Bible Study on Malachi - Part 6, Malachi 2:8-11, 3:5-6

We heard last week that faithlessness toward God and His will was at the root of the problems for many of the priests and people of Israel. Read again the words of Malachi 2:8-11. “You have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant... You do not keep My ways... (v.8-9) Judah has been faithless and abominations have been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem” (v.11).

Note also in that section that being faithless toward God often also leads to being unfaithful to our fellow human beings. “You show partiality in your instructions” -favoring some people over others and not being fair to all (v.9). “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?” Are we not all important to God our Father? “Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?” (v.10)

Read Matthew 22:34-40, where Jesus Himself quotes from that Old Covenant, Old Testament, to say that God’s will can be summarized as love for God, first and foremost, but also love for our neighbor (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18). The two go hand in hand. We show our love for God by how we act toward those people God has placed all around us. He is their “Father” too.

While you are here in Matthew’s Gospel, read also the surprising words of Jesus in Matthew 23:8-11. Obviously, other Scriptures make it clear that we need teachers and we are to honor our human father and mother (the 4th Commandment) and we need instructors. We can use those words in reference to others.

The point of Jesus, though, is that it is very easy for human leaders and teachers to get all wrapped up in themselves and what they are saying and doing. Their thinking and ideas can become most important, instead of listening to the one true Teacher, the one true Father, the one true Instructor - our Lord God and His Word. Leaders can get far off track and neglect God and His will and the people around them.

That is what Jesus is accusing the religious leaders of His own day, the scribes and Pharisees, of doing in all of Matthew 23, just as Malachi was accusing the people of his day. Real greatness (Matthew 23:11-12) consists in listening to God and trusting and loving Him and then being a servant to other people.

The danger of big titles is that we can claim too much for ourselves and believe those claims. That was the concern of Martin Luther and early Lutherans about the Office of the Pope and Papacy in their own day and still a concern today. The Pope is called The Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church. If that meant only that he is counted holy through faith, through God’s grace (which we and all Christians are), that would be correct and OK. But in the Catholic view:

• he is The Holy Father, above others; 
• he can sometimes speak in an “infallible” way (no mistakes or errors) in some moral and theological statements;
• he has unique power to forgive sins;
• he can still declare “indulgences” - forgiveness or “time off” from what we still need to do to pay completely for our sins, in purgatory after this life;
• there is so much else, too, that makes Lutheran reject the Catholic Office of the Papacy.

But what should we say about a term like “pastor?" A pastor means literally a “shepherd“ who is to care for his sheep, the people of his congregation. With that term, too, there are warnings in Scripture. Read what Peter says in 1 Peter 5:1-5 and note that the term “elder” is the equivalent of a pastor in this context. (Peter is considered the first pope in the Roman Catholic Church, in an unbroken line of popes ever since - an idea that is hard to prove, historically. Peter does not, though, put himself above other elders, other shepherds, but just calls himself a “fellow elder” even though he was an apostle and direct witness of what Jesus did for us, as the Savior of the world.)

Peter says that shepherds, pastors, are not to be “domineering” over the flock, but to be examples in serving their people. Pastors are also to remember that they have a “Chief Shepherd” to Whom they are accountable, the Lord God. Note also the importance of everyone, including pastors, being clothed with humility toward one another (v.5).

All of this is to say that leaders especially, and we all, are accountable to God above all, and unfaithfulness to Him can lead to unfaithfulness to and sin toward one another, as we heard in Malachi 2:10. God goes on in Malachi 3:6 to point out evils that He is a witness against, where God’s people were being unfaithful to Him and to one another.

First, God says that He is against “sorcerers.” Sorcerers were common in ancient times, using charms, spells, and other “supernatural” powers that could supposedly give them control over others and get what they themselves wanted from others.

Christians certainly believe that we can pray to God and ask for His help and guidance and His direction, through His Word. Sorcerers, however, seek help from false gods or evil supernatural forces like Satan and his evil angels. See a whole list of things in Deuteronomy 18:9-14 that were commonly used in ancient times, but which God’s people were not to be involved with at all.

Ask yourself, how many of these things do people still try to use today, against the will of God? Read Isaiah 47:8-15, where people are forgetting God and trusting themselves and their “sorceries” and “enchantments” and “charms” and “stargazing” (astrology) and saying, “I am, and there is no one besides me” who is important. All this is consulting false powers and false gods and directing people away from the one true God.

Maybe you heard this past week of a U.S. Rep. who opened a session of Congress with a prayer to Brahma, the creator god of Hinduism, one of their thousands of gods. We live in a free country, with freedom of religion, and people have the right to pray as they choose, whether we like their choice or not. However, this Rep. is a United Methodist minister, supposedly a Christian, calling upon a false god. What is he teaching - that any source of power and any god will do? This is a clear violation of the 1st and 2nd Commandments. This is the very sort of thing that God says He will witness against. (Read also Isaiah 43:10-13 and 44:6-20.)

God also witnesses, in Malachi 3:5, against “the adulterers.” This can refer to people being unfaithful to the one true God and going after false gods. This can also refer to breaking one’s marriage vows, a violation of the 6th Commandment. (We will hear more about this in next week’s portion of our Malachi study.)

God also witnesses against those who “swear falsely.” This would be a violation of the 8th Commandment, where people are a false witness against others and harm them by not telling the truth about them, in court or otherwise.

God also witnesses against “those who oppress hired workers in their wages.” This would be a violation of the 7th Commandment, where one steals from others by not paying them what they deserve or not paying them in a timely way. In ancient times, people were often day workers and were to be paid at the end of each day. If that pay was delayed, that could create real problems for the workers and even their survival. (See Leviticus 19:13, for example.)

God also witnesses against those who mistreat “the widow and the fatherless.” These are some of the most vulnerable people in the Old Testament, and it would be easy to take advantage of them or simply to neglect helping with genuine needs that they might have. (See Exodus 22:22-23 and Isaiah 1:16-17, 23 and James 1:27.)

Finally, God witnesses against “those who thrust aside a sojourner.” A sojourner is someone who is a foreigner and not an Israelite. (See such Scriptures as Exodus 22:21 and Psalm 146:7.) Note that in the Psalm and in other Scriptures like Deuteronomy 24:14-15, 17-18 and 27:19, the sojourner is connected with the widow and the fatherless, mentioned earlier as a special concern of God’s. Does this say anything about how we are to treat people from other countries who are in our own country?

God adds these words to His people at the end of Malachi 3:5: when you mistreat others “you do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts. Awe and reverence and respect for God and His Word call His people to try to treat other people with love and care, as God wishes. If you were raised as a Lutheran, you probably remember that in the Small Catechism, Martin Luther also shows so many ways that we violate all these Commandments, in one way or another. Remember that we sin, not only by deeds, but also by wrong thoughts and evil words.

Our Lord adds, in Malachi 3:6, that He does not want to “consume” His people, destroy them, because of their sins. He is still calling them to repent and return to Him in faith and to seek again to do His will. The Lord does not change. There is always hope in Him and His mercy and forgiveness - and for us, too, in Christ.

Next week, we hear one more strong section of Law, as God warns us through Malachi about the issue of divorce and then the danger of marrying people who worship false gods. Then we begin to hear more about what God plans to do about all these problems of His people. Again, there is hope, even in gloomy times.