July 6, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,’ says the LORD of Hosts, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands. For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,‘ says the LORD of Hosts.” (Malachi 1.10-11)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Yesterday, I reflected upon how upset God was with those whom He had chosen to be His people among the peoples of the world for the purpose of being His witnesses to come to Him for life and hope. We cannot forget this bottom identity which is assigned to all believers. Yes, it is a universal assignment intended for all believers in Yahweh Elohim. It is especially vital for those who are believers in God’s Son, Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of God, His Messiah for those who believe in Him. What continues to be a theme in Malachi, reiterated three times here in the first chapter, is that God’s will shall not be thwarted. It is His intent to bless those who bless Him and curse those who curse Him (a reflection of the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12). Sometimes I imagine how many different peoples did God appear to with the invitation to accept the call to be “His People.” What we do know is the role which the people who become Israel play. Their first charge is to be a witness for the goodness of God upon those who will believe. However, in the truth of God being a just God. those who do not witness to the goodness of God become witnesses to God’s discipline (and in some cases, His wrath.) This is what we hear in today’s passage. He will exalt those in the other nations who will believe and give glory to God. They have seen what God has done. In some of those cases they saw what they had feared would happen if they stood against Israel. Again, it is not that God “hates” Israel for forsaking their calling and being chosen but that He removes His favor and blessing from them. That it transfers to others is not an act of spite but of God’s mercy and grace. He rewards those who will believe with His blessing and favor. That reward is not to be assumed as money, fame and fortune. Rather, the reward is His abiding presence and the promise of eternal life.

What is significant to me, and I pray to you, is God’s pleading for someone to stand up for God and His righteousness. It means that they would have to stand against the status quo of Israel. It especially means to stand against the ruling authority of the Temple and their practices which serve themselves before serving God and the people. God calls for someone, anyone, to shut the door to the “Holy of Holies” and prohibit the priests from offering imperfect and polluted sacrifices. Such sacrifices mean nothing to God because they reflect the impure heart, mind and spirit of the priests which dishonors Him. Are we not hearing a precursor and foreshadowing of what John reports in his gospel concerning the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as He claimed the rightful place of the “House of the Lord.” He did so by making it clear with the overturning of the tables of the moneychangers (who worked for the High Priests) and the buyers and sellers of those who were “providing” the sacrifices to bless God and petition for forgiveness. It was an establishment of His authority in the Temple. He was not a “rabbi,” though His baptism came in His thirtieth year and served as a allusion to be a rabbi. He was not a member of the Sanhedrin and thus qualified to be “high priest,” though His declaration that “His Father’s house was intended to be a house of prayer for all the nations” certainly places His purpose as the ruler of the Temple. Jesus certainly is “that One” whom God was calling for. It is not Christ alone, however, but all those who are mighty ones of God. We are called to stand against the unfaithfulness and misrepresentation of what is the true worship and service of God. We are to be wise in His Word and led by His purpose which is righteousness. The challenge has been presented and extended. Who will accept it. Hear Joshua’s claim as he rallied the people to that state of righteousness in the Promised Land: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Does Jesus hint at the same which we could hear as “As for Me and My House, we will serve the Lord”?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works leading others to call Jesus Lord in faith, hope and love. AMEN.