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Half-hearted: Faithlessness
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Malachi 2
Sunday, 5th November, 2017

Malachi 2

 On the 31st October 1515 Martin Luther nailed 95 theses or questions for debate on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. His chief issue was the strange matter of indulgencies. The next day, the feast of all-hallows or all saint day, the church said, that your sins  could be wiped away if you paid into the church funds and entered the church at Wittenberg. His complaint was that the church had no right to do this, only Jesus could forgive sins. Further, if the church could forgive sins it should forgive the sins without regard to money or prayer or pilgrimage or giving to the poor. The church of his day had turned the gospel into a means of raising money. If you go to Rome today, you will see the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul which was built out of the money raised in this way.  The rest is history. Like Malachi, he was protesting against a priesthood . The words of verse 8 would have fitted well

8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant.

 

This is a prophecy to the church, its leadership and the fellowship. So we must listen to God and be transformed by its message.

The key verse in this passage is verse 16b

So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.

 

 Outline

superscription (1:1);

six disputations between Malachi/ Yahweh and the addressees (1:2–3:21, Eng. 4:3);

1.   A dispute about God’s love (1:2–5)

2.   A dispute about God’s honour and fear (1:6–2:9)

3.   A dispute about faithlessness (2:10–16)

4.   A dispute about God’s justice (2:17–3:5)

5.   A dispute about repentance (3:6–12)

6.   A dispute about speaking against God (3:13–21, Eng. 3:13–4:3)

appendices

(1) an admonition to remember the law of Moses (3:22, Eng. 4:4)

(2) the announcement that Yahweh is sending Elijah to turn the hearts of children to parents and vice-versa before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes (3:23–24, Eng. 4:5–6).

 

 

 In today’s passage: in verses 1-9 we read of a complaint by God against the Priests dishonouring God and breaking a covenant made with Levi.

 

In verses 10-16, God returns to the people of Judah declaring that they have broken covenant and desecrated the temple. They have been faithless to one another, in particular, in the context of marriage.

 

In verses 17 God turns to the matter of his justice. Which is continued in the next chapter so we will leave that for next week.

 

It is uncomfortable reading this. It does not fit into our culture. It will upset some of us because we have been or are  involved in divorce. Can I point out that divorce is what is hated NOT divorcees and it is the example to the problem. The problem is faithlessness. It is serious for the sons of Levi – the priests and it is serious in marriage. It is also serious in the family, in the church, in the workplace, but most of all before God.

This is a community which has the appearance of a live faith. Its worship is very slick and modern and polished. But it lacks integrity. It is fake. The challenge of this book is to analyse where we are at. It reminds me of Revelation 3

14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches

So the question is can you hear Jesus knocking ? Because he is knocking at the door of your heart. You may be deaf to his persistence but he has not given up on you.

The call is

So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.

He will remain faithful even if we are faithless.

 

So we can look back at the dark ages of the church when it became the establishment, wielding power both religious and political. But we must not be complacent. In the Great War of 1914-1918 the church taught that it was your religious duty to volunteer and fight for King and country. Quite forgetting that Jesus said that my kingdom is not of this world or Love your enemies, do good to those who do you harm. Tied to the State, eager to be in a position of influence, we the church of Jesus Christ, water down our message or just wholesale ignore what Jesus says.

Here we have 2 points to ponder.

5 "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.

 

We tend to view the Old Covenant through the eyes of the Pharisees as a series of rules to keep. In fact, the book of Leviticus, for example, is about restoring broken relationship with God through the sacrifices and with our fellows by good ground rules and, where necessary, good law and to be healthy by a thorough health and safety code. The 10 commandments are not laws, they call on us to relate to God and other people properly. It was a covenant of life and peace. It required the priests to believe God and give him the respect he deserved.

 Secondly the Levites or priests were meant to have integrity.

7 "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction—because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty.

In an age of oral tradition, with only a few literate and books were even rarer, the Levites were called to be faithful to the word of God.

One of the chief reasons the reformation took off was that many more people could read and books were more readily available – although still rare in today’s terms. Only 2000 copies of Luther’s 95 Theses in German were printed – less than the number of leaflets we are about to deliver to our neighbours.  

Today we have a new change. In a matter of seconds, you can tweet a message and once out there in the net it can be read by millions. The problem of truth is even more acute today. Fake photos, fake news or calling researched news, fake swill around the internet, where once you read the lies and the prejudices of the newspapers. Where we get our information matters. And so God curses very unpleasantly the priests for their failure to tell the truth as it is. Be careful what you read or hear. If possible check it out from other sources before you give it credit. Be particularly careful when you are going to re-tweet, gossip or share.

 

 Verses 10-16 have really complex difficulties in understanding. Commentators are divided on whether marriage is the issue or idolatry. It hangs on what “Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.”  means.

It could mean that they have chosen to worship other gods or that they were intermarrying with people who did not share their faith. That could flow into the next verses and mean that the wife of your youth and divorce is about deserting God for idols but  that strains these verses. Verses 13-16 make sense as a passionate call for faithfulness in marriage.

Here I want to repeat what I have already said that this is about hating divorce not divorcees. It is an example of faithfulness. Malachi is calling for faithfulness to God in all aspects of our lives, marriage being one of them. But we are a fallen creation. So divorce is permitted for adultery and we extend that to violence or threatened violence and talk of an irrevocable breakdown in marriage being grounds for divorce.  I have recommended divorce in those cases. Some can and do forgive adultery and re-build their marriages, others cannot cope and divorce. We, as sinners saved by grace alone, stand with those who rebuild and those who divorce. My marriage like yours is a 3 person event, God, Liz and I, and I am grateful to God that he has kept us in order and together.

But the call is to those who’s eyes wander , especially in later years. As fallen creatures we are prone to boredom and the excitement of a new relationship is powerful. Faithfulness, sticks with the wife of our youth. Faithfulness works at the relationship. If you do not take steps to continue to build your marriage relationship you are in grave danger of losing what is most precious.

 

Stepping back from marriage a bit, I want to point out that this principle applies to all relationships. The model is Jesus. He picked 12 special followers and a right bunch they turned out to be. Even on the night he was betrayed they were arguing, misunderstanding and even betraying him. They all deserted him and fled. But he did not give up on them. You can get a glimpse of God’s love for his disciples and us in Hosea 11: 7-9

“How can I give you up, Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
    How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is changed within me;
    all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger,
    nor will I devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man—
    the Holy One among you.

 

Given that God loves us like that, how are we to respond to this message from God?

Twice we are told:

 So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.

Once in the context of marriage and then, apparently, in general. The Hebrew in both sentences is similar using the same root words guard, spirit, and cheating.

15b

וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּם֙           8104  -niš-mar-tem and guard        שָׁמַר

בְּר֣וּחֲכֶ֔ם             7307 bə-rū-ḥă-ḵem, to your spirit       ם+ רוּחַ +ב

וּבְאֵ֥שֶׁת                 802 ū-ḇə-’ę-šeṯ and against the wife

נְעוּרֶ֖יךָ               5271 nə-‘ū-re-ḵā of his youth

אַל־                     408 ’al-          not                               אַל       

יִבְגֹּֽד׃                   898 yiḇ-gōḏ. deal treacherously        בָּגַד to act covertly;

16b

וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם           8104 -niš-mar-tem and guard  שָׁמַר

בְּרוּחֲכֶ֖ם             7307 bə-rū-ḥă-ḵem, to your spirit       ם+ רוּחַ +ב

וְלֹ֥א                   3808 wə-lō      and not                                    אַל +ו

תִבְגֹּֽדוּ׃                 898 ṯiḇ-gō-ḏū. you deal treacherously בָּגַד to act covertly;

Notice the word spirit here. We are created to be part of the family of God. We guard our spirits by paying attention to our relationships. First with God and second with those God places us with, whether that is husband or wife or brother or sister in Christ, It is our spirits that cry Abba Father. It is our spirits that survive death. It is our spirits that communicate with God. So the number one priority is to guard our spirits. Otherwise we are cheating on ourselves and cheating on the family of God.

 

 So we learn that truth is critical and those that lead must be careful to teach others the truth that is Jesus.

 

We learn that even the Old Covenant was a covenant of life and peace. The New Covenant is even better replacing sacrifices by the death of Jesus, a once and for all forgiveness of sins.

We learn that faithfulness is not only a characteristic of God but a characteristic of his people as they are transformed into his glory. And faithfulness is about how we maintain our relationship with God, how we maintain our marriages and how we stand by one another.

That is how we go about guarding our spirits.

So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.