The prophet Malachi’s writing lacks clear signs as to when his ministry occurred, but many believe based on some contextual evidence that he served approximately 80 years after Haggai and Zechariah. Malachi addresses a group of Israelites whose worship, although present, was lacking in many ways. I want to focus on the first one on the list, as I believe it’s super readily applicable to believers of all generations. The Lord, through Malachi, brings a harsh criticism specifically against the priests because of the polluted nature of their offerings.
So, what was the nature of these bad offerings? They had begun to offer the blind, the lame, and the sick as a sacrifice to God (1:8). They didn’t put forth their best. They didn’t offer spotless animals as the law required. They offered, at best, their leftovers. Imagine poor, three-legged, Lucky the lamb found upon the chopping block because he didn’t have much left to him anyways! Why did God care about this? Because their lowly offerings were a reflection of their lowly view of God.
If they didn’t highly esteem their offering, then it proved they didn’t highly esteem their God. The Lord recounts how a son honors his father, and a servant his master and yet the people didn’t honor the true Master, the Lord Almighty (1:6). The lack of value that they attributed to the Lord’s commands, and His offerings, showed that they didn’t really care for Him all that much. Like many other points in biblical history, they might have honored Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him (Is. 29:13; Matt. 15:8). The proof was in the pudding. If they truly loved God, then their offering would show it.
While the modern believer doesn’t bring offerings to a priest to worship or atone for their sins, we still do a variety of things for God. We gather with the local church and we worship, we bring financial contributions to the church, we give God of our time in our day-to-day lives in devotions, and we give time as volunteers to the local church, possibly more. We have a lot of things that we “offer” even if it might not be the exact equivalent of the priests’ sacrifice in the days of Malachi.
If we were honest with ourselves, looking over our areas of offering, do they reflect a genuine love for God? Do we honor the Lord as we’d honor a father, a boss, or any other earthly figure of authority? I love when Malachi says to give the lame and sick animal to the governor to see if he’d accept it! (1:8). Yet, they were willing to give this to the Creator of heaven and earth!
I once heard a preacher share a story (possibly fictional, I don’t remember) where a family found a freezer-burnt old turkey in the deep recesses of their freezer. They weren’t sure as to whether or not it was still safe to eat, or if it would even be worth eating even if it was safe. Surely it might’ve been so old that all flavor would be lost. Well, after brushing off some ice, scanning the dates, and doing some research online, they found it was probably safe to eat, but not worth eating. So, as they ponder aloud what to do with said turkey (as they surely didn’t want it!) one of them said aloud, “Let’s give it to the church!”
There’s a sense where it’s easy for people to give their leftovers. Their contribution to the Lord isn’t a first priority. They don’t, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). They come to church and serve if they have extra time, but only if they have extra. They might give financially, if it’s a good month and they have leftovers. As such, most months there is, as Dave Ramsey has famously said, “Too much month left at the end of the money” and no offering is made. They might carve out a little time to read the bible or pray, if they have nothing better to do. Across the board, their priorities are elsewhere, and God gets the leftovers. He effectively gets the lame, the blind, and the sick of our lives.
If God so loved the world that He was willing to give His own Son, heaven’s best, the spotless Lamb of God, for the sake of our sins, ought we not to give our best in return? If His love was forever proven when He gave His Son for us while we were still undeserving sinners (Rom. 5:8), then surely, should not our God, who is deserving and worthy of all glory and honor, be given the best we have?
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