Episode for Wednesday September 16th - Malachi Chapter 1 - Part 2

0:0066.6640. Your future lies in 6640. 66 books by 40 authors, and yet we now discover it's an integrated message system from outside our time domain. Welcome to 6640, the Ministry Outreach of Coenania House and Coenania Institute. Today's Bible Teacher is Chuck Missler, connecting the Bible to your life and the world around you. In today's study, Chuck continues his teaching on the Book of Malachi, chapter 1. Someone asked General Norman Schwarzkopf, what is the greatest problem in America? After a moment's consideration, he says, lack of integrity, and how true that is.

1:04How painfully true that is. You know, it's interesting, none of us set out to be a hypocrite. None of us get up in the morning and say, well, I'm going to be hypocritical this morning, today. I'm going to do that to face devious. We don't do that, do we? I won't ask for a show of hands, but I would suspect there's a few of us that despite that are. And one of the things that we're going to explore a little bit tonight is a call by God to be authentic. And we'll take this insight, this issue, this problem and its remedy from the book of Malachi. We've been undertaking a review of Malachi, and Chuck so many Christians discover there is lessons in the Old Testament too.

2:07But for those that may be new with us this time, we really started it last time, but basically Malachi is a name of a person which means my messenger. Some scholars believe it was a title, not a name. Many scholars, good scholars, both sides argue about that. I leaned to the arguments that I've reviewed that say it was actually his name, many of the Hebrew names mean things. And Malachi happens to mean my messenger which fits both his mission, both his message and his mission. And he was faced with a very disillusioned cynical world, which was filled with form rather than substance. A world which even the very priesthood, the venerated Hebrew priesthood, were no longer committed to God, to the God that had blessed them. They were insensitive to the love that God had expressed toward them. And they were unaware of the enormity of their departure from the God of their fathers.

3:10And so, of course, they lacked reverence for him. And Malachi writes about a century after Cyrus had freed the Jews from their Babylonian captivity, returned to the land, to rebuild their temple, and underneath Maya to also rebuild the city walls. But their hearts were very indifferent, resentful. The priests and the people were ignoring the stipulations of God's law. Their hope in God's covenant promises were dimmed in their lives as they indulged in divorces, unheard of, in terms of the laws that were laid down. They were intermarried with pagans which in itself was also a violation of the laws. They were generally ambivalent towards moral values of all kinds. It doesn't take a great profound insight on any of us to recognize the possible parallels that faced Malachi of his day and the issues that we face in our world, too. In the book of Malachi, there are two pivotal statements around which the whole rest of the book pivots.

4:15One occurs in the first chapter, second verse, where God says, I have loved you. And most of Malachi's arguments derive from God's expression of love towards them, uniquely to them, especially to them. And as we hear Malachi's words in all through chapter 1, we can't help but think of how much God has loved us. And he has loved us, of course, in this incredible heritage that now is being revised by our pagan schools, this heritage that what it really means to be an American, the biblical roots of this nation. And we find that God's love expressed in the heritage you and I are beneficiaries of. But also in a much broader sense, much more deeper sense, much more eternal sense. We also know how He's loved us because He gave us His Son. And one of the great tragedies that in effect brings us together tonight is to reflect a little bit on the tragedy that we don't reflect His love towards us. We acknowledge it, and yet there's much to be said on that.

5:15Now, the other comment that God also makes that's essential to all of this is in Malachi 3.6 where He says, I, the Lord, change not. He's unchangeable, He's immutable. And that makes him different in many, many ways from the gods that many people worship. Certainly, He's different from the God of all of the Muslims who is capricious, unpredictable, and read that untrustworthy. Now, our God changes not, in fact, our God makes and keeps promises. And of course, what Malachi does facing this thing, He admonishes them to emerge, if you will, out of their self-pity, long enough to at least observe their blood brothers, the eitamites, because God points out that the eitamites are going to be destroyed and permanently. They will have their setbacks as God finishes them that is Israel, but they will have the hope and the destiny of being rebuilt. The eitamites will not. Malachi recounts the disparity there. The eitamites originally were their blood brothers under Esau, and yet they hated the sons of Jacob.

6:18They wouldn't help them when they were in trouble. They rejoiced when their enemies were looting them and so forth. So they were enemies for centuries until God, of course, destroys eitam and eitam. Finally, that sort of brings us, if you will, to verse 5, which we closed down the last time we're together, because there's a promise there it says, your eyes shall see and ye shall say the Lord be magnified from the border of Israel. And the traditional view of that, of course, is to point out that indeed beyond the borders of Israel, the entire world is blessed through what God is doing through Israel, and that the promise is to Abraham. That all nations of the earth would be blessed is, of course, fulfilled. But there's another very interesting eschatological implication of that verse. The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. How interesting adjacent to the border is the land of Adam, and how interesting it is while the land of Adam is destroyed as just God prophesied as the Old Testament is full of allusions to that,

7:19and indeed today they are wiped out. How many of you have ever met an eitamite? Now they're anymore, but the land is, and it's interesting that one of the things that I think you pointed out last time, to be good place to start at this time, is that one of the strange observations, if you study Bible prophecies, that there's a region of the country that escapes the hand of the Antichrist. And Daniel, chapter 11, verse 41, it mentions that he, the Antichar, shall also enter into the glorious land that Israel, and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape out of his hand, even eitamoeb and the chief children of Adam. And that region today is known as Jordan. And so we have a quite little prophecy, tucked away in Daniel 11, 41, that points out that this region will escape the rule of the Antichrist, and the scholars generally presume that the reason that's true is that it gives the remnant a place to flee to. And indeed, when Jesus gives His confidential briefing to His four disciples about His second coming,

8:19as according to the New Testament, He points out that when the abomination of desolation takes place in Matthew 24, 15, is one of the references, then those who are in Judea flee into the mountains, which mountains the mountains of Eden. And indeed, they hide there in a place called Petra, and God protects them there. The second coming of Jesus Christ, surprising to many, is not to the Mount of Olives, it's to eat them first, to rescue them. He fights for his enemies. That's all recorded in Isaiah 63, for those of you first half a dozen verses deals with that, for those of you that do whom that may come as a surprise. He then goes from there to Mount of Olives and growl from the earth with Zechariah 14. And we just, we visited recently Petra and all of that, and it was very exciting to see what a natural place it would be to be a refuge in, so forth. But that brings us then to the specific focus on tonight, which we'll start about verse 6 through the end of the chapter 1 of Malachi. I'm going to suggest that tonight's key message for you and I is a call to be authentic.

9:26God, I have a boardman once wrote, so an act and you reap a habit, so a habit and you reap a character, so a character and you reap a destiny. And that's often quoted and it's very colorful little saying. And yet today, I think if we're really honest with ourselves, there's a tragic disconnection between character and character. Most of us, if we have many years behind us have grown up with a view that we may not practice well, but at least give we give nodding a cent to it, that indeed a character would shape destiny. But as we look at the world's scene, we seem to see it almost anthropetically, where notorious murderers get peace prizes, and notorious liars achieve the highest offices of their respective governments. And that's not just in this country, it's in many places. But you and I, as we reflect on these things, it's easy to be very, in fact it's being very fashionable to charge the government, the media, the politicians, and the others as being false, insincere, hypocritical, and generally untrustworthy.

10:43They say that trust worthy politicians, one whose bottom stays bought, say, that's what they came across. There was one politician mentioned to me, he says, the important thing in politics is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made, say. But tonight what we really want to do to make this valuable is to focus on ourselves. Do we ourselves also have a credibility gap? Have you and I heated the divine call to an authenticity that rises above current-fashioned slogans or the eddies of our current day? Have we also, as Malachi's listeners, have we also abandoned the God that loves us in subtle ways? Let's look at verse 6. A son, on earth, his father, and a servant, is master. If an I be a father, where is my honor? If I be a master, where is my fear?

11:46Say at the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And you say, where in have you, despised my name? What Malachi is doing here is quoting what was them a proverb? Son's generally honor their father, servants generally fear their masters, sort of the thought that's there. And he's saying, since you openly profess that God is your father and your master, where is your honor and fear? And the word fear, by the way, occurs over 100 times in the Old Testament. How could their deeds and their words be so far separate? Now, incidentally, Malachi is speaking to the priests of that day, but before the chapter is over, he's going to tie us into that. In verse 14, there's a broad statement that will include all of us. So you might pay attention right from the beginning. But also, from a New Testament perspective, you and I are counted as a royal priesthood.

12:46Peter makes reference to that. Several places in the New Testament. You and I are called kings and priests. And so admittedly, not a Levitical priesthood. But I think those indictments that Malachi is going to levy at the priest of his day, should pinch our shoes and substantially. And then how was their dedication compromised? Well, they were despising his very act in person, his doctrine, his authority, and his attributes. But let's start from beginning. What sons do not honor their father? Isn't that the Ten Commandments? In fact, it's a very unusual commandment. There are not ten suggestions, of course. We treat them as such, don't we? There are Ten Commandments. One of them says, aren't they father, mother, that day? Days may be long about the land, the Lord of the God, give it to you. It is the only one or the first one there with a promise. It's interesting that in Israel, that one of the signs of decadence during one of their periods of decay

13:49was when the children were running things, when the children were dominant in the households. If you read your Old Testament carefully, you'll discover that. And it's interesting, as we stand back today, how those ideas seem quaint in our culture, about kids not honoring their parents. I don't have to dwell on that. I think we all have had enough experiences. But you'll notice, all through Malachi, his style is a dialectical style. He'll make this accusation, they'll make a rebuttal. We're in if we done such and so. And then comes the argument. And they say, where in have we despised thy name? Who us? Where's the proof? They'll do the seven times in the book of Malachi as they go. Verse 7 says, he offered polluted bread upon mine altar, and he say, where in have we polluted thee? In that he say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.

14:52Now the table here, of course, we're talking about the temple table. And when they say bread, that term is used as a metonym. A metonym or a synectic is where you use the general for the specific of the specific with the general. Bread is a term of the offering, could be meet offering. It's still called bread, the term is used broadly. Just like the kids say, have you got any bread? They mean money, right? Or there's other examples of synectic keys or metonyms in our language. But the point is that we're not talking just about the meal offering. They're using it generically. But the offerings they were offering were polluted two ways, two ways. The first way is that the offer roar, the person making the offering, was polluted. And they cannot offer pure sacrifices to God while I simultaneously reject his lordship and fail to glorify and enjoy him. God looks at the heart first.

15:56And someone has said, put yourself in the offering plate first, and then deposit your offering before God. How interesting it is, how glibly sometimes we write a check, how glibly we sometimes will yield some substance when the real issue between you and the lord is your heart, not substance. Now it's interesting, one of the first places that we're conscious of, that offering being made in the Bible is Genesis 4, the famed story of Canaanable. We've all studied Genesis 4, where Canaanable have this tension between them, because ones offering is accepted and the other is not. If you go into the Hebrew of Genesis 4, it says, Canaan, He, He also, He brought. See, in the English translation, you don't pick that up, they smooth it out.

16:56But in the Hebrew, it says, Abel, He, He also, He brought. Even in the structure of the Hebrew grammar of those passages, the issue wasn't the offering as much as it was the issue of the offeror that was sin lying at the door. Four different grammatical elements are brought to bear. The proper name, the personal pronoun, the adverb and the verb, with a personal pronomial ending it. It's a grammatical emphasis. You see, there is a type of profanity that goes beyond the kind of cursing you might hear on a construction site, or the folks of a ship, or wherever else. Today's world probably anywhere, but many people are offended by profanity in that kind of a way. And tragically, that's usually a symptom of nothing more than a lack of vocabulary. And literature is full of examples of that.

17:56I was doing some preparation, I couldn't help but be reminded of the play by Sarah and I, DeBerserach, where he had this long nose and someone makes a comment about his nose that's kind of crude and simple. And he tears the guy up by concatenating a whole list of more eloquent ways to disparage his nose and the guy he dreamed of. And the writer, of course, makes fun of the lack of vocabulary of his detractors by he making fun of himself in an eloquence that you stand back. And even in the remake, the modern remake called Roxanne, there's the equivalent passage that gets to the point across. I don't think that's as serious a form of profanity than our hypocrisy before the altar. And we'll see that manifested further as this passage goes. A good example of that. Let's pause here. I think we've got time to indulge ourselves a little bit. Pop over to Ezekiel 36.

18:57There's so much discussion as we get interested in the Bible and we discover that the Bible lays out history in advance, and as we discover that you and I are being propelled into that period of time of history about which the Bible says more than any other period of time in history, including the time that Jesus was on the shores of Gowley. As we get into all of that, people say, well, you biblical Christians are sure are pro-Israel. Not so. We are not pro-Israel necessarily. We are pro-God. And we're just conscious of the fact that God has a plan for Israel and it's very visible in the end times. One of the things, and I get asked this as I travel again and again, I get those accusations. I'm always drawn to Ezekiel chapter 36, starting at verse 19, where God himself said, I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed through the countries according to their way and according to their doings. I judged them. And when they entered into the nations to which they went, now I'm talking about the diaspora here, because what the subject of the passage that we're reading from it has the regathering after the diaspora is we're witnessing today.

20:00But it says, when they entered into the nations to which they went, they profaned my holy name. Who? Israel? Yes. When they said to them, these are the people of the Lord and they are gone forth out of his land. But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel have profaned among the nations to which they went. And he goes on, thus saith the Lord God. I do not this for your sakes or house of Israel, but for my name's sake, which he have profaned among the nations to which he went. And he goes on, because what follows this, of course, is Ezekiel 38 and 39, when the Russians and their allies invade Israel, God is going to intervene. He's intervening not because they deserve it, but because his reputations on the line, he said he would. So he's protecting his name. It's not that they deserve anything, because we are sinners saved by grace and the tragedy is even after save. We are shoddy, shoddy, representatives of what he really should be meaning to us. So that's what we're getting into here.

21:00Now gifts can be polluted by the offerer in terms of heart not being right. There also, of course, can be polluted in that they are blemished and not the choices that could be given. And obviously the term bread here, as I mentioned, is a metonym for food and such. It's referring, actually, the passage is referring to animal sacrifices. And Leviticus 21 and elsewhere, they are not to be blind, lame, or sick. Those are expressly prohibited. What they were supposed to offer at the altar was the best, that is without blemish. See, notice incidentally, it says, wherein have we polluted the? They realize, in effect, that they're compromising the offerings are disparaging the God to whom they are given. When you make an offering to the Lord, it's a testimony of how you regard Him. And if you're giving Him leftovers, if you're giving Him marked down goods, if you're giving Him seconds,

22:00if you're giving Him something that's ineffectual, then you are not only violating the laws of Moses in terms of the preseer, and they knew, His listeners knew that this was directed, that these offerings directed against God Himself. Wherein have we polluted these, they're marked they make. Not just the offering, they're going to affect the standing of the God of the universe. You know, it fascinates me as a guy who's spent 30 years in the corporate world, as you deal, especially in large organizations. It's fascinating to watch any big organization when there's a new boss. The top boss has gone on to maybe some other job or promotion, whatever, and there's a new boss just been hired. It's fascinating to watch the energy of the organization try to find out what's He like, what's His favorite things, what does He not like? Does He this, does He that? And there's busy, busy, busy, busy trying to second-get figure out what they're stuck with as the boss, you know.

23:00I can remember vividly, I was at the, for some years, I was a senior executive at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. And there were in those days two very large engineering organizations. One was called engineering staff, that was all the proving grounds in Wind Tunnels and all the general resources under the engineering staff, that reported the vice president engineering, the Ford Motor Company, Herb Mish. And there was also what was called the product engineering office. These were the engineers that actually designed the cars. And obviously, I'll work together, but they had the different functions. One was a staff organization, supportive, the other one was the line organization that signed the drawings that were responsible for the vehicles as they were produced. The head of the product engineering office was a chief engineer, a line officer. And the head of staff was the vice president engineering. It was interesting, Herb Mish, the vice president engineering, was a guy that wore a coat and tie. During the day, he would wear his coat and tie. He would have meetings and stuff, he would generally be wearing his coat and tie. Hans Matthias, a German, very classic German engineer, was the head of product engineering for Ford Division.

24:02And Hans Matthias, when he was a shirt-sleeves guy, when he got to the office, he kept his tie on, they took his coat off, he rolled his sleeves up and all day long, he was in shirt-sleeves, unless he was going up to the glass house for some reason. It used to fascinate me. I could attend a meeting over an automotive assembly division or body engineering and before the engineers. I could spot the engineers that came from staff because they had the coat zone. I could watch the engineers who took their, who were in shirt-sleeves, they belonged to the product office. They weren't consciously conforming to a code, it was subconscious. But they came from staff, they all emulated their bosses. In those days, this will date me a little bit, we're talking in the early 60s, in those days it was very common to wear tightclips with your time. But Jim Hayward, head of truck engineering, wore no tight, just had his tie free-flowing, which is more the style today, but with those days a little more unusual. You could spot the truck engineers because they didn't wear tightclips.

25:03Now, if you went up to them and confirmed that, they wouldn't consciously be even aware of that. But there's a tendency in organizations to find out what the bosses like, and you generally, unless it compromises and principles, you'd conform to sort of his style. I mean, that was just, you've all experienced it. They've been in large organizations. It's interesting, one of the things that you and I instinctively ought to be doing, is finding out what the big boss is like. What pleases him? What displeases him? What attributes are there of his that you and I might just regard as quirks of personality, but nevertheless, that's what they are. They're his, rather than somehow presume that he will shape himself according to our expectations. In other words, he has described how he prefers to be worshipped. He has described what he expects of us if we're his, et cetera. We ought to be more diligent in finding out what those things are, as they sometimes say in marketing, finding out his buying habits, and so forth.

26:12You've been listening to 6640, the Ministry Outreach of Coenania House and Coenania Institute. Today's Bible teacher was Chuck Missler, teaching through the book of Malachi. Download the new K-House TV app to access an ever-growing collection of free resources. Visit the Apple or Android App Store, or search K-House TV on your Roku or Fire TV streaming device. Thank you for listening to 6640, and for your continued, prayerful support of this ministry. Until next time, as we continue this series, may God bless you with the knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ, as you study His Word.