Religion… what’s the point? (Zechariah chapter 7)

OUT OF THE CHAOS: A study in the book of Zechariah

Chapter 7: Religion… what’s the point?

 

To watch this on YouTube, click here. Thanks.

Shalom and welcome to our class today. We are continuing in this prophetic book written by a young Jewish man living in Jerusalem about 500 BCE as he writes to his people, those living there in Judah and also to those living in Babylon. To each of those groups, he has some clear words and I trust that those words he spoke 2500 years ago will speak to you and to me as we will consider what God meant as he used that young man. And we will try to learn what God has to say to us as 21^st Century people. 

Our overall theme in this book is “out of the chaos” and there was plenty of chaos around young Zechariah in those days, and dare I say, around us in our days as well. How we find its opposite, whether you title it control or comfort or pleasure or ease… that’s the goal of my studies in this book with you.

If you don’t mind, please read the chapter before you come to the class live, and if you are watching YouTube, pause your playback, read chapter 7 and then re-join us.  

Sometimes we read a chapter in the Bible and it’s full of good things, promises of life and abundance, situations of surprise, thoughtful insights into pleasures and comfortable considerations. Today, this is not one of those. Oh, certainly there are instructions about life and some conditional actions set down as reminders of godly living. But there is a serious rebuke in the midst of this chapter, and I want to welcome it. Let me explain. The conditions that caused the Jewish people to be exiled from Jerusalem, the warnings that God gave us, are still in effect. If we keep Torah, if we listen to the Lord with our whole heart, if we serve him with gladness for the abundance of all things (Dt. 28), then we will be blessed. If we don’t, and we didn’t 70 years before Zechariah wrote, and we didn’t under the Judges, and we often didn’t at the beginning of the 20^th century, whenever we don’t follow God’s commands and we turn away from listening to his voice… those warnings are still in effect. And what is God’s response to those rejections of his love? He has no other option but to punish us, to judge us, to cause problems among our people. Chapter 7 introduces the 2^nd section of Zechariah’s prophecies--- the instructions for godly living. The 1^st section began like ours today begins, with a call to repentance, then immediately showcased 8 visions Zechariah had, perhaps all on the same night, with hopeful presentations from heaven, and a call to trust the Lord in all circumstances with and without Babylon and Persia. 

Now the 2^nd section begins with similar language. Let’s jump in.

Verse 1. The calendar is opened and it’s 2 years after the first section. The Temple is still a construction site. Darius is still king.  The word of the Lord comes to our prophet. On a particular day. Kislev the 4^th. That means it’s winter. 

Verse 2. Emissaries are sent from Bethel, the town about 20 km north of Jerusalem. Sharezer sounds like a Babylonian name and Regemelech, more Babylonian. Along with ‘their men’, an entourage of ranking men, seek favour. The word for seek is ‘chalah’ and usually relates to ‘being sick.’ In this case when the word ‘face’ (et p’nei Adonai) is added, in this case, face of the Lord, it means to entreat. To stroke, to appease. They really wanted answers. And what prompted the question?

Verse 3. During the 70 years, Jewish people began fasting to remember various times in the breakdown of the Temple and our history. Memorials. Reminders of our failings.  Some say the five poems in Lamentations, written by Jeremiah, were to be read on those times. Fasting was introduced. We were not to forget. The 9^th of Av (Tisha b’av) was the one that was the most memorable, but not the only one observed. On that day, ‘the fast of the 5^th month’), we observed and ‘abstained.’ Nezer like Nazarite. The vow of self-sacrifice. 

Why is this a question anyway? 

If the memorial is to represent the loss of the Temple, and now we are rebuilding the same building, then the loss should be subjugated to the new gain. In other words, why mourn what you don’t have, when you have it? It’s a reasonable question. The Talmud gives some answers later; we’ll mention them then.

In verse 4, we see God’s word coming to Zechariah. He is not simply thinking this one through. He is not having a staff meeting to make such a determination. He is asked a deep question and God’s answer is forthcoming. We don’t know how long he waited. What we do know is that Zechariah only spoke what the Lord told him to say. 

I’m reminded of Yeshua. 

John 12:49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

Back to verse 5. What did God say? Say to all the people of the land (Am ha’aretz) and to the priests the following. Note, in modern vernacular, amei ha’aretz are common people, the prost, and the priests are the elite.^[1] I’m not sure it was so in those days, but it can make sense. Pass this information on to everyone, to the least and to the greatest. 

Now the Lord mentions two fasts. The one of the 5^th (Tisha B’av) and the 7^th. That could be Tsom Gedaliah (3 Tishri) or Yom Kippur (10 Tishri). But in light of the change in chapter 8, it’s likely to rep Gedaliah. Who was he? Gedaliah was the governor of Judea appointed by Nebuchadnezzar after the exile. In Jeremiah 41 (1-3) he was murdered (also 2 King 25.25) during the 7^th month. Hence a fast day was established. And that’s the fast referenced here in verse e5.

But the end of verse 5 is the kicker today. 

Remember the reason for our exile was threefold, adultery, murder and idolatry. Those sins caused the exile. When we established fast days to highlight our sadness about the loss of Jerusalem and Temple, God replies that he did not decide they should fast. They had to fast because of the disaster. But they ignored the exhortations of the prophets when the nation was still secure, when repentance could have saved them. Radak says, ‘If they would put an end to their sins, they would have no reason to fast.”

Two other fasts are mentioned in chapter 8, and again those are related to the ending of the Temple’s reign. Fourth month the wall was breached (Jeremiah 39.2, Zech. 8.19) and in the 10^th month the siege of Jerusalem began. (Zech. 8.19, Jer. 39.1)

So, in verse 5, God asks us a question. What is our motivation? What was the purpose of our fasting? Was it ‘for me?” 

צוֹם צמתני אני a qal inf abs followed by a finite verb, “fasting did you fast for me?” This is the strongest way of asking, “Did you really do it for me or for yourself?”

 

Check your heart. What’s your purpose in fasting anyway? Honestly, I hear the echoes of many prophets, most notably Isaiah in chapter 58 of his prophecy. “Why have we fasted,’ they say, “and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ ‘In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. (Is 58.3)

Friends, immediately after class today, please re-read Isa. 58. 

 Is it a fast that I have chosen,  A day for a man to afflict his soul?

            Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,

            And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

            Would you call this a fast,

            And an acceptable day to the LORD? (Isa. 58.5)

What is God’s purpose for our fasting? What should attend a godly fast? The ‘former prophet’ (Zech. 7.7) spoke when Jerusalem was prosperous and settled. What accompanies a godly fast? It’s in what follows in Zech. 7.8 about true justice and kindness, the widow and orphan and stranger. It echoes the Sabbath laws and the Levitical iterations of justice among neighbours. It sounds like Isaiah who says, 

           “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:

            To loosen the bonds of wickedness,

            To undo the heavy burdens,

            To let the oppressed go free,

            And that you break every yoke?

            Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

            And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out.

            When you see the naked, that you cover him,

            And not hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isa. 58.6-7)

In other words, religion works when it’s communal. It’s not only you fasting and being with communal fasters. It’s when you fast, listen, learn, and share with the people around you that life is for living. Temples and traditions, prayers and godly living are all great, as long as they are part of a man’s life. When traditions replace care and love for neighbour, it’s blinding. 

Yeshua had much to say about religion and traditions. And I hear him almost quoting Isaiah T"hen the Lord said, 

            “Because this people draw near with their words. 

            And honour Me with their lip service, 

            But they remove their hearts far from Me, 

            And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, (29.13)

29.13) when he chided the people about designated funds and thus the inability of children to care for their parents. (Matt. 15.6)

Traditions are great, they keep us, they point us in the right direction. If we are listening. No wonder back in Zechariah we read in verse 11.

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint, so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets, therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. 

Verse 13. And just as he called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen, “says the Lord of hosts.  Loss is coming. The land became desolate.

What am I saying? That traditions have great roles, but when they replace what they were intended to support, it’s time to dump them.  Weirsbe quotes a theologian about whom I know nothing. But I like the quote.

“Tradition is the living faith of the dead.” “Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” (Jaroslav Pelikan) (Weirsbe page 142). 

I really like that. Let traditions grow. Why you use grass on your New Year table if you are Persian, why you listen to 100 sounds of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, why you place your hand over your heart at the Pledge of allegiance or the National Anthem in the USA…all good. Kissing a mezuzah. Great. On entry or exit. 

But when the tradition replaces what it was intended to enhance, it’s time to dump it.

So here the tradition of the annual fasts was established. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 18b) explains that when the Temple is functioning then if the land is under oppressive foreign domination, all the fasts remain in force. If the land is under benign foreign domination, the 9^th of Av remains a fast day, but the other fasts are voluntary, and 3) if the land is free of foreign domination, the former fast days are to become feasts. (Zech. 8)

I love traditions. Kippah. Tie. But native peoples who never wore a tie associated tie-wearing with religion and eventually tossed it and religion aside.

Listen, there is a tradition in the Jewish people that Jesus is not for us. That’s the traditional answer. And it’s one that some thought through back in the 1^st century. But others considered and knocked that back right away. Many Jewish people took Jesus as their Saviour and Lord and set new traditions. 

Just because some say ‘no’ and others say ‘yes’ does not make it so or not so. Listen to God, turn your flint-hard heart towards him and listen. 

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Remember, you who are watching today, if you are not yet a follower of Yeshua, and see his love for you, his kindness extended, his offer of forgiveness available, right where you are, submit to him, to his lordship, to his care, and your life will take on new meaning, new substance, and you will have mates on this call, and in your neighbourhood and wherever you travel… the Kingdom is advancing under the King. Chaos is subjugated, life is available.

Would you like that? Pray with me just now. (Prayer Sample)

Shabbat shalom!

 

Resource on video

To see a fun video overview of the book of Zechariah see this from Bible Project:

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/zechariah/

 

Bibliography:

Ryken, Leland (and others), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1998.

Smith, Ralph, Micah to Malachi: Word Biblical Commentary (Volume 32), Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1984.

Stead, Michael, Zechariah: The Lord Returns, Aquila Press, Sydney, 2015.

Webb, Barry, The Message of Zechariah: Your Kingdom Come, Intervarsity Press, Nottingham, 2003.

Wiersbe, Warren, Be Heroic: Demonstrating Bravery by your Walk, David C. Cook Press, Colorado Springs, 1997.

 

ACTUAL TEXT

 

 Zech. 7:1   In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. ² Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favour of the LORD, ³ speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?” ⁴ Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ⁵ “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ⁶ ‘When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves, and do you not drink for yourselves? ⁷ ‘Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”

 

Zech. 7:8   Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying, ⁹ “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; ¹⁰ and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ ¹¹ “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. ¹² “They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore, great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. ¹³ “And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the LORD of hosts; ¹⁴ “but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus, the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

^[1] …unlearned rural masses known as ʿamme ha-aretz (“people of the land”), who were found among both the Pharisees and the Sadducees and even among the Samaritans. The ʿamme ha-aretz did not give the prescribed tithes, did not observe the laws of purity, and were neglectful of the laws of prayer;(Brittanica.com)

A call to live wholeheartedly before God (a study on Malachi chapter 2)

Given at St Swithun’s Anglican Church

Pymble (Sydney) NSW

Sunday 13 January 2019

Introduction

Shalom! Thank you to Peter Robinson, chairman of Jews for Jesus Australia, who is taking the communion part of the service, to Brian, with whom I had a good meet up on Thursday, and to Roger, your lead pastor, who trusted me enough to take the sermon part of the service, and then went on holiday. We’ve had a great relationship over the years, and I really value our friendship in Messiah. 

Thanks to each of you here in the nave as you have gathered to hear again from God’s Word, the Bible. Last week, you began a series on the Jewish prophet Malachi, as Roger spoke about God’s love and a call for each of us to respond to live in God’s love. This week, my assigned text is chapter 2, and the assigned topic is a call to live wholeheartedly before God. This is a great chapter in the Bible; full of pointed clarification, full of directed admonition. Not so great a chapter if you are living wrong, because the Lord makes clear His views on sin. 

Malachi’s call to us (And Moses too)

Let’s jump right into it, shall we? The second verse sets the pace for us. 

אִם־לֹ֣א תִשְׁמְע֡וּ וְאִם־לֹא֩ תָשִׂ֨ימוּ עַל־לֵ֜ב

The two verbs are look-alikes, and almost sound-alikes. Tishma’u and Tasimu. In English they are to hear and to place, that is, nothing alike, but their concepts set the tone for the chapter. “If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honour to My name.” The first verse sends the warning, but it also tells us how to make things right. 

Back in the Torah, in Deuteronomy, the Lord gave Moses the commandments, including the Ten Commandments, but many more, and He instructed us Jewish people to do them, so that our families would fear God and so that we might live well in the land to which we were going, the Promised Land. Not St Ives, but rather the land of Canaan, now called Israel.  God says in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy that we should be careful to listen and to be careful to do the commandments. OK, so the plan is simple. Listen to the plan of God, then execute that plan and it will be a good day for you.

But here’s the problem. Do you have children? Or are you a child? Or were you a child? Then you will know that giving instructions to someone doesn’t always bring to pass the desired results. If you are aware of your own natural tendencies, then you know that you often fail to perform what God, or your boss or your father, your mother or your wife, your government, or your own conscience has told you to make happen. And as a result, the consequences are undesirable. 

But listen again to verse two of our text. “If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honour to My name.” Don’t dismiss the 2^ndverb. “take it to heart” What does that phrase mean? It’s as if the Lord is saying through Malachi that you have to pay attention, remove distractions from you just now, like turn away from your smartphone, your doodle pad on which you are writing, like the television remote control, like the other things about which you are thinking just now… listen… listen now… this is God’s word… Now, grab it, and put it somewhere important. 

If I gave you a cashier’s cheque for $10,000, what would you do next? Would you tuck it into your back pocket next to your iPhone? Would you crumble it into a wad and put it somewhere in your briefcase? I imagine you would fold it carefully and place it in a treasured location. You would actually treasure that cheque. You would touch it a few times before you got to the bank to deposit it. You might open your wallet and put it in the hidden section. You wouldn’t be cavalier with the cheque; you would place it in a location of significance. 

In the same way, God says that we need both to listen to God’s Word and to place it in our hearts. Two actions set the tone of the remedy of failure.  And what is the purpose of these two actions? To honour His name!

Friends here at Swiz, I’m a representative of many things this morning. To some of you I’m a Jew, and there might be some of you who don’t know a Jewish person, so I’m what you have heard about, but never met. Thus, the reputation of the Jewish people is riding on our encounter today. To some of you, I’m an American. Although my wife and kids and I became Aussie citizens 7 years ago. I did grow up and remain a citizen of the USA, and perhaps the reputation of the United States is riding on our contact today as well. I’m a Sydney Swans fan, a North Shore dweller, a representative and ambassador for the sport named Pickleball; I enjoy the Kansas City Chiefs and wish them well today in their playoff game against the Colts… all these are situations or themes for which I could bring the reputation, or the name of the sport, the country, the team into disrepute.  

In the same way, God says, you, Israel, are responsible to listen to my words, put them in your heart, SO THAT you might honour my reputation. Don’t’ defame God, rather you should FAME the Lord your God. Make Him famous. Does that make sense to you?

It’s not only external service: Wholeheartedness

Back in Deuteronomy, in the Tochacha section, the warnings of chapter 28, God says in more detail what will happen to the Jewish people, if they listen (verses 2-14), or if they do not listen (verses 15-68). They are labeled blessings or curses. Simple I know, but real.  In the description of the failure/ curses section listen to this explanation from God in verse 47

“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things”

The root cause of the failure and thus the commensurate curse is right here in Deuteronomy 28:47. Even our service to God, at church, or in the land of Israel, in Sydney or Melbourne, wherever we travel or live… if we serve but not with joy and a full, whole, good heart, because God has given us all things… then curses will come. That’s just what Malachi says. We must listen; we put God’s Word in a special place in our heart, and we honour Him. We successfully keep God’s reputation high and strong. That’s how this is supposed to work. 

Treachery and curses

But as you heard in the reading of the Bible (for those online, the full text is at the bottom of this sermon’s manuscript), Malachi says that even the priestly blessings will be turned to curses. I believe it hearkens back to Moses and his command to serve God with gladness and joy and a glad, good, and full heart for the abundance of all things. So, in our text today, the priests, the leaders of the Jewish community are failing in their service. They are ruining the reputation of God. And they are dealing treacherously. 

By the way, our text says in verse 3, “I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.” During an offering (not like we bring here in a gilded platter, but a sacrifice of an animal brought to the Tabernacle in the wilderness often the animal’s insides and feces would come out. Malachi is saying that what you, Levitical priests are trying to accomplish, by bringing offerings, which should draw you closer to God is actually going to prevent your being in God’s presence at all. With refuse on your faces, you will be sent outside the camp for cleansing for a time until you are cleansed again. 

The word ‘treacherously’ is used in the Tenach (The Scriptures) 24 times, and most of them in the section of the Prophets. And 5 of those times used by Malachi alone and all in this chapter. (verses 10, .11, .14, 15, 16) He’s harping on something here and neither he, nor the Almighty, nor I want you to miss it. Treachery is deception. The word comes from the Hebrew word for clothing. BEGED.  And it implies a vesture, to cover (with a garment); figuratively, to act covertly; by implication, to pillage, a wardrobe, a coverup. Much like Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden who covered themselves with fig leaves as a substitute for the garments of praise and the robe of righteousness that God had made for them. 

Treachery or the coverup is disdainful. The ABC reported last year about the Royal Commission, and the AMP and the Commonwealth Bank and their siphoning millions and reporting only a bit of their income. The ABC headline read, “AMP scandal shows the cover-up is often worse than the crime”

Malachi is saying that the priests are very good at coverup, at living one way in public and another way at home. Their lives do not match their profession. They are ‘two clothed;’ they are two-faced. They are liars and bring God’s name into dishonour. And as Roger said last week, the normal view of the church by most media-inspired secularists in today’s Sydney is one of dishonour. Most non-Christians think that the church is full of hypocrites and paedophilic priests who ruin children’s lives, well into their adulthood. And we cannot dismiss those in the media who allege and often prove these allegations. Malachi’s words should pierce us; they should alarm us; they should warn us. We should demand changes. We should change as well. Personally. Individually. And then corporately.

Words Malachi used like profane the covenant, detestable, and desecration. Ouch.

Spoiler alert: Another One is coming

I don’t want to give away the ending of the prophecy, ok, spoiler alert, I will give away the ending, especially helpful to those of you who are only here this morning or reading this as a blog on our website without the benefit of the next two weeks’ worth of sermons here at St Swithun's. 

The ending is really the anticipation of another priest, one who will point the way for the Jewish people. Not a priest who might fail, but rather one who will be “the sun of righteousness who will rise with healing in his wings.” (4.2) The “Lord will suddenly come to His Temple” as Handel recorded and composed into his oratorio “Messiah.” (3.2) God will send another and to that One we will look. If you are local, stay tuned, the next two weeks’ sermons will be fantastic. 

Why is Malachi at the end of the Older Testament?

I just told you I like the US gridiron team the Kansas City Chiefs. Let me tell you something about Malachi and about US football. I borrow this imagery from my friend Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She’s a Jewish academic who doesn’t share my faith in Jesus, but who understands much about this Bible of ours. You might know that in the Jewish Bible, there is no Newer Testament. The book begins with Genesis and ends with 2^ndChronicles. The 39 books of the Older Testament are all included but in a different order. Your Older Testament ends with Malachi and the Jewish rendering ends with 2^ndChronicles. 

Why?

Listen to the last line of 2^ndChronicles. Chapter 36. “Thus, says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!’” (verse 23)

Amy-Jill points out that the ending of the Jewish Older Testament, which we title “The Scriptures” of course, is a return to Jerusalem.  What does that have to do with gridiron?

Let me explain. 

There are two major American sports for Amy-Jill. Of course, there are many others, but she describes these verses and the layout in terms of baseball and football. In baseball, a man hits a ball and he runs around the bases returning to home plate. In football, a team receives the ball on one end of the field and runs to the opposite end to complete the touchdown. 

Watch Nunez run all the bases here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fABOq_ngNDk

Watch Henry run for a touchdown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blbeW0Y08vY

Amy-Jill Levine says that the Jewish rendering of the Scriptures is more like baseball, and the Christian version is more like football. I like this imagery, not only because I like both sports, but because I see her point. For the Jewish people, we start with God in the Garden, and imagine Adam and Eve are in Jerusalem, certainly by the time of Abraham, there is a motion towards the Land of Israel, and then we go home at the end of the book. God wants us Home. 

For the Christian, she says, we start at one end of the world, and fall, thus having to clamber back to God and it takes someone else to help us get there. For the Christian Malachi is the end of the Scriptures because he points us to John the Baptist, and Matthew in the Gospels is first since He starts with John the Baptist who points us to Jesus who gets us to heaven. Baseball for Jews; Football for Christians. And Malachi’s placement is a key role player in that sports motif. Isn’t that a good one?

Yeshua is the Messiah

What am I saying by this? That Yeshua, the Messiah, the One who will be coming in 400 years after Malachi, the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, the One who will suddenly come to His Temple, is good news. Why? He will bring us to the goal, to heaven. He will actually fulfill both sports images, because He will bring us to Him Home, to share with Him forever. Heaven is where Yeshua began, and He will bring us to be with Him, Home Plate if you will, which is the goal of our lives. 

How does He do that? By forgiving us our sins, treacherous sins, covenant-breaking sins, the sins Malachi lists and the ones he doesn’t even begin to mention. He mentions marrying outside our religion; he mentions divorce. He catalogs the sins of the priests, calling them profanity and abomination. Turning aside from God’s word and causing others to follow in their footsteps. It’s one thing to sin; it’s quite another to lead others to sin. Shame and degradation are abundant in the Jewish community. And we long for and desperately need God’s forgiveness. 

How do we receive forgiveness? By the One who is coming. Yeshua, our Messiah, will come and that is good news. For us in 21^stCentury Sydney, He came not only to be born as the Christmas carols remind us away in a manger on that o, holy night, and the wise magi from the east found Him as we noted in Epiphany last week. He came to heal and to teach and to predict His own endings, but those endings are really beginnings. He died on a Roman cross, painfully aware of our sins which He took onto Himself. He was buried in a cave in Jerusalem and on the 3^rdday, the Day of First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10-17, 1 Cor. 15.23), Jesus rose from the dead. We are saved by faith in the blood He shed in Jerusalem on the cross. We are saved by faith in His resurrection life. And He will bring us together with all the saints in glory, and His Kingdom will have no end. 

Malachi saw it all. The sin of the people. The sins of the priests. The treachery of deceit and the dismissal of the covenant relationship we are to have with the Almighty. And the One who would come to set it all straight again. 

Do you see it? Do you understand your condition? You are lost without the Lord’s saving. You have no hope, and your cover-ups are well known to Him. Receive Jesus as Lord of your life just now. Repent of your sins. Give your life to Yeshua and join us. Online, you can contact me at bob@jewsforjesus.org.auand for those listening online or here in the congregation, please ask someone near you or one of the singers or ushers, and we will help you in this journey. It’s both baseball and football. You will get to the goal. That’s His promise to you. Malachi saw it. Do you see it?

---For a different style of studying this chapter, a verse-by-verse study of Malachi 2:1-16 by Bob Mendelsohn given in Sydney some years ago, please click here: http://www.jewsforjesus.org.au/sermons/Malachi2.mp3 That teaching includes what the phrase ‘covenant with Levi’ means and more about the hating of divorce.

The full text of Malachi chapter 2 follows

Mal. 2:1“And now this commandment is for you, O priests. ²“If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.³“Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. ⁴“Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi,” says the LORD of hosts. ⁵“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so, he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. ⁶“ True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. ⁷“ For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. ⁸“ But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of hosts. ⁹“So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.

Mal. 2:10  “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? ¹¹“Judah has dealt treacherously, and an 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. ¹²“As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts.

Mal. 2:13  “This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. ¹⁴“Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. ¹⁵“But no one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. ¹⁶“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So, take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”

Mal. 2:17  You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

The issue is... the bridge?

My Iranian friends and I sat together in Denny's yesterday afternoon. What a joyful time in sharing between a non-practicing Jew,  a non-practicing Muslim, and me. We talked about so many things: politics, love, our own stories... good times. One of the topics we discussed I want to share with you here. It has to do with... love and sin. Please read on.

Each of us agreed that we all want others to treat us well, and similarly, we desire to treat everyone fairly. That's decency. Most societies in the world, Persian, American, Australian... most want to demonstrate love in some measure. Agreed. So why, they wanted to know, do we need religion and more importantly, why do we need God?

Good question. My answers? Most probably, all of us have a personally defined level of decency to which we ascribe. We think older people should be cared for, and we think husbands should not cheat on their wives. We think of honoring people who serve others or their countries, even without being asked, and certainly those who are not being honored are especially noble people. We think murder is wrong and fair wages and a fair go should be extended to everyone. Mostly true? OK.

But how many of us actually live up to that decency standard? If we are rigorously honest with ourselves, we all fall short of this standard. We don't want to fail, but in whatever category we lay out, it is in that field that we have personally failed.

"Of course," you say. "We all are human after all, and Shakespeare said, 'To err is human.' " Exactly. We live substandard lives; we fail, not all the time, but enough that if we are honest with ourselves, we wouldn't put ourselves up for the Nobel Prize of Holiness or of Giving or the Mother Teresa Doppelganger Award. Some may be closer to their decency goal and others are...well, further away.  See diagram 1.

As the diagram shows, individuals (represented by the colors reaching up) are at various levels of decency completion. Some would argue that they are approaching decency, but I aver that the more you know of the standards of human decency and the more you know yourself, the more you know how far short we fall.

But that's only human decency. I believe there is a standard which exceeds human considerations of goodness and kindness, fairness and equity. That standard is from the Almighty and no one has even gotten close to that... ever!

So what is a person to do? Give up? Not at all! The gap between our goal and our performance is titled so many things, but in my world, it's titled one thing-- "sin." And sin needs to be defined and then properly dealt with. Like any disease or injury, like any need or failing.. if we can detail it and define it, perhaps we can investigate how to overcome it.  The red spotty lines below are the separation between the God standard and our performance review. It's simply called 'sin' in the Scriptures.

This is confirmed by the Bible in the Older Testament where Solomon says, "there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who does not sin." (Eccl. 7.20) The Newer Testament echoes that with "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3.23)

The distance between our human efforts and activities of justice and decency can be long or short, but be sure of this, it exists for each of us. 

"Neither of these sounds very hopeful," I said to my Persian friends, "but there is hope!"

You see, the Almighty didn't want to leave us in this horrible situation of failure. He sent His only Son as a BRIDGE to help cross the chasm. Only He could bring it. Only He could do this. See diagram 3. 

Here we see the Bridge from heaven coming down and in our example dealing with the yellow person, particularly. One-by-one, that's how God acts. He reaches out and touches us, personally. First we admit our sins, and then He can sort out how to help us see the light. 

The hope of mankind is not in education, nor philosophy, nor even in religion. The hope of the world is Yeshua, God's only Son, our Bridge, who came from heaven to dwell among us, to live and teach, to die for our sins and to bring us to eternal life. That death 'for our sins' means to take away the guilt, the shame, the punishment that we deserved, and to bridge us back to the Lord.
The Scriptures teach this in Isaiah 53, "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed. 

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." (verses 4-6)

Our sin is not the final statement. It's merely the declaration of the problem. And God as the Master Problem Solver answers with Isaiah's words, and with these from Paul, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6.23). 

What a mighty God we have!! He loved us, made us, watched us walk away from Him into our own sins, and aches to be in relationship with us again. He sent Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, to earth to fix that identified problem. The bridge is open. What will you do? Stay on your side? Or cross over? The choice is yours. Join us on this road to Holy Destiny.