20230521 Malachi 1:6-14 The Worship Disputation, Part 1 - Sacrifices
The “God of the Old Testament” is an object of much ridicule among atheists. Richard Dawkins wrote, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” [i]
A common misconception is that God needs our worship for his well-being. If anyone other than God demands worship, we can agree with the atheists that it is self-absorbed. God is different. He is the only being who is not part of creation. There is no other appropriate response to God other than worship. God made all things. He deserves all praise. Every inkling of gratitude that we experience is because of him. God created us to worship him. When we worship, it is not for God’s well-being, but our own. He is the only one worthy of worship. Only God satisfies our desire to worship.
Mal 1:6-14 addresses worship. God demands worship. He demands proper worship that pleases him. This may sound fussy. But the whole purpose of worship is that it would be done in a worthy manner, or it misses the whole point. SIOS: When faced with (1) a dishonoring people, (2) God invites us to worship, and (3) be part of his global worship.
The prophet condemns both what they offer and the way they offer it. They offered polluted sacrifices (Mal 1:7). The sacrifices were blind, lame, and sick (Mal 1:8, 13). They were sick (Mal 1:13) and blemished (Mal 1:14). Lev 1-7 presents the standard for sacrifices. Because of the multiple verbal parallels, it is likely Malachi draws from Deut 15:21. Deut 15:21 reads, “But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.”
Malachi says the sacrifices would not even be worthy of a human ruler. At the end of Mal 1:8 we read: Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?
Application: First, our worship reveals what we believe about God. Worship is ascribing worth. Because God is perfect, the only appropriate sacrifices are perfect. In the text, it seems like some had worthy animals to sacrifice, but offered a less good animal. There actions communicate that they worship another god. This other god was more worthy of their best flock in their eyes. Generally, we are that god we worship. Our worship can reveal our idols!
Second, worship is a form of witnessing. Bad worship bears bad witness. In the way we worship, people see how much we value God. We worship the God who gave his Son for us. Our preparation, planning, passion, and care in worship are all responses to the gospel. The way we worship teaches the watching world how much God is worth to us.
Mal 1:13-14 condemns their manner of worship in three ways. First, they find worshiping God to be burdensome. Mal 1:13 But you say, ‘What weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. It is not for no reason that it is called a sacrifice. Sacrifices involved resources, time, and energy. When you have ceased to love the one you are serving, the task becomes a burden. The quality of your worship decreases. Mal 1:13 contains a second accusation. Mal 1:13 You bring what has been taken by violence. Some were stealing animals from their neighbors and then offering the stolen goods to God.[ii] Finally, according to Mal 1:14, there was deception in their worship. Mal 1:14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
New Covenant worship differs from old covenant worship. In a real way, Christians cannot offer bad worship to God. It is impossible because we are clothed with Jesus’ perfect sacrifice to the Father. The one who knew no sin became sin, that in him we would be the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). God credits Christ’s perfect sacrifice to us as righteousness and perfect worship. There is still a sense in which if we do not live by God’s will, we will not enjoy the fullness of life Christ has for us. Our actions have consequences. We can learn from Malachi in the practice of worship.
First, he talks about the priests. All believers are priests in the New Covenant. So, we all bear responsibility for our worship and service to God. Like the priests in the OT, we offer sacrifices. According to Rom 12:1, “Our bodies are living sacrifices.”
Our whole life of following Jesus is worship to the Lord. According to Heb 13:15, our offering is “a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
Second, the point of not offering anything unworthy of human leaders is also valid. A friend from Ghana told me he wore a suit to church because he dresses well to celebrate a birthday. I like his reasoning. Our worship is about the heart and not clothes, but clothes can reflect our heart.
Third, we can find worship burdensome. One of the reasons for which God saved us is to form a weekly assembly to worship him. He saved us individually, and brought us into the body of Christ. We follow the Creation pattern of setting one day aside. The church in the NT keeps the pattern Israel followed of setting aside one day a week for rest and worship (1 Cor 16:1-2, Rev 1:10). I’m not saying you can’t go on vacation or take a sick day. But worship is not “made to order.”
It is not up to one’s personal preferences. It is God’s preference. Rom 14:5 reads “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”
This verse is often quoted to show worship is a matter of personal preference. What chaos that would be if one/7th Christians wanted to gather on Monday. One seventh on Tuesday… and so on…
This refers to gentile Christians not following the Jewish holidays. It does not apply to the weekly gathering of Christians on the first day of the week. Worship on Sunday is the one thing God puts on our weekly calendar. I’m not saying people who must work on Sunday cannot worship on Saturday, but this is an exception. If we only come when all our other stars align, we treat worship like a burden. I understand that there are complicated reasons why people do not go to church. Deep hurt occurs in the church at the hands of Christians. We cannot resort long-term to avoiding church. Sunday worship is God’s idea and is what he wants. God made us for worship. So we do. When Jesus saves us, renews our minds and hearts – gathering with brothers and sisters to worship our creator, sustainer and savior in celebration of his being and work becomes the highlight of our week!
Fourth, we can offer worship obtained by violence. The most obvious way is by giving money that we acquired unethically. It could be that the leader of worship or pastor is a bully. Or that the way the worship service is prepared crushes volunteers. I lived in Haiti for a year. I will never forget what some local children told me. They were not allowed in church for worship because they did not own shoes. Churches that turn the poor away offer worship obtained by violence. We want to reflect Christ who welcomed us in our poverty of Spirit and washed his disciples’ smelly feet.
Application: For us, we need to consider the greatest sacrifice. How to we respond to Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sins? Nothing honors God more than accepting the gift of life that he has for us in his Son. There is nothing more offensive than rejecting his son. John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The invitation for those who are not believers is to turn to him. Those who turn are covered in Christ’s perfect righteousness. For those who are Christians, we are living sacrifices to the Lord. We are covered by Christ’s perfect life. We must continually turn from sin. This is not to earn salvation, but to show that we love him with our whole lives.
Mal 1:14 reminds me of the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They promised to give money to the church, then did not, and they were struck down by the Lord. 1 Cor 11 hints that people are sick after communion because they took it in an unworthy manner. Both the positive invitation and warning of God’s displeasure are invitations to take worship seriously. As a church we take worship seriously. We desire our worship to have a gospel shape. We want every element to work together so the whole service is a gospel presentation. We do this by observing carefully the regulative principle. This means that we have a Biblical warrant for everything we do in worship. In response to God to the way he reveals himself in the Bible, we worship him with joy, reverence, gratefulness, awe, and in an orderly manner (Ps 100:2; Heb 12:28; 1 Cor 14:40).
We worship God because we are worshipping creatures. Everyone worships. So, the command to worship God is an invitation to satisfy our need to worship him. Worship is part of the Christian life, and it is a way God uses to make us more like Jesus (2 Cor 3:18). As we marvel at the glory of God, we become more like him. The act of singing the praises of God with other believers draws us together. It keeps our focus off of ourselves while we endure trials. Ascribing worth to God transforms our desires so we want to serve him more in loving our neighbors!
A first argument that shows God does not need our worship is Mal 1:10 Oh that there was one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. This point summarizes the message well. Because we are God’s creatures we must worship him. Because of who he is, we must worship him perfectly. The Lord is not an attention seeker. This passage communicates that if we do not want to worship God his way, we should not even bother!
A second argument that God does not need our worship is in Mal 1:11, For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place, incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. [iv] God is worshipped with or without us, and this worship occurs everywhere. Even if we do not, others will. God does not need us. The invitation to worship is for our benefit. God delights in inviting us to participate in his global worship. We have different clues of this global worship in the OT with Job, Jethro, and Melchizedek who were not Israelites but worshipped God. Malachi teaches these worshippers will be found everywhere!
For how we worship God, our text reveals different ways we are to revere God. We worship God as father. Mal 1:6. If then I am a father, where is my honor?
We worship him as master, Mal 1:6 And if I am a master, where is my fear? Everyone serves something. Who would be better to serve than the greatest master of them all?
If you have a good boss at work, life is good. If you have a horrible boss, they can make your life horrible. God invites us to serve the best master. The kind of boss who sacrifices his only son for his servants. Thirdly, God is our King. Mal 1:14 For I am a great King. Worship is not what God needs. It is essential for anyone to relate properly to him. Because he is a father, he is to be honored. He is a master and King so we must serve him.
We have an invitation: “entreat the Lord that he may be gracious to us.” He has been gracious to us. He has given us his son to offer up a perfect sacrifice on our behalf. When the Spirit of God opens our eyes, we will recognize the privilege it is to worship.
When we commit to being gospel-centered, pleasing worship becomes natural. God changes our hearts. Worship God with our church family feels like what we were created to do. Every Sunday we get a little taste of heaven!
[i] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Great Britain: Bantam, 2006).
[ii] Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987).
[iii] Augustine and John K. Ryan, The Confessions of St. Augustine, 2014 Image edition. (New York: Image Books, 2014).
[iv] In the Hebrew text, the verbs are supplied, so it is more likely is speaking of the present time rather than a future date when the nations will worship.
A common misconception is that God needs our worship for his well-being. If anyone other than God demands worship, we can agree with the atheists that it is self-absorbed. God is different. He is the only being who is not part of creation. There is no other appropriate response to God other than worship. God made all things. He deserves all praise. Every inkling of gratitude that we experience is because of him. God created us to worship him. When we worship, it is not for God’s well-being, but our own. He is the only one worthy of worship. Only God satisfies our desire to worship.
Mal 1:6-14 addresses worship. God demands worship. He demands proper worship that pleases him. This may sound fussy. But the whole purpose of worship is that it would be done in a worthy manner, or it misses the whole point. SIOS: When faced with (1) a dishonoring people, (2) God invites us to worship, and (3) be part of his global worship.
1 Mal 1:6-8, 13-14 A Dishonoring People
Malachi addresses a disappointed people who have a low level of devotion to the Lord. The prophet uses a literary form called “disputation” to call God’s people back to the covenant. Disputations contain a statement, an objection, and proof of the original statement. The thesis is that their worship is unacceptable. God says, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts (Mal 1:6).” The prophet confronts God’s people about their worship, and he narrows in on the priests. We continue reading, “Where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.” Their worship is unworthy of the Lord, but they object. They ask, "How have we despised your name?" The Lord replies, “By offering polluted food upon my altar” (Mal 1:7). The priests object again. They ask, “How have we polluted you?” Malachi answers, by saying that the LORD's table may be despised.The prophet condemns both what they offer and the way they offer it. They offered polluted sacrifices (Mal 1:7). The sacrifices were blind, lame, and sick (Mal 1:8, 13). They were sick (Mal 1:13) and blemished (Mal 1:14). Lev 1-7 presents the standard for sacrifices. Because of the multiple verbal parallels, it is likely Malachi draws from Deut 15:21. Deut 15:21 reads, “But if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.”
Malachi says the sacrifices would not even be worthy of a human ruler. At the end of Mal 1:8 we read: Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?
Application: First, our worship reveals what we believe about God. Worship is ascribing worth. Because God is perfect, the only appropriate sacrifices are perfect. In the text, it seems like some had worthy animals to sacrifice, but offered a less good animal. There actions communicate that they worship another god. This other god was more worthy of their best flock in their eyes. Generally, we are that god we worship. Our worship can reveal our idols!
Second, worship is a form of witnessing. Bad worship bears bad witness. In the way we worship, people see how much we value God. We worship the God who gave his Son for us. Our preparation, planning, passion, and care in worship are all responses to the gospel. The way we worship teaches the watching world how much God is worth to us.
Mal 1:13-14 condemns their manner of worship in three ways. First, they find worshiping God to be burdensome. Mal 1:13 But you say, ‘What weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. It is not for no reason that it is called a sacrifice. Sacrifices involved resources, time, and energy. When you have ceased to love the one you are serving, the task becomes a burden. The quality of your worship decreases. Mal 1:13 contains a second accusation. Mal 1:13 You bring what has been taken by violence. Some were stealing animals from their neighbors and then offering the stolen goods to God.[ii] Finally, according to Mal 1:14, there was deception in their worship. Mal 1:14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
New Covenant worship differs from old covenant worship. In a real way, Christians cannot offer bad worship to God. It is impossible because we are clothed with Jesus’ perfect sacrifice to the Father. The one who knew no sin became sin, that in him we would be the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). God credits Christ’s perfect sacrifice to us as righteousness and perfect worship. There is still a sense in which if we do not live by God’s will, we will not enjoy the fullness of life Christ has for us. Our actions have consequences. We can learn from Malachi in the practice of worship.
First, he talks about the priests. All believers are priests in the New Covenant. So, we all bear responsibility for our worship and service to God. Like the priests in the OT, we offer sacrifices. According to Rom 12:1, “Our bodies are living sacrifices.”
Our whole life of following Jesus is worship to the Lord. According to Heb 13:15, our offering is “a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
Second, the point of not offering anything unworthy of human leaders is also valid. A friend from Ghana told me he wore a suit to church because he dresses well to celebrate a birthday. I like his reasoning. Our worship is about the heart and not clothes, but clothes can reflect our heart.
Third, we can find worship burdensome. One of the reasons for which God saved us is to form a weekly assembly to worship him. He saved us individually, and brought us into the body of Christ. We follow the Creation pattern of setting one day aside. The church in the NT keeps the pattern Israel followed of setting aside one day a week for rest and worship (1 Cor 16:1-2, Rev 1:10). I’m not saying you can’t go on vacation or take a sick day. But worship is not “made to order.”
It is not up to one’s personal preferences. It is God’s preference. Rom 14:5 reads “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”
This verse is often quoted to show worship is a matter of personal preference. What chaos that would be if one/7th Christians wanted to gather on Monday. One seventh on Tuesday… and so on…
This refers to gentile Christians not following the Jewish holidays. It does not apply to the weekly gathering of Christians on the first day of the week. Worship on Sunday is the one thing God puts on our weekly calendar. I’m not saying people who must work on Sunday cannot worship on Saturday, but this is an exception. If we only come when all our other stars align, we treat worship like a burden. I understand that there are complicated reasons why people do not go to church. Deep hurt occurs in the church at the hands of Christians. We cannot resort long-term to avoiding church. Sunday worship is God’s idea and is what he wants. God made us for worship. So we do. When Jesus saves us, renews our minds and hearts – gathering with brothers and sisters to worship our creator, sustainer and savior in celebration of his being and work becomes the highlight of our week!
Fourth, we can offer worship obtained by violence. The most obvious way is by giving money that we acquired unethically. It could be that the leader of worship or pastor is a bully. Or that the way the worship service is prepared crushes volunteers. I lived in Haiti for a year. I will never forget what some local children told me. They were not allowed in church for worship because they did not own shoes. Churches that turn the poor away offer worship obtained by violence. We want to reflect Christ who welcomed us in our poverty of Spirit and washed his disciples’ smelly feet.
2 Mal 1:9 An Inviting Father
Mal 1:9 invites a dishonoring people to turn. We read in Mal 1:9 And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. At any moment, if they were to repent, the Lord would be gracious to them. As it stands, no gift could be pleasing to the Lord. In parallel to the invitation to turn, a curse is pronounced on all who do not turn from dishonoring God. Malachi speaks harshly against those who do not offer appropriate sacrifices. Mal 1:14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.Application: For us, we need to consider the greatest sacrifice. How to we respond to Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sins? Nothing honors God more than accepting the gift of life that he has for us in his Son. There is nothing more offensive than rejecting his son. John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The invitation for those who are not believers is to turn to him. Those who turn are covered in Christ’s perfect righteousness. For those who are Christians, we are living sacrifices to the Lord. We are covered by Christ’s perfect life. We must continually turn from sin. This is not to earn salvation, but to show that we love him with our whole lives.
Mal 1:14 reminds me of the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They promised to give money to the church, then did not, and they were struck down by the Lord. 1 Cor 11 hints that people are sick after communion because they took it in an unworthy manner. Both the positive invitation and warning of God’s displeasure are invitations to take worship seriously. As a church we take worship seriously. We desire our worship to have a gospel shape. We want every element to work together so the whole service is a gospel presentation. We do this by observing carefully the regulative principle. This means that we have a Biblical warrant for everything we do in worship. In response to God to the way he reveals himself in the Bible, we worship him with joy, reverence, gratefulness, awe, and in an orderly manner (Ps 100:2; Heb 12:28; 1 Cor 14:40).
3 Mal 1:6, 11, 14 A Global worship
Mal 1:10-11 shows that the Lord does not need our worship for his ego. God did not create us to be his fan club. God was not bored before creating us. St Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”[iii]We worship God because we are worshipping creatures. Everyone worships. So, the command to worship God is an invitation to satisfy our need to worship him. Worship is part of the Christian life, and it is a way God uses to make us more like Jesus (2 Cor 3:18). As we marvel at the glory of God, we become more like him. The act of singing the praises of God with other believers draws us together. It keeps our focus off of ourselves while we endure trials. Ascribing worth to God transforms our desires so we want to serve him more in loving our neighbors!
A first argument that shows God does not need our worship is Mal 1:10 Oh that there was one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. This point summarizes the message well. Because we are God’s creatures we must worship him. Because of who he is, we must worship him perfectly. The Lord is not an attention seeker. This passage communicates that if we do not want to worship God his way, we should not even bother!
A second argument that God does not need our worship is in Mal 1:11, For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place, incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. [iv] God is worshipped with or without us, and this worship occurs everywhere. Even if we do not, others will. God does not need us. The invitation to worship is for our benefit. God delights in inviting us to participate in his global worship. We have different clues of this global worship in the OT with Job, Jethro, and Melchizedek who were not Israelites but worshipped God. Malachi teaches these worshippers will be found everywhere!
For how we worship God, our text reveals different ways we are to revere God. We worship God as father. Mal 1:6. If then I am a father, where is my honor?
We worship him as master, Mal 1:6 And if I am a master, where is my fear? Everyone serves something. Who would be better to serve than the greatest master of them all?
If you have a good boss at work, life is good. If you have a horrible boss, they can make your life horrible. God invites us to serve the best master. The kind of boss who sacrifices his only son for his servants. Thirdly, God is our King. Mal 1:14 For I am a great King. Worship is not what God needs. It is essential for anyone to relate properly to him. Because he is a father, he is to be honored. He is a master and King so we must serve him.
Conclusion
God does not need Richard Dawkins to worship him. He does not need anyone, but the fact is people worship him everywhere. What a privileged position we are in to live 2500 years after Malachi was written. We know that the Lord is being worshiped everywhere by Millions of Christians globally. Little did Israel know how small they would contrast with God’s universal worship. When confronted with a dishonoring people, (2) the Lord calls us to turn to him, (3) that we might be part of his global worship. Israel failed to honor the Lord as they should. As do we.We have an invitation: “entreat the Lord that he may be gracious to us.” He has been gracious to us. He has given us his son to offer up a perfect sacrifice on our behalf. When the Spirit of God opens our eyes, we will recognize the privilege it is to worship.
When we commit to being gospel-centered, pleasing worship becomes natural. God changes our hearts. Worship God with our church family feels like what we were created to do. Every Sunday we get a little taste of heaven!
[i] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Great Britain: Bantam, 2006).
[ii] Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987).
[iii] Augustine and John K. Ryan, The Confessions of St. Augustine, 2014 Image edition. (New York: Image Books, 2014).
[iv] In the Hebrew text, the verbs are supplied, so it is more likely is speaking of the present time rather than a future date when the nations will worship.
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