July 11, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.‘” (Malachi 2.7-9)

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

We have reflected on it before and will again. Like a multi-faceted diamond, there are many angles which light will pass through it but there is still only one diamond. The value of the diamond comes in its purity far more than its shape and color. Of course, the size of the diamond is a contributing factor. However, a large, flawed diamond is not as “valuable” as a smaller pure one. What is the diamond I am “reflecting” upon for today’s Word from God? It is simply this: God’s way, His will, shall be done. It ought to be our goal and our joy to satisfy God’s will. This is what Jesus did. Because Jesus was obedient to His Father’s will, we received the benefit of God’s promise to bless us with eternal life with Him. What would be alternative? Do we really want to imagine having to live forever without Him, apart from Him and so distant that we burn with the frozenness of our heart, mind and soul? I find it interesting, to expand on that last sentence, how people are so cavalier in expressing their knowledge of Hell. They say so easily “That is as hot as hell” or “this is as cold as hell” or “that is as dumb as hell.” The list of phrases could go on, but I won’t pursue them. Rather, the fact is that we don’t really know how we will feel about Hell because we don’t really know the extreme separation that Hell represents in our spiritual lives. By that token, do we know really the extreme closeness that Heaven represents in our spiritual lives? We know some general terms and concepts. We have images for both realities by which we conceive living a life in one or the other. I do not think human terms, those which God has chosen to reveal Himself and His environment to us, will be adequate when that day comes. For example, when we get frostbitten, the nerves become so numb that there is a burning sensation. We are freezing and perhaps aren’t even aware of it until it is too late. I remember when a friend of mine in the fourth grade put his hands under warm water in the bathroom because his hands were so cold. He thought it would warm them up. It didn’t. It created tremendous pain. The sudden shock to the nervous system reaching down into his fingers exploded in his head. I can still remember his howl. None of the rest of us thought it was a good idea after that. We won’t have that same chance when it comes to Hell. The consequences will be permanent and far more damaging than losing body parts. As Jesus taught, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world but forfeit his/her soul?” (Mark 8.38) Whatever Hell will be like in human terms, we cannot imagine living without our soul, our connection to God. That is what the living dead would be.

I wonder if the priests of Malachi’s day, or any day for that matter in the past or present or future, would have made the decisions they did if they dwelt on the consequence of being “the living dead.” None of us know what Jesus’ death experience was really like. Stop and think about it for a moment. When Jesus died on the cross, He was bled out, worn out, cast out and overwhelmed. What was overwhelming? Jesus, in that moment, bore the weight of the sins of billions of people. Was it more if we consider He died for all sins past, present and future? Some speculate, based on today’s birth numbers, that over 117 billion people have lived on earth. That would be a number that only included those “born” into the world. It does not take into account the number of lives that were conceived in the womb who lived past the “age of quickening,” roughly the sixth month of the pregnancy, but were never born. Quickening would only represent a conscious awareness of the baby’s surroundings by the baby. It does not mean that there was no “life” in the baby before then. It is an interesting question to ask concerning when the fetus received the blessing of a soul. We know of David and Jeremiah’s declarations about being “known before I was formed in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1) Not to get distracted from the original point, Jesus died with the weight and burden of all of us. The weight was so overwhelming that it moved Him into an awareness of a separation from God’s presence. God had always been present to Him (yes, before He was formed in His mother’s womb there was a knowledge). Yet in that moment on the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” It was a passing moment as the echo of the Garden prayer spoke through the darkness, “Not My will but Yours be done.” God was there all the time. He was reaching through the darkness tethered as Father to Son. Faith is that lifeline. So, what of those priests who cast off the lifeline and bound themselves to sin instead of binding themselves to righteousness. Isaiah’s cry “Woe to me for I am a man of unclean lips dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips” is a part of Malachi’s revelation given by God. The lips of the priests were meant for praise, worship and instruction. Instead, they used them for self-absorption and cursing and false teaching. Rejecting the call of purpose out of and into which they were called into being, “before they were formed in the womb,” they now faced humiliation and being despised in the world and the throes of eternal separation from God.

God’s will shall be done as He promised. Strangely, it is still a matter of choice for us. God has always allowed “the choice” to be ours. It is a matter of the reality of authentic love. He does not like the alternative but the difference between good and evil have to be known. Why? They have to be known so that their existence is fully understood. Again, I will go back to Isaiah’s remembrance “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.” No matter how far “gone” the people were in sin on earth, there was still the light of hope. That light of hope was, is and will always be Jesus Christ. We can choose to walk in the light or we can remain in the darkness. Those in the light, regardless of their circumstance, will know the presence of God with them- Immanuel. Those in the darkness, regardless of their circumstance, will know the absence of God with them- All Hell. Mighty ones of God, heed the word given and choose wisely.

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.