WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT MALACHI?
Malachi: Married to the Lord
(Malachi ESV)
Signs of Relationship Problems with God
Forgetting God's Love
• The Lord Has Chosen His Bride
“'I have loved you,' says the Lord.” (Malachi 1:2)
1. The Lord has Rejected the Wicked
“But you say, 'How have you loved us?' 'Is not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the Lord. 'Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.'” (Malachi 1:2)
Half-Hearted Worship
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ [7] By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the LORD's table may be despised. (Malachi 1:6-7 ESV)
Disobedience & Partial Truth
and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.” (Malachi 2:9 ESV)
Speaking Lies: False Grace & Doubting God
You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17 ESV)
You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? (Malachi 3:14 ESV)
Marital Problems
• Marrying Non-Believers
Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. (Malachi 2:11)
• A Divorce Culture
And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. [14] But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. [15] Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. [16] “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” (Malachi 2:13-16)
Robbing God by Partial Giving Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. [9] You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. (Malachi 3:8-9 ESV)
Relationship Solutions
1. Receive God's Love
My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. (Malachi 2:5 ESV)
For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6 ESV)
2. Worship God Humbly
It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. (Malachi 2:5 ESV)
3. Know & Speak God's Truth
True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. … [7] For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 2:6-7 ESV)
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. (Malachi 4:4 ESV)
4. Walk in Faithful Obedience
He walked with me in peace and uprightness, (Malachi 2:6 ESV)
Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’... [10] Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Malachi 3:7, 10 ESV)
5. Share the Gospel
and he turned many from iniquity. (Malachi 2:6 ESV)
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. (Malachi 4:1 ESV)