Malachi 1:1-14

There is, perhaps, no greater sorrow than to have our love spurned.  When we love someone and they don’t feel the same way we do it is a hard thing for us to take.  God feels that heartbreak constantly.  He loves us with a perfect love and yet we question and doubt Him.  We don’t return His love or many times even respond to His love at all.  When we do love Him it is always an imperfect love and often it is a half-hearted love.  Malachi is written in such a context of people who doubt God’s love and respond to His love with cold indifference instead of the passion He deserves.  Unfortunately, our love is often like that of the readers of Malachi.

THE REALITY OF GOD’S LOVE: God declares His love for Israel.  The people respond with a heartbreaking question. How have you loved us?  This is the question that people all over the world throw in the face of God.  We often blame the consequences of our sin on God and then question His lack of love because of our own disobedience and lack of love.  God responds by comparing His love for Jacob with that of Esau.  The idea of God hating Esau is better understood in relative terms as compared to the love for Jacob.  Just as in the New Testament we are called to hate our family when compared with our love for God.  Due to Esau’s faithless carnality God hates this way of life.  Jacob, on the other hand was blessed by God’s unconditional grace and love.  No believer deserves the love of God.  We all deserve God’s hatred and judgment.  God’s love for us is real and it is completely undeserved.


THE RESPONSE TO GOD’S LOVE: Unfortunately, the response to God’s love is never what it should be.  Malachi is written after the reconstruction of the temple.  The fact that Israel had been restored to the land and the temple rebuilt was in and of itself a demonstration of love.  How did they respond to this love?  By offering blemished sacrifices on the altar to the Lord.  God desires to have our best, not the leftovers of our lives.  The people would bring lame, blind or sick animals to the temple as sacrifices to the Lord.  This was detestable to the Lord and in many ways worse than offering nothing at all.  When we don’t recognize God’s love in our lives we will often respond with this kind of half-heartedness.  If we want to live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, we must start by considering His amazing love.  When we look at His love on the cross how can we do less than give Him our best?

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