Book of Malachi - Ch. 2, Vs. 1-6 (02/19/2023)

We're going to go to Malachi, a brand new chapter today. Malachi chapter 2.

It's a brand new chapter, but we're still in the same section that we've been in for a little bit, which is all about the sins of the priests.

A lovely topic. It started around verse 6 of chapter 1, and it goes all the way through the 9th verse of the 2nd chapter.

So, again, new chapter, same topic, at least for a little while longer. And, of course, we finished last week with just...

Chapter 1 ended at verse 15. We kind of summarized getting up to that point.

The priests at this time, they were doing nothing to honor their Heavenly Father. They were offering polluted sacrifices, as we talked about in detail.

They found the Lord's altar contemptible, which we talked about in detail. And they were just burdened by their role as priests at this point.

They were doing certain things, but overall just burdened and didn't even really have the care to do anything about it.

So now, starting in chapter 2, we're going to find out what the Lord really thinks about the way the priests have been acting,

His disciplinary actions that He's about to take. Of course, we already kind of know how

He feels about it, because they've been thoroughly rebuked already up to this point. But, again, for the first time, we're going to see kind of, again, the actions that the

Lord takes, not just what He's telling them, not the verbal rebuke, but now physical rebuke as well.

So we'll pick it up at Malachi 2, starting at verse 1. And now,

O ye priests, this commandment is for you. So after the charges were made against the priests all the way up to this point, again, verses 6 -14 in the first chapter, they're now given a commandment.

And we'll find out what that commandment is here in just a second, but essentially it's to honor

God. It's to return back to the priestly reverence that should have been there all along.

The tribe of Levi we're supposed to have as a people, but certainly as the high priests, the priests, the ones that were actively going through the commands of proper temple worship and all this kind of stuff.

So they're given this commandment here. In verse 2, it says, If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart, and here's the commandment, to give glory unto my name, saith the

Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.

We're going to break several of these phrases down in just a second. Yea, I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart.

So first of all, that first phrase, to give glory unto my name, We talked about this particular

Hebrew word earlier in the study, but it can also be translated as honor. So honor is what the

Lord is asking for, what the Lord is actually commanding, as we now know. This is a commandment at this point.

He's not asking for anything. He's commanding it. And it is to glory His name, which of course is

Him, to honor Him. And then when

He says, I will even send a curse upon you, I will curse your blessings. We'll take a look at the blessings specifically in a second.

And then I have cursed them already, He says, because you do not lay it to heart. So we kind of found out in chapter 1, it was already kind of alluding to the fact that God Himself, there were curses coming upon His people, but certainly the priests directly from His hand, which was contributing to the hardships that was kind of causing a lot of their whining in the first place.

But it wasn't for nothing. It was a result of where they were at spiritually leading up to this point.

So the commandment is to give glory to His name, to honor God. So how are they going to do that? How are they going to honor or give glory to God?

Well, essentially, they need to start doing the exact opposite of what they've been doing, which we learned all about again, verses 6 through 14 in the first chapter.

And by living up to the proper standard, the true standard of a priest, which

God is going to lay out for us here in just a couple of verses in this chapter as well. So they need to totally reverse course.

We were given great detail as to how they were going about their business in the first chapter.

Absolute opposite of how they should have been conducting themselves. So they need a reverse course there, and they need to live up to the standard that the

Lord gave them, which we'll cover shortly. Now, failure to honor the Lord at this point would obviously result in their experiencing of a curse.

And, of course, like I said a second ago, this was first alluded to back in the last verse of the first chapter.

He said, cursed be the deceiver. So the Lord was already kind of hinting at this. But he's about to go into even more detail as to what exactly these curses are.

So, first of all, the Mosaic covenant had, which the priest at this time, still in the

Old Testament, still 100 percent needing to keep everything that Moses had laid before them many centuries prior that their fathers were supposed to have passed down.

The Mosaic covenant had included curses for those who disobeyed the law. And these curses were concerned with the people's physical, mental and their material well -being.

It literally covered all the bases so that you can imagine when they found themselves in this particular state, which had been many years coming, as we've talked about before, they were in a really bad spot because they were experiencing all these things.

But again, it wasn't just it wasn't necessarily well, it wasn't random at all. It was a result of what we're about to read.

So go to Deuteronomy, chapter 28. We're going to spend a little bit of time there this morning.

And. Yeah, we're actually going to read quite a few verses here. Deuteronomy, chapter 28.

So the question is, were their complaints, were their annoyances and.

What everyone like just the state they found themselves in, again, totally irreverent, not even caring.

Was all of that justified? Again, we talked about it in our intro. I mean, they had been under the rule of the

Babylonians for I can't remember how long, but for quite a while. And it was a devastating exile.

And we you know, that was what all of Jeremiah's limitations were about was the beginning of that story.

And so we know that it was really rough. Well, then we have the cool part of the story where, you know, you got

Nehemiah going back to build the wall. You've got Zerubbabel and Joshua going back to rebuild the temple.

And all of that has been done at the point of Malachi. Temple worship has been restored, all these awesome things.

But it's now been 70 years. They still don't have their kingdom, at least the way that they were promised by all the prophets prior.

Still waiting on their Messiah. They're still under the rule. Now, not of the Babylonians anymore, but now one of the Persians.

We've talked about all that. So were their complaints and their whining and their just depression, whatever it was, was it justified?

Well, let's read this chapter or at least a little bit of this chapter and figure out why exactly they were experiencing what they were experiencing.

So chapter 28 starts the first 15 verses or 14 verses talk about the basically the unbelievable amount of blessings that they'll get.

Super simple stuff. Obey me. Obey my commands. And then it lays out a number of incredible blessings that would come upon them if they would do that.

But then that's about 14 verses. Then it goes on for well over 50 verses on what will happen to them when they do the opposite of all of those things.

So let's pick it up at verse 15. I'm not going to read the entire chapter because, again, it's like 60, 70 something verses.

But just enough for us to kind of get the flavor of what is happening now in Malachi and why.

I'm just going to read through this so y 'all can read along with me. Deuteronomy 28, 15. But it shall come to pass if that will not hearken unto the voice of the

Lord thy God. So, again, this is direct contrast to what he just finished talking about, which was if you do hearken unto my name.

Blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing. Unbelievable things. It's the greatest story ever told.

And then you get to verse 15. If you do not hearken unto my name, unto the voice of the Lord, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which

I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. So here come the curses.

And we already know in Malachi one or more of these curses are upon them already.

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shalt thou thy basket and thy store.

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep.

Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me.

The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whether thou goest to possess it.

The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with the blasting, and with the mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust, from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies, thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and thou shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

And thy carcass shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emrods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart, and thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein.

Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and thou shalt not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof.

Thine ash shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shalt not be restored to thee.

Thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day."

Oh, I'm sorry. I split that up. "...and fail them all the day long, and there shall be no might in thy hand.

The fruit of thy land and all thy labors shall a nation which knoweth not eat up. Thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always, so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with sore botch that cannot be healed from the sole of thy foot into the top of thy head."

And I'll finish here. "...the Lord shall bring thee and thy king, which thou shalt set over thee, into a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone."

And it goes on for like another 20 some odd verses. And if you had zero context, you just started reading this, you would think

God was talking to His arch nemesis with everything that He just laid out here.

Unbelievably terrible curses. And, of course, the detail. Zero. I mean, talk about covering your bases.

You know, things that you would never think about in parting on your worst enemy are all laid out there from God to His people under the condition, as it starts, if that will not hearken into the voice of the

Lord by God. So a couple of things. First of all, again, it laid out a ton of curses there. We'll get to the specific curse that the priests of Malachi, the people of Malachi, are under at this time.

But Moses lays all this out in absolute detail. And obviously a number of centuries have unfolded between Deuteronomy and Malachi.

But the severity behind this message, you would think that not only was it to be passed down verbally, but it was in writing.

You know, you've got to ask, what were the state of God's people? And, of course, we know that they just continually rolled into the state of wickedness throughout the

Old Testament. They maybe would have a revival for a few years and then would roll back into several more decades of wickedness.

But how could you let your generations fall into this when it was given to you? And so,

I mean, that was on a lot of the people. Obviously the individuals were held responsible, the priests at the time of Malachi that were written.

But think about their forefathers that weren't giving them this message either. And if they were, they must not have believed it because I don't think they would have found themselves again in the state they were in if they took it to heart, if they even read it in the first place.

Okay, so that's all pretty crazy stuff. So now here we are back in Malachi. We find ourselves, or the priests find themselves, under at least one of these curses, if not more.

Now, in this case, we are given a glimpse at least one of the specific areas that this curse affects.

And we'll get to more as we go throughout the book because there are some that aren't specific to the priests. This one is interesting though because, and it tells us in verse 2, it's directed to the priests but by extension to everybody else.

And this particular curse is affecting, as it says in verse 2, their blessings. I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.

So because of their heart's condition at this time, their attitudes, of course, we talked a lot about that last week.

It started with just irreverent actions, but the latter part of chapter 1 started talking about their attitudes toward God.

Because of their attitudes, because of their hearts, the curse was already in effect. As it says, I have cursed them already at the end of verse 2, even before they start receiving the details of that curse from the

Lord. So they're just now finding out about how, in fact, the Lord is cursing them, even though the curse had been put on them already.

Now the blessings here aren't necessarily restricted to the priests, at least like as individuals.

The priests had their own individual blessings, their own tithes, the way that they were able to make ends meet while they were performing the duties of the

Lord. Of course, their inheritance was the Lord himself. All these things. The Levites, the priests, as individual men, each had their own special blessings.

But I believe in this context here, the people, all of the

Israelites, were also blessed through the priests and through the duties they were performing.

If they were performing them well, the people would be blessed from the Lord. Well, at this point, at least

I assume that given the passage that we find this in, it's talking about the blessings that are imparted,

I believe, to all of the Israelites at this time through the priests. Now, could it be their individual blessings too?

It's probably all the above. But we're given this kind of succinct, very concise book where it doesn't go into tons of detail into all of these things.

It just says, I will curse your blessings. Well, I don't know. I think it's safe to say that that is by extension the blessings of the people as well.

But certainly we can definitely conclude the priests' blessings are getting cursed here. And again,

I think it'll become more clear later as well that the people are being cursed through the priests as we get to some later passages.

Now, this is interesting. Turn to Titus 1 for a second. Again, Malachi is fantastic.

I love going through these books just for the sake of going through these books. But what's crazy is you go through it and you realize how much there in these minor prophets that I'll just speak for myself for a second, did not give hardly any attention to all of my life leading up to the last couple years, really the last year, how practical these little books can be.

You know, Obadiah, when we went through that, we talked about the parallels between the Edomites and the heathen that are around us today.

And the fact that, yes, it can be a little bit depressing, but it's all in the Lord's hands. This is how we dealt with the

Edomites. And then he even talked about how he'll deal with the collective heathen later on. So we were able to find some cool things in Obadiah that are directly applicable to us today.

Well, here in Malachi, you remember we talked about chapter one. We spent several weeks on that verse 11, talking about the

Gentiles and the prophecy that that was talking about. We brought in those passages from Romans.

So the warnings that the priests are getting at this time, they can be applied.

Those same warnings can be given to us as Gentiles in this age as well. We talked about all of that. Well, here,

I believe, is another thing that we can pull from this passage in Malachi and apply to at least people today, if not even our own.

In this age, even in this age, we're given a warning to watch out for men of this type, the priests that we've been talking about in detail.

And if you want to look at this from the human viewpoint for just a second, you could say by implication we're given a warning to not be like these guys ourselves.

Now, I say ourselves. Again, I'm talking about churchgoers, people that proclaim the name of the

Lord today in real time. This could be a warning not only against people, teachers like the priests of old now, and I'll tell you where I'm getting this from in just a second, but also, again, by implication for us not to be like this ourselves as well.

So we can apply this warning to present day. Titus 1, starting in verse 10, it says,

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.

So Paul here is giving Titus a warning that, look, the people that you are going to be surrounded by especially can be unruly.

They can be vain talkers. They can be deceivers. And, of course, Titus at this time was surrounded by Jews that may have even been proclaiming that they were going to be followers of Jesus.

But as Paul rebuked several times, Galatians and other places trying to bring the works in with it.

And so I think that's who Paul is also talking about here in this warning to Titus. Now, it's interesting that he says deceivers because in Malachi, in our passage in Malachi, it said, cursed be the deceivers.

And he was talking directly to the priest. So it's the same kind of people. But here we are after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We're now in the church age when Paul is giving Titus this warning. And so we can certainly pull from that.

And, I mean, you can ask dad. There's groups of people. And Mimi was telling me about this the other day, too.

Just this kind of new phenomenon. At least it's new to me. And Mimi said it was to her. Maybe not so new to dad.

But of these pockets of people, even in tiny towns like Mahia, where they're trying to bring the works of the law in with the age of grace.

Like, yeah, we're saved by grace and by Jesus' blood. But we've got to be doing the law as well.

And so we know this is a fight that we are still – a battle we're still having to fight even now.

But the people are emulating these priests we're learning about in Malachi. Go figure. So, again, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.

I believe that could be applied to just Gentile false teachers as well.

I mean, in this context, Paul is telling Titus, the people you're surrounded by are going to be Jews that will claim to be following Jesus but will be bringing the law in.

Well, think about us in our context. If Paul were talking to us right now, maybe we are not surrounded by these types of people that Titus was, but surrounded by quote -unquote

Christian denominations that are bringing works into it because we know that they are just as guilty of that as anybody.

So many, if not all of the denominations, certain sects of almost every denomination is guilty of that at this point,

I would presume. And so, you know, think about it in that context as well as far as the situation we find ourselves in, the people that we're surrounded by at times.

Verse 11 says, Whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole houses. This is really crazy stuff.

Teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. So it's all about gain, whether that be monetarily speaking.

We talked about this a little bit last week. Maybe it's even just societal gain. Maybe there's no money in it involved. Again, in this context, it is.

But think about the people we're surrounded by reclaiming the name of the Lord, maybe even putting themselves in a teaching position, and they're in it for nothing more than looking awesome to their peers in the

Bible Belt. I don't know. But there's people all, I mean, you don't even have to be in the Bible Belt. There is societal gain all throughout the country in being churchy and maybe even being a church leader when there's nothing in it.

You're in it for nothing more than your personal gain. Verse 12. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said,

The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true.

Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth.

Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure.

Who does that sound like? It sounds just like our priests in Malachi. But we're all the way well into the church age at this point.

But even their mind and conscience is defiled. You know, we asked the question,

How could the priests of Malachi get to the point, get to the state they were in, especially with the information they had? Like we just read in Deuteronomy?

Well, perhaps it's because their mind and conscience was defiled, just like the various sacrifices they were offering.

Verse 16 says, They profess that they know God. So there is a big key right there.

And again, this is what we were talking about when we brought in the whole passage in Romans. We were talking about cutting off the natural branches, grafting in the wild.

But you better be careful because he might cut off the wild branches and regraft in the original. Well, who is he talking to there?

He's talking to people, Gentiles in the church age, that profess that they know God. They are using his name behind the way they are living their lives.

Well, if they're living their lives in a defiled way, they could be broken off, just like the natural branches were, which, by the way, defiled his name as well.

It was the same thing. It was just different groups of people. They profess that they know

God. If you are going to do that, whether you are a true believer or not, you are held to the same standard.

If you're going to be professing his name and you are going to be in big trouble if you don't start living up to the standards that he gives us in the

New Testament. I'm not even talking about the standards the priests are having to live up to. They profess that they know

God, but in works they deny him, being abominable. We don't want to be like that, but that's what the people are like that do this.

In disobedience, it's interesting that disobedience is always an ingredient in these kinds of areas.

To every good work, reprobate. Just like we talked about at the end of our last lesson, the circumstances may have changed from the time of Malachi to the time that the church age began.

Obviously, God is dealing with his people differently. They were living under the law. Here we are, at least in this passage in Titus, where we are living right now, again, present day in the church age.

The times have changed, but God's disapproval of these actions hasn't, and it will never change.

So, if you were going to emulate the way these priests are acting in Malachi, the punishment will be very similar, if not the same.

And as we know, thanks to the information that Paul just gave us, it is possible to find yourselves in that state, even in the age of grace, when

I put it in quotes because of the people that use it as an excuse to do whatever.

Obviously, we are in a legitimate age of grace, but it's a fake version of it when people are using that to maybe profess the name of the

Lord and then live no different than the rest of the heathen, or what have you. So, let's go back to Malachi.

And, again, this is the stuff that can be applicable to our time. These warnings don't have to be restricted to these ancient priests in this somewhat obscure book.

It's actually kind of eerily similar to certain situations we can find ourselves in today, certain people we can find ourselves surrounded by, depending on what church you're going to, what area of the country you're living in.

You might very well have so -called teachers that are just as defiled, vain talkers, deceivers, all these things that were just laid out by Paul and that, again, is in direct emulation of these priests.

You could find yourself in a situation like that. So, again, it's not restricted to that time. Verse 3 in Malachi 2, it says,

Behold, I will corrupt your seed. He's talking about the priests again. This is still God talking about His disciplinary action toward these priests.

Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts, and one shall take you away with it.

Now, this is an interesting little verse. It sounds a little bit intense. The priests here, first, they were given two warnings, and I don't see how they're connected, but they're given in the same sentence, the same flow of the

Lord just laying all this out. First, they're warned of a rebuke that would fall also against their seed.

So He says, I will corrupt your seed. Now, the Greek word zara,

I'm sorry, the Hebrew word zara for seed there, it can mean seed like maybe seeds they would go out and sow for their own well -being, their own crops or whatever it may be, but it also can mean offspring, and most of the time it's referring to offspring.

And so considering that they are essentially being threatened with being totally removed from this office that they have found themselves in and should be blessed to be in, that being the priests, from their position and their responsibilities, kind of given that context, it indicates that he's talking about corrupting their very literal descendants here.

And so that's how he starts verse 3. I will corrupt your seed, the generations of your offspring that will follow.

But then he moves on to this next part. And the Lord then says that He would spread on their faces the dung from their own solemn, festive sacrifices.

And so they have their feasts, as He puts it in verse 3 here, their solemn feasts that they get all excited about, and they put so much time into, and they have these festive sacrifices that they would sacrifice, that they would do when these feasts would come around.

And now he's saying that, you know, I'm literally going to take these feasts that are so solemn to you that you guys hold in such high regard and embarrass you through that process.

The dung, of course, we know this from Exodus and I think Numbers as well, the dung would always be discarded.

Remember how it would always talk about the sacrifices? And then there were certain parts of the animal that they would put to the side and then take without the camp to burn.

And so the dung of the sacrifices was one of the things that had to be discarded, taken all the way outside of the camp, and then handled appropriately there.

It was supposed to always be discarded. So what the Lord is saying here is that He's going to do this to them.

He's going to take the dung from their solemn feasts, the sacrifices of their solemn feasts, spread it on their faces, and then they will be carried away or discarded with it.

As He says at the end of the verse, one shall take you away with it.

Listen to this verse 8. Y 'all don't have to go here. I'll just read it really quick, but this is Deuteronomy 18 .3.

It says, And this shall be the priests do from the people, from them that offer sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give unto the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw.

So this is like the priest. It lays out what will be the priest's portion for them to live off of as they go through the duties of their office, of their responsibilities in the sacrifice itself.

The shoulder, two cheeks, and the maw. I had to look that up because this particular verse was a reference in one of the commentaries

I was reading, and I was reading it, and I was like, what's significant about this with verse 3 of Malachi?

Well, the maw is talking about the stomach. That's the stomach of the animal itself. So interestingly, you have these sacrifices that the priests were given, and they would take their portion, and they would go on and do their solemn feasts or whatever it may be.

But the maw of these sacrifices, again, was to be their portion for the priests. In Malachi, the Lord is indicating that He'll take the dung that's in the maw or the stomach of these sacrifices on the feast days, cast it upon their faces, and of course that would have led to total humiliation.

And it sounds super intense, but the purpose of Him admonishing the priest in this way and doing something so drastic and so explicit and something that would be obviously repulsive to anybody was to literally purify the priests at this time and kind of set the tone here, let them know how serious

He is about all this stuff. Because again, the priests are well aware of how all this works and what it means to be clean and what it means to be utterly dirty.

And so they have these very specific processes in terms of the sacrifices and how they separate the unclean from the clean and what they do with the unclean part.

And the Lord is just like, I'm going to throw it all over you. If this is what it's going to take to get you guys to take me seriously, this is what

I'll do. He's admonishing them in this way, again, to purify the priesthood so that His covenant with Levi could continue.

Because at this point, they were well beyond the point of no return. Everything they had been doing, and we're going to get to a passage eventually, probably not today, literally the penalty for everything they had done up to this point was death.

So they were well beyond the point of no return. And yet we have the

Lord here, go figure, showing some mercy, showing some grace, rather than just killing them,

He's going to purify them, or at least through these warnings, through these messages

He's giving them, let me be precise with the way I say this here, from our viewpoint, attempt to purify them.

Now, I know He doesn't attempt anything. The reason I even put it in those terms is because we know the end of the story here.

We know that we're about to get 400 years of the Pharisees and the Sadducees leading up to Jesus. So these warnings, they did not heed, and they obviously were held responsible for that.

But the Lord, again from our perspective, it's like He's giving them one more chance. And He's laying out these very explicit, very detailed punishments that He's going to be giving them if they do not turn back to Him and start living up to the standard they should have been.

And so He's essentially, again from our viewpoint, attempting to cleanse or to purify the priesthood.

And you can imagine that in hearing this, they might start taking

Him seriously. And maybe they do for a short time. We'll maybe glean a little bit more info on how all of this comes into play in the immediate term for these people at the end of the book.

But again, we know long term, not so much. Really, really crazy stuff.

Again, we're about to get to a point that cultivates and ushers in the

Pharisees and everything. So really crazy stuff. Do you guys have any comments or anything so far?

Because I have not. I've just been talking a million miles an hour. I just think it's interesting.

You know, Hebrews, things that are made are made of things that we're not seeing.

And there always seems to be a physical manifestation of a spiritual problem. It's almost like God's saying, look, you spiritually look terrible, so I'm going to give you a physical picture.

I'm going to make you look as dirty as I know you are. Well, and again,

I think that's why he makes a point at the end of chapter 1 of Malachi to start talking about their attitudes.

And we kind of hit on this a little bit last week. Let's say hypothetically for a second, they weren't doing any of the physical defilement that they had been doing with the sacrifices, with finding the altar contemptible, with their actions.

What if they were hypothetically going through the motions according to the law they were given? Would it be any different if their hearts were still in the state that they were in at this time?

Which, again, that's kind of where we're at right now is their attitudes, their hearts. And I think the answer would be no, it wouldn't be any different.

Because the Lord knows the heart and the heart. I mean, this is why Moses, the giver of the law, told him you need to circumcise your heart as well.

It's not just about going through the motions. And so, yeah, to your point, Dave, they were not doing that.

Even if hypothetically they were doing all of the physical things the right way, the Lord knew their hearts. He knew how dirty they were.

And so he was going to make them physically dirty, at least warning them that he would make them physically as dirty as he knew they were internally as well.

So that is an interesting point. We definitely, pictures are definitely very potent to the human race.

I mean, think about the parables of Jesus. I mean, all the allegories, not even allegories, analogies.

I mean, in some cases it's an allegory, but in some cases just an analogy of this is actually how it works. Let me use this like we did in Romans 11 a couple weeks ago.

Because, again, the pictures can be very potent. So it makes sense that the Lord is taking this approach. Really crazy stuff.

Well, let's see here. We've got just a couple minutes. Let me do a couple more verses. It says in verse 4,

And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you. Remember, we've been talking about this commandment, that is, to honor

God. And if not, you will reap the consequences. Ye know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the

Lord of hosts. He's giving them this commandment, and he's telling them now, look, I have this covenant with Levi. And he says in verse 5,

I'll just keep reading. My covenant was with him of life and peace. And I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name.

So he's like, guys, I'm giving you this commandment. Because this covenant that I have with Levi, with your forefather, with the patriarchs of this specific tribe, the duties that come with this tribe, the special blessings that come with this tribe, this is serious stuff.

And that's why I'm giving you this commandment. You have to honor my name. You have to give glory to my name.

Which, I mean, again, he's essentially saying you need to honor me, the person.

But they're not doing that. But he tells them why he's taking this so seriously, that my covenant might be with Levi.

And then verse 5 is super interesting. My covenant was with him of life and peace.

And I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. Now, the covenant with Levi, again, it's discussed in a little bit of detail here.

We know that Levi is used. It's the tribal name. It's used to represent all of them, the collective descendants of Levi.

And, of course, a big portion then made up the priest. Well, all of them made up the priestly class of Israelites.

But there were some kind of subclasses within there. Obviously, you had the high priests, then the priests themselves, and then other

Levites that had other duties. That's kind of the hierarchy, right? Yeah, Dad? Aaron and Moses were both the descendants of Levi, right?

Levi being the son of Jacob, the tribe of Levi. And then

Moses and Aaron. I thought they were Levites too. Maybe I'm wrong. But, yeah, they're descendants of Aaron, obviously the first high priest.

And there are certain kind of subclasses within the Levites.

But you have the Levites as a total being the priestly class. But the phrase here in verse 5, where it says, of life and peace, is very specific.

I actually saw this footnote in my Schofield Bible and went and looked. And this is really, really cool.

I'll end with this. But what this phrase seems to be referring to is a specific covenant made with a specific person.

He's talking about Levi as a tribe, but with a specific person within the priesthood here.

So go to Numbers really quick. Numbers 25. And, again, we'll end with this. Numbers 25, starting in verse 10.

So, again, the Lord is laying out what He's going to do to them. These warnings, these disciplinary actions.

He stops for a second, and He says, The reason I'm giving you this commandment is that my covenant might be with Levi, because my covenant with him was of life and peace.

So now let's go to Numbers 25, starting in verse 10. It says, So, to Dad's point, we're given the genealogy here.

We know where this is coming from. This is the direct descendant of Aaron. So, at this time, we find the

Israelites in a place where the Lord was very upset with them to the point where He was contemplating, again, from our viewpoint, just consuming them altogether.

And we know there were several occasions where Moses would go, Lord, please remember your covenants with us.

I know they're stiff -necked people, but show us some mercy. Well, now we're in another one of those cases where Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, was very zealous toward the

Lord. And because of that zealousness—or that zeal. Zealousness is not a word.

Because of that zeal, God kind of turned his heart back toward the people.

Pick it up at verse 12. This is exactly what he was just talking about in Malachi.

So now we're talking about priests, the descendants of Phinehas here, the priests, which, of course, go all the way up to Malachi.

He shall have it in his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his

God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. So this is really interesting.

Yeah, go ahead, Dad. Okay, so in Malachi, when it's talking about the tribe of Levi, it's kind of talking about the priests, right?

Just in general. Going all the way back, kind of the collective tribe.

And he's saying, my covenant might be with Levi. My covenant was with him. So now he starts talking about—he starts putting it kind of in the singular, with him of life and peace.

And that's when I saw this footnote in Schofield that goes to this passage in Numbers, because it mirrors this covenant he made between him and this individual guy,

Phinehas, who is essential—I mean, he's, again, the grandson of Aaron. So we're talking about the direct line of the high priest here.

And he makes this covenant with him where he was about to cast them away, about to consume them, but because of his zeal, he re -solidified this covenant and says,

I will make this a covenant of life and of peace and toward his seed after him. So unlike the priests at the time of Malachi, Phinehas here actually revered

God. He had this zeal, this proper zeal toward him, which is what

Malachi is now— or the Lord through Malachi here is trying to point the priests back to, this state of reverence, having a loving fear for the

Lord or of the Lord, which at this time they had totally lost.

As we know, this is the state they were in.

It says in verse 6 of Malachi, the law of truth was in his mouth. Again, I believe, at least according to the scope— and I checked a couple of other commentaries as well, and they all go back to this

Numbers passage where the Lord is talking practically face -to -face with Phinehas here. So in that context,

Malachi 6—I'm sorry, verse 6 says, the law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips.

He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity.

So that right there is the standard that the Lord was bringing back to the attention of his priests. This is how they should have been operating this whole time.

But unfortunately, they lost their way many times, but by the time you get to Malachi, it's like in totality.

So that's where we'll leave it off today. We'll end in verse 6 of chapter 2. Do you guys have any other comments or thoughts before we dismiss here?

Yes, ma 'am. I think if someone's having zeal for God, I think to me the opposite of that, barring going completely away from God and falling into demonic worship and that sort of thing, is complacency.

And I think what they were going through and what they fell into, the sin that they fell into, started probably with complacency, and it does with us too.

Sure. And when we become complacent with them, probably, and we're resting in their lineage, and with us, we're resting grace.

Yeah, that's a good point. And so when we become complacent because of the iniquity that God has discovered with grace and iniquity has, we lack zeal for God because we're resting in it and not doing the work.

Sure. Well, that's an interesting comparison. And what Mimi said, just in case it didn't get picked up for those listening as well, these priests, they were resting easy in this lineage that they found themselves a part of by no work of their own, obviously.

They were born into it. And from their perspective, they just reaped the benefits. They had these responsibilities, but with them came blessings.

And obviously, they found themselves in an area of importance as well. Because of their lineage, to Mimi's point, they just became totally complacent with the wickedness that started permeating the people, and eventually them as well, perhaps even them first.

Again, Malachi kind of seems to imply that it started with them, but I don't know that for sure.

And the rest is history for them. But what about for us in this age? Well, we can easily do the same thing because, again, going back to the age of grace, for people that want to not change their lifestyles at all, but still feel like they have something to stand on when they proclaim the name of the

Lord in their own profession of faith and all these things, it's just grace. Grace covers it all.

I can kind of go on with life. Again, I'm not saying that I'm going to doubt anyone's profession of faith, but we are told that you can know them by their fruit as well.

So if you have somebody that, again, as we saw in the Titus passage, is going to profess the name of the Lord and then goes off and bears really ugly, wicked fruit, then that is something that they're going to have to deal with the ramifications of because that is something

God takes very seriously. If you're going to throw my name out there, you better be living up to my standards. Yes, you are saved by grace.

You didn't deserve it at all. But you represent me.

You represent my name. If it's the father talking, you represent my son, according to the name that you profess, and you represent the testimony of maybe the church that you're a part of.

But you don't get to live however you want to and then throw my grace, my attribute of grace, as a rationale for doing so.

Yes, ma 'am. Interesting.

Right. Right. I mean, as Brother Myron always talks about, we're his kingdom down here.

We're supposed to be doing his work, not whatever we want to do and then saying that we can do that because of grace. We're supposed to be doing his work down here because, not because he needs us, but because he wants to work through us and all that good stuff.

But yes, I love the point you made. The priests find themselves complacent because of their lineage. We can find ourselves complacent because of grace.

But we can glean from this warning, extrapolate it all the way out to ourselves, and use that to stay on the straight and narrow.

That, of course, the most important ingredient is relationship with the Lord. But there's a lot to it for sure.

All righty, guys. Well, we're a little bit past the hour, so I guess we'll go ahead and dismiss. Matt, will you dismiss us please?

We're here this morning together to learn more about you and how to serve you and do your work here at your children,

Lord. Please be with us for the next service and for the special and all of us fellowshipping here for lunch.