Malachi

1:1-5

Introduction

I'd like to address anyone who has ever doubted or even despised God's love.

Doubting or despising God's love is not something we readily admit. Still, there are times these feelings fill our hearts:

1. I've sat with believers at times of tragedy and listened as they have expressed their honest doubts about God's love for them in light of the pain and suffering He is allowing.
2. I've been with others in tragic situations who go beyond mere doubts to despise God's love, accusing Him of being cruel and capricious.

If none of this hits home, there is also the possibility that you can doubt or despise God's love and not even be aware of it. That was the situation among the fifth century Jews to whom Malachi was sent to say,

Malachi 1:2 "I have loved you," says the Lord. "Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’

They doubted and, as we shall see throughout the book, they despised God's love; but it came to them as a surprise, a complete shock to their way of thinking.

God said to them, and says to all who doubt or despise His love, "I have loved you." More specifically, God says three things in these opening verses: #1 He declares He loved you, #2 He demonstrates He loves you, and #3 He determines to love you.

#1 You Can Doubt Or Despise God's Love,

But He Declares He Loved You

Malachi 1:1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

"Malachi" means messenger. God had a message for His people and sent Messenger to deliver it. I like that, because it reminds us to remain in the background as we minister. No matter what your name is, or what it means, you are always "Malachi" when you minister.

Malachi ministered in the fifth century bc, about 100 years after Cyrus had issued the decree in 538bc which permitted Jews to return from exile to Judah. In response to the prophetic ministries of Haggai and Zechariah, the Jews had rebuilt their temple, completing it in 515bc.

Life was far from easy. The Jews were not a sovereign nation, but were under the political dominion of Persia. Harvests were poor and subject to locust damage. Their newly rebuilt Temple paled in comparison to Solomon's grand Temple. The promise of the establishing of a kingdom on earth, ruled by their King from Jerusalem, seemed a stark contrast to their actual existence on earth as a nation. They went through the motions of worshipping the Lord, but their hearts doubted or despised His love for them.

God gets immediately into it in verse two:

Malachi 1:2 "I have loved you," says the Lord. "Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’

They were not openly, verbally saying this. This was the disposition of their hearts. God could see it. You could see it in their worship, and in their weddings:

1. In their worship, they were offering defiled food; they were offering blemished animals; they were withholding their tithes. We'll see all this and more as we work our way through the book in subsequent weeks.
2. In their weddings, we'll see (in chapter two) that they were entering spiritually mixed marriages, and they were ending marriages with unscriptural divorces.

God simply declared, "I have loved you." Regardless their interpretation of circumstances to the contrary, God loved them.

God's declaration of His love can by itself be sufficient to dispel doubts and defeat despisings. Saints in serious circumstances go on record as trusting in God’s love:

1. Job certainly had reason to doubt or despise God's love. Instead he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).
2. The prophet Habakkuk, facing the prospect of the Babylonian captivity from which these fifth century Jews had now returned, said, "Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls - yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

Declarations that God loved you abound in Scripture. The apostle John wrote,

1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

God says to you, "I have loved you." God cannot lie; He can be trusted to be telling you the truth. You can claim for yourself what He said to Jeremiah, "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (31:3).

There are times when your doubt is greater than God’s declaration. God therefore demonstrates His love.

#2 You Can Doubt Or Despise God's Love,

But He Demonstrates He Loves You

God demonstrated His love for the fifth century Jews in His respective dealings with their nation, Israel, and with the nation of Edom.

Malachi 1:2 "I have loved you," says the LORD. "Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?" says the LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved;

Malachi 1:3 But Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness."

Esau and Jacob were brothers, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekkah. Esau’s descendants became a nation, the nation of Edom; Jacob’s descendants became a nation, the nation of Israel.

Fifth century Israel was in a tough spot – subject to Persia, with failing crops and a poor excuse for a Temple. But they were much better off than Edom, which had been "laid waste." Even though Esau and Jacob were brothers, God’s dealings with Jacob’s descendants as opposed to Esau’s descendants demonstrated His love.

We need to pause for a moment to discuss Esau and Jacob. The context of God’s comments is clear: In His respective dealings with the descendants of these two twin brothers, He demonstrated His love for Israel. It is God’s commentary on Esau that sometimes stumbles people.

He said, "Esau I have hated." Now "hate" could mean loved less by comparison. In other words, compared to the lavishing of His love upon Israel, God’s dealings with Esau seemed like hate. The fact is, God enjoyed and still enjoys a special covenant relationship with the descendants of Jacob. History is the story of His love for them – and the best is yet to come.

Back to God’s hate for Esau… Some see God’s dealings with Esau as proof that He damns people to hell from the womb – actually, before the womb, from eternity past. They might not put it quite that directly. They might say that God doesn’t really damn them; He simply passes over them, leaving them to die in their sins with no hope of eternal life. It amounts to the same thing, so we might as well say that He condemned them from eternity past with no hope of salvation.

Scripture never says that God condemned Esau either from the womb or from eternity. There was a prophecy at the time of Rebekkah’s pregnancy that Jacob, even though second-born, would be the prominent son and inherit the birthright. But God’s choice of Jacob and his descendants as His loved and privileged nation through which Jesus would be born to mankind has nothing to do with the eternal destiny of Esau and his descendants.

There was an episode in their lives that established the essential distinction between Esau and Jacob:

Genesis 25:29 Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.

Genesis 25:30 And Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary." Therefore his name was called Edom.

Genesis 25:31 But Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright as of this day."

Genesis 25:32 And Esau said, "Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?"

Genesis 25:33 Then Jacob said, "Swear to me as of this day." So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.

Genesis 25:34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Jacob desired the spiritual birthright; Esau despised it. Jacob set his affections on eternity; Esau served his earthly appetites. Esau is described in the New Testament as a "profane person" who sold his birthright to satisfy an earthly appetite (Hebrews 12:15-17). His descendants, the Edomites, followed in his example – despising the things of God and eternity, desiring the things of this earth. Thus they brought upon themselves the judgment and condemnation of God by resisting and refusing His grace.

There is another troubling passage I should share with you. It’s Romans 9:10-13, which reads,

Romans 9:10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac

Romans 9:11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),

Romans 9:12 it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger."

Romans 9:13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."

Again, folks like to misread all kinds of theological error into these verses, and teach that God condemns people to hell from before the womb. Salvation is not the context of these verses.

Esau and Jacob and their birthright are being used as an illustration. As we’ve shown from the account in Genesis, Esau had the privileges of birth, but he later despised them; Jacob did not have the privileges of birth, but he later desired them. Esau represents the nation of Israel, and Jacob represents the Gentiles! Like Esau, the nation of Israel had the privileges by birth, but later despised them by rejecting Jesus. Like Jacob, the Gentiles never had the privileges by birth, but later desired them and were being saved by the preaching of the Gospel. Israel was God's firstborn, but is now second in prominence to the Gentiles as Jesus is building His Church.

This may not mean much to you; but the Jews to whom Paul was writing needed precedents and proofs from their own Scriptures that God was justified in setting them aside to bless the Gentiles.

Could Jews still be saved, even though they were compared to Esau and the Edomites? You bet! Paul’s purpose is to persuade them to put their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

There is no thought in any of these passages that Jacob is chosen to salvation while Esau is chosen to damnation, or that he is left alone and passed over without any hope of eternal life.

H.A. Ironside wrote,

"…no one can dispute the fact that Jacob and his descendants enjoyed earthly privileges, and spiritual, too, that Esau and his children had never known. Is God unrighteous in thus distinguishing between nations?… By no means. He is sovereign. He distributes the nations of men upon the earth as it seems good to Himself, and though He takes up one nation in special grace and passes by another, that does not in the slightest degree hinder any individual in any nation from turning to God in repentance, and if any men anywhere under the sun, in any circumstances whatever, look up to God, no matter how deep their ignorance, confessing their sin and crying out for mercy, it is written, "Whosover shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans, p. 118-119).

As we return to Malachi, realize that God is talking not about these two men as individuals, but about the nations they represent. God "hated" Esau; He "hated" the Edomites. Why? Because, like their father Esau, they had despised eternity and desired the earthly – even warring against their brothers, the Israelites. The Israelites would be blessed; the Edomites could be blessed through Israel. Instead, the Edomites set themselves against Israel and forfeited God's blessings upon them. God therefore judged them and threw them down as a nation.

The Jews were complaining to God, saying, "In what way have you loved us?" God demonstrated His love by comparison with Edom. Edom would be destroyed. Israel would indeed inherit the kingdom on earth. Although their future seemed bleak, it was to be blessed.

God has demonstrated His love for you:

Romans 5:8 NASB But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The Cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for all mankind.

Now, God’s demonstration of love doesn’t always seem loving to you! It didn’t to the fifth century Jews as they surveyed their circumstances; and it won’t as you survey your circumstances. Those are the times you must be extra careful to look at the Cross and see God’s love demonstrated.

Sometimes even the demonstration of God’s love for you needs something more in order to dispel your doubts.

#3 You Can Doubt Or Despise God's Love,

But He Determines To Love You

Both Israel and Edom were overrun by the Babylonians in the sixth century BC. But as Israel was released from captivity to return and rebuild, Edom’s future was ruined.

Malachi 1:4 Even though Edom has said, "We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places," thus says the LORD of hosts: "They may build, but I will throw down; they shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, and the people against whom the LORD will have indignation forever."

These verses look even farther into the future:

Malachi 1:5 Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The LORD is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’

In order for the Lord to be "magnified beyond the border of Israel," the Jews must be secure in their land. The Lord Himself must be ruling their land from Jerusalem. They must be taking the knowledge of the Lord from Jerusalem to the whole earth. God was here reminding the Jews that He has determined to love them in the future as He fulfills all the promises He made to them through the prophets.

The fifth century was a bummer for the Jews. But a future set of ten centuries, a one-thousand year period of time called the Millennium, will be the fulfillment of all God’s blessings upon them.

Sometimes God’s determination to love you for eternity is the only thing that can hold your doubts in check, and destroy any despisings that want to take root in your heart. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (First Corinthians 2:9).

Conclusion

As we get deeper into Malachi, I think you will see that these Jews had something much more than honest doubts about God’s love. They despised His love. They didn’t say so with their words, but they showed it with their worship and in their weddings.

You might despise God’s love and not even know it. More likely, you sometimes have, or sometime will, doubt His love.

When you do, God declares He loved you… He demonstrates He loves you… And He determines to love you.