Day 250: Malachi 1–2 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible department podcast powered by ARMA. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 250 on the Bible department. We are in Malachi today, Malachi chapters one and two. We'll spend two days in the book of Malachi. Like every day, I've got context clues for you. I've got nerdy nuggets and I'll always leave the episode off with a timeless truth, maybe a couple today. We'll see. But before we jump into the episode, how about you make sure you've done the reading. Grab your Bible, whether that be a physical Bible or digital and listen to the chapters, read the chapters, get the reading done. You can stop this video. You can pause the audio and come back once you've completed the reading. We don't want this podcast to be a substitute for your daily Bible reading, but a supplement to your daily Bible reading. And so with no further ado, let's jump into the last book of the prophets. That's gonna be Malachi, Malachi. Chronologically speaking, this is the very, very last prophet to prophesy

to the returned exiles who have come home to Jerusalem. For context, okay, if we just wanna map this out, the people have been back in the land for about 100 years. Malachi is most likely prophesying and giving oracles to the people. And probably 430 BC, okay? So the temple got rebuilt in 515 BC, but before the reforms of Nehemiah ended, so 430 BC. So our timeframe here is probably 450 BC to 430 BC, 'cause we wanna place Malachi after the temple has been rebuilt, but before Nehemiah's reforms, okay? So that's kind of the guardrails that we have historically. And essentially, the Jewish community at this point had the temple, they had priests, they had sacrifices, and they had the Torah, but they did not have all of the things that the prophets had prophesied or promised. Remember, the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, they didn't just say that the people would return from exile. They said that there would be a Messiah, there'd be a Davidic king, there'd be a glorious return of God's presence, there'd be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and there'd be a sense of covenant renewal. These were all of the promises that God had spoken through the prophets before exile even happened. So it's kind of like part of the prophecy has happened, and I bet you could relate to that in your own life, right? You feel like you've got a promise from God, and you've seen partial fulfillment, but not full fulfillment, which can lead to discouragement,

which is exactly what's happening in the context of the people of Israel in this historical moment as they are relating to their God, as they're relating to Yahweh, okay? They've gotten partial fulfillment. What's the partial? Well, they've been returned to the land. They've rebuilt the temple, they've rebuilt the walls. But again, there's no Messiah, no Davidic king, no glorious return of God's presence, no outpouring of the Spirit, and no sense of covenant renewal. And so the people's disappointment turns to cynicism. Man, I don't want to steal my thunder for my timeless truth today, but it is very, very easy for the small seed of disappointment to turn into the big tree or fruit of cynicism. They're cynical, and what happens when we're cynical? Exactly what happens to the people of Israel. They were going through the religious motions, but their worship and their relationships, betrayed or portrayed how hollow their faith had actually become. And so the book of Malachi is going to be a series of disputes, okay? God is going to confront them about something that they could be doing different. And the people are going to dispute it. No, we're not that way. Or they're going to ask a question. That's kind of like, you know,

you don't know what you're talking about. And then God is going to have a rebuttal or a response to all of their disputes. And the entire book is kind of framed that way. God says something, the people don't agree, and God sets the record straight. He gets the last word in. And so we're going to look at a couple of those as we dive into our nerdy nuggets, okay? So you ready for the nerdy nuggets? Dispute number one is God's love for Israel. So Malachi chapter one verse two Says this I have loved you says the Lord. How cynical do you have to be to disagree with this? Okay, so the Lord says I have loved you But you asked how have I loved you? So that's their dispute. Okay, God says I've loved you the people question God's love asking how have you loved us? This is chapter one verse two a and B Here's God's response God points to his contrasting treatment of Israel the descendants of Jacob and Their neighbors eat them the descendants of Esau and God asked question. Okay, does Edom still exist at all. No, Edom was utterly devastated and would never recover Meanwhile Israel was restored to their land after judgment this restoration of the people of Israel to their land and the rebuilding of their temple is proof that God continuously in Faithfully loves his people Israel even in their struggles And so I just let's think about that in a crazy how Sometimes we could be so upset about what God hasn't done that we begin to even ignore what he has done It's like the things that he has done aren't enough and so God begins to say look I've loved you and the people are like how how have you loved us and Meanwhile the evidence of God's love is all around But because of what God has not done. They cannot appreciate what God has done and That's timelessly true

You could be so entitled around what God has promised that you're not appreciative of what he has done The only thing you can focus on is what's lacking. The only thing you can focus on is what he hasn't done The promises that aren't fulfilled yet, but God says Gratitude starts when you actually just start to appreciate what is there not what isn't there family the weight is over my brand new book crushing chaos is out now and People everywhere books are sold literally today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy Reading the Bible from an ancient perspective if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context then you'll love this book and If there's any chaos in your personal life I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one I think you should get a copy today. All right back to the episode. Okay, second dispute We got three disputes to go through in our nerdy nugget second dispute is Really centered around the priests who are dishonoring the sacrificial system of worship Here's God's claim God as a father and master deserves honor from his people particularly the priests Okay, here's the dispute of course that he would don't agree with this Okay, this is by the way this starts in chapter one verse six and this goes all the way to chapter two verse nine This second dispute and I'll give you verses for the first dispute The first dispute starts in verse two of chapter one and goes all the way to verse five of chapter one Okay, so chapters chapter one verse two three four and five now picking up in chapter one verse six Okay, I'll actually just read it for us a son Honors his father and a slave his master if I am a father Where is the honor do me if I'm a master where's the respect do me says the Lord almighty? So first just timeless truth we can take from that is God doesn't just request praise he demands praise He demands worship he demands that we honor him. So God right here says hey sons honor their fathers and I'm a father, but you don't honor me and Slaves honor their masters and I'm definitely your master and you don't honor me

It is you priests who show contempt for my name, but you ask okay, that's the key word But you ask can the people always have a question? Okay, here's the dispute. How have we shown contempt for your name? Okay, God, we shown contempt for your name. And I love God's answer, verse seven. By offering defiled food on my altar. But you ask, how have we defiled you? By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible when you offer blind animals for sacrifice. Is it not wrong when you sacrifice lame or diseased animals? Is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? Says the Lord almighty. Now plead with God to be gracious with us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you? Says the Lord almighty. So the people, their cynicism or their discipline with God is now coming out in the quality of the sacrifices that they're offering to the Lord. They're offering God blind animals, diseased animals, lame or paralyzed animals. And Leviticus tells us what kind of offering, what kind of sacrifices are acceptable to God. The offerings that are acceptable to God, these animals are not allowed to have imperfections

or broken bones or anything that's wrong with them. And so God has a problem with the quality of the sacrifices being placed on the altar. And really, it's a reflection of the people's hearts. Again, I don't wanna get into my timeless truth too early, but what we sacrifice to the Lord has little to do with the sacrifice and a lot to do with our heart posture toward the Lord. We say this when we take up the offering, when we take up the financial offering, when it's time to give out of our tie then offering to the Lord, we say this every Sunday. We say, hey, out of your treasure where your treasure is, your heart will be also, right? We don't just give based on a financial number, no, we give based on the gratitude that's coming out of our heart. But if disappointment is in our heart and cynicism has now gripped our heart, then that's always going to find its end or that's gonna always result in us being stingy with God. And so they're offering blind, cheap, blemished sacrifices. So here's God's response. God exposes their hypocrisy, detailing their unacceptable behavior. First, there's a couple of issues. Number one, the sacrifices themselves. God reveals that the people are bringing blind, crippled, and diseased animals for sacrifice, a practice forbidden by the mosaic law.

These cheap blemished offerings show that the people have a low view of God, okay? This is a timeless truth through scripture. The quality of my sacrifice should reflect what I think about God, okay? I say this sometimes in worship services, hey, if God was average, then average praise would be okay. But he's great, so he's deserving of great praise. That means the musician should be excellent. The songs should be intentional and we should sing them with passion and exuberance. We don't give God cute golf claps 'cause he's not cute. We give God exuberant passionate praise because we owe him everything. And worship and praise through singing is a sacrifice. It's not the only way that we sacrifice, but it is a sacrifice. Also, God has an issue with the priests because the priests are complicit in the sin. What should be happening is that the people should be bringing blind, lame, or crippled animals, and the priests should be stopping them, saying, no, this animal, once we have examined it, we're realized that this animal's not up to par. But not only are the people bringing cheap sacrifices, but the priests are allowing this to happen, and the priests should not be allowing this to happen. The priests are therefore complicit. They're accepting these inferior offerings as representatives of God,

they should be stopping the people and teaching them and instructing them how to honor God properly, but they're failing in their assignment. They have treated their ministry as a burdensome chore rather than a privilege. One of the things that we say as a team, and I got this from the church that is our sending church, is right before every time we serve, we say we get to do this because we don't have to do this, we get to do this. That language is honestly helped transform my own heart. Before I preach, I don't say I have to preach, say I get to preach, because you never want ministry or serving or sacrificing our time and energy and excellence to the Lord to become a burden. We always want God. but they wanted to do it. God is a lot like my wife. She doesn't just want me to do the dishes. She doesn't just want me to do the dishes. She wants me to want to do the dishes. Big, big difference. She doesn't want to receive any kind of love from me that feels obligatory or that feels burdensome. So the Levites are treating their ministry call like a burden rather than a privilege. As a result, God announces a curse upon their blessings for failing to honor him. And then there's a covenant with Levi that gets mentioned. God contrasts the priests, current faithlessness

with the ideal covenant made with the tribe of Levi, which called for true instruction and reverence. All right, we're running out of time and I gotta give you our last dispute, okay? So one dispute was around love. The people don't believe that God loves them. Okay, the second dispute is around the quality of the temple worship or the animals that are being sacrificed. The third dispute is unfaithfulness in marriage. Here's God's claim. God exposes the treachery within the community. Divorce, okay? Divorce is treachery by asking rhetorically, have we not all one father did not one God create us? Why did we deal treacherously with one another? He reveals that the men of Israel have been unfaithful to their wives and therefore with him. You see how with God, what happens at the temple is connected to what happens at home. God sees that man, this cynicism, this disappointment that's grown into cynicism has an effect on the worship, but it also has an effect on how people are treating each other because the two greatest commandments are love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength, which means you would offer good sacrifices, but also love your neighbor as you love yourself, which means you wouldn't be unfaithful to your wife, okay?

Loving God, loving others. This is basic two-fold demonstration of how we show our covenant love towards God is also how we show love towards people, okay? What are the peoples object and say? The men question why God no longer accepts their sacrifices, even though they flood his altar with tears. God absolutely has a response to this. God reveals that there are two ways that people are breaking their marriage covenants to which he himself was a witness. First, they're marrying foreign women. The men have married foreign, have married women who worship foreign gods in a domination that profanes the covenant. Second, they're divorcing the wives of their youth. I want everybody to remember that. You should stay in love with the wife of your youth. These men are unjustly divorcing their partners to pursue these foreign wives. God states, I hate divorce, okay? So if you ever wanted what verse of the Bible, does God say that he hates divorce? It's right here in Malachi chapter two and calls them to guard their spirit and remain faithful to the wives of their youth. So three disputes and they have the exact same flow, okay? Let's get into some timeless truths as we close out this episode. Malachi forces us, me and you,

to ask what we give God. Are we bringing him our best or our leftovers? And I think that's true for our time, our treasure in our talents, okay? That's true for our time, but that's also true for our treasure, like our finances. And then also true for our talents, like our gifts. Are we giving him our best or our leftovers? The priests thought that scraps were fine, that blind or lame or crippled animals were okay, but God calls that contempt. Worship is not about checking boxes, but revealing what we truly value. If I asked you right now, hey, I've got a $10 bill, you've got a $50 bill, can we trade? You would trade, why? Or I guess if I had the $50 bill and you had a $10 bill, yeah. And I said, let's trade. You would trade, why? 'Cause you see that the $50 bill is more valuable than the $10 bill. Well, when I think about my tithe and I go, well, what am I getting in exchange for this? Oh, wow, favor with God. Oh, wow, blessings from heaven. Oh, wow, the presence of God. Okay, great, a good name, good standing with God. Yeah, I'm always gonna make that trade because I value the Lord, okay?

So the issue here is that they're checking boxes by worshiping, but they don't actually value the Lord. And when we cut corners, when it comes to worship, we are saying that we don't value God. That's a non-negotiable, okay? The way that we value the Lord is to make sacrifices to the Lord. but with the value and the value that we place on God. But this all stems from the root of disappointment. Now, the first words that God speaks in this prophetic book is, "I have loved you," which means our obedience must flow, our sacrifice must flow out of gratitude for His grace and His love of us, not mere fear of His judgment, but actually a desire for His love. The prophet Malachi ties holiness and worship to holiness at home. That's a timeless truth. You and I cannot betray our spouse and then stand at the altar with clean hands. God sees unfaithfulness and marriage as covenant-breaking, and He counts the tears of the betrayed as a witness against false worship. Okay. Malachi also warns us about leadership and about the importance of leadership. The priests were supposed to teach by what they tolerated. So when somebody came to the altar and they had a blind animal, the priests are not supposed to tolerate that, thereby teaching the people how to value Yahweh. And so leadership is important. Everything rises and falls on leadership. So God has some tough things to say to the people, but ultimately He has tough things to say to leaders, namely, priests and husbands. And I think the same is true. That's timelessly true. God has the toughest things to say to the people with the greatest responsibility. The priests were supposed to teach by what they tolerated.

When they accepted blemish sacrifices, they trained the people to treat God lightly. And God let it be never said of us that we taught people how to treat you less than your actual value. Leaders today and families or churches must shape theology by their example. Finally, Malachi reminds us that God's plans are never small. Israel saw only weakness, but God declared that His name would be great among the nations. So remember, they're not seeing the full fulfillment of the promises made by the prophets, but partial fulfillment. However, just because God has a delay in bringing about His promise does not mean that this is a denial. Therefore, when we're in the middle of disappointment, don't let disappointment grow into full-blown cynicism. You've got to begin to tell your heart and your emotions in your mind that a delay is not a denial. The vision that God gives, okay, should lift our eyes above our discouragements and remind us that our part is just one piece of His global story. All right. That is our context clues, our nerdy nuggets, and multiple timeless truths for today's episode. Tomorrow, we're going to wrap up the book of Malachi. We're going to study chapters three and four for day 251. If you're on a streak, I'm insanely proud of you. If you're not on a streak, I love you, but I do want you to be on a streak, okay? So I'll see you right here tomorrow as we dive in to the remaining chapters of the Book of Malachi on day 251. I love you guys, peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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