Book of Malachi - Ch. 1, Vs. 2-5 (01/15/2023)

When Dave does come in, Katie, you might have him just check the back computer for me, just to make sure everything is good to go back there.

But as far as I know it is, so we'll go ahead and get started. Morning, everybody. Excuse me.

We, we're going to try to get some momentum building up here for our Malachi study and cover a little bit of ground.

We spent the last few weeks, of course, on verses two, and just the very beginning of verse three predominantly. So we're going to kind of start out this morning just resetting the context a little bit as we get ready to finish up this first kind of natural section of Malachi.

The first five verses of the book are all about, I had a,

I had a title for the section. It's all about God's love. This first section we had titled

God's utmost love for his people, because he wanted to set the kind of set the stage for the some of the rebuke that is to come.

And in some of what he's going to be reminding his people through his prophet

Malachi is going to be kind of a rude awakening for his people. And but he started by reminding them of his of his utmost love for them.

Of course, we've been talking about that quite a bit, just in verses two, and a little bit of three alone, but all the way through verse five, is kind of on this, again, this topic of his love for his people before shifting to the next section of the book, which lasts for the better part of, you know, chapter one through chapter two.

And that's all about the sins of the priests and kind of that going into detail in that irreverent worship we talked about in our introduction a few weeks ago.

And so I'm looking forward to kind of getting into that and seeing what some of the parallels we can draw from it, because it's a pretty eye opening section there.

But again, we got to finish up section one first. And so we're going to reset the context just a little bit. We'll go ahead and just start with verse two and read from there through verse five today.

So verse two, of course, this is the one that we've been on, been spending quite a bit of time on. I have loved you, saith the

Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou lovedest, wherein hast thou loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob. Now, you got to remember verse one, it begins with the burden of the word of the

Lord to Israel. And so we know that something harsh is coming. But before it does, again, he's going to first remind them that he has been unchanging in his love for them and in his promises to them.

But they are reaping what they have sown at this point in time, which is why they are living through some of the hardships that they're living through.

And so it begins with that burden, it ushers quickly into his love, which we're in at this point in this section.

And then of course, it's going to transition into some of those hardships and why they're even occurring at this time. So, I have loved you, saith the

Lord. So instead of loving him back, they questioned his love for them by asking, wherein, wherein hast thou loved us?

And in doing so, of course, they were betraying God. And not only that, they were showing disbelief in his very word to them, because he's literally talking directly to them, of course, through the mouth of his prophet.

But he's telling them this, and they disbelieve it. So you know, their failure to have faith in God's word caused them to fail to love him back, which, of course, is the whole purpose of everything.

God's people are here, literally asking him, how are you our friend? We kind of looked at the

Hebrew a few weeks back at this phrase, wherein hast thou loved us? They're asking him, how are you our friend?

Or perhaps even better, how do you love us? Now, of course, God answered their question precisely.

And his answer is what we've spent the last few Sundays discussing. So you know, we've covered that in good detail.

All of this, all of the misfortunes that they were experiencing at this point, that being Israel, God's people, and that they had made them, it started to make them bitter toward God to the point of asking that question, how, even with the most simplest statement, the simplest statement of that,

I love you, I mean, doesn't get more foundational than that. Especially considering all of the literature they had,

I mean, they had the five books of Moses at this point, they had the historical books, they had,

I'm sure many of the prophets at this point as well. I mean, we've talked about kind of the linear historical timeline in our introduction.

And this was truly, you know, the last part of the Old Testament before, at least until John the

Baptist and Jesus came on the scene. And I guess technically finished up the Old Testament at that point. But this was the final

Old Testament prophet. So the people at this time, they've returned, they've been back in their homeland for 70 years, temple worship has been restored.

Nehemiah finished the wall, presumably at this point, he may have still been working on it, but it was close to being finished either way.

And they had all of their history, they had the books of Moses, they had Deuteronomy, they had everything they needed to remember why it was that God loved them in the first place.

And yet they still questioned even the most basic statement that God made.

And, you know, again, they were experiencing these misfortunes because of that. And not only that, but their misfortunes were the result, and not the cause of their disobedience in the first place.

God isn't going to let that disobedience slip, he's going to keep pointing it back out to them. And we looked at a passage of Deuteronomy early in the study that just laid all that out, you know, obey me, keep my commandments, keep my statutes.

And here's a myriad of blessings that is going to fall upon you if you do that. And then and we're going to get to this later in the study as well.

But in Deuteronomy chapter eight, I'm sorry, Deuteronomy 28. There's like 50, maybe 60 verses talking about what's going to happen if you don't obey me.

And it's really bad stuff. And it's like, well, go figure they're experiencing some hardships this time. But it's like they totally forgot about, you know, what

Moses laid out for them in Deuteronomy. But we're going to get to that later. But again, they question

God's love for them anyway, even though they have all that information. They don't have any excuse, but they questioned it anyway, in a fallen into the state of bitterness toward their

Lord, which of course will be illustrated more and more as we move through this book. Verse three says, and I hated

Esau. And the remainder of the verse, which we actually haven't read up to this point, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Now, in response to their questioning, of course, God answers it. He answers their questioning of him by stating,

Jacob, if I loved you, so have I hated. And then in the remainder of verse three there, after making the statement, and I hated

Esau, he goes on to kind of vindicate his claim of love for them by giving them that really stark contrast that we've talked about before.

We've talked about it in Obadiah. We've talked about the beginning of this study. He gives them, he illustrates his love by giving them that stark contrast, telling them he elected

Jacob and his descendants. We talked about this in detail the past few weeks and to inherit the promise, not his older brother

Esau. So he's just giving them, he's just reminding them of, he is reminding them of this reality once again, even though it's literally one of the oldest stories in the book, quite literally.

This is the same. Now this is interesting. And this kind of opens up a new rabbit hole that I'm going to avoid going down in full because then we'll continue to be kind of stuck in verse three for a little while longer.

But I do want to just give a snapshot of it. So the hatred, going back to that for just a minute, the statement, and I hated

Esau. This is the exact same hatred that David displayed toward God's enemies in Psalm 139.

If you guys want to turn there, I want to go just a few verses into this and show you guys an interesting parallel here and then open up some questions that I think are interesting.

So Psalm 39, I'm sorry, 139, starting in verse 21, and this is

David talking. This is very interesting. I've always found this passage pretty interesting.

David says, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am

I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred.

I count them mine enemies. Now, just really quick, the literal word hatred here, the

Hebrew word sane, I believe is how it's pronounced. It's the exact same hatred that was on display by God toward Esau in our

Malachi passage. So it's the Hebrew word sane. It literally means to hate in full.

And so that's what God was exhibiting toward Esau.

This is what David here is exhibiting toward those that hate God. And he says,

I count them mine enemies. Verse 23 continues, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.

This is where it gets a bit interesting. And see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is why I find it interesting. So first of all, as we know, actually, I'm going to save that for a second.

Okay. So David, I always tell my kids, you know, they'll say something like, you know,

I hate bugs or something like a roach crawls across the floor. Everyone freaks out and daddy has to come kill the roach or something.

I hate bugs or I hate being cold, you know, just some just casually throwing that out there.

And I always tell them, you know, hate is a strong word. I don't necessarily say don't ever say hate because there's appropriate context for it.

But I just remind them hate is a bit of a strong word. So maybe, you know, it's not the right word in that scenario.

And so here, David uses this very strong word in a, in probably the strongest sense that he could.

I hate them with a perfect hatred. We're going to look at that word perfect in a little bit. I hate them.

I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. So he makes this really harsh statement, this really strong statement.

And then he goes on to tell the Lord, search me out, know my heart, try me and know my thoughts.

So it's like, he says this. And then is like, Lord, you know that I'm sincere about this.

This isn't just some, what's the word I'm looking for?

You know, just on a whim. This isn't just some emotion I'm throwing out there because I'm feeling a little cranky today.

And you know, this is true. This is complete. This is a perfect hatred toward them. And you know that I'm being sincere about it.

Try my heart. Am I, you know, is there any wicked in me? See if there's any wicked in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

So we can gather not only from the fact that this of course is inspired to scripture.

And so we can gather just from that alone, that this, that David is being honest when he says this is a perfect hatred, but we can also gather it just from the context of David's in like real time conversation with the

Lord saying, you know, my heart, search me out. If there'll be any wicked in me, lead me to the way of everlasting.

If this is just some whims, just on a whim, emotion that, because I'm a little bit cranky today, you know, search me out, lead me to the way of everlasting.

But this is a perfect hatred. And those that hate you, I count them as my enemy. Okay. So again, without going too deep here, because it's a whole different topic that we could delve into.

I just want to quickly compare that. Well, let me, let me ask you guys really quickly, this number one, do y 'all think that David's hatred here was justified and kind of,

I guess a twofold question that it was truly perfect. Like, do you think that this was him just being emotional and maybe being a little too harsh in, in perhaps, uh, perhaps his hatred was just going too far or in this context, um, was it justified,

I guess is the best way to put it. What do you guys think about that? Okay.

That's an interesting thought. So pop pop is basically saying he's a man after God's own heart is his best friend.

Of course, he's going to count his God's enemies as his enemies and perhaps even hate them.

Is that too harsh? And then pop pops final point was, well, maybe it depends on where, how that hatred leads his actions now from, uh, just from a strictly human viewpoint in terms of the way humans are again, extremely emotional, brash jumping all over something based on emotion alone.

I would agree that if the hatred was the sole leader of his actions, it'd probably get pretty bad.

In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of any, but I'm sure in all of the stories that David, we have, there are probably some examples where that may have even happened.

However, there could also be instances where the hatred is pure and God is leading his actions.

Uh, and so I think that the, I think the key there would probably be as long as David is truly in tune with the

Lord and letting the Lord lead his actions while having, let's just say a pure hatred or this perfect hatred that he says here toward the enemies is just an underlying, um, driver of who he counts as enemies.

Personally, I think it's justified. And I think, I think he was in the right in this context to have, as he calls it, this perfect hatred toward God's enemies.

Um, when I read this, I think, yes, I think this is exactly how I want to be, or maybe even this is how

I am to some degree. Like I just can't stand these people out there that are just, I mean,

I don't even want to get into some examples. I mean, there's so many examples you can see of the grossness of the, of things that are happening, not only well in our country, which is especially depressing, but around the world.

And it's always been like that, but you can see people doing these, these gross things and using the Lord's name in vain and really particularly gross ways and blatantly, um, blatantly doing the opposite and being proud of the fact that they're doing the opposite of what we know to be his moral standards, all this kind of stuff.

And that can certainly boil up some emotions inside of any, uh, Christian, any follower of the

Lord, and it can maybe even lead to some hatred. And so when I read this, I think, yes, the hatred is justified.

You know, like I can have these strong feelings toward these people that are really bothering me right now and blatantly cursing it, uh, at our creator and our

God. Um, and, and so I, you know, I read this and I, dad and I actually recently had this conversation as well, because there have been times where, you know,

I've always liked the I've always liked the way that dad does this, uh, references this passage because he'll be all fired up up here.

And I've, he has gone to this and many different sermons, totally different topics and stuff where he's getting all fired up and something in there, uh, kind of proposes the question, you know, is it, is it bad to hate?

And then he references this passage where he says, well, David hated. Oh, I know what it is.

It's usually when he's talking about the whole, God hates the sin, not the center. Is that it?

Yeah. He hates the sin, not the center. Um, and then, and then dad will be like, well,

David hated, uh, those that hated God, you know, the people and he'll, he'll kind of flesh it out a little bit better than that.

And then he always follows it up with, with something like, uh, I'm kind of paraphrasing a little bit here, but it's something along the lines of, but maybe we have a higher standard.

And then he goes on and normally just brushes over it pretty quickly, but he references this passage all the time.

And I've always looked at this passage and I think, yes, that is justification, but let's quickly compare this with our, uh, perhaps a new standard, putting it in my words.

That's not exactly how dad has worded it before, but a new standard that was set before us because we are, of course, in a different time than David was.

So we have to remember, yes, God is immutable. He doesn't change, but he deals with people differently throughout all of the course of human history.

Um, obviously he's going to treat people after the garden of Eden differently than he did in the garden of Eden.

He's going to treat people differently after the flood than he did before the flood, uh, after the law than he did before the law.

And in our case, in this law, in this age of grace, differently from the age of the law, if you, if you will, or dispensation, however you want to put it.

So God is immutable, but he does treat humans and his people differently throughout the course of time, depending on the age of the dispensation, however you want to, however you want to put it.

Um, and so here we are, we find ourselves in what we call the church age or the age of grace.

Perhaps it's a little bit different for us than it was for David. Even if his hatred was pure and justified.

Um, there are many new Testament passages that touch on kind of the topic of hate, but again, without going all the way down the rabbit hole,

I just want to touch on one. And it's the, uh, it's the one that we would all most likely go to.

The apostles kind of reaffirmed this idea in other epistles, but Jesus in Luke chapter six, if you guys want to turn there, it's only,

I'm only going to read two or three verses, but if you guys want to read along, uh, Luke chapter six, verse 27 is where we'll start now again, compare this with what we just heard from David.

And I didn't really ask around too much. I don't, um, I think pop pop and I would be in agreement.

Perhaps all of us are, I'm not sure, but me personally, I think David was justified.

And I think in this context, not that all his hatred throughout his entire life was totally pure, but in this context, in this passage, it was a righteous hatred, if you will.

Um, so with that being said, let's compare that with the words of Jesus here,

Luke six 27, but I say unto you, Oh, and this is right after the Beatitudes, by the way, he does the

Beatitudes and he does a couple of woes for people that basically just live, want to live lavishly.

They, all they care about is gain in this life. They don't care at all about their spiritual wellbeing or the eternal.

Um, so he gives a few woes to those people. He just finished up the Beatitudes before that. And then here we are in this verse, but I say unto you, which here love your enemies, do good to them, which hate you, bless them that curse you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and to him that smited thee on the one cheek offer also the other in him that take it the way that I cloak forbid not to take that cloak also.

And again, this is, uh, you know, this is Jesus talking to a large group of people and this idea of, okay, perhaps don't hate your enemies the way that David was.

And I would say even righteously. So in Psalm one 39, rather than doing, rather than hating them, actually love them and bless them in any opportunity you have don't curse them, but bless those that are in turn cursing you.

And again, that a whole idea of that concept is reaffirmed by, by the apostles in later letters and stuff like that.

But while David's hatred again, which in his words was a perfect hatred, while I believe it was justified, we in, in this age, if you want to put it that way, have been given a higher standard by Jesus here.

And it really makes total sense if you think about it from the human viewpoint, because again, think about the fact that David was inspired by the

Holy spirit at this time. Um, when he wrote this and to pop pop's point,

I mean, he's the apple of God's eye. This is a very special individual in the, in the big picture of God's kids throughout all of history.

And so he was enlightened if you want to put it that way. Obviously, I mean, he repented so many of the inspired

Psalms and of course his life was, uh, in the historical books and all this amazing stuff. So he was enlightened in a way that most people, uh, the large majority of, of only

God, if I'm just looking at God's kids, not even all of humans, but just God's kids in the entire history of humanity, he could, he knew things that the large, vast, enormous majority of others will never have or won't see in this life, of course.

So we can't talk about us in this room, you know, everyone around us on the planet,

God's people, we can't know any person's heart. So it makes sense. The Lord can know everyone's hearts obviously, but we can't.

So it makes sense that Jesus would give us a higher standard to live by because we don't have all the information.

We don't know the hearts of the people around us who we're dealing with. Um, and as humans, as I alluded to a minute ago, we are very emotional group and we can let those emotions lead the way.

And the pop pops point earlier, when those emotions are leading the actions, it can get really ugly, really fast. And so if it, if we let our emotions go unchecked and we start letting hatred bubble up at these, about these people around us who we don't even know, and not only do we not know, but we especially don't know their inner selves, their hearts, the way that God knows their hearts.

It can make it very easy to let our untamed and in our case, unjustified,

I would argue hatred. Um, and when we, when we let that go unchecked that unjustified that untamed hatred, it can hurt people around us.

Obviously it can even hurt ourselves. Um, whereas God's hatred, when he says something like he saw, have

I hated, it's obviously a perfect hatred. And even David in this

Psalm, in this context, which is kind of a key phrase here, because I'm not saying David had a perfect hatred throughout his entire life.

But in this context, he apparently had a perfect hatred network. Perfect.

Um, that Hebrew word for perfect it, I, if I'm pronouncing this right, it's talk leaf. And it literally, it can mean perfection, or it can also mean just complete, like a complete, totally, um, um, just, just a totally complete hatred towards something.

And so in God's case, it's the same, um, the same case for him. And in God's case,

I would say it is both perfect and complete. And in David's case, it was at the very least a complete hatred.

Perhaps it was literally perfect as well. And so, um, yeah.

So what do you guys think about that just in general? So we have this case from David, but we also have this higher standard that we live up to.

What do you guys think about that idea? Because you, at first glance, you can look around, you can see people doing the worst things imaginable, dragging

God's name in the dirt in ways that make the turns your stomach. And so, first of all, would you guys agree with me that it's pretty easy to let hatred start swelling up, but number two, that that would be incorrect thing to let, take control of yourself.

Even in let's, let's just for a second, assume you are witnessing someone do the worst thing.

I'm going to give you a specific example. It's kind of a dramatic example, but, uh, there's, uh, there's a lady, um, and she's going to laugh at this because I used to talk about this all the time.

Noreen Irvine. I don't know if y 'all have ever heard of her before. Um, she has an unbelievable testimony, but before she was saved, she was known as the queen and not to get into too much detail here, because we have some little ones, but she was known as the queen of, uh,

I'm just going to put it this way of a specific coven in London, not to get into specific terminology, but she very like she was the leader of a world renowned group of ladies in London for many years.

If we witnessed her and the other women that were doing some of the things that she was doing in real time, would we not think that our hatred toward that would be toward that person would be justified in that moment?

Well, we could rationalize and we could say, of course it it's justified.

Of course, it's reasonable. Look at what they're doing right now. However, we have to remind ourselves of this standard.

Well, why would Jesus give us this standard when there's obvious gross sin going on? Why aren't we allowed to hate that and the actor of that?

Well, lo and behold, this lady named Doreen Irvine ended up being one of God's kids.

And she later went to a church service to disrupt the service and heard the gospel and ended up getting saved instead.

And she has one of the most unbelievable testimonies you've ever heard, both in terms of the salvation aspect of it, which of course is very edifying, very special, but another part of her testimony also is very enlightening in terms of the darkness of that side of humanity.

And she kind of gives it as a warning to her fellow Christians of certain things to take part in where you may not even realize what's behind it.

Anyways, that's all completely aside. She was one of God's kids. So of course, again, this illustrates why

God doesn't want us going out and just hating people based on their actions in that moment, because we may very well be hating a sheep that is lost, looking for the shepherd and just getting in all kinds of trouble and getting dirty in all kinds of ways along the way, unbeknownst to them, that they are one of God's kids and that he's going to be calling for them before we know it.

And so we don't know their hearts. It makes total sense that we are given this higher standard and that we're not allowed to just hate the person because of certain actions.

We need to love our enemies. Even when they're cursing us, we need to bless them. God knows their hearts.

Let's let him take care of business. Let's let him take care of all of that. And of course, if it is a true, let's say, goat that is out there just to hurt us, just to persecute us, and just to drag

God's name through the dirt until the moment they take their last breath, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. So even in that case, we don't need to be hating people.

Yes, ma 'am. Hmm. Yes.

I 100 % agree. And Michelle, who may not have been able to hear online, she's saying, okay, we're given this instruction to love them, but how, like, what's the appropriate way of doing that?

Does that necessarily mean just embracing them for who they are? And, you know, that's all that, which of course is a very common interpretation, by the way.

But Michelle's point is no. What we're not going to, we're not going to hate them.

We're not going to just spew verbal hatred or certainly not hateful actions toward them.

But it's not necessarily about embracing them either. In fact, we just happened to read a passage last week.

It was for a different context, but it's what you're talking about. Where is it? 2 Timothy 2 .24.

Servant of the Lord must strive not, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness.

So there's the key right there to Michelle's point. We're going to be telling them the truth.

We're not embracing their sinful actions. On the contrary, we are pointing out where they are wrong, but what's the key here?

It's not in hate. It's in meekness. In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God -feared venture will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

So it's all in God's hands. What we are meant to do and commanded to do here is to keep our emotions in check and to talk to them in meekness.

This is the way that you love your enemies. It's not embracing the gross sin at that time, but it is in meekness, being in gentleness, telling them the truth, telling them they are on a path to destruction.

What greater form of love is that than trying to pull someone out of that? To Spurgeon's point, we need to be on the ground, grabbing these people by the ankles until the very last moment and prayerfully asking for their salvation.

That's our job. The rest is God's duty, but he does tell us to instruct them in meekness.

Then, of course, it finishes with a bang and that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the devil. One of the most chilling verses in the

Bible, who are taken captive by him, talking about the devil, at his will. I couldn't agree more that not only are we given this instruction not to hate, but we also need to be diligent in loving in the right way too.

We know we need to love them, but what's the biblical way of loving those that are in the middle of doing sinful actions?

It's not embracing the actions, but it is instructing them in meekness and gentleness and all that.

Okay, so that is good stuff. Again, I mean, that is an interesting topic. We can go on and on there, but we'll keep moving forward here.

Okay, so back to verse 3 in Malachi. There's another important reason that God is giving

Israel this stark contrast between them and here we are talking about Edom again. We finished up the whole study of Obadiah that was all about Edom, and now we're talking about Edom, the nation again.

Talked about his specific hatred of Esau, the individual. Now we're back to Esau's lineage and the people, the nation of Edom.

Again, he gives us that stark contrast when he says, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

And in a second, in verse 3, it's going to, I'm sorry, in verse 4, it's going to start talking about Edom as a nation specifically.

So, let's see. God is giving Israel the stark contrast between them as a nation and Edom as a nation to show them that this is really, this is very important here, to show them that they could have been no better off than Edom and totally rejected like Edom, like the

Edomites, had God not elected them to and in his love.

So, let me say all that one more time. He's showing them here that they could have been the same as Edom, essentially.

Like, it's not about them playing their cards right. They played their cards just as poorly as Esau and the ensuing

Edomites. He's telling them that by no action of your own, by no part of your own, you are not like Edom because, and again, this goes back to the last two weeks we've been talking about, because I have elected you, have chosen you, it's synonymous, to my love and in my love.

He's giving them just one more illustration of that. Both Israel and Edom received judgment from God simultaneously at the 6th century

BC, at the hands of the Babylonians. So, we have historical examples where God's people are right in line with the rest of the heathen nations, and yet he pulls them out time and time and time and time again, where the heathen nations just go further and further and further into the destructive paths that they're on.

And so, when he's reminding them of this in verse 3, that, you know, the, how did he word it?

His mountains are laid waste. His heritage is laid waste for the dragons of the wilderness. He's saying that. It's like, look guys, you are now restored.

You are back in your homeland. You have your temple. You have it all. And where are the Edomites? That's kind of where he's getting at.

Go to Jeremiah 27 for a second. Okay, I just want to give you guys this historical example.

We're getting close to being done for the day, but this is just interesting to me. I mean, this is not, this is just an example of why

God's words here are so potent, or at least should be so potent, to his people. Why is this such a wonderful illustration?

Why does he always bring it back to the Edomites? You know, he uses the Edomites all the time to give that contrast, give that contrast.

So, why does he do that? To us, we just kind of read through it. We're like, okay, you know, there's a foreign nation compared with God's people, and here are the blessings of God's people, and here's this.

He always, he uses the Edomites in so many different occasions. He talks about them more than any other foreign nation in the

Old Testament. So, obviously, from the perspective of the people that are hearing this prophecy in Malachi, his people, this is obviously meant to resonate something in there.

Well, why is that? Again, they have what we're about to read. Jeremiah 27. I'm going to start in verse 2, and I'm just going to kind of read through this really quick.

I'm going to read like six or seven verses, again, just to show y 'all an historical example of why this is such a wonderful illustration from God in places like Malachi verse 3.

Starting in verse 2, thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bounds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck.

He's about to tell him who the nations, tell Jeremiah who the nations are that are going to be bound.

And send to them the first person, or the first one mentioned, the king of Edom. So, the

Edomites are the very first ones mentioned. Into the king of Moab, into the king of the Ammonites, and the king of Tyrus, to the king of Zidon, into the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem, and to the king of Judah.

So, God's people, Judah is wrapped right in there with all of these other heathen nations. Let's see what's about to happen.

Verse 4. And command them to say unto their masters, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the

God of Israel, thus shall ye say unto your masters, I have made the earth, the man, and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

Why on earth is that important for him to say? Well, we find out here in verse 6. He now tells them who he is now giving that power to for the time being.

And now have I given all these lands, all of those nations we just listed,

Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, a couple more. I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant.

This is a heathen king we're talking about here. This just solidifies the whole idea that Brother Otis kind of introduced.

I don't know if I'd say introduced, maybe introduced, but certainly just fleshed out in perfectly simple terms that everyone serves

God. In those that are not God's kids, they are there to put things on the shelves for God's kids.

Everyone serves God whether they know it, whether they want to, whether they know it or not, or whether they want to or not.

My servant Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen king of Babylon, and the beasts of the field, have

I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son.

So we're talking multi -generational that all these nations are going to be under the hand of the Babylonians here. Until the very time of his land come, and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

And it shall come to pass that the nation and the kingdom which shall not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will

I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hand.

So he's going to be using Nebuchadnezzar as the tool throughout this entire, that entire story, that entire portion of history.

And so there's no way out of this. Every nation, both including the

Edomites and Judah, are now under the hand of the

Babylonians. Okay, so that affirms our first point, both Israel and Edom received judgment at this time, this is just one example, simultaneous judgment from God.

Yet God repeatedly promised to restore Israel because of his promises to them, some of which we've already read in Deuteronomy early in this study, but he condemned

Edom to complete destruction, never to be restored again. Pretty big difference.

And again, it adds just more power to this statement of verse three, when he says, I hated

Esau, I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. And where are you? You are in your homeland.

Temple worship has been restored. You have a power of the

Persians technically at this time, but it's amicable or whatever, you know, like the leader of the

Persians was allowing them to do their thing, so to speak.

And so there they are in their homeland. Where are the Edomites though? That is why statements like verse three are so powerful.

And if you want to go read an interesting thing, go read Ezekiel 35 at some point, in that entire chapter is talking about the total destruction of Edom and the fact that they'll never be restored again.

I'm telling you, I'm like, he talks about Edom. He uses that as the example throughout all of the Old Testament. God that is.

Okay. Back to Malachi. Let's read the two more verses, but there'll be really quick and then we'll be done for the day and we'll be ready for our next section next week.

Malachi now verse four, whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished, impoverished.

How do you say that? Impoverished. Okay. We're impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.

Okay. So they recognize the fact that they have been overrun by a foreign nation. We talked about that in our study of Obadiah.

It was the Nabataeans. They came in and they tricked them because they were supposed to be allies and they ended up displacing them.

So they say, the Edomites that is, we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the

Lord of hosts though, they shall build, but I will throw down and they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the

Lord hath indignation forever. So there's not too many options for the Edomites. They can say they can try to do whatever they want, but no, like it is in game at this point in history.

The wicked land here, that phrase, it says, oh, it says the border of wickedness.

So that phrase kind of implying that their land is now the land of the wicked is also an interesting contrast with the concept of the holy land, which we know that the land of Israel was called that in Zechariah.

So that Israel's borders were the borders of blessing. You have Israel, whom

God loved and chose to set apart. And on the other hand, I'm sorry, on the other side, you have

Edom whom God had not chosen, but instead would destroy in his wrath. And again, you can go read the whole book of Obadiah, which we studied recently.

And it illustrates all that very stark contrast in verse five, and your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the

Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. So God is now showing

Israel through his sovereignty with Edom that they should have a better understanding, not only of God's love for them, which they denied in verse two, as we all remember, but also of his greatness over all the earth, because no enemy can overthrow his authority, even when it's being exercised through the tiny, seemingly minuscule nation of Israel.

It doesn't matter what they say, what they do. They are his portion.

And he's reminding them like, look, guys, you're over here whining.

You're over here complaining. You're questioning my love for you. Do you not recall that you,

I have preserved this tiny little segment of the earth, while I have literally just, at will, either laid waste to these massive nations, used the massive nations to lay waste of other massive nations.

All of this has been at play, and they don't know it. They are asking their fake gods what's going on.

And you all know that it's me behind all of what has happened, what has been playing out throughout all of human history.

And so he gives them that contrast one more time between them and Edom. So that finishes up the first kind of, again, natural section of Malachi, if you will, the love of God for his people.

And starting next week, we will dive into the topic of the sins of the priests. Temple worship has been restored, and they're kind of sort of going through the motions, but they're not doing such a great job at it.

So that'll be the next portion. We'll pick it up at verse 6 next week. Does anyone have any final thoughts or anything before we close?

Yes, that's exactly right. And that's why we were given, that's why we were given that, I believe, the higher standard in the first place, because we don't have all the information.

How can we hate someone if we don't, if we can't know their hearts, which of course we can't.

And that's why I wanted to use that illustration earlier, because we can look at certain examples of people doing terrible things. We may hate them the utmost, and that may very well be one of God's children that just hasn't, they have not found him yet.

He hasn't grabbed them with the crook of his, you know, shepherd's stick around the neck and dragged them back into the fold just yet.

So how could we be hating when we don't know who is who? And so yes, we can certainly hate the sin itself, the actions, and we're meant to.

We're supposed to hate sin and detest it and turn away from it, including our own, at any given point.

But we are told to love our enemies, and I believe it's for this very reason. It's because, like you said, it could, number one, hurt ourselves.

It could hurt those around us, and it could be people, it could be God's very servants, and we just don't know it yet.

But God, on the other hand, who does know hearts, and of course we talked about this last two weeks, that's why he can come out and justifiably say,

Esau, have I hated? Because he knows purely his heart and can have a pure hatred toward it and hate both the sin and the sinner in certain cases,

Esau being one of them. And so, but we can't do that. We're not God. And so that's a great point, and it's a good reminder because, like I said earlier, and I mean,

I'm talking to myself, it is very easy to let that hatred boil up inside you and let that lead thoughts and obviously emotions and things like that.

But we got to just trust the Lord that he's going to handle things, whether it be bring those people in or bring the vengeance for the terrible things they're doing at a later date.

So we have those promises. We need to have faith in those promises. Wonderful stuff. You guys have anything else?

Larry, would you mind dismissing us this morning in prayer? Thank you. Amen.