Friday, October 26, 2018

Vain Offerings



Malachi 1:10 “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand”.

Continuing in this short Bible Study on Malachi, the lesson states that Scripture tells us repeatedly that divine redemption unto salvation brings with it important responsibilities. Certainly, salvation itself is by grace alone, based not on anything we do, and we can in no way take credit for it; otherwise, grace would not be grace. However, God does not redeem people to salvation so that they can sit around and do nothing. All whom He has saved are called to bear fruit and, indeed, prove their election sure by their love for the Lord in thought, word and deed. This is why the New Testament is insistent that justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Good works of obedience are not the ground of justification, but they are its proof and the fruit of sanctification. Not to get saved, but because we have been saved.

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Malachi understood this doctrinal point quite well, which explains why he is so harsh on the post-exilic community in Malachi 1:10. God had chosen Israel to be His people, not Edom or any other nation, but the people in Malachi’s day were providing hardly any proof of their election. The prophet charges the community, who should have known better, with dishonoring Him with polluted offerings. When the ancient Jews brought animal sacrifices to the Lord, these animals had to be perfect and free from all diseases and other defects (which pointed to Christ – the perfect offering for all sin). Yet the people were offering blind, lame, and sick animals to God and keeping the best for themselves. They had the gall to bring animals that they would not offer as gifts to the governor, who, important as he was, was not the most holy Creator of all things. These offerings weren’t their leftovers, but their rejects. But worst of all, the priests of the temple, who were supposed to be the guardians of the sanctity of worship, did not stop the people from bringing impure offerings.

We do not know precisely why the Jewish priests were doing this. It probably had to do with their personal economic situations. Old covenant priests depended on the sacrifices for food and income, and they usually ate a portion of the meat or grain that the worshiper brought to the temple (this were acceptable). Offerings employ the means for the structure of congregational worship required by God. Given the sorry state of the temple, the priests would have been better off shutting its doors and calling worship off, then presenting offensive offerings and robbing sovereign God. Malachi condemns them for not doing so and for allowing the people to be complacent in their hypocritical, defective, halfhearted worship.


The message of this lesson is that God wants all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength in all that we do, but particularly in the case of worship and offerings. If we are not endeavoring to worship according to His commands and with the right intent, it would be better for us not to worship at all. He does not seek perfect worship from us at the present time, which is impossible given our sinful condition. What He seeks is our offering of true, intentional worship that is a testimony to His great glory. We have to ask ourselves, do we practice “first fruits” and give God our best “off the top” for the ministry of saving lives (physically and spiritually) in adoration, honor, praise and reverence, or do we give our leftovers (if any is left), or vainly offer God our rejects and throwaways in disgrace? Who is our King in the kingdom of Heaven? Live like it!

Our best for the Lord, our God.

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