A Pure Offering

                                                    Malachi 1: 6-14

 

 

          Messenger of God. That’s what the word Malachi means in Hebrew. Messenger of God. The Malachi of the Hebrew Bible was exactly that. He was one of three prophets in the post-exilic period, the others being Haggai and Zechariah. His ministry came in the 400’s BC, after Ezra and probably during the time of Nehemiah. The exiles had returned from Babylon. The temple had been re-built. The system of sacrifices had been re-instated. It was long enough to get re-established, and also long enough to get apathetic and lax and just plain lazy about the worship of God. It was to this time that Malachi was called.

          In chapter 1, the prophet reports that God wants to know: Where is my honor? Where is my fear or awe or respect? God says he is being disrespected in the offerings given to him in the temple. He says the priests despise his name. God says through the prophet that polluted food is being offered upon his altar. God is talking about blind animals, lame and sick animals, blemished animals. This is not right. God has made it clear that the people of God are to bring their first fruits, their best, to the altar; in other words, a pure offering.

          Burnt offerings are part of Old Testament lore. In Leviticus, God’s people are taught exactly how to bring offerings. Even before that, we see God’s displeasure with Cain for bringing an offering unacceptable to God. But burnt offerings are a relic from the distant past. They long ago ceased to be used, so why examine this passage? Because the story here is not about burnt offerings. It is about the state of affairs in post exilic Israel, the state of affairs with God and his people, and that state of affairs is not good.

          A postal worker waits upon you at the counter. He or she goes through the motions, asks all the same questions, mutters the uniform thank you at the end of your business and during the entire transaction, never looks up to make eye contact. The drive thru food attendant does the same thing, asks the same questions, even if you come every day and always order the same thing. You want to purchase something you saw on TV. The clerk on the other end of the line cannot skip a single question, no matter how many times you say no. The routine is the same. Please press 1. Your message is very important to us. Please wait for a live human to talk to you. It is ritual without reason, practice designed for efficiency and accommodation, not personal contact. It is the language of going through the motions without any personal investment.

          In post-exilic Israel, the priests were the first offenders to be called out by God. He accused them of despising his name. To despise someone’s name in ancient Israel was to give disrespect to the person. The priests were permitting sub-quality offerings to be presented to the Lord. It was so offensive that God said he wished that someone would shut the doors to the temple. The priests thought that God actually needed the offerings to exist. God tells them otherwise. He was there before the temple, before burnt offerings, and he would be there afterward.

          God has taken notice of how the offerings have become “old hat” for the priests. “What a weariness this is,” say the priests. They snort at their duties, bored with their responsibilities. They don’t care. They are going through the motions just like the clerks and sales attendants in our lives. Please press 1. Your burnt offering is very important to us.  A customer representative with be with you shortly.

          Though God is more than displeased with the priests, he does not confine his anger to them. He also chastises the farmers and others that bring sub-quality animals for sacrifice. He actually calls them cheats. He says that the time will come when his name will be great among all the nations, the Gentiles. The time will come when those who are bored, who are apathetic about their responsibilities to God, will find their offering, and themselves, rejected.

          The thing is, God doesn’t care about burnt offerings. Listen to what the prophet Hosea tells us: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” [Hos. 6:6]. Burnt offerings were simply a way of teaching God’s people to give their allegiance to God, to show their appreciation and love for him through a sacrifice that recognized him as the source of their good fortune, their very existence.

          Flash forward to this month. When you get paid, do you pay your bills and then write a check to the church? Do you lay out your Sunday best to come to church or do you hurriedly get dressed with no thought to where you are going? Do you help your neighbor before or after your chores are done? Do you pray before you start your day? Do you pray before you close your eyes for sleep? Do you try to walk with God during the day?

          Steve Klipowicz, one of my professors, calls this sort of behavior the “cycle of apathy.” We offer a sub-par sacrifice. Our rituals of worship become boring and meaningless. God’s reputation is diminished not only in our eyes, but in the eyes of those who look up to us. That causes another sub-par sacrifice and the cycle continues. Please press 1. Your sacrifice is very important to us.

         When we give God less than our best, when we allow others to tell us what the Bible says and do not engage in our own self-examination in tandem with the Holy Spirit, God is dishonored. This has been called the Malachi Effect. We cheat God by giving him leftovers and seconds. The result is predictable. God’s reputation is diminished. Our spiritual vitality and commitment are diminished. Our witness is lost as we become more apathetic until our apathy becomes not the exception but the norm.

          The world in which we live is plagued with apathy and disconnects and a “whatever” sort of mentality that encroaches into everything we do, everything we profess to believe. But “whatever” doesn’t cut it with God. God doesn’t want whatever. He wants “a pure offering.” When God decided to rescue us, he didn’t send a second rate Messiah. He didn’t send someone lame or sick or blind or defective. He sent a piece of himself in the form of his one and only son. God sent us a perfect offering.

          When we come here on Sunday or Wednesday or any other time we enter God’s house; when we walk in this world that God created for us  and pursue our commerce with it and the people in our lives, doesn’t the God who gave all that we have –all that we are-deserve our best? When we give less than that, when we put God in any place but first—we diminish God and tarnish the excellence of his image. When we give God less than our best, our first fruits, then our view of God is lowered and our access to him is blocked.

          It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about our money or our time or our talents. It’s all the same to God. We owe him our best, our first fruits. We owe him a pure offering. The apostle Paul asked the church and the people of God to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices—not burnt offerings.

          We eat from the altar we present to God. In our giving and our living, let us consider what it is that we want to receive. Do you want the taste of apathy and “whatever” in your mouth? Or do you want the taste of forgiveness and glory?