Malachi 2:1-3 “And
now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen,
if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of
hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your
blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to
heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread
dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken
away with it.”
Continuing in the short
Bible Study of the book of Malachi, the lesson points out that false
worship comes in two main varieties. The first and easiest to identify of these
is the worship of false gods. The second variety is the worship of the one true
God in a manner that He does not approve. Because this second form of false
worship is more subtle, it is sometimes difficult to identify. Even worse is
when the strongest proponents of worshiping the Lord in ways that He does not
approve are the guardians of worship themselves. In the middle of the fifth
century BC, the post-exilic Jews in Jerusalem had to deal with priests who
allowed for the sacrifice of defective animals even though God commanded that
anything offered to Him had to be blemish-free.
Our
Creator’s response to this was to warn the priests in Jerusalem that persistence
in their sin would lead to all manner of problems for them. Malachi 2:1–9 describes the
consequences promised to the priests who were not doing their jobs. God would
cause their words of blessing not to achieve the good outcome that was spoken;
instead, He would make their blessings into curses that did the opposite. But
in Malachi’s day, this was not merely a possibility but a reality. God’s
blessings were tied to prosperity, so those whom the priests allowed to
sacrifice improperly would suffer great loss. Moreover, the prophet told the
priests that God would remove them from office if they were to persist in sin.
The graphic metaphor of animal dung on the faces of these priests underscores
the thorough loss that they would have to endure for their impenitent sin. Ezra 7–10 and Nehemiah 8–13 refer to thorough religious reforms that occurred at
this time, which likely means that the priests Malachi addressed did not repent
and that God removed them from office.
Listen to the Lord, your God. Take it to heart to
give honor to my name.
No comments:
Post a Comment