The Remnant in Malachi
A
Scriptural Introduction
In the book of Malachi, there were three
parties:
·
The Sinful
Priests (spiritual Leadership)
·
The Sinful
People (they called themselves “Christians”)
·
The Faithful
Few (REMNANT)
Let’s talk briefly about these three parties
and then will contemplate the Scriptures.
First, take note that the spiritual
leadership had sinned and gone down the broad road instead of seeking the Lord,
walking the straight and narrow, and prophetically beckoning the people to
follow. When you see faithful pastors, civil leaders, teachers, authors, and
other kinds of leaders—praise God and pray for them! Spiritual leaders have a
hard job, but when they go the wrong way, they literally lead the people of God
to dangerous mountain trails instead of following after the Master.
Second, notice the sinful people. God is not
talking about pagans, that is those who deny His existence, but rather those
who claim to be His people. Yet they have compromised! They are sacrificing
their children on altars! They have married pagan spouses! They have become
idolaters! They have erred in sexual immorality! They have called evil good and
good evil! They have lived for the present and forsaken Christ! And they have robbed God! Yet despite all
this . . . . they still consider themselves the people of God. They still call
themselves “Christians” and still hear the Word preached. They are dead
spiritually though they may look alive (Check out church in Sardis ).
Third,
the remnant. Notice in this short book of the Bible that there are a few, yes,
a few that have remained faithful to the Lord. Those that place their
relationship with God above all else fulfill the first and greatest commandment
and will be counted among God’s remnant. All of our own energies are to be spent on God (all my heart, all my
mind, all my soul, and all my strength) is to be spent on God. Then, God gives
me His Holy Spirit empowerment to love and serve others as if they were myself.
Ok, let’s dive in. Open up your heart to the Lord. Listen for the Holy
Spirit’s still small voice and read contemplatively:
Chapter 1
God's
complaint against Israel
1 The
burden of the word of the Lord to
Israel by Malachi. 2 I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not
Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord:
yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 4 Whereas
Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate
places; thus saith the Lord of
hosts, 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 for ever. 5 And
your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord
will be magnified from the border of Israel.
Of
their disrespect for religion
6 A
son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be
a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is
my fear? saith the Lord of hosts
unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised
thy name? 7 Ye
offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted
thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord
is contemptible. 8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it
not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it
now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?
saith the Lord of hosts. 9 And
now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been
by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts. 10 Who is there even among
you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire
on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an
offering at your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going
down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every
place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my
name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. 12 But ye have profaned it, in that
ye say, The table of the Lord is
polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. 13 Ye
said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it,
saith the Lord of hosts; and ye
brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought
an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord. 14 But cursed be the
deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the
Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is
dreadful among the heathen.
Mal 1:1-14
(KJV)
Chapter 2
He
reproves the priests for neglecting their covenant
1 And
now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. 2 If
ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, 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: yea, I have
cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. 3 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. 4 And
ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant
might be with Levi, saith the Lord
of hosts. 5 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. 6 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. 7 For
the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his
mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord
of hosts. 8 But
ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye
have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord
of hosts. 9 Therefore
have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as
ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. 10 Have
we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal
treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our
fathers? 11 Judah
hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a
strange god. 12 The Lord
will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the
tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. 13 And
this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch
that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good
will at your hand. 14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and
the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is
she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 15 And
did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one?
That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let
none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16 For
the Lord, the God of Israel, saith
that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment,
saith the Lord of hosts: therefore
take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. 17 Ye
have wearied the Lord with your
words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one
that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God
of judgment?
Mal 2:1-17
(KJV)
Chapter 3
Of
the messenger, majesty, and grace of Christ
1 Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. 2 But
who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for
he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 3 And
he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify
the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto
the Lord an offering in
righteousness. 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be
pleasant unto the Lord, as in the
days of old, and as in former years. 5 And I will come near to you to
judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the
hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside
the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. 6 For
I am the Lord, I change
not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Of
the people's rebellion
7 Even
from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have
not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein
shall we return? 8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye
are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole
nation. 10 Bring
ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house,
and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord
of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And
I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits
of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the
field, saith the Lord of hosts. 12 And
all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith
the Lord of hosts. 13 Your
words have been stout against me, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 14 Ye
have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? 15 And
now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they
that tempt God are even delivered. 16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the
Lord hearkened, and heard it,
and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. 17 And
they shall be mine, saith the Lord
of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man
spareth his own son that serveth him. 18 Then shall ye return, and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that
serveth him not.
Mal 3:1-18
(KJV)
Chapter 4
God's
judgment on the wicked
1 For,
behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of hosts, that
it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto you that fear my name
shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go
forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3 And ye shall tread down the
wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I
shall do this, saith the Lord
of hosts.
He
exhorts the people to the study of the law
4 Remember
ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all
Israel, with the statutes and judgments. 5 Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord: 6 And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Mal 4:1-6
(KJV)
