Malachi 2

Message: God is to be set apart and praised and honored and His covenants are to be taken seriously. 

Time: Late 5th Century BC; After Malachi I when the Lord came down on the people for not giving God their best and the priests were willing to accept second-best.

What the Lord is Saying:

The Lord Rebukes the Priests
(v. 1-2) Our priority to the Lord is to give honor to His name. This is the whole and entire purpose of the tabernacle and the role of the priests: to give Glory to God in the Highest.

Reminds me of the Chris Tomlin song, "Glory in the Highest."
    You are the first
    You go before
    You are the last
    Lord, You're the encore
    Your names in lights for all to see
    The starry host declare Your glory

    Glory in the Highest.

This is our chief aim of life, to glorify God and give Him the honor he deserves. How can we not do this and then think God will bless us?

(v. 3) When I don't honor God, but then bring to Him offerings and expect a blessing, it is odd. How I live like this. I secure my salvation in the Lord and then I live my life in such a way as to just barely give God what He deserves and then sit back and expect my life to fall into place. (v.4) I am to repent. The covenant is to seek the Lord, repent of my ways. (v.5) Would I just realize that I am to stand in awe of the Lord and realize who He is.

King James Version - over and over we see God telling us to not fear.

Deuteronomy 1:21 - Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8 - And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
Joshua 1:9 - Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Joshua 10:25 - And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight. 

1 Chronicles 22:13 - Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.
1 Chronicles 28:20 - And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

2 Chronicles 20:15 - And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. 

2 Chronicles 20:17 - Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you. 

2 Chronicles 32:7 - Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: 

Isaiah 51:7 - Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. 

Jeremiah 23:4 - And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. 

Jeremiah 30:10 - Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

Jeremiah 46:27 - But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. 

We walk in control of our lives most of the time because of something we fear and yet over and over the Lord reminds us to "fear not."

There are actions of the true priest and how he is to act and conduct himself (v. 6-7). His instruction is true. He walks in peace. He walks in an upright way. He turns many from their focus on sin. He guards knowledge. People look to him for instruction. He is a messenger sent from the Lord. But, the false priest acts in the opposite manner (v. 8,9) and has poor outcomes or results. Many stumble, many are corrupted and you are partial in your instruction, trying to have your cake and eat it, too. Your name will not be set apart.

Judah Profaned the Covenant
All of us have the same God. God is the one that created us. So, why do we often act so poorly toward one another (v. 10)? We do we often act that we are not of the same family. That is a hard question for life. Family members can go their separate ways at times but we can still leave in love. We are pondering leaving our church right now, but that doesn't mean we think any less of the people that are there. Specifically here in this passage (v.11) the concern is placed on Judah and their unfaithfulness and the way they have treated those things in their life that should be sacred. They haven't placed the honor they should toward the Church. God loves His Church and yet how often do people instead go out and choose to marry the world instead? We need to be careful that we don't act this way and then occasionally think that are service to God will bring blessing to our life (v. 12).

It wasn't enough that people disregarding God's covenants and did not give Him honor, but they turned their back on the wife of their youth and instead went after foreign wives (v. 13-16). They went outside the church and went instead to other places to seek after other women. God is the one that establishes the covenant between husband and wife and then we often turn our back on it and go after other wives. The overriding issue here is how we don't take serious enough the covenants that God has set up for us. 

The Lord is wearied by our words. Our throat is an open grave (Romans 3:13). Our words begin to no longer have value (v. 17).


Promise: God is to be honored. Give Him the honor He deserves by following what He teaches throughout His word. Don't look to being favored by man. Persistence of sin in our life will lead to all kinds of problems in our lives.