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“Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock, but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord.”  Malachi 1:14a (NLT)

Books are written on the last words said by actors, writers, and other well known personalities. Those words may be interesting, but it can be life-changing to see what the last words of God were…before 400 years of silence.

After the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, was written,  God knew He was not going to directly speak with His people for 400 years. The words written here were His last words before Jesus took on human form and came to earth. This was His last interaction with humanity before things went silent.

What would He say? What did He believe was of the greatest importance?

We are going to look at these last words over the next few weeks. There are several conversations packed into four little chapters, but the very first thing God addressed was the spiritual leadership of Israel. God spoke to the priests.

The priests were ordained, chosen, and set apart in Exodus 28. Everything about their lives, even their clothing, represented the Holiness of God. They wore an ephod (an outer vest) with an onyx stone on each shoulder. On each onyx were the names of six tribes of Israel – a reminder that they carried the weight of the people on their shoulders. In addition, they wore a gold band on their turban (mitre) with an inscription that read ‘holiness to the Lord.’ This was a reminder to the priests that they were representatives of the holiness of God to the people.

Read that again-The spiritual leaders of Israel were the representatives of the holiness of God to the people.

That has not changed. The clothing may look different, but God’s design for spiritual leadership  does not.

As God was preparing to be silent for 400 years, He called out those who were supposed to be representing Him and His holiness. God was disgusted with them. They had not been honoring Him, representing His Holiness well, or leading the people to do right. God is so upset with them that He tells the priests He would rather them close the doors to the temple than to “honor” Him with their lips but dishonor Him with their actions.

Not only were they offering sacrifices that were blind, lame, diseased, or stolen, but they were also lying about them. Malachi 1:14 shows us that the priests said they would offer a proper sacrifice, but then they would not. They cared more about what others thought of them than what God had instructed.

I have three thoughts I want to leave you with:

1.  Those who represent God are not above sin. God does hold them accountable. If you have been hurt, misled, or treated wrongly by someone with the title of spiritual leader, know that God sees and they will be held accountable.
2. God takes His holiness seriously. Do we?
3. The priests had every reminder of who God is and who they represented. They still made a choice to dishonor, disobey, and disrespect God. We have reminders all around us of who God is and who we, as Believers, represent. Do we honor Him with our lives?

“Father, help us to be honest about our offerings to You. May we design our lives around You in every area.”

For His Glory

Terrie Tollerson (www.TerrieTollerson.com)
TRBC Women’s Life