The blame game
We all from time to time play the “blame game”. Our natural response is to blame others for our misfortunes or for the way that we are or the regrettable circumstances that we find ourselves in.
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Bad teachers, parents and presidents
We had a bad teacher, that’s why I didn’t do well in the exam. It’s our parents’ fault that I’m the way that I am. I can’t help it. It’s the way they brought me up.
In the U.S. the Democrats have been looking for who to blame for their devastating loss in last week’s election. Joe Biden is the one that many Democrats are blaming for all their problems. If only he had stepped down earlier. Kamala Harris might have stood a chance. Others are blaming the economy and what’s been referred to as post-pandemic headwinds. But what they perhaps need to do is to have a long hard look at themselves as a party.
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The problem with playing the game
The problem with playing the blame game is that you often overlook how you’ve contributed to the problem, and you don’t take responsibility for how you’ve influenced your own story. What often we need to do is to first have a long hard look at ourselves and what we might have done that could have contributed to us ending up in the situation that we’ve found ourselves in.
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An old pattern of behaviour
Of course, it is a pattern of human behaviour that has been there since the garden of Eden. When God confronted Adam and asked him whether he had eaten from the tree that he had specifically commanded him not to eat from, the first thing that the man did was to blame the woman and in a not-so-subtle way ultimately blame God. The man said that it was the woman that you put here with me (see Genesis 3:12). Effectively, he was saying that it was God’s fault.
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The people of Malachi’s day were playing the game
This morning, I want to suggest to you that the people of God in the prophet Malachi’s day were also playing the blame game. Things were not going well for the people of God in the 5th century BC (the four hundreds). In 587 BC because of Israel’s continued wickedness the LORD had allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to defeat the two remaining tribes that made up the southern kingdom of Judah. The temple was destroyed, the walls of the city were broken down and many of its people were led as captives to spend the rest of their lives in Babylon. But because of God’s faithfulness to his people in 538 BC the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus the Persian king to proclaim an edict to allow the exiles to return home and rebuild the temple.
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Things hadn’t turned out like they had expected.
But when they got back home things didn’t go as planned back. Life back in the land wasn’t the same as it had been. They were still under Persian rule. There were foreigners living in the land and life was hard. Work on the temple started but then it stopped because of the opposition. It was eventually finished in 515 BC but the second temple was a pale reflection of Solomon’s temple. Jerusalem itself remained for a long time in ruins. Its walls were still broken and the city largely a ghost town for much of the first half of the 5th century. There was injustice and corruption. The place was in a mess. Things hadn’t turned like they had expected or had hoped for.
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They blamed God
But who do you blame when things don’t work out the way that you would like? Well, the people of God did what a lot of us do. They blamed God for the mess. This comes out in several places in the prophecy. In the verses 2 to 5 of chapter 1 the Israelites seem to doubt whether the LORD has really loved them. The LORD says he has but they ask, “How have you loved us?” Later in the prophecy the people ask, “Where is the God of justice?” (2:16) They blasphemously claim that all who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD (see 2:16). They believed evildoers prosper and that God allows them to get away with it (3:15). They claimed that it was futile to serve God and that they gain nothing by carrying out his requirements and going around like mourners (3:14). Clearly, they were blaming the LORD for all their misfortunes.
The first two issues
However, the word of the LORD came to Malachi to put the people straight, reminding them of what they needed to remember. The name Malachi was simply the Hebrew word for “my messenger”. The prophecy can be broken up into six issues (often referred as disputes) that the LORD raised with his people. Each one is raised in a similar way. The LORD announces the issue. The people dispute or question what the LORD has said followed by a counter argument from the LORD. We see this in the first two issues that are raised in chapter 1:
- My love for you (verses 2-5), and
- Your contempt for me (verses 6-14).
My love for you
In verses 2 to 5 the LORD tackles the issue of his love for his people. The LORD said that he had loved them, but the people question this and ask, “How have you loved us?” The people respond with scepticism. They kind of dispute what the LORD has said. “You say you love us but how have you loved us?” The LORD then countered their scepticism by comparing the fate of Esau with that of Jacob.
Jacob and Esau were brothers. They were twins whose father was Isaac and whose grandfather was Abraham. Esau was the firstborn and Jacob the slightly younger. But it would be Jacob and his descendants who would inherit his grandfather’s promise, to be blessed and to be a blessing to all the families of the earth (see Genesis 12:1-3).
Two nations would emerge from these two brothers Israel and Edom. The Israelites were the descendants of Jacob and were heirs of the promise to Abraham. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau. It is these two neighbouring nations and their destinies that are being compared by the LORD when he says, Jacob I loved but Esau I hated. What the LORD seems to mean by “hated” here is righteous anger being expressed in judgement coming on the Edomites for the way that they had violently opposed their brothers, the Israelites.
The Edomites were condemned by the LORD in the vision of Obadiah for the way that they participated in Israel’s destruction, gloating over them in the destruction of Jerusalem. They had not only been in league with the Babylonians, but they ruthlessly cut down those who fled the city (see Obadiah 10-18)[1] and God’s judgement came on their nation because of this.
While Israel was destroyed and her people were carried off into exile, the LORD had allowed them to return and rebuild because of his promises to Abraham and out of his love for his people. But it wasn’t going to be the case for the Edomites. The LORD would destroy whatever they built for his judgement would come on them in full and final and absolute way. Like Esau they would forfeit their inheritance forever. Edom would be no more – a people always under the wrath of the LORD.
The fact that God had left Israel a remnant and they had been able to rebuild spoke of the LORD’s steadfast love for his people. He hadn’t given up on them despite them giving up on him. They might have to wait to see it, but judgement would come on the nations. There would be a day of reckoning. The LORD said that they would see this with their own eyes, and they would say, “Great is the LORD beyond the borders of Israel.”
Your contempt for me
It wasn’t the LORD who was to blame. His love for them wasn’t in doubt. The Israelites needed to take a long hard look at themselves. And this is what the LORD does in the rest of the issues that are raised in the prophecy of Malachi. They were reaping what they had sown, and the LORD makes this clear. At the heart of the problem was their contempt for the LORD. It was their unfaithfulness to him and not his unfaithfulness to them. They were abandoning the covenant that he had made with them by not honouring the LORD but were showing their contempt for his name.
Malachi 1:6
6 “A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?” says the LORD Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.
This is the longest of the issues raised by the LORD in this prophecy – their contempt for the LORD. Today we are only going to look at the first half of what the LORD has to say about it. In verses 6 to 14 of chapter 1 the LORD accused the priests of showing contempt for his name by failing in their sacrificial responsibilities in the temple. By doing so they were not honouring the LORD the way that they should have been.
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They were disobeying his commands
How do you show contempt for the LORD? How do you renege on showing God the honour that he is due? It’s simple. You do it by ignoring him, by disobeying him. You show him contempt by not doing what he says or commands you to do, but by doing things your own way. By your actions you are saying that he is not even worth listening to. He is not worth obeying.
In the case of the people and the priests they were not following the commands that the LORD had given them so that the people could have their sin dealt with at the temple and enjoy fellowship with the LORD. The Law expressly forbade the priests from offering blind, lame or diseased animals (Deut. 15:21). The LORD had told them that only animals without defects were acceptable offerings (Lev. 1:3,10).
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They were defiling his altar
The priests were defiling the LORD’s altar in the temple. The temple was the place of which the LORD had said that he would cause his name to dwell so that they could draw near to him and be forgiven and approach him in prayer and worship[2]. But they were defiling that place by offering blind, lame and diseased animals as sacrifices rather than the unblemished animals that the LORD required. The LORD said that they wouldn’t have presented such animals to their governor, so why were they offering them to him?
Malachi 1:8-9
When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.
9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the LORD Almighty.
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The LORD wouldn’t accept their offerings
The LORD would not accept their offerings, but it wasn’t just because he is a really fussy God and likes things done a certain way for no good reason. He isn’t being overly pedantic or unreasonable or demanding.
We are not talking about the fussiness of someone like King Charles who reportedly has to have his shoelaces ironed before he puts his shoes on, his valet squeeze exactly one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush before he will pick up it up to brush his teeth with or his pyjamas pressed every morning or have his biscuits warmed to a certain temperature before he will eat them. It is reported that back in the old days when he was still only a prince, his staff gave him the nickname the “pampered prince”.[3] How true this is I don’t know.
But the truth is that the LORD wasn’t being pedantic or unreasonable. He is not being a pampered prince or spoilt sovereign. The sacrificial system pointed to the reality that sin could only be dealt with by a perfect sacrifice taking the place of the sinner. It spoke of the cost of forgiveness. It pointed to the reality that one day that God would send his one and only Son into the world to deal with our sin. He would send one who was without sin (unblemished/perfect) to become sin for us to pay the penalty that our sin deserved. The apostle Peter wrote that we were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to us by our ancestors not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (see 1 Peter 1:19).
God wasn’t being pedantic but showing his people the awful cost of forgiveness and our redemption. He was revealing what it would take to deal with their sin so that they could draw near to him.
The fact that the priest didn’t follow the LORD’s instructions and sacrificed whatever mangy animal that the people wanted to get rid of showed their utter contempt for the name of the LORD. And the LORD told them that they might as well shut the doors of the temple rather than light their useless fires on his altar. As Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice”. He told Saul that his disobedience was rebellion (see 1 Samuel 15:22-23). It might look like the priests and people were worshipping the LORD, but to ignore him and do what was wrong in his eyes was to dishonour his name. It was an affront to the LORD, and it was to deny the reality of what it would take for them to be forgiven.
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The LORD is a great king
The LORD is a great King, and he was not pleased with them. In verses 11 to 14, in contrast to their present contempt for his name, the LORD told them that one day his name will be great among the nations.
Malachi 1:11-14
My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.
12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The LORD’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ 13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the LORD Almighty.
“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the LORD. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the LORD. For I am a great king,” says the LORD Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
One day the world will honour the LORD Almighty for the great king that he is. Malachi frequently uses the phrase, “LORD Almighty” to emphasise the LORD’s might and power as the sovereign over all things. Here the people are reminded that this world will be restored. His kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. The LORD’s name will be great from where the sun rises to where the sun sets – from the far reaches of the east to the west. The whole earth will one day honour his name. In every place, not just Jerusalem, incense and pure offerings will be made. People will be able to draw near to God in true worship. The promise to Abraham to bring blessing to all the families of the earth will be fulfilled.
Malachi hasn’t explained how this would all come about but it was all pointing to the day when in Jerusalem that once and for all sacrifice would be made for the sins of the whole world. The Son of God would lay down his life for us so that we might be forgiven and become part of his body. The apostle Peter wrote that like living stones believers are …
“being built into a spiritual house to be and a spiritual priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
The priests were profaning the LORD’s name not honouring him the way that they ought to have. But what they needed to understand about the LORD is explained in the last part of the last verse of the chapter.
Malachi 1:14
For I am a great king… and my name is to be feared among the nations.
Don’t play the game
When you play the “blame game” you often ignore what the real problem is. And when it becomes a choice between us and God, it is always us and never him. We need to remember who God is and what he is like. The Israelites had forgotten what God is like.
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Don’t doubt God’s love for you
Because of the difficulties they were experiencing at the time they doubted God’s love for them, but the LORD began by reminding them that he did love them, “I have loved you” (Mal 1:2) he says. We should never be in doubt of God’s love for us . Paul wrote to the Romans that God demonstrated his love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Later he wrote saying that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). We don’t need to doubt God’s love for us. “Christ loved us and gave himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2).
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Remember that LORD is a great King.
The other thing that the Israelites had forgotten that we need to remember is that the LORD is a great King, and his name will be great among the nations. His kingdom will come, and he will judge the nations and he will “set things aright”. His purposes are working out in our world. One day every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord. And while we wait for that day, we are to give him the honour that he is due. And the way that we do that is not by doing things our own way, but by trusting in him and what he has done for us.
For the Israelites it was through the sacrificial system that their sin was dealt with in a temporary way. But that sacrificial system always pointed forward to something better, the one perfect sacrifice for sin, that would deal with sin once and for all. We need to remember that the only way that we can truly worship God is through him, the Lord Jesus. If we haven’t acknowledge him as Lord that is what God is telling you today to do.
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Listen to him
The other thing about honouring the LORD for the great king that he is, is that you do that by listening to him, doing what he says not what you want, not what you desire, not what you would prefer. Instead, you trust and obey knowing that he loves you, he has redeemed you and one day he will put everything right.
While we wait for that day, we are to no longer live for ourselves but for him died for us. Paul wrote that in view of this mercy we have been shown, we are to offer up our bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1). This he says is our true and proper worship.
[1] See also Ezekiel 35 for the LORD’s condemnation of Edom for delivering the Israelites over to the sword..
[2] See 1 Kings 8:29; 8:33
[3] https://nypost.com/2022/09/13/king-charles-outrageous-list-of-daily-demands-revealed/
