Cursed: Malachi 2:1-9 (Sermon)
Due to some staffing problems, we didn't have the video start at the beginning of the service.
WELCOME
Thank you, Worship Team.
TEXT
We are continuing our series on the prophets in the Old Testament. This is our third sermon on Malachi. The book’s point is: The LORD’s Covenant love preserves those returning to him. God was talking to the spiritual leaders of his people, but the message this morning relates to us all. [PAUSE] Let’s look at today’s passage. [PAUSE]Turn to Malachi, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 9. I am going to have A.Z. read for us. Would you please stand with me in honor of God’s Word?
And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will 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. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction. (Malachi 2:1–9, ESV)
PRAYER
Thank you, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we need your help to understand your Word. Help the Old Testament become fresh in our minds. Make Malachi speak to our circumstances. We need your voice. Instruct us. May you make the connections by the power of the Spirit. Say what you will and give us motivation to do what you say. Be with us all; in Jesus’s name, we pray, amen. You may be seated.
CONTEXT
Let’s go over the context. Malachi was written 2,400 years ago in the land of Israel. Israel spent seventy years in exile. Invaders had destroyed the capitol, walls, and temple. They captured and enslaved God’s children, removing them from the land. Time passed, and they returned to rebuild. Israel had become the size of a postage stamp compared to the good ole days of King David and his son Solomon. Edom, their southern neighbor, prospered while they suffered. Persia, the oppressive superpower and protector, protected their interests, not Israel’s. Israel had no king (1:8), great land, fantastic commodities, or international fame. All of which God had promised to their forefathers. They likely felt betrayed, forgotten, and not loved by God. God contradicted their perceptions and spoke a word of affection, but they rejected it. God wasn’t meeting their expectations. His response was a history lesson. His love was a result of his mercy, not their merit. They didn’t get it. They were reaping what they sowed. They experienced a curse and would continue to be cursed if they didn’t change their empty worship and laissez-faire stance on God’s instruction. God cared about their hearts. He called them to love him with everything in them.
STRUCTURE
In our passage, God talked about what would happen if they disregarded him and why it was necessary. He painted a vision of what they should be like and ended by summarizing. I see four sections:
God commanded the priests to change or be cursed 2:1-2
He defined the curse and purpose 2:3-4
He described a covenant promise 2:5-7
And he cursed these spiritual leaders who despised his instructions 2:8-9
That last point could summarize it all. God cursed these spiritual leaders who despised his instructions. God had a vision for what spiritual leadership should be like. And the pastors, or priests, were straying from God’s ways back then. Let me show you what I mean. If you have your Bibles, follow me in Malachi, Chapter 2, starting at verse 1. That is Malachi, Chapter 2, verse 1. [PAUSE]
God commands the priests to change or face a curse 2:1-2
And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will 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. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. (Malachi 2:1–2, ESV)
Why did God say that? In Chapter 1, he said that if a person cheated him in the offering by saying he would give something good but bring something bad, God would curse him. Such a bait-and-switch was like stealing from God, who owns everything and sees and knows all. Giving expresses one’s faith that God will supply one’s needs. It shows gratitude for his generosity. It demonstrates priorities and love.
Yesterday, at the Men’s Retreat, we talked about “Listening Prayer.” God wants his people to listen to him. The priests were not listening. As pastors, we want to listen to God. We don’t make up stuff for Sunday morning. A sermon isn’t a political commentary, storytelling, or standup, at least not at our church. We care about justice, relevance, and engagement; however, we go to God’s Word and study it to try to hear what God said to the people back in time and what he says to us today. We want God’s Word to dictate the direction of our lives and sermons. The Bible says that it is divinely breathed and helpful for training and right living, that God can use it to equip us for every good work. We don’t need secular self-help books to save us. They can help; I am reading one right now; it is good. But it has limits. Books other than the Bible can offer observations, logic, and circumstantial truths.
However, the Bible is the foundation for what we need to know. It is sufficient. Thus, we don’t preach from a blog, book, or podcast when we teach on Sunday mornings. We are not asking ChatGPT or Gemini to write our sermons. We prayerfully study the Bible and share what God lays on our hearts. By doing that, we guard against arbitrary, illogical, and heretical interpretations. We protect against being tossed by the trends and fads of our culture.
We seek the Lord, quiet our cell phones, and go to places that can help us hear God speak. Sometimes the Lord speaks through impressions, visions, dreams, and the miraculous. Often, he communicates with us through others, circumstances, and nature. In our hearts, God convicts us of sin, inspires us, and equips us for good works through his Spirit. He comforts us, encourages us, motivates us, enlightens us, reminds us, and prompts us to follow his ways. But fundamentally and categorically, he lets us know his will through Scripture through the power of the Spirit. The Bible is the only true and perfect guide to life. We want our spiritual leaders to listen to it.
But we want you, the church, to listen as well to God, not just through us pastors. Are you? Have you been? If you have, how has God spoken? I had a friend this week ask how you know it is God. Well, if it lines up with the Bible, then it is. If it contradicts it, it isn’t. If it is somewhere in between, like should I take this one job over another, let us be humble, seek counsel, and use discernment.
How does this work? I believe God has been telling me to work on self-control. What has he been telling you? What does he want from you?
Let’s not read a text like this and think of others.
Let us not simply throw stones at the priests from 2400 years ago.
Let us not crucify our pastors or put them on pedestals.
Let us not chuck the American Evangelical Pastor under the bus.
This passage connects to your ears, your steps, and your hearts as it does to the ancient priesthood.
Are you listening? If you are, what is God saying?
Jesus’s half-brother, James, tells us that the prophet Elijah was a man like us. He prayed that rain would stop, and it did for three years. God heard his prayers. Elijah had a close personal relationship with the Lord. God listened to him, and he talked back. He whispered in Elijah’s darkest days. He can whisper to you. He is alive and well and in our midst. He loves you and wants you to hear him. Are you listening? The priests were not.
HONORING
Not only that, but the priests also did not honor him. Why? Well, they were giving God second-rate offerings and taught that it was all right. They disregarded God’s teaching in passages like Leviticus 22. Do we ever do something like that? Do we disregard God’s Word? Let’s drive this home. How do we treat our Bibles?
Is Scripture like a fortune cookie? We open it, find a verse that sounds nice, and carry it with us through the day.
Is it an ancient piece of classic literature that gathers dust on our shelf, and we have no idea what it says?
Is it a history book that bores us to death?
Is it like archaic poetry and prophecy so obscure and odd that we get a headache when we try to read it?
Or,
Is it food for our soul, like steak, potatoes, and bread?
Is it gold, a precious gem, and a treasure?
Is it a sword that helps us cut through the lies in life?
Is it a rock upon which we can build our lives on?
Is it a light to direct us in the dark?
The Bible describes God’s Word as all of that. The spiritual leaders missed it. They were more concerned about what people thought than God—The fear of people can be a snare (Proverbs)—They had more faith in themselves and commitment to their ways than God’s. God wants honor and obedience (Colossians 3:17). Do we honor and obey him? The priests did not. Jesus said that if a person loves him, he or she will do what he commands. Do we? Do we know what he commands?
We want to work on listening and honoring God privately and publicly. We all need to seek the Lord while he may be found. Are we? Are we willing to listen to and honor him, or do we resist? Are there places in our lives where we don’t want to hear from God? If that is so, why? Are we afraid? Why? What do we fear? What do we want to protect or hide? God is good and loving; do we think his way is better than his way? Friends, trust the Almighty.
God wants our belief. The fact that we are here in attendance is a good start. But gathering doesn’t mean we are listening. As a parent, I can tell my kids a set of directions, but that doesn’t mean they are listening. The audio waves hit their eardrums, but the heart might be playing a video game, going over a conversation, or daydreaming. The priests had heard God talk about sacrifices and did it, but it was a sham; it cost them nothing and was perfunctory. They were not listening to God.
God commands the priests to change or face a curse 2:1-2
God explains the curse and the purpose was they would know the covenant 2:3-4
God commanded the priests to change or be cursed 2:1-2
God defined this curse and the purpose 2:3-4
In the next section, God defines this curse and its purpose. The first section is a warning. Now, we will see what that was and why. Turn back to Malachi, Chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.
“Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it” (Malachi 2:3, ESV).
That is ridiculous. God said he will spread excrement on their faces! That is right. That is what he said. In Exodus 29:14 and Leviticus 4:11, God told the priests to take the dung of the offerings outside the campground and burn it. God was identifying the priests with this dung. They stunk. He was using shocking language to get their attention. He was saying that they were more like excrement to be removed from God’s presence and burned. That is what being cursed is like. Is that what they wanted?
VERSE 4
In verse 4, it casts a vision of God’s purpose. Go to verse 4.
“So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 2:4, ESV).
God sent a command. What command? It was his covenant with Levi that it may stand. Who was Levi? He was a son of Jacob and father of a tribe named after him. His tribe took care of worship and were the only ones who could be priests. What was this covenant? It was a promise, an agreement. It was formal and predictive, like the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants. What was this specific covenant?
God describes the covenant 2:5-7
We don’t know precisely because the Bible doesn’t spell it out. Yet, the text gives us some hints.
God commanded the priests to change or be cursed 2:1-2
God defined this curse and the purpose 2:3-4
God described his covenant promise to the priests 2:5-7
Let’s look at them in verses 5 through 7.
“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name” (Malachi 1:5, ESV).
God’s covenant was of life, peace, fear, and awe given by God.
VERSE 6
Verse 6 goes on to tell us about the recipient of this covenant. Jump there.
“True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity” (Malachi 1:6, ESV).
He sounds like a great guy. This person spoke what was true, did not make errors, at least in a moral way, and walked in peace and uprightness. Not only that, but he turned people from sin. He was not like the priests in Malachi’s day.
VERSE 7
Verse 7 tells us that this priest should have been the prototype for all other priests:
“For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 1:7, ESV).
Priests were supposed to protect the truth. They were to teach it and adhere to it. People were to seek out the correct view from them. Yet, that was not so in Malachi’s day. We see some interesting parallels in the language Eli, a Levite, heard from God in 1 Samuel, Chapter 2. God sent a messenger, a prophet, to Eli to confront him of his sin. He had neglected to reprimand and parent his young adult children. Their behavior was highly inappropriate. They would be fired from their jobs if they were working today. I won’t get into the sordid details, but listen to God’s rebuke of Eli:
“Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father [Levi] all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?” Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: “I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,” but now the LORD declares: “Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.” (1 Samuel 2:27–35, ESV)
Woah! So you see a rebuke, a curse for the dishonor of God’s name. And you also hear a promise. God will raise a faithful priest who will obey God in heart and mind and represent him forever. Who would that be? Who could that be? The only person who would perfectly fit would be Jesus.
I will make you despised because you are the opposite of my messenger 2:8-9
Let’s dive back into Malachi, Chapter 2.
God commanded the priests to change or be cursed 2:1-2
He defined this curse and the purpose 2:3-4
He described his covenant promise to the priests 2:5-7
And he cursed the spiritual leaders who despised his instructions 2:8-9
God was not done with these priests. He cast a vision for what the priesthood should have been like. Now, in our final section, he cursed them because they despised his commands, and not only that, they led others astray, many! Look at verses 8 and 9.
“But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 2:8, ESV).
NEW TESTAMENT
God said in the New Testament,
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1, ESV).
Why? Why would God say that? There is a sense that the Lord will hold me and pastor Mike and Joe accountable in a way different from those who never teach. Suppose I were to intentionally teach untrue things and lead you to sin against God. In that case, God will grievously punish me and all other teachers like me. The stakes and impact are higher when our spiritual teachers are not listening and obeying God. We should be cautious about appointing people to be teachers. The Bereans did in Acts Chapter 17. They fact-checked Paul, the apostle. If they did that for him, we should certainly do that for us. Hold us accountable. Demand we teach the Bible. I have an open door and schedule. Text, call, email, or meet with me if you have an issue. Do the same for any pastor or teacher in our church. God cares for his sheep and shepherds. Let us strive to be faithful to the Word. I am not saying to pick apart everything; all of us will make mistakes. The priests were not in trouble for mispronouncing a word, an off reference, or a tertiary non-essential point. God was upset at them contradicting his explicit instruction and leading people astray. God will not tolerate that.
VERSE 9
Go to verse 9:
“And so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction” (Malachi 2:9, ESV).
When these priests disregard God’s rules, they despise his name. Partiality or favoritism was one way they did this. The Bible describes how the priests had their favorites and didn’t deal with people according to the Bible but more according to their deep pockets. Thus, God cursed them. Let us not be like that.
CONGREGATIONAL
One of the wonderful things about church is that we are committed to God’s Word and not politics. We are in this together. So, let us listen to God, as priests should have. Let us hold our teachers accountable for teaching the Bible for future generations.
PRIESTHOOD OF ALL.
Even though not all Israelites were Levites, God called them all to a priesthood in a sense. Exodus 19 states,
The LORD called to him [Moses] out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” (Exodus 19:3–6, ESV)
That was God’s heart. God made them all ambassadors to the nations. They were all to be the mediators, worship leaders, and missionaries in a sense.
1 Peter 2:9
What role has God given us non-Jewish people? Where is our place? What is God saying to us who are not priests, pastors, Levites, or Jewish? The New Testament broadens this message of Exodus 19 to a priesthood of all believers, Jewish and Gentile alike. God says,
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9–10, ESV)
APPLICATION
Here is some application:
Brothers and sisters, are you more like the priests of Israel who strayed from God and dishonored him or the ones who listened? Will you listen? [PAUSE]
Brothers and sisters, do you seek instruction from God’s people and his Word? What does it look like to give your attention to God on Sunday? Maybe you take notes or talk about what you are learning with others. What are you putting in your mind? What do you feed your soul? Is it true, good, lovely, excellent, praiseworthy, and right (Philippians 4:8)? There are many voices out there; the Bible is the only one that is entirely true. And if you hear false things, will you say something? [PAUSE]
Brothers and sisters, how are you living? If someone were to audit your life as they do at work, would they assess how you spend your time, money, energy, and thoughts as a follower of God’s teaching in the Bible? If someone were to take you to court for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you beyond a shadow of a doubt? Jesus said they would know you are Christians by loving one another. Is there evidence of love for fellow believers, your neighbor, and even your enemies in your life? How would they assess your love for God? [PAUSE]
As we conclude, let us be more like Malachi, the Messenger, and the right Levi’s than the others. And when we stray and come up short, we have an advocate, a defense attorney in heaven, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He was the perfect high priest who sacrificed his perfect life so that we might live forever with him by grace through faith.
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