The malachi offering
I was reading in the book of Malachi today when the Lord spoke to me. Malachi 1:6 says, “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of armies to you, the priests who despise My name! But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ Revelation 5:10 says that those of us who have been purchased by Jesus for God are made priest unto Him. I was pondering this when the Lord spoke to me and said, “My priests TODAY also dishonor and disrespect my name.” I asked as the priest of Israel did in Malachi, “How are we doing that Lord?”
In Malachi, God tells the priest they are presenting defiled food upon His altar. He said when they offered sacrifices that were blemished and impure, they were defiling His name. He suggested that even their governor would not be pleased with what they were offering to God. He said they should not expect God to show them favor, graciousness, or kindness because of their sacrifice, but rather, it would be better to lock the altars up and offer nothing than to offer what they were offering. The people were not giving their best to God, and instead were complaining. In Malachi 1:13-14, they were saying, “My, how tiresome it is!” God said that those who have a worthy sacrifice but offer up a lesser one to the Lord will be cursed because “I am a great King, and My name is feared among the nations.”
Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” This verse is emphasizing how we are to be purified and holy when we offer ourselves to God. We are not to come to God in worship with sin and idolatry in our lives. Matthew 5:24 tells us to go make peace with anyone who might have offense against us before we bring our offering to the Lord, so we might stand before the Lord in holiness. When we worship the Lord, we should be bringing our best. We should not be halfheartedly singing the words of the song or standing there in silence not singing at all. We should not be bringing unforgiveness or bitterness to the altar of the Lord. We should allow Christ to cleanse us of all sin before coming before the throne of God in worship and offering ourselves as a sacrifice to Him.
We should be bringing the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives as an offering to our King! Psalms 98:4 tells us, “Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Be cheerful and sing for joy and sing praises.” We should be focused only on God when we worship Him and not allow our minds to be distracted by worldly things. We should be coming into worship having examined ourselves first to make sure there are no blemishes within us. If we need to repent first and have the blood of Christ purify us before we come together to worship, we should be doing that. After we are purified by Jesus, we can “shout joyfully to the Lord” because He has forgiven us, and because our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life!
1 Corinthians 11:29 tells us if we partake in communion without first examining ourselves and repenting for any sin or idolatry, we will bring judgement to ourselves. In the same manner, if we come to worship and we have not first been made pure by the forgiving blood of Jesus, we risk being cursed because we are offering God a blemished sacrifice when we have the ability to offer Him a worthy one. If we are not worshipping Him with pure hearts full love only for Him, we are not giving Him our best. 1 Corinthians says it is better to abstain from communion rather than partaking of it in an unholy manner. God tells the priests in Malachi the same thing about sacrificing blemished offerings. In both cases, if we do not come to Him in holiness and purity, we will suffer the curse or judgement that comes with the sin or idolatry in our lives. Can we say we give Him our best when we do not “shout joyfully” to our God? Can we say we give Him our best when we shout louder at the football game the night before than we do in the worship service at church? Can we say we give Him our best when we clap and sing louder at the musical concert on Friday night than we do at church on Sunday morning? Why are we worshipping idols with more passion than we are worshipping our God?
When God told the Israelite priests that their own governor would not be pleased with the sacrifice they were offering to God, it made me think of types of people who might not be satisfied with the type of offering that some people in the church try to offer God on Sunday mornings. Do you think a football team would appreciate stands full of fans who were quiet? How about a concert where no one in the audience said anything. What about a comedian who had no one laughing or clapping in their audience? What is it that makes us believe we can come to church and worship God in a lesser way? Do we love those idols more than we love God? People are more excited about yelling for their favorite sports team or musician than they are about yelling for the One and only God and King of all things! No wonder there are so many sick and struggling people in the church when we worship those other types of people in a greater way than we do our Father in heaven. No wonder the scripture says in 1 Corinthians 11:30 that many among us are sick or even dead because of the unholy way we partake of communion, or in Malachi 1:9 and 14 that we are cursed instead of receiving God’s favor and grace because of the way we offer ourselves as an unholy sacrifice to the Lord.
The Holy Spirit is coming to clean up His church, but because God is merciful, He is allowing us an opportunity to participate in the cleanup first. We can only be responsible for our own lives, but we can share this warning with others in love. I want to see the church be transformed into the spotless Bride of Christ before the Father has to come and clean us up Himself. Jesus said He did not come to condemn us, but the Father is the righteous judge. I can promise you He will make sure the Bride of Christ is ready before His Son’s return, and if you look around right now, she is not ready for Him. We are not spotless. We are not even clean. Let’s start by searching within ourselves for anything that might be harmful so we can remove it from our lives. We can also ask God as David did to look within as well. He knows our hearts and thoughts better than we even know ourselves. He will not only show you what you need to repent of, but He will also help you remove it from your life. This way you may “present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
You can read more about this and other truths by obtaining a copy of “Prodigal to Prince” by Beau Walsh at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.
