"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?" 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. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:6-8 ESV)
The second half of this chapter was pretty convicting for me as the Lord says the Priests despise his name because they offer sacrifices that are not worthy. Rather than giving what they promised and he deserves, they are giving what not even human rulers would accept nonetheless God. While the animal sacrifices do not continue today because of Jesus, I think it's a very good question to ask ourselves if we're giving God what he deserves or just what we're willing to part with (in both time and money). Are we really sacrificing for him? Or living as we like with him as an afterthought? Are we only willing to give to him when it's easy and when we have everything that we want? Remember that the Lord despised their tainted offering. He desires to be our first love and priority.
I found that passage pretty convicting too. God desires that our first-fruits be given to him with gratitude and thanks. The Israelites actually had a festival at the beginning of harvest season where they did just that. If we aren't giving God the best out of love and gratitude, then we fall into the same pattern as Cain whose offering was not pleasing to God.
ReplyDeleteI think that this applies readily to tithing. I have always had a hard time tithing especially because I did not have an income. Now I have an income and I have a hard time remembering to tithe. God does not desire me to withhold, but I do whether consciously or unconsciously. That is the next area that I plan on working on to move closer to God.
I had a good bit of trouble remembering it at first as well, but now I've been trying to follow a set budget so that I know how to balance it all. The good part is that right away I know what I'm giving away for that month and put some towards church and some to other causes that I get to search for and choose as well.
DeleteI've been inspired to do something different from now on by sharing the accompanying verse of the day that comes with my reading plan.
ReplyDelete"for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
--Galatians 3: 26-28 (ESV)
Despite the uniqueness of every single human being born on earth, we are all one in Christ Jesus. I believe that Paul did meant to say that we are - or should be - exactly the same, but that we all have one calling as children of God and that we must shed away differences that keep us from putting on Christ.
This resonates strongly with me especially this semester thanks to my involvement with Greek Village. Greek Village is a new campus organization started by Clark Howell (Lambda Chi Alpha), Mac Merrit, and a few other Christian students in Greek houses who felt that there were many Christians in fraternities and sororities that needed reaching out to. Each meeting that we have and each new person I meet, I feel a connection that transcends letters and rivalries as we come together as one body for worship, prayer, and discussions.
With the ever increasing diversity of the world and the point we are all in our lives, this mindset is important. Having an assumption of another person because they are associated with a group of people can be a serious block that keeps us from seeing Christ in others, something I have definitely been guilty of, and leads to prideful thinking. Therefore let us rejoice in our baptism and put on Christ so that people of any race, gender, affiliation, or condition can see the almighty redeemer in all of us.
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
ReplyDeleteyou do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise." - Psalm 51:16-17
I think this verse in Psalms has an interesting parallel with the second half of the chapter. The fact that the priests were accepting and sacrificing blind and lame and sick animals shows that their hearts and the hearts of the people offering the sacrifices were not contrite. They were performing their sacrifices out of duty, instead of out of honor and respect for their Father and penitence for their actions. Likewise the poor woman who gave a single copper coin, and the tax collector who cried out "Have mercy on me, a sinner" in the gospels were given mercy over their fellow supplicants.
I feel like this chapter directly talks to me. I have always had a difficult time giving God everything He deserves. We are supposed to praise HIm with all our souls and hearts, but whenever I do, it seems half-hearted. I always say, "I will put God my first priority and give him everything I have." But it never happens that way, which is very discouraging. We know that God deserves more than just good. He deserves the best and He wants us to do it too. It's our selfishness and pride that prevents us from giving our best whether it is money or our heart. I think this can also apply to our daily lives as a student or worker. We need to give our best effort at our school and work in order so that God will be glorified in the process. We need to be disciplined to be the ardent follower of Christ. In return, God will show us his unending love and grace.
ReplyDeleteSo I don't think I had heard of this book before (it sounded to me like one of the extra Catholic books), much less read it. It was different from what I've seen before, so that was new. The first part I thought was weird, I got from it that God destroyed whomever was against Israel to show his love. I guess that's nice and all for the Israelites, but it kinda sucked for the other people; then again, I'm not sure what they did to deserve that, but I can guess it goes along the lines of disobeying/going against God. So moral of that story, don't disobey God. He might destroy you. And people today say we don't have to worry about that because Jesus redeemed us through the cross, but that doesn't make God any less formidable. I think people, either intentionally or unintentionally, abuse the fact that Jesus saved us from the wrath of God, and not give God the attention, love, and respect he deserves. Instead they give what's leftover of their time and energy and rationalize that they're saved regardless. I know better though, yet sometimes God still gets ignored my day to day adventures.
ReplyDeleteJust an FYI: it's not that the Catholic Church has extra books... It's just that Protestant Church chose to keep the Catholic new testament, but adopted the Jewish canon for the old testament (compiled circa 90AD at the council of Javneh) rather than the Catholic Canon (follows the Septuagint which are the books and writings followed by all Jews and Christians until 90 A.D.)
DeleteThe books removed were Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach, and Baruch. Parts of existing books were also removed including Psalm 151 (from Psalms), parts of the Book of Esther, Susanna (from Daniel as chapter 13), and Bel and the Dragon (from Daniel as chapter 14).
The books that were removed supported such things as
• Prayers for the dead (Tobit 12:12; 2 Maccabees 12:39-45)
• Purgatory (Wisdom 3:1-7)
• Intercession of saints in heaven (2 Maccabees 15:14)
• Intercession of angels (Tobit 12:12-15)
I was under the impression that the apocrypha was the collection of books that were considered to not be inspired by God. They were removed because Protestants wanted only God's words and not the ones man wrote.
DeleteAlso, isn't Maccabees a book about the kings of Israel who came before Jesus and his new covenant. How could a book from the time when people believed in Sheol and Abraham's side refer to saints in heaven interceding on other's behalf? Just out of curiosity.
The deuterocanonical books are said to be divinely inspired as well. The Greek New Testament books were even written taking their quotes from the Septuagint (which as Bryan said, includes these books). Martin Luther included them in his Bible even though they were in a separate Apocryha section. It was in a debate on purgatory that Luther said the books were not authoritative under the reasoning that St. Jerome moved them to a separate section when constructing the Latin Vulgate for the church, but St. Jerome has said this was only done as he was translating the Hebrew bible of the time which did the same (although that was only a recent change and the dead sea scrolls have shown that there were other versions of the Hebrew Bible at the time and before which still included these books.
DeleteHopefully that made sense. The church still considered them divinely inspired. It was only upon creating a new translation directly from Hebrew that these books were moved to a separate section to reflect the Hebrew Bible of the time.
"For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; And everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering; For great is my name among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. But you behave profanely toward me by thinking the Lord's table and its offering may be polluted, and its food slighted." Malachi 1: 11-12
ReplyDeleteHow often do we slight God with our worship? There have been many times where I have simply fit God into my schedule as opposed to making him a priority in my life. Here he asks for our best. More so, he asks that we give him worship to the best of our ability and if we cannot give him that request, then we should not pretend and try and save face with our friends and society. God wants real worship in Spirit and in truth, he doesn't desire vain worship or ignorant worship.
"If I am a father, where is the honor due to me?"
If your father asked you to do something and you committed to doing something for him, you would follow through. Yet, I feel like we cut ourselves too much slack when it comes to our relationship with God. Because there don't appear to be any foreseeable immediate consequences, we break our obligations to God. We skip out on quiet time or we do as I have done a lot recently and you postpone spending time with Him until the very last minute. How sad... Perhaps we can all work on putting God first as a priority in our daily lives.
Rather than reiterate what everyone else has been talking about, I'm going to go the Omar route and focus on the wrath and power of God that is put on display in this chapter and the rest of the Old Testament (and by "rest of the Old Testament" I'm referring to all of the books in my Bible, not those extra ones thrown in by the Catholic Church; I haven't read them and can therefore not speak for them). It was clear to me throughout this reading that God comes down pretty hard on two kinds of people: those who oppose the Israelites and Israelites who do not pay their dues to God. As I am not Jewish and often do not bring my best to God's table, I could see myself falling into the latter category and potentially belonging to the former as well. I therefore would have been totally screwed in this Old Testament setting. I too often forget this and carry on like I don't owe everything I am to the God of the Universe. Malachi serves as a powerful reminder to me and all Christians of the saving grace of Jesus - a saving grace that had to earned before he came to Earth.
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