Malachi: A Good Exile Wasted?

Malachi: A Good Exile Wasted?

Introduction: Malachi “The Messenger” writes about 100 years after the exiles returned to Jerusalem. The temple is rebuilt. The walls are secure again. The farms, business trade, religion, politics is all open. The exile experience is a distant memory, and hindsight is not 20/20. Malachi asks 22 questions in his 55 verse book. So I will form my three points Jeopardy-style, in the form of questions.
1. Is your God disinterested or passive? Malachi is structured around 6 heated discussions between God and his people. He starts some of the discussions and they start some. The Bible Project video introduction to Malachi is very helpful in this issue of the 6 disputes. 3 chapters containing 6 disputes.

1. Malachi 1.2-5 “I love you!” “Do you really?” Electing Love
2. Malachi 1.6-2.9 “You don’t honor my name or my temple.” “Don’t we?” You bring your leftovers to worship.
3. Malachi 2.10-16 “You are unfaithful to the covenant with me and your marriages.” You say, “Why doesn’t God give us what we want?” I’m all about covenant.
4. Malachi 2.17-3.5 “You have wearied the Lord with your words...Where is the God of justice.” You say, “How have we wearied?” I will send my messenger and fire and soap.
5. Malachi 3.6-12 “Repent!” You say, “How?” Start by returning to the covenant provisions: tithing.
6. Malachi 3.13-18 You say, “What’s in it for us? Evildoers seem to be doing fine.” God responds by writing those who trust him in a book of remembrance. 

No, God is not disinterested or passive. God shows up—even for a fight with his people. He is not the strong silent type. He is the strong talkative type. God speaks. God is a God who answers, even his children illegitimate complaints and whining.
His answer might not be the answer you were looking for. If you only want the answer you were looking for, you should just start talking to yourself.

2. Is your God uncommitted? The people have been asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2.17). “What is in it for us to follow God? Seems like evildoers are doing just fine?” (Malachi 3.14-15).
No, God is committed to you and he is committed to his own gracious agenda. This commitment is reflected in his covenantal love, his commitment to discipline and refining his people. God doesn’t have a last straw. He has no ‘give up.’

3. Does your God care about where this is all going? Honestly, sometimes we wonder. If you were banking on a self-improvement scheme, or waiting for the church to be effective enough or holy enough, or believed what they believed in the roaring 1920’s, “That every day in every way, we are getting better and better. You would live like the people who received this message from Malachi. Disappointed. Uncommitted. Checked-out. And, like we often do, you would attribute the same adjectives to God. Many will experience a recession of hope—a great depression in the soul of this nation. We will be back “open for business” but we will still not be happy. That is why God ends the whole OT and this message of Malachi with a very directed point. City, temple, marketplace and nation might be open and even restored to some former state, but that is not the ultimate goal. God’s got his eyes on the prize.

• Heart restoration
• Relational reconciliation

This restoration doesn’t come as a result of the others, but is the source of actual shalom in our home, and in our business practice and in our religion. God says, “I have your heart in my scope.” “I have my heart set on your relationships—especially the covenantal ones.” (Malachi 4.5-6).
Moses (4.4) Elijah (4.5) John the Baptist (4.5; Mt 3; John 1.29) all point to the only one who can change a heart and restore a relationship: Jesus Christ. He is the Messenger’s Message. And that message is good news in the most realistic disappointments of our days or our days to come.

A good exile wasted is when we return to our old commitments to the neglect of restored hearts and reconciled relationships. Where we think that God is more interested in appearances than in reality. How a church looks instead of how a church loves. A proud building in the neighborhood instead of a kingdom presence in the city. If we get back to “open for business” without restored hearts and reconciled relationships, the good exile will have been wasted. It doesn’t have to be if we let the messenger point us to our only hope: Jesus.

Integration Questions:

1. What is a good thing you’ve seen come out of this exile?
2. Are there any old commitments that you are calling into question? Commitments you hope not to take up again post-exile?
3. Have you experienced an evaluation of what is most important to you during this time? Is there something you have said, “I will never take __________ for granted again.” Can you share what that is?