I Have No Pleasure in You
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 Yahweh of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies. 12“But you profane it, in that you say, ‘Yahweh’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’ 13You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ and you have sniffed at it”, says Yahweh of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says Yahweh. 14“But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
Those who do not grasp what an astonishing blessing God’s grace is will find their faith rising and falling with how much they own. God’s attention and love are a grace far too great to be bought with money or power, and yet people sin without hesitation in order to make use of God. But God is holy, and no human being can ever deceive him. To complain to the Creator about why he made us this way, or why he did not give us better circumstances, is itself a sin.
Because Israel and Judah put their own interests first, they lived wickedly, as though God were a dead god who could do nothing at all. They threw grace away like refuse, and when they went on to despise and mock God and to worship idols, his anger was great. Though they had lived until then under his protection, they offered sacrifices to foreign gods and reduced him to one more god among the gods of the world, a god of no worth. These were people who had learned of God’s greatness through the history of their fathers. They had seen that when his protection was withdrawn, the nation was attacked by foreign powers or carried into captivity, and they had also known the nation to grow strong and prosperous when it served him faithfully. They themselves had been taken to Babylon, had lived seventy years as captives, and had come home; they had seen the word fulfilled in their own lives. Yet far from giving thanks to God, they ignored and despised his name and his law, clung to their greed, and in the end defiled the sacrifices. Seeing this, God lamented that he wished someone would shut the temple doors so that no more sacrifices could be offered.
God is merciful; when we repent, he does not remember our sin. Because he knew that Adam would eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he planned the cross before the ages began and caused that sin to be forgiven. In the same way he gave the law of sacrifice so that every sin could be forgiven, but people ignored that law and mocked a God of steadfast kindness. To the merciful God shows himself merciful, to the blameless he shows himself blameless, to the pure he shows himself pure, but for the wicked he does not grant what they desire. He gives back to people exactly what he receives from them.
Seen against this character of God, the judgment awaiting the priests who brought defiled offerings is fearful indeed. God wanted the temple doors shut so that the priests could sacrifice no longer, which means they no longer had even the opportunity to be forgiven.
Malachi 1:11
11For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies.
It is a sorrowful thing that the priests, who should have offered sacrifices with all their hearts lest the people go unforgiven, had fallen. Thankfully, though, God said that the nations would turn to him and make his name great. From then on the Gentiles would serve God; in every place they would burn incense and bring a pure offering. This is a prophecy of the work of faith by which the Gentiles would receive Christ. Even as he grieved over Israel’s fall, God foretold the salvation that would come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.
Israel’s fall did not mean that the work of salvation had failed. God was saying that Gentiles, grateful for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, would offer whole sacrifices and share in the work of salvation.
The worship we offer God calls for a faith that worships in the Spirit and in truth. God desires that his people, having lived the six days of the week in holy faith, offer true worship under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and within the truth. When worship fails, more than our spiritual life suffers; we can no longer keep a sound footing with the world and with other people. The reason is that once the assurance of salvation fades, life can lose its purpose. Only when we meet God through praise, prayer, and the word do we stop trying to overcome the world in our own strength. The one way to entrust everything to God and to live with wisdom and understanding is to keep his law.
Are you truly entrusting your life to God? Are you meeting every problem in the world and every relationship with wisdom? If you rejoice one moment and grieve the next as circumstances change, yours is a faith that has not made God its Master. Only when we are moved by God’s name and overwhelmed by the love that forgives our sins can we live boldly and keep sin at a distance. Those who trust in Almighty God neither fear the world and its people nor compromise with them; they can govern them wisely.
God is the absolute One who condemns and judges human sin. Because the nations had experienced firsthand how God judged them in order to protect Israel, they feared him even more than Israel did. Israel, by contrast, had been protected purely by God’s initiative, and for that reason they never realized how hollow their faith was. When forgiveness came again and again without end, Israel came to disregard God and finally to despise him. When God is good to us, we ought to obey him with greater humility; yet as he went on showing them steadfast love and mercy, they went so far as to talk back to him. Because God saw the pride of his people and judged that he could give them no more grace, he declared that he would not accept even their sacrifices.
Having received grace, we should strive never to forget it and to give thanks. Instead, people commit the sin of casting off anyone, God or human, as soon as they decide there is nothing more to gain from them. But David, a king and a man of faith, knew who God is. That is why, even in the desperate hour when he hid in a cave from Saul, he could pray like this.
Psalms 57:1-2
1Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed. 2I cry out to God Most High, to God who accomplishes my requests for me.
David was sure that God was protecting him. He believed that when he cried out, God would certainly act to help him, and that faith made him bold to ask for help. Confident that whatever happened God would never hand him over to the wicked, he could pray in faith even at the moment of mortal danger, with Saul in pursuit. He prayed for a supernatural miracle to rescue him. Even if Saul surrounded him and there was no way of escape, he asked God to be his refuge, as a mother bird spreads her wings to shelter her young from wind and rain. David never forgot that God was his Father. When death was close at hand, then, he turned to God without hesitating. Strong in faith and trusting God to save him by a supernatural work, he could pray for wicked Saul to be driven back.
David certainly had times in his life when he wavered to the right and to the left, but he had the faith to steady himself immediately and turn back, and the wisdom to repent of his sin. It is never easy to do as David did: to stay up through the night in repentance once we see our sin, and to strive to turn back without delay. Yet because he had the faith and character that God approves, he could pray to the God who trusted him.
We fail to turn back not because we do not know that we must repent, but because we cannot let go of the world, our pride, and our greed. It takes faith to lay down our own righteousness and repent right away, and only when we know who God is can we ask his forgiveness.
God knows human nature, and he does not expect you to live your whole life doing good and never sinning. What he wants is for you to discern each matter carefully, make right choices moment by moment, and know how to turn back when you have decided wrongly. That is why the six days of our everyday life matter so much if we are to be people of faith. If we worship the world like an idol, we cannot give up lying, stealing, and lust, so God does not accept the worship of such a person. When we strive to conform ourselves to God’s will, even if we fall short, we can pray as David did for God to judge the world, and we can ask him to make the wicked bring about their own destruction. In the world we will be tempted, and we may even feel greed, but God looks first at our faith, at how we view all these things and what we resolve to do; because of this he always gives us, as he gave David, the opportunity to be restored. When you strive to live with God at the center, he will hear your heartfelt prayers and rescue you from the hands of those like wicked Saul. We call such grace a miracle.
Malachi 1:13
13You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ and you have sniffed at it”, says Yahweh of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says Yahweh.
The priests thought it a weariness to bring offerings honestly, according to God’s law, and they brought whatever they pleased. They had been given the authority to set apart the animals for sacrifice, but they used this special authority to keep the healthy animals for themselves and give the sick and weak ones to God. Even when the priests secretly offered sick animals, the people could not detect their sin; but God was watching. We must not forget that such secret dealings may deceive people as often as one likes, but they can never deceive God.
When someone who once served faithfully falls away spiritually, the first thing they tell themselves is that God will not know their sin. Even a faith that was once so full, when greed clouds it, will take for itself the offerings meant to atone for the people’s sins, just as these priests did.
We can see the faith of those corrupt priests in the church today as well. People use God in pursuit of wealth, long life without sickness, and many descendants; their whole religious life is a faith bent on getting blessings. They attend church diligently and hear and learn God’s infallible word, yet because they listen only for what they want to hear, their faith is at odds with the Christian faith. Having brought God the effort and sincerity of their offerings and service, they want him to bless them in proportion. If such people become poor or fall ill after faithfully tithing or serving with all their strength, they forsake God all too easily.
The great problem of the church that has lost its way today is this: rather than teaching people to worship God in spirit and in truth, it teaches a faith of seeking blessing, the idea that one will be blessed simply by attending church faithfully, even without living a holy life. It commits the same sin as the priests who offered polluted bread to God. But God does not accept a sin offering presented without faith, and if the sin offering is not accepted, there is no forgiveness. The corruption of the priests was so grave that God wished someone would shut the temple doors. Sadly, though, there was no one to shut them, because not only the priests but the whole people had fallen. Since the corruption of priests leads a whole nation down the road to ruin, those who administer God’s law must have an honest faith.
The world today is rotting like stagnant water. As long as we live in the body, we cannot step outside this world. So God is asking the church to pull the souls flailing in that rotten water up into the ark of salvation. In a world overflowing with sin, there is only one way out: to receive Christ. The church’s calling, then, is to proclaim Christ, who is the light, to souls shut in darkness. If the church does not take up this calling, it treats God with utter contempt, as the priests did who offered him sick animals, so it must turn back.
The world is advancing rapidly, and people are changing even the way they approach God to keep up with the times. Some philosophers say that, to give meaning to the act of killing God, human beings chose to become gods themselves. Others insist that we must create new ideas of God suited to the age. God remains where he has always been, unchanged, but people judge him by their own knowledge, their ideologies, or their proud thoughts. This is a serious problem, because just as a priest who has received authority from God affects many when he falls, so when people of great learning and fame judge God by their own lights and spread their views, many fall away. So if we think the age when offerings were brought to God and our own generation are different, we are badly mistaken, for in the end the world will come to pass just as God’s word says. If God’s law and word had changed, one might as well say there is no God; but because the word will be fulfilled to the very last moment, we must stay unchanged and obey.
God said that the Gentiles would make his name great and would burn incense to him and bring a pure offering, and that word has been fulfilled exactly, with your own faith as the proof. Since Scripture is being fulfilled just as it is written, you must not be shaken by human words.
Malachi 1:14
14“But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
Seeing that the people had brought sick animals without the least fear, God told them to try offering such gifts to their governor. The point was to make them consider whether it could possibly be right to offer Almighty God what even an earthly official would refuse. There were healthy males among their many sheep, but God already knew what lay in the heart of one who could not overcome greed and chose the sick one on purpose. Of the one who passed over the healthy animal and hunted for a weak lamb rather than bring something better to be forgiven or to give thanks, God declared that he would be cursed. That man would not offer a healthy male to the God who had freely given him the peace he now enjoyed, but went looking for a sick and feeble lamb; to him God said that he himself is a great King, Yahweh, whose name is awesome among the nations.
God is saying that he is the one who blessed that man and the one who judges him. The man prospers now because God blessed him, and if God sends a curse, he cannot escape it. It is a fearful word indeed.
People make vows as if they would do anything to have their prayers answered. Yet once the answer comes, we forget even the vow; that is what we are like. To such people God says: offer your governor the sick animals you bring me, treat him with the same disregard and contempt you show me, and see how he treats you. We must take a hard look at ourselves and see how ignorant and foolish we are, doing to God without a second thought what we would never do to another person. A governor leaves office when the time comes, and when life ends, leaves this world and can help no one. But God, for whom a thousand years are as one day, governs your life from beginning to end. So rather than doing our utmost to win the favor of a governor who is only passing through, we should do right by the eternal God.
Luke 18:8
8I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Jesus said he would grant the deep longing of the saints who had striven to hold fast to their faith. Those who hoped in the Kingdom of God and kept on praying, never losing heart even under persecution, he would vindicate in all that they had suffered unjustly. But when he asked whether the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith on the earth, he meant that staying faithful is that hard. Some are uprooted because they cannot overcome greed; others, afraid of persecution, walk out of the faith of their own accord. Some are swept along by the currents of the world, give up their faith, and take the broad road; some compromise with the wicked for the sake of success; and there may be those who waited for Jesus Christ to return but, as the time grew long, put out their own lamps.
But Christ has promised that he will surely come. He has also clearly promised to avenge speedily the faithful who trust that promise and give themselves to the work of salvation. So you who have met God must never live a wicked life that strays from the word, nor commit the sin of setting your eyes on the world; you must keep the faith. Whenever, wherever, and however you meet Jesus Christ at his return, you must live as people who can greet him with a bright smile and the prayer Come, Lord Jesus. Because this is a grave matter on which salvation itself depends, you must have the wisdom to discern the spirits with Christ at the center.
Heaven cannot be seen, but as we watch the world change just as Scripture says, we must believe that God lives. The only way, then, for corrupt priests and for us, bound by our cravings, to be forgiven is faith in Christ. When we serve the God who sent Jesus to this earth and live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, God will pour out his grace on us freely, from his side alone. You who have been born again through the word know the will of Christ. I hope, then, that you will not take the broad road the world travels, nor grasp greedily for a little more, but will have the wisdom to choose the narrow way through Scripture.
Human greed and pride go before destruction. May you see how weak you truly are, and hold to a faith that swims against the current of the world.