Skimping

Good morning!

The Old Testament book of Malachi is short, filled with wisdom nonetheless.  Let's prowl around in it for the next few days.

"Malachias" or "Malakiy", from the Hebrew, means "God's Messenger".  Some believe that the author of this book chose this generic title as his "name", but that his identity is actually concealed.  Unlike Hosea, who appears in his book as an actual historical character, we see no such clues in the book of Malachi.  This book is the last one in the Christian Old Testament canon and the last of the "minor prophets".  It was written, many believe, in 431 B.C., during the Persian rule of Jerusalem, after Nehemiah left Jerusalem for a time.

The temple had been rebuilt by 516 B.C. and worship there, as commanded by God, had been resumed for about 75 years.  Malachi begins his book by pointing out that although God declares His love for His people (vs. 2), their priests have started "skimping".  God confronts the people in verse 6:

If I'm your Father, where's the honor?  If I'm your Master, where's the respect?

The priests, according to verse 6 were "despising" God, with their "shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship".

How were they doing this?  In verses 7 and 8, God says the priests have not esteemed His altar a priority anymore. The priests had begun to offer as sacrifices "worthless animals, animals you are trying to get rid of - - blind and sick and crippled animals".  God had commanded that offerings to Him be the best of the best, to foreshadow the coming of His Son, the ultimate sacrifice.  We see this in Leviticus 1:3, for example.  The burnt offering was to be a "male without blemish".  The priests in Malachi's day were giving God "the leftovers", the "hand-me-down, the broken, the useless" (vs. 13).

God does not want our "leftovers" in our worship of Him.  He goes so far as to say in verse 14 that a curse shall be on that person who worships in this way - - making a big show of doing something great for God, an expensive sacrifice, say - - - and then at the last minute bringing in something puny and worthless.

Today is Sunday, in my world, regardless of when you are reading this post.  I'm headed to church to worship.  I pray that my worship will be pure, from a humble heart, totally focused on the One who worthy of all my adoration and praise.

Father, thank you for this beautiful Sunday, the day Christians set aside to worship You.  May every day, every action that I take be an act of pure worship, but especially today, please accept my earnest offering of praise.  I'm so grateful for the gifts you've given me to praise You, and I long to do so out of a heart of gratitude.  In Jesus' name, amen.