20230514 Malachi 1:1-5 The Love Disputation
Malachi is a post-exilic prophetic book. The people of Israel are back in the Land after their exile in Babylon. While in exile, God promised a Messiah, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a new covenant, a greater temple, and world peace. Israel is still waiting. They were becoming skeptical. They are disappointed and their disappointment was showing.
Disappointment is part of being human. We can be
disappointed with God, family, friends, and ourselves. Disappointment is hard,
but it is a sign of hope! Disappointment is not bad, but we cannot let it rule
our lives. Disappointment can turn to anger, shame, sadness, bitterness, and
cynicism. Malachi presents God’s posture towards his disappointed and
disobedient people. The Lord is warm but firm. He assures his people of his
love for them. He also calls them to repentance so that they would act like his
beloved people.
Malachi has a unique style. It contains a series of
disputations. The prophet presents a dramatic dialogue between God and his
people. The Lord is urging his disappointed people to love, obey, trust,
worship, and honor him. The Lord makes a statement, the people object, and God
proves his original statement. These disputations structure Malachi.
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Mal 1:2a – Statement: “I have loved you” says
the Lord.
In Mal 1:1-5, God’s statement to his people is “I have loved
you.” The concept of “love” is powerful. We use it sparingly, lest it lose its
value. The word “love” is the most powerful when it comes from one who knows
our flaws. It means, I know you and I am not going anywhere. This is the love
of friends, spouses, parents, and above all, God.
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Mal 1:2b – Objection: “How have you loved us?”
In any movie or even in life, when one person says, “I love
you,” you expect the response to be, “I love you too.” Do not say it if you do
not mean it, or you will make things worse! In this dramatic dialogue, the
people respond, “Oh really… How have you loved us?” Malachi is communicating
that by their actions they show that God's love does not affect them. He is saying,
you are acting like an unloved people. Can’t you see how ungrateful you are?
Application: For right or for wrong, when people do not feel
loved, it will show. There is a maxim, “Hurt people, will hurt people.”[i]
When our emotional-relational needs are neglected, we are wounded. Our wounding
prevents us from having healthy relationships and we wound others. Our wounding
spreads to our loved ones until we heal.
The lack of feeling of love can be due to no love. When
children are not loved, the consequences in adulthood can be devastating. Most
serial killers experienced trauma as children. Their childhood does not justify
their behavior, but it explains it. Studies have shown that a common
denominator of all gang members is fatherlessness. Sometimes there was no love,
other times, as it is for God’s love, it is not that he does not love us, but
that we do not feel his love. For human relationships, I have found the book, The
Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman to be helpful. People prefer to show
and receive love in different manners. He lists time spent together, touch,
words of affection, gifts, and service. When a person’s way of expressing love
does not match another’s way of receiving love, there is a disconnect. There
may be more love than what is being felt. Some people feel like service and
gift-giving are less personal than words, time, and touch. A child may want
their parents to hold them, tell them they love them, and be present. The parents
may assume that through the gifts they buy, their love will be obvious! In our
text, God loves Israel. Yet, somehow, Israel does not recognize God's love and
they are acting out. As we will see in Malachi.
When we know the love of others, our life manifests joy,
confidence, the capacity to love others, a positive outlook on the future,
creativity, and an attitude of gratefulness. Whether it is a misunderstanding
of love or a real lack of love, there are consequences. We want to feel known,
celebrated, understood, and sympathized with. When we sense neglect, we turn in
on ourselves, and we isolate ourselves, often to avoid further harm. We become
less focused on our role in society and refrain from community. We convince
ourselves we do not need anyone. It is a defense mechanism. Hurt caused by relationships
needs healing in relationships. Isolation prolongs and even deepens the wounds.
In isolation, no one can challenge our toxic thinking and emotions. We
cultivate bitterness, anger, low empathy, and deception. We convince ourselves
that we do not need others for our well-being. It leads to practical atheism
and cynicism about justice in the world. In the rest of Malachi, we will see
the different ways the people of Israel were acting out. They were acting like unloved
people. Towards God, their worship suffers. They are not bringing the right
kind of sacrifices in Mal 1:6–14. The priests are not teaching the word of God
in Mal 2:1–9. They believe that God is unjust and will not punish the wicked
(Mal 2:17–3:5; Mal 3:13–4:3). Their generosity suffers, they are not tithing
(Mal 3:6–12). Malachi highlights the people’s delusion. It also impacts their
love towards others. In Mal 2:10–16, we see that the people are acting
faithlessly towards one another. The men were divorcing their wives and marrying
non-believers. When we love God, we want to marry someone whose most
spectacular trait is their love for God. When we love God, we will love God’s
children and are at peace with one another. 1 John 4:20, puts it perfectly, “If
anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does
not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
Do we act like a beloved people? Could Malachi proclaim to
us, “The Lord says, ‘I have loved you,” but you say, ‘How have you loved us?’”
Have we responded to God’s love by loving others? Some evangelicals become mean
when they defend God’s truth. They do not realize that they disobey the very
thing they are trying to protect. Dallas Willard calls this: righteously mean
Christians.[ii]
Perhaps, we value comfort or order. Christians must be known as the people
changed by the cross of Christ. They are a loved people who love people (John
13:35).
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Mal 1:2-5 Proof – Of God’s Love
In Mal 1:2-4, God proves his love. He refers to the Jacob
and Esau account from Gen 25. Mal 1:2–3, “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?... I
loved Jacob but Esau I hated.” In the context of Genesis, this means that God
chose Jacob over Esau to be the heir of Abraham’s promises. It is through Jacob
that God would bless all the families of the earth. It means Jesus would come
through the line of Jacob. While Rebecca, Isaac’s wife was pregnant with twins,
the Lord told her, “The older shall serve the younger” (Gen 25:23). 1500 years
later, Malachi presents the implications for his day. God’s choice of Jacob
over Esau means God loves Israel and hates Edom. God’s promises to Abraham
belonged to Israel. Edom is a nation that will be annihilated. Israel returned
from Babylon. They are living in the land God promised them. They will prosper
and become a blessing to the whole world.
To show his love for Israel, God chooses a story about
twins. There is no difference between twins at birth. So, love has everything
to do with God and nothing that we could offer. Rom 9:10-13 is Apostle Paul’s
inspired commentary on Mal 1:2-3. We read, “When Rebekah had conceived children
by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done
nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might
continue, not because of works but because of him who calls, 12 she was told,
“The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but
Esau I hated.” This is the Christian good news! God loves you because he loves
you. He did not love you because of anything you have done. He will not unlove
you because of anything you do. God’s love is secure. Knowing this changes
everything.
The argument is, “Remember you have a twin, and I chose you.”
God’s love for Jacob followed Jacob's descendants. God loves Israel. This is
how God loved Israel. Deut 7:8 says, “8… it is because the LORD loves you and
is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the
hand of Pharaoh….” God's love is synonymous with the salvation of the Exodus.
By the time of Malachi's day, God's love takes a greater meaning. God's love
becomes synonymous with salvation from Babylon and restoration in the land.
God's love as salvation from Babylon occurs elsewhere in the Minor Prophets.
Hos 14:4 anticipates the return from exile with these words, "I will heal
their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.”
Zeph 3:17 reads, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will
save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he
will exult over you with loud singing.” Even though God punishes his people for
their sins, his love does not fade. His love is warm, affectionate, and
passionate. God rejoices over his people, his treasured possession. He exults
over them with loud singing! When God says “I love you” in Mal 1:2, he is
saying that he delights in them. They are living in the land again. They will
be a blessing to all the families of the world.
Application: For us, the greatest picture of God’s love for
us in Christ. God loved the world this way: he gave his only Son so that
whoever would believe in him would have eternal life. God loves us! His love
transforms us, it moves us to live differently. If we know God's love, but it
does not affect us, then our love for God is just intellectual and not
intimate. A symptom of this is that we prefer to debate ideas over caring for
people’s hearts. Knowing God’s love intimately changes our emotions, thoughts,
and character. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This fruit is evidence of
God’s love working in us through his Spirit. We are collectively a people loved
by God. When we gather on Sundays, we will each feel welcomed, known, and
celebrated. We will prefer a worship service in which the songs and sermons
align with scripture and make much of God. A church service that entertains and
promotes a celebrity culture will grieve us. God wrote the Bible. If we love
God and want to please him, biblical worship is what we seek. Our love for God
and the knowledge of his love will naturally flow out in loving others.
Mal 1:5 shifts to the future. There will be a shift, and
Israel will recognize that God loves her. Mal 1:5 Your own eyes shall see this,
and you shall say, “Great is the LORD above the border of Israel!” For Israel,
in Malachi’s day, this shift would occur when they will recognize the
destruction of Edom. The nation of Edom was a threat to Israel in post-exilic
times. God’s hatred for Edom will be obvious by their destruction and inability
to rebuild. Israel was blind to God's work. God loves them and they will see.
God brought them back to the promised land where they can thrive. Her twin is
utterly destroyed. In our lives, we must do the same. We can get so caught up
in particular trials that we forget all the Lord has done for us. It can be
that we are amid a trial and feel depressed, anxious, or even angry. We spend
no time remembering all the good God has done for us in the past. This passage
finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. What every Christian can look back
on, no matter where we find ourselves is our salvation. We must intentionally
set time aside to marvel. This is God's greatest manifestation of his love for
us. We can be enduring hardships that keep us focused on our problems rather
than on Christ. In the same way God refers Israel to her story, we can remember
what God has done for us. Because of what Christ has done in the past, we can
endure the hardships of today. God loves us and is with us now. We will be in
his loving presence forever.
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Conclusion:
In this life, there will be disappointment. The Bible
addresses war, murder, adultery, barrenness, bereavement, family conflict,
jealousy, and gossip. God knows what we are going through. When we are not
intentional about worshipping or remembering the good God has done, our hearts
turn from God. We can act like unloved people. God has given us his son, the
forgiveness of sins, a church family, the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures.
Things can get hard, yet we know God is with us, he loves us, and he transforms
us. The Holy Spirit lives in us, comforts us, and teaches us. By his power, we
can live as a beloved people who bear witness to God's love! This is what
Malachi is all about. We will flesh this out in the weeks to come exploring
different areas of the Christian life.
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