called to bear Good News, but you have hesitated? Pray specifically for the action that you are called into. Pray as a group that you would respond to the

reality of Jesus with authentic worship in every area of your lives!




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Sermon Notes:

What is the Profit of Serving God?What is the Profit of Serving God?What is the Profit of Serving God?What is the Profit of Serving God?

Malachi 3:13Malachi 3:13Malachi 3:13Malachi 3:13----4:64:64:64:6

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My prayer is that as we’ve studied Malachi together, you’ve experienced at least a

portion of what I’ve experienced in the writing and editing of this study guide. At

times through the process I found myself deeply challenged and convicted by

Malachi’s blazing critique, nearly brought to tears from the weight of my own sin.

At other times, I found myself brought to tears of joy, overwhelmed by the

gracious love of a Savior that would give Himself for me in spite of that sin. Most

often, however, I’ve been convicted by the half-hearted, apathetic way I so often

approach the God of the universe. I find myself far too often in the place of the

nation of Israel, offering meaningless sacrifices that cost me nothing, and then

going on with the rest of my life with very little thought of Him. My repeated

prayer is that each one of us would wake from the cultural malaise that’s all

around us and experience the joy of an unbridled pursuit of His glory.

As with every study guide, many hands have been a part of this process. This is

the first project that I’ve undertaken to write with a team, and it’s been a joy to

work with Scott King and Matt Blumhard from the beginning to the end of the

process. Both of their writings and ways of approaching the Scriptures were very

instructive and encouraging to my heart, and again and again challenged me in

my thinking. Guys, thank you so much for offering your time, passion, and

giftedness to this project! In addition to the writing team, there are an equally

gifted group of editors who tirelessly sift through these many pages to help us to

have clarity, consistency, and to save us from our misspellings and poor

grammar. Thanks to Wendy Coons (who also spot checks my Scripture

references—a tiring but necessary job!) and Belinda Jackson for stepping into

this key role. I’m also realistic enough to know that far more people see the cover

of these study guides than see the inside pages of them—so a huge thank you to

Sarah Carletti, who used her photography skills to capture a beautiful and

poignant image for the cover. You should all go to Sarah when you need a

photographer! Information on her photography is at sarahcarlettiphoto.com.

Finally, a huge thank you to Chris Horsman for doing all of the “thankless” jobs on

this project, and just about every other project that we undertake as a church.

AAAAAAAAAAAAcccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkknnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwlllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddggggggggggggeeeeeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnttttttttttttssssssssssss

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Chris re-sizes, re-formats, re-configures, and re-creates just about everything so

that the creativity behind these projects can be seen online, on a screen, in an

email, with a podcast, and many, many other places.

The “hands on” team is supported by a whole other group of people who help by

their willingness to fill in the gaps. Thanks to the YAC Governing Board, who

gives me the margin to undertake these projects. A huge thank you to an

incredible staff that sees first hand how I “disappear” for a few weeks while these

studies are being put together, and then fills in all of the holes my disappearance

creates. And of course, more than any single group, thank you for the grace

that’s given to me by Amanda, Tia, Ethan, Josiah, and Micah while I’m in the

middle of a writing project. Your love and grace with me is huge and, I want you

all to know, not taken for granted. Thank you for loving me both when I’m fully

engaged and when I’m holed up in my office.

There’s always the obligatory band list as well—the chance I have to list some of

my favorite artists that have sustained my artistic passion through the writing

process. As I await a new release from Josh Garrels, some others have filled in the

gaps: The Gray Havens, who we had the opportunity to host for a small concert in

the middle of this project (great to have you, Dave and Licia!), and Vampire

Weekend, who’s brilliant new album has been on repeat for much of the last

month, have provided many of the layers of background beauty for me. In

addition, All Sons & Daughters, Andrew Peterson, Jenny & Tyler, Judah and the

Lion, Leagues, Loud Harp, Mumford and Sons, Propaganda, Grimes, and the Rend

Collective Experiment all have a small part in this book. Or it least in me not

being totally depressed while writing it.

Grace and peace,

Brian Kannel

Lead Pastor, York Alliance Church

June 2013

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©2013 York Alliance Church - Clover Sitesstorage.cloversites.com/yorkalliancechurch... · ©2013 York Alliance Church 2 Why Malachi? This tiny oracle (1:1) that acts as the final