The Minor Writing Prophets XI:
Malachi – an answer man
May 13, 2012 – Mother’s Day
BMC- Malachi
Introduction: Where to get answers
I want to
begin this morning by asking you to consider where or from whom is it that you
get your answers from. When you have
questions, where do you turn to get answers?
We all have questions and we all seek answers to those questions. Where are some of the places that you go to
for those answers? {Responses}
At Thursday
night’s Bible Study, the group named a number of sources from the internet to
experts for finding answers. They also
mentioned family including parents and children which seems very fitting to
mention today on Mother’s Day. After all
so many of our answers in life do come from our mothers, right? They mentioned references like maps and
books. And of course, we were at a Bible
Study so it was also mentioned that people get answers from pastors, the Bible,
and certainly from God.
We live in
a time in which the world is full of information. Our rate of discovery and documenting
information continues to grow and increase.
In fact, many of us begin to reach an information overload or a
saturation point in which we just can’t take in any more information until we
have had a chance to process and assimilate the information that we already
have.
And yet we
still have questions and we still seek answers from tried and true resources as
well as from new sources. Times have
changed as have some of our methods for finding answers. My father retired a few years ago and the
primary hobby that he has developed is going through all that he has collected
over the years. As a pack rat, he has
quite an extensive stash to go through.
As he is
doing this, he often brings me newspaper clippings, articles, or “how to”
instructions just in case I would like to see them before they are thrown away. I eventually get around to looking at what he
brings, but I tend to hold on to very little of it.
There are a few reasons for
this. In the first place it is usually
30 to 50 years old and the information is now out of date. In the second place, with the advent of the
Internet, it is easier and faster for me to look up my questions on line then
to try to remember where I put some article that he brought me when I need it.
As people,
we have questions and desire answers.
That is as true today as it was of the people who returned from the exile. The book of Malachi brings this into focus
for us in the way that it shares the word of God in a question and answer
format. The people’s questions are
stated and God’s responses are given.
The Answer Man
We know virtually nothing about
Malachi. His name means “my messenger”
and is translated as such in 3:1. Unlike
in our last two prophets, we do not have any dates included in the text itself
to place it. Yet it is likely that
Malachi prophesied sometime in the 5th Century BCE between 500 and
450BCE.
His role in our canon is very
significant because he is the last book of the Old Testament. From a Jewish perspective, this may be
because his were the last words on the scroll that contained the Book of the Twelve. From a Christian perspective, Malachi serves
as a bridge to the New Testament. Though
some 500 years would pass from the writing of Malachi to the Gospels that open
our New Testament, Malachi gives us indications of what is to come.
Most prominently in Malachi 3:1 we
read, “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way
before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the
messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.” In here the word
that we translate as messenger is Malachi in the original Hebrew and it is hard
not to connect these two messengers to our New Testament understanding of
Christ.
First there is a
messenger who will prepare the way. We
know from the gospels that John the Baptist came as a messenger to prepare the
way for Christ. Second there is a
messenger of the covenant and we know that Christ came to establish the new
covenant with us. Furthermore in 4:5, we
see that Elijah will come and we know that Christ identified John the Baptist
as Elijah.
And so within the
words of Malachi, we have the answers to some of the questions that the people
had. We also have a look ahead to the
Christ that was to come. And we have
lessons to be learned from the answers that God gives to his people. I found Warren W. Wiersbe’s commentary, Be
Amazed: restoring an attitude of wonder and worship, helpful in naming
these.
Lesson 1: Doubting God’s Love
Our first
lesson is about doubting God’s love. We
live in a society that doubts God’s love for us and this is where Malachi
begins his prophecy. He writes that God
declares that God has loved them to which the people respond, “How have you
loved us?” Given the circumstances that
they have been through, they don’t believe that God has loved them; yet God
declares it.
God goes on
to provide evidence for God’s love for them in these first 5 verses of
Malachi. Beyond saying that God loves
them, God has also demonstrated it in electing Jacob and his descendants over
Esau and his descendants. But not only
has God chosen them, God has also blessed them.
God has allowed them to recover from their ruin and to live in
abundance. And God has given them the
privilege of witnessing to the gentiles about God.
God has in fact loved them. And as Warren Wiersbe states, “Every
difficulty is an opportunity to demonstrate to others what the Lord can do for
those who put their trust in Him.” Do we
believe deeply in God’s love for us and are we motivated enough by that to
share it with others?
Many of you are aware that this
past Friday, Ronda Doehrmann lost her battle with cancer. She was the wife of Tony Doehrmann, the
pastor of Jubilee Mennonite. I didn’t
get to know her very well in the time that I have been here, but I have spent a
lot of time with Tony and count him as a dear friend and brother.
Ronda was diagnosed with her
cancer, mucosla melanoma, on October 10, 2011, almost exactly seven months
before her passing. As she underwent
treatment and they made decisions, Tony updated a Caring Bridge blog to let
people know what was happening. I
followed that blog and found it to be a helpful way to know how best to pray
for them in their journey.
Along the way, they had a number of
challenges; and as Tony shared, it often seemed like the cancer was one step
ahead of them. Just when they would go
in to receive the next treatment, they would have to adjust their plan because
the cancer had grown in a way that ruled out the previous treatment option.
I would imagine that under such
circumstances, it would be very easy for Tony to ask whether or not God really
loves him. I would imagine that it would
be very easy to say that if God really loved him that Ronda would have been
physically healed. And yet throughout the pages of their Caring Bridge blog are
testimonies to the love and the faithfulness of God in the midst of their
trials.
Now this is not to say that the
journey has been easy. And I wouldn’t
fault Tony if he sometimes wondered along the way about why God didn’t heal
Ronda. But in the midst of their
journey, Tony testifies to the love of God through the community of
believers. And as Wiersbe suggests,
through every difficulty is an opportunity to testify to God.
Do we have a belief in God’s love
that is deep enough to carry us through similar times of grief and
difficulty? Are we, in the midst of our
own challenges, able to testify to God’s love to those around us? Or do we find ourselves in a similar place as
the people of Judah asking, “How have you shown that you love us?”
Lesson 2: Divorcing God’s Covenant
Malachi
addressed the people of God doubting God’s love. He also addressed their Divorce of God’s
covenant. In chapter 2, Malachi
addresses the unfaithfulness of the people.
They have not stayed true to the covenant that they made with God. Like in Hosea, we see this dynamic played out
in real marriages.
People of
Judah had divorced the wives of their youth, their Jewish wives, to marry
foreign women. They were unfaithful to
their marriage covenant and unfaithful to God.
While there’s debate about how best to translate 2:16, the thrust of it
seems clear. God does not like divorce
of his covenant with us nor of our covenant with our spouse.
Now I would
imagine that hearing that makes perfect sense to us. After all, no one goes into his or her
wedding day saying, “I’m only in this for two years and then I’m going to get a
divorce.” And I think that it is fairly
safe to say that even those among us who have been divorced would not say that
divorce is something they would choose or wish for someone else.
So while I
hope that we can offer grace and God’s love to those who have experienced
divorce; I also hope that we can all agree that divorce is not a good
thing. I mention it this morning, in
part because I believe that it is faithful to what Malachi is teaching; but
also because this position of the church needs to be reaffirmed. There are well respected Christian leaders
suggesting divorce.
I’m not
sure how many of you are aware of the stir that Pat Robertson created back in September,
but I have just recently become aware of it myself. It seems that during one episode of his
Christian talk show, he was asked the question, “I have a friend whose wife
suffers from Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t
even recognize him anymore, and, as you can imagine, the marriage has been
rough. My friend has gotten bitter at
God for allowing his wife to be in that condition, and now he’s started seeing
another woman. He says that he should be
allowed to see other people, because his wife as he knows her is gone…I’m not
quite sure what to tell him.”
Pat
responded by saying, “I hate the disease because here is this person that you
have loved for so many years and now they are gone.” Robertson goes on to say that he knows it
sounds cruel, but if the husband’s going to do something, he should divorce her
and start all over again. But to make
sure that she has custodial care and someone to look after her.
When asked
what about the marriage vows, he responded by saying, “I know until death do us
part, but this is certainly a kind of death.”
Now I know that Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease, my Grandmother
suffered through it for many years. At
the same time, I don’t see how one can rationalize divorcing someone with Alzheimer’s
after promising to love them in sickness and health, for richer or poorer,
until death do us part.
Moreover, I
believe some of the most powerful testimonies that I have seen of God’s love and
faithfulness to God’s covenant with us have been through the faithfulness of a
spouse who cares for their loved one with Alzheimers. While I was a Grace, I had opportunities to
visit Grover and his wife Pauline.
Grover was
a joy to visit. Unfortunately, his wife
was slowly slipping away due to Alzheimer’s.
He would tell of nights in which she would wake up believing that she
was a 13 year old girl again and would be terrified to find this strange man
sleeping in the bed next to her. At
times it was so bad that they would have to call in the local police department
for assistance.
And yet,
through all of that, Grover remained faithful to her. In fact even when others suggested that it
was time to move her into a care facility, he held off as long as he could,
caring for her at home. That is the love
and devotion that God is looking for in God’s covenant with us and in our
marriages with our spouses.
Lesson 3: Divesting God’s Storehouse
Malachi
instructs us not to doubt God’s love. He
calls us not to divorce our covenant with God.
And Malachi instructs us not to divest God’s storehouse. In Malachi 3:7-12, we read that the people
were robbing God. The people ask, “How
were we robbing you?” God answers that
it was through their tithes and offerings.
People were not bringing their whole tithe to the storehouse and were
divesting God of what was due God.
We spent
time last fall talking about the tithe and how it should serve for us as a
guide rather than legalism for what God is calling us to give. As New Testament people, we should look at
the tithe as an encouragement for us to give more even if that may mean that
God is calling us to go above and beyond the tithe. After all if people of the old covenant were
required to bring the tithe, why would we under the new covenant expect to bring
less?
What is
significant for me here is the suggestion that the people were not bringing all
that they should have and that in the process, they were robbing God. They were robbing God in that the needs
of the priests and Levites were met from the sacrifices and the tithes and
offerings brought to the temple by the people.
Without those tithes, the priests and Levites could not be provided for
and the people were once again breaking their covenant.
But they
were also robbing themselves. When the
people did not fulfill their end of the covenant, they also did not receive the
blessings of strong crops and large harvests.
And they were robbing others. By
not remaining faithful, they did not experience the abundance that would have
proven to be a powerful testimony to those around them. As such, they robbed others of that witness.
After Beth
and I got married, she moved down to join me in Harrisonburg. We each had a car, but they were both getting
old and had a lot of miles on them.
Between the monthly drive back to Ohio to visit family and Beth’s 45
minute commute to the school that she was teaching at, we decided that it was
time to get a more reliable vehicle. In
so doing, we decided not to trade in the old car but to try to sell it
ourselves in the hopes of making a little more.
Well a few
weeks went by and we weren’t having much luck in selling it. I finally got to the point that I wanted to
be rid of it and I made an agreement with God.
If God would get the car sold, I would give all the money from the sale
to God.
Not too
long after that, an ex-con who was living in a half way house and trying to get
back on his feet inquired about the car.
We sold it to him and we anonymously gave the money to a fellow seminary
student who was struggling financially.
Instead of trying to hold back the sale of the car for our own benefit,
we turned it completely over to God. In
the process, we were blessed to have it off of our hands, the ex-con was
blessed to have his own transportation to work, and the other seminary student
was blessed to receive an unexpected break in his bills.
Conclusion
Malachi’s
words name the questions on the minds of the people of the day and the answers
that God had for them. Within that
reality, we sometimes find that we still resonate with some of those questions
today. We also are reminded that we
should not doubt God’s love for us, that we should not divorce our covenant
with God and that we should not divest God of God’s storehouses. May God lead us in these ways as we leave
this place and may God’s truth flow through us to those that we meet.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment