Studies in the Book of Malachi #2

Transcription of the second episode of the series Studies in the Book of Malachi brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

You can listen to it here.

“And we find a lot of very, very relevant material in the Book of Malachi as He addressed a time, a society, not unlike our own. In fact, many of the same things were going on in Malachi's day that are going on today. We covered that last week by way of introduction just to lay out some groundwork as to the book, the time, the situation, the background, authorship, dates, and so on.

And so we're ready to jump in tonight, right? All right, we're in chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

I have loved you, sayeth the Lord, yet you say wherein hast thou loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother, sayeth the Lord?

Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom, sayeth, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.

Thus, sayeth the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down.

And they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and you shall say the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.

I want to deal tonight with these five verses. And there's a lot here.

There really is. You know, it's so easy to read through things like this, and we read so casually that we don't often actually grasp what God is saying.

There's some really good things here that the Lord just, I believe, He wants me to bring out.

So I've titled the message tonight, Divine Love Declared, Denied, and Demonstrated. Divine Love Declared, Denied, and Demonstrated.

Now, first and foremost, let's see that Malachi here calls the Word of the Lord, or the burden, the burden of the Word of the Lord.

The Word of God, can you imagine the Word of the Lord as a burden?

The burden of the Word of the Lord.

And that means like a weight, something heavy to be carried.

The Word of the Lord was a burden to the prophet.

And in what sense could that be? That might be hard to imagine how the Word of the Lord could be a burden.

But you want to remember, Malachi is a prophet.

And the prophet's ministry is unlike other ministries. The prophet's ministry is a ministry of tearing down and then building up.

But you've got to tear down what's wrong before you can build up what's right.

And the prophet's ministry is not like other ministries. The prophet doesn't see as other men see.

Other men see, they may see all joy bells and happiness and good things. And they see one sight. But the prophet sees things from the eyes of God.

And he sees the ill of society. He sees the problems in the people of God. He sees the problems in the church.

In other words, the prophet's ministry is a burden because he can't ignore what's wrong.

God won't let him.

You see, God is not a God that just pats us on the back and just talks about nice things, and a God who overlooks what's wrong in our lives.

God does not overlook what's wrong in our lives.

He doesn't overlook our sins.

He doesn't overlook our sins.

He doesn't overlook the temptations that we can increasingly or consistently yield to, where we're not getting victory over areas of sin in our own lives.

You see, the prophet, he sees as God sees, and he speaks as a mouthpiece of God. He's not like other ministries.

The prophet speaks as a mouthpiece of God, and he addresses the ill. And his message is consistent.

It's the same throughout the Bible.

It's always repent. It's always get it right, get it straight, deal with these things, don't ignore what's wrong.

So that's basically the prophet's ministry and message. And here, the prophet Malachi, he addresses the ill in his own culture and his own society.

That meant the prophet was not all that popular.

Because other people may pat everybody on the back, the prophet came right along, and he told them what was wrong.

And so, that made the prophet somewhat unpopular, because his message was usually a message of disapproval.

Now, let's read the prophets.

That's generally what their message was, a word of disapproval. Usually a message of rebuke, often a message of warning, and always a call to repentance. Always a call to reformation.

Change your life. Change your heart.

Change your conduct.

Turn to the Lord with all of your heart.

And in that sense, the word of the Lord was a burden. It was a burden because it weighed heavily on the heart of the prophet.

He couldn't ignore this burden of the Lord.

You see, God is burdened by our sins. God is burdened by the things that are wrong in His church. He's burdened by the things that are wrong in the lives of His people.

Of course, He's burdened by what's wrong in the world, but the church, the people of God ought to be His own people. And we of all people should manifest Christ to a perishing world. We of all people should be bearers of His message.

We are His ambassadors to this world, to this planet, to this life.

Look, the prophet had a burden.

It was the burden of the word of the Lord.

But it weighed heavily upon him.

He couldn't ignore it.

He couldn't escape it. He might not want to address the things that were wrong because of the repercussions. He was always speaking against things, it seemed like.

And as a result, he was not the most popular guy in town.

But he couldn't escape this burden because God is burdened and the prophet was his mouthpiece.

The prophet eventually just had to speak.

He couldn't keep silent.

He would have to open his mouth.

He just had this inescapable burden that was placed there by the Lord.

That's the nature of the prophetic ministry.

And that's the difference in the ministry of a prophet.

Excuse me.

That's at least one of the great differences in the ministry of the prophet and other manners of ministries.

Because, you know, other manners of ministries, they have a different call.

They have a different burden.

Their call and what they see can oftentimes be altogether different. You know, sometimes the ministry can ignore problems. They can absolutely ignore them, not address those things.

They can ignore all manner of evil. They tend to ignore doctrines that are wrong and practices that are wrong. They just try and stay on issues that are positive and so forth.

Now, those matters are between them and God, but a prophet can't do that.

He carries this burden that he cannot escape from.

He may try.

He may try at times.

I am not going to preach against these certain things, but God won't let it.

He can't get away with it.

Because he carries this burden of the Lord that he can't escape from, and so he always winds up addressing issues, addressing sins, dealing with matters that are often neglected. But that's just the way it was. Can I remind you of another passage?

Let me show you how this works.

Keep your finger right here, but turn with me back to the Book of Jeremiah.

I want to read just a passage or two over here.

In Jeremiah chapter 4, I want to look at a passage in chapter 4.

Jeremiah 4, beginning in verse 19.

I want you to listen to these words of God's prophet Jeremiah.

He says, my bowels.

Who's got another translation besides the King James?

My soul, my soul.

I think one says, my heart, my heart.

But here he is.

He's talking about this burden of his innermost being. That's the idea. He doesn't mean it in the sense that we think of bowels today, but he's talking about all my insides, my heart and my soul.

I'm grieved to the depths of my very being. He says in verse 19, I am pained at my very heart. Now, we're talking about the burden of the Word of the Lord, right?

I'm pained at my very heart.

My heart makes a noise in me.

I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war.

The prophet is burdened with his message.

He's burdened for his people. He's burdened for the people of God.

He says destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is spoiled.

And so on. Let me read down to verse 22.

For my people is foolish. They have not known me. They are sadist children.

They have none understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they have no knowledge.

You know what we see here?

The burden of the prophet.

He says, O my soul, my heart, it's broken.

It's pain.

He's an expression of the very heart of God.

They were burdened with the burden of the Lord. And that's my point. And there's yet another sense to this burden of the word of the Lord that the prophet carried.

When Malachi spoke here back in chapter 1 of the burden of the word of the Lord, there's another sense too. I believe it's the sense of burden that he carries when he realizes that his very message is going to ostracize him and make him an outcast. And he won't flow in the religious mainstream because his message is just not always welcomed.

The prophet's message is not always welcomed. In fact, he is often rejected, often despised, often declared by religious leaders to be a fanatic or intolerant or a legalist or one thing or another.

But he knew, I mean, imagine carrying this burden. I've got this message to preach. I've got to warn the people.

I've got to bring correction.

I've got to bring rebuke. And yet, I know when I do it, I'm going to be rejected. And I know when I say anything, they're going to throw the message back in my face.

I know to bring this message is going to cost me popularity. They're going to ostracize me.

And yet, he can't help himself. He's got to preach it.

So I'm going to tell you, the prophet's position is not an enviable position. We often think, man, blessed God to be a prophet, to stand and thunder. But let me tell you, the prophet's ministry and the prophet's message was of such a nature that he was usually an outcast in religious society.

An outcast.

The religious people had nothing good to say about him until he died. And when he died, then they wanted to build monuments to him.

They said, man, that was a man.

We're going to build a monument.

Isn't that what Jesus said?

That's exactly what Jesus said about the prophets.

He said, you are of your fathers who stormed the prophets, and then you build monuments to them.

But that's the burden of the prophets' message. I want you to notice also here in verse 1, where in Malachi 1, that the prophets' message, Malachi's message, is to Israel. He says, the burden of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

Now Malachi, you want to remember, was a prophet who came on the scene about a hundred years after the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon.

Remember, they had been dragged off to Babylonian captivity.

They came back from Babylon.

They rebuilt their temple.

They were rebuilding the walls and the city and so forth.

Malachi was a post-exilic prophet.

That is, he came to Israel.

He came on the scene about a hundred years after the temple had been rebuilt. When all the fires of revival, the emotions, and all had subsided, and now things had fallen just into an everyday routine.

Religion had become a routine.

And here he is addressing that particular situation. Also, after the exile, after the Babylonian captivity, the nation was no longer divided into the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah and so forth. Now the whole nation was just addressed as Israel.

Now I want you to look with me to verse 2.

Here is God's love, divine love declared and denied.

Verse 2, God says, here's His message. Here's God's message to the people.

I have loved you, saith the Lord.

Now what a message that is.

I have loved you, says the Lord.

What words of comfort?

What words of security? What words of peace and joy and blessing and assurance?

When God says, from the mouth of His prophet, I have loved you.

I have loved you.

And look, the tense here, or the sense is, not just that I loved you past tense, but that I have loved you and love you still.

I continue to love you.

That's the idea there.

No matter...

You know, I think about passages like that, and I can get a great deal of assurance from a passage like that when God says, I have loved you, says the Lord.

I mean, that's a message of comfort to me.

And I believe it was certainly a message of comfort to the people in Malachi's day.

Just imagine God saying, look, no matter what you're going through, no matter how tough it is, no matter what your circumstances are, no matter how difficult these trials are that you're dealing with right now, no matter what's going on in your life and your health and your body with your finances, no matter how you're beaten down or pressed by the enemy, no matter how long or how hot your trials have been, I want you to remember this.

I love you. That's His message. I love you.

God's message to His people.

I've loved you.

What a comfort that would be.

I believe in Malachi's day, the conditions of society had deteriorated so bad.

You want to remember, like last week, some of you weren't here, so you didn't understand.

You may not grasp what the conditions were in Malachi's day when we laid some of this groundwork.

But listen, morally, ethically, society had deteriorated so bad, it was kind of like it is today, right now in America. Because men were divorcing their wives for no reason. They just wanted a younger woman.

Divorce was rampant.

Hey, is that going on in America today?

People are cold.

People don't have normal affection and love.

They are selfish. And Americans are selfish people.

We don't love sacrificially.

We don't totally give ourselves to our mate the way we should.

Malachi addresses those things.

He addresses ill like that in society.

That's what was going on in Malachi's day. Love, even human love, normal human affection had deteriorated so badly, people didn't understand human love.

They didn't understand divine love.

They had a problem with even that.

I think that human love had deteriorated so badly that it had undermined their concept of divine love, because they didn't know what love was anymore.

People just didn't know what it was.

They didn't understand it at all.

And I don't think these people really understood that God loved them.

I don't believe they understood that at all.

Perhaps it was because of some of the trials and hardships that they were going through.

But don't tell me that we're not tempted to think similarly, because sometimes when we go through tough times, we go through trials, we go through difficulties. When the way gets hard and the trials are hard and the furnace is fierce and so on, you know, one of the first things people attempted to think, you know, God doesn't love me.

He doesn't love me.

He may love others, but he sure don't love me.

Why do we think that?

Because of what we're going through.

Because of our circumstances, our problems.

But look, Malachi's message is very, very relevant to today.

Because his message is, I have loved you. I love you still.

That's his message.

I love you.

Here's their sin.

Their sin actually is threefold.

Let me just point out a couple of things here.

Number one, they questioned God's love.

Because verse 2, he says, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us?

Wherein hast thou loved us?

They're questioning God's love.

Wherein hast thou loved us?

They're doubting divine love right here because of their circumstances.

When we question His love, we question His character.

When we question His love, we question His very nature. Because one of the most profound biblical definitions we have of God concerning His nature is that God is love.

God is love.

And when we question in our own lives, you know, I don't think you love me, Lord, then you're saying God is not love. His Word is not true because He says He loves us.

Now, what are we going to go by? We're going to go by what He tells us in His Word, or we're going to go by our circumstances at the time.

And circumstances and feelings change.

They're up and down like roller coasters. They change with the wind.

Some days we feel good. Some days we feel great. It doesn't matter.

God loves us no matter how you feel. It doesn't matter what you're going through.

God loves you.

It doesn't matter what your circumstances are.

God loves you. Never doubt it. Never question it.

Get it settled. This was the sin of the people in Malachi's day. They began to doubt and question the very love of God.

They're like petulant children here.

They're saying, Wherein hast thou loved us? In other words, they're saying, You don't love us.

You don't love us.

God says, I love you. And they're like children.

Any parents here?

You ever have your child say when they don't get their way? Or when something doesn't go right?

Or when you have to correct them?

You know, you tell them, Look, I love you, son.

You don't love me.

You tell them, I love you, honey.

You don't love me.

If you loved me, you'd let me have my way. If you loved me, you'd let me go to such and such.

If you loved me, you'd buy me a new car.

If you loved me, you'd give me a dollar.

I remember those days.

That was a long time.

But that's the question that they have right here.

Because God says, I have loved you, and they say, you don't love us. That's what they're saying right here.

Wherein hast Thou loved us?

You don't love us.

And that brings out a second aspect of their sin.

See, the first one we said was questioning God's love. But the second aspect of their sin here is the sin of ingratitude.

Because when your son or your daughter denies your love because you punished them, or because you won't buy them that new pair of roller skates, or you know, whatever it happens to be, you know, they say, You don't love me.

You don't love me.

And then the response is, Oh, really?

Well, then, if I don't love you, why do you live here?

Why do I feed you?

Why do I buy your clothes? Why is it that I pay for the electricity that you...

Why is it I pay for the gas and the water that you use all up when you, you know, take those hour baths and so on and so forth, you know? Who gives you a bed to sleep on?

And who bought that pillow?

Who changes those sheets, by the way?

And who washes your clothes?

And, you know, the idea of ingratitude?

Well, listen, this is what enters in right here in this very passage.

And I want to bring some of these things out right here.

They're saying, you don't love us, to which God reminded them. I want you to look with me again in verse 2 when He says, Was not Esau Jacob's brother?

Sayeth the Lord, yet I loved Jacob. You know what God's doing here?

He's beginning to remind them of some things here. Verse 3 says, I hated Esau, laid his mountains in his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

You know, here you got Israel saying, you don't love us.

And God is responding in this sense.

Who brought you back from Babylonian captivity?

Who brought you home?

Who brought you home to your land?

Who brought you back and allowed this temple to be rebuilt? Who brought you back and allowed you to rebuild your homes after all these years of captivity?

Who brought you out of that bondage and allowed your lands to be restored to you and so forth? Who kept this promise, this promise to bless and provide and protect? You know, in other words, God is saying, one of us has been faithful.

One of us has been faithful.

And the idea is they had fallen into the sin of ingratitude. They were complaining about what they didn't have instead of being thankful for what they did have.

And that's a real easy snare for us to fall into.

We have to watch ourselves there.

I want you to notice something else here that I believe comes into play. They failed to recognize that their afflictions were the hand of God.

They were divine chastisement, and it was for their own good.

The things they were going through, the trials, the afflictions, and so forth, actually, it was to purify them. It was to bring them back to the Lord.

It was to change their lives.

It was to produce in them a dependence upon God that they had fallen away from. You know, trials, tests, afflictions, those things have a purpose in our lives. They are intended to bring us to the Lord and make us dependent upon the Lord.

Listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm 119 and verse 67. He said, before I was afflicted, I went astray.

But now, I have kept Thy Word.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray.

You know what the idea there is?

It's real easy to begin to drift from the things of God.

It's easy to begin to drift from God's Word, God's way, God's message.

It's easy to just... Once you get into a routine, religion becomes this rote process, then it becomes a rut.

It moves from rote to rut.

And when you get into a rut, you begin to drift from the things of God.

Your prayer life begins to slip. The intensity, the fervor, the zeal you once had for God begins to wane. The love you had for His Word, it's not there anymore.

The things of God become stale. Church attendance is not as vital as it used to be in your life. Now you can miss without any pangs of conscience.

And you'll get there if you can, but if you can't, that's just the way.

Well, let me tell you, sometimes we get busy with our jobs, busy with our homes, busy with this, busy with that. Not necessarily sinful things, just busyness.

And the busyness begins to take us away from the things of God. Now we don't have time for prayer, time for church, time for the services, time for fellowship. It's like Brother Hunter used to say, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy.

And look, there's some truth to that.

If you can't make you bad, he'll make you busy.

You'll get so busy that you begin to drift. And when you begin to drift, the things of God just begin to fall. They're all relegated to a secondary place in your life.

Now your own busyness, activity, job, family, whatever it is, hobbies, you get involved with all these other things, God has taken a secondary role.

And let me tell you what the Lord will do at times like that.

He will allow you to go through trials and troubles.

He will allow afflictions, sometimes physical attacks, sometimes attacks in other ways, in your home, in your finances, or whatever.

He will allow that as a chastening hand of God in order to slap you on the face and bring you back to your priorities. He will allow that to bring you to the place of repentance so that you put your life back in order again.

The psalmist said, Psalms 119, verse 67, Before I was afflicted, I went astray.

Now that affliction doesn't necessarily mean sickness, but it could include that.

Affliction could be anything.

Any kind of affliction, trials, adversity.

It could mean any kind of affliction.

But here's what happens.

You start going through trials and troubles, and guess what? You start remembering what's really important in life. What's really important?

It's not your business, your job.

It's not this.

It's not that.

It's not your hobby. It's not sports. It's not whatever.

You start realizing when you go through the trials, you remember, you know, the most important thing is my relationship to Christ, and I have allowed that to suffer.

And so, you bring your life back into focus again.

You put the Lord first.

I want to tell you something else about the folks in Malachi's day.

And I believe it's the same in every society. It's the same here today.

I'm telling you, Malachi's message is modern.

It's a modern message.

I believe the folks in his day had a false concept of love.

Because when he says, I have loved you, they say, you don't love us.

You don't love us, God.

They had a false concept of love.

They thought in their minds, look, if God loved us, then He'd pay no attention to our sins.

I mean, if He loved us, then He would overlook our sin, our idolatry, He'd overlook our backsliding, our disobedience, He'd overlook our spiritual adultery, and He'd just bless us anyway.

False concept of love.

Doesn't work like that.

God's love, which is a perfect love, is a corrective love.

You know, true love is corrective.

The perfect love of God is a corrective love.

He will not leave us in our sins.

And so He loves us.

He will call us. He will woo us.

He will challenge us.

He will rebuke us.

He will chasten us. But He's always calling us back. Calling us back to Him, to our first love.

His love is corrective.

You know, we tend to think, look, if you love me, you let me do what I want. You know, that's what a kid says.

They have a false concept of love.

If you really love me, you'd let me go stay out with my friends all night long.

And you know, the parent says, no, it's because I love you that I'm not going to let you have your way.

It's because I love you that you're punished. It's because I love you that you're grounded. It's because I love you that you can't do these things or those things.

Y'all probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that divine love is corrective love.

And if you love your children, you're going to correct them.

If you're concerned for them, you're going to correct them. If you're concerned for their welfare, you know, if you tell a child, look, don't play in the street. Whatever you do, don't play in the street.

And the kid goes and plays in the street.

What are you going to do?

You're going to just say, oh, little Johnny, don't play in the street. Or you're going to take him and correct him.

You're correcting.

You do it in love, but you do it for his good, because if he continues to play in the street, bad things are going to happen.

Worse things than you applying the rod to his bod.

Worse things than that are going to happen.

See, so love is corrective.

Not abusive, but corrective.

So, first we see in this verse, verse 2, God declares his love, I have loved you. And then Israel denies his love. They say, you don't love us.

Wherein hast thou loved us? So now, now, God demonstrates his love.

You remember when I gave you the title, I said, this section is divine love.

Declared, denied, and then demonstrated.

And now God is going to demonstrate to them.

He's going to cite several proofs to them of his love.

And first of all, I want you to see, he cites his choice of Israel, his choice of Jacob, as proof of his love.

Verse 2, You say, wherein hast thou loved us? Here's God responding, wherein hast thou loved?

How have I loved you?

And then he says, Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord, yet I loved Jacob, and hated Esau, and laid his mountains in heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 

Here is an interesting passage, because God asks Israel a question.

He says, Was not Esau Jacob's brother?

Of course, Jacob and Esau. Of course, they were brothers.

So their response would normally be, naturally, of course, of course, Jacob and Esau.

Not only are they brothers, they were twin brothers.

Jacob and Esau, brothers, yes, twin brothers is what they were. Yet God says, I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau. Now, he touches here on one of the most profound subjects in all the Bible, the subject of divine election.

A very, very profound and, to be quite frank, difficult subject. The subject of election. 

But I want you to see what he points out here.

Of the two brothers, of the twins, who were equal in every way.

I mean, you know, they're twins, they're brothers, they're both born of the same mother, they're born of the same father, they're born at the same time, heirs of Abraham, heirs of the promise, and so forth.

In fact, if anything, Esau had the advantage because he was the eldest. He was the one born first.

Of the twins, he was the one born first.

Yet, God says, I chose Jacob.

I love Jacob.

I hated Esau.

He chose Israel.

Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, the father of the nation of Israel, he chose him based on nothing else, based on nothing else but his own divine choice.

God chose Jacob for no reason other than what was his own divine will, his own divine choice.

He chose Jacob.

Now, nowhere in the Bible are you going to find that somehow or another Jacob was more loving than Esau, or that for some reason he was more pleasing to God than Esau, or whatever. But the fact of the matter is, the whole determinant of Jacob over Esau, it lied in the will of God. It all lies in the divine will.

In fact, there's a passage in Romans 9 that brings that out in some, I guess, further clarity.

I tell you what, I'm going to run over there real quick and just read a passage in Romans 9.

In chapter 9.

You with me? All right, let's turn over there real quick.

Let's read a verse or two in Romans 9. I think this is important, so let's take a minute and look at it.

Romans 9, beginning in verse 10.

Romans 9 and verse 10.

He says, and not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born.

Now notice this.

This is the twins here that are in the womb of Rebekah. The twins being not yet born. Notice this.

Neither having done any good or evil.

So in other words, God choosing Jacob.

It wasn't because Jacob did good or Esau did evil.

It wasn't based on that because they weren't even born yet. None of these things had happened yet. He says that...

I just took my eyes off and now I lost my place.

Verse 11.

...that the purpose of God according to election might stand... And notice this.

...not of works, but of him that calleth. ...not of works, but of him that calleth. Now listen.

This is one of the most profound passages on the subject of election that you'll ever read. Because it reveals that God did not choose Jacob because he saw down into the future that Jacob would believe, and that Jacob would repent, and that Jacob would be the best choice.

He didn't choose on the basis of works. Not even on the basis of his foreknowledge. He chose on the singular basis of divine will.

That's what he tells us in this passage.

In fact, it's not of works, but of him that calleth.

I want to tell you something. God didn't look into the future and see that you would believe and therefore He chose you.

That's not how this works.

The fact is, God chose you and therefore you believed.

You want to know what the bottom line is.

It's Jesus saying, you have not chosen Me.

I have chosen you. It's divine election.

It's even the faith that we have in Christ. You said, but we had to believe.

That's right, we did have to believe.

We had to repent and we had to believe.

And guess what?

Even that faith to believe, even that faith was given to us by God.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It's the gift of God.

Well, I'll tell you, we see some things here that are so profound, all we can do is say thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

I'll tell you why that's all we can do.

Because there was nothing in us, nothing good in us, that caused God to choose us.

Just like there was nothing good in Israel that God saw that caused Him to choose them.

Read Deuteronomy 7.

Deuteronomy chapter 7.

He said, look, it's not because you were the best. It wasn't because you were the biggest. He said you were the least of all people.

And yet I chose you.

Oh boy, I'll tell you, when you understand what election, a little bit about what election is. I don't know that any of us will understand all of it, but when we understand a little bit of it, we get to realize the sovereignty of God and the grace of God.

We understand how salvation is grace.

It's all grace.

Every bit of it's grace.

And God is glorified through it all because we see, Lord, I'm a wretch. I'm saved for one reason and one reason only.

And that's because You chose me.

I'm here today because He chose me.

You're where You are because He chose you.

I want you to notice something else.

God loved Israel because He chose to.

God loved Jacob because He chose Jacob.

Their election was rooted in divine love from beginning to end, and there is no other explanation for it. The Bible offers no other explanation. In fact, the Bible tells us very frankly in this passage here in Romans 9 that that's how it works.

He says in verse 12, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness with God?

God forbid.

Absolutely no unrighteousness with God.

For He says to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy.

I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

So don't get the idea that well, God looks into the future and sees who's going to believe, and that's who He chooses. He just tells us in this passage, that's not how it works. Because in verse 16, it is not of Him that willeth.

It's not the one who says, well, I'm choosing to believe, and therefore, God sees that in the future.

He's going to elect that one to salvation.

And it is not of Him that willeth.

It is not of Him that runneth.

He says it's of God, all of God, who shows mercy. And that totally humbles us and makes us realize that our salvation from beginning to end is God, from beginning to end. And you know, we see that brought out even a little more in so many other passages.

When the Bible tells us things like, you are not your own.

You are bought with a price.

Do you realize the Lord Jesus bought His people?

That His redemption on Calvary did not just make salvation possible.

His redemption on Calvary purchased the salvation of the elect. It purchased. It purchased.

You are bought with a price.

You are mine. You have not chosen me. I have chosen you.

Let me tell you, these are profound things we are thinking right now. Very profound.

But that's just a little bit of what we understand about divine election. I want you to notice this too. The idea is, and this is what we want to keep in mind in this passage, that God is demonstrating His love to Israel.

He's demonstrating to them.

Remember, He's talking to them here. He's demonstrating to them how He has loved them.

And how is it that you've loved this Lord?

And He's reminding them, I loved you by choosing you.

Have you forgotten I chose you? I didn't choose Esau. I chose you to be my people.

I gave you my covenant. I gave you the law of Moses. I gave you my ark.

I gave you my holy presence, the holy place, my tabernacle, my temple.

He chose them.

He's reminding them of divine love here.

He's reminding them that He's delighted in them. Insignificant though they were, He chose them.

But also, I want you to notice here in v.3, well, in fact, back in Malachi, 1 and v. 3, I want you to notice something else that is equally important. He cites the devastation of the land of Edom as evidence of His love for Israel.

Notice when he says this, I hated Esau.

I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons and the wilderness. He cites the devastation of the land of Edom as evidence of His love for Israel. Now, here's where we want to understand a couple of important things.

The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin brother. Just as Jacob was renamed Israel, the father of a great nation, Esau, also, there was a nation born from him. The Edomite nation was born from him.

So here you have the nation of Edom, the nation of Israel directly related.

In fact, they were blood related, both on the mother and father's side because they had a common ancestry in Isaac and Rebekah.

But the relationship between Jacob and Esau was one of rivalry.

You know, for the many, many years, they were separated and so forth.

I guess there's few rivalries that can be as bitter as a rivalry that can exist between siblings.

And the one that existed between Jacob and Esau began at birth.

And then even later when they were reconciled, that rivalry was kept alive by their descendants.

The Israelites and the Edomites never got along.

They were continual enemies. And listen to this.

This is what happened.

And this is why God is citing in verse 3, the destruction, the devastation of Edom as a demonstration of God's love for Israel. When Babylon was threatening the world and they were going to conquer Israel, they were invading Israel, the Edomites, now their blood ancestors, their blood heritage towards Israel, like blood brothers, you know, common ancestry. Well, guess what?

Babylon is threatening to overrun Israel. Guess what the Edomites do? They side in with the Babylonians.

In fact, they did some really wicked things against Israel. The Babylonians marched in, they destroyed the land of Israel, they decimated the city of Jerusalem, they destroyed the temple, they marched the people off captive.

If it's about 587, 586 BC.,the Jews were forcibly removed from their own homeland, from their cities, the land of their inheritance. They were driven off to be captives in Babylon. Some of the Jews tried to hide.

Some of them tried to escape. Some of them fled. Well, guess what the Edomites did?

They cut off their escape routes.

And then they notified the Babylonians where they were, so that the Jews would be captured.

So that they betrayed the Jews.

They were back stabbers. They were informants against the Jews for the Babylonians. And then listen to this.

When Israel was in Babylonian captivity, guess what the Edomites did?

They moved in on to their land.

So large portions of Israel's land, especially just south of Jerusalem, was inhabited by the Edomites.

So that all these years later now, when Israel comes home, 70 years later, after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, they come home, guess what? They find out their land is, a lot of their land is now occupied by the Edomites.

No wonder there was a rivalry between them.

Now look, this rivalry had gone on for hundreds of years.

This was something of long, long duration.

In fact, the Edomites who moved into that section south of Jerusalem, they then, you know, through the process, you hear them referred to several times in the Bible. Isaiah speaks of them.

Ezekiel speaks of them.

Even Jesus does, or spoken of in the Book of Mark at least.

Let me read something to you from the little book of Obadiah.

This is a book so small, it's not even divided into chapters.

But Obadiah, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Obadiah speaks specifically about the sins of the Edomites.

And I want to read a couple of verses here to you. Listen, this will really throw some light on what was going on at the time. Obadiah, one of the minor prophets, verse 8.

Listen to this.

Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom?

An understanding out of the Mount of Esau.

God's speaking about destroying the Edomites.

He said, And thy mighty men, O team, and shall be dismayed at the end, that every one of the Mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

God's saying, I'm going to destroy these Edomite people.

For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever.

Remember what I told you?

They had a blood ancestry.

They came, the Edomites and the Israelites descended from the same mother and father. And so, Obadiah refers to the Edomites as the brethren of Jacob. Blood ancestry.

He says, But for your violence against your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you'll be cut off forever.

That's what God is saying to the Edomites.

In the day that thou stoodest on the other side.

They were on the Babylonian side.

In the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. You see that? You were like the Babylonians.

You became the enemy of God.

The enemy of God's people.

He said, But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he became a stranger.

Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

You shouldn't have done those things, he says. You shouldn't have done that.

Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.

They went and looted the land of Israel. They were looting in Jerusalem.

The Edomites were.

Verse 14, neither should thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape.

Remember what they did?

They laid in weightfall.

They cut off their escape routes.

Neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

You shouldn't have done that.

And God gave them this message.

Look, Obadiah's message back in verse 10, he says, the day will come, you will be cut off forever.

That's his message.

To the Edomites, you'll be cut off forever. Well, back in the day of Malachi, and verse 3, I want you to notice this. Now, their rivalry obviously is intense.

The rivalry between Israel and the Edomite nation.

If it was bad before, imagine it now.

Israel comes home, their land is occupied by the Edomites.

The Jews hated the Edomites all the more because of that.

When God says he loved Jacob and he hated Esau, he cites as proof the fact that to this day, Edom is a waste.

Edom is destroyed.

Now, we don't really know when that destruction took place, that he cites here in verse 3. When he talks about how he laid his mountains and his heritage waste, something happened. There is some speculation that a group called the Nebatians invaded the Edomites and totally annihilated them, just destroyed their cities, laid them waste, drove them out and so forth.

We don't know for sure what happened or exactly what's referred to there in verse 3. The incident that's referred to.

What we do know is that the Edomites were judged by God, just as Obadiah said they would be. The Edomites were judged, their cities were destroyed, their heritage laid waste, and they continue to be waste at this very day, at the day when Malachi prophesied. And look, when he is...

Remember what Malachi is doing. He is demonstrating God's love for Israel.

He says, you want proof of my love?

You were taken away captive because you were punished, because of your backsliding, because of your sins.

But I forgave you, and I brought you home.

And now you are back in your land.

You are back in your territory. You have rebuilt your houses.

Your lands have been restored.

On the other hand, look at Edom.

You want proof of my love for you?

Look at Edom.

Are they restored?

Are they back inhabiting their land?

No. Their land was waste.

Their land was ruined.

In fact, he says in verse 3, the only thing in their land is dragons. The idea is desert creatures, lizards and serpents. That's the kind of things inhabiting their land.

Their land was laid waste, and it had not been rebuilt. It had not been restored.

In fact, it wasn't going to be restored according to God's Word.

It wasn't going to be restored because God had brought judgment.

They were going to be cut off forever.

Remember what Obadiah said, cut off forever.

He said, I hated Esau.

Now, I think we ought to take a minute and consider that word because that's pretty strong.

Verse 2, I loved Jacob.

I hated Esau.

Verse 3, he says, I hated Esau.

Are we to understand this or interpret this literally? Well, let me just quickly give you the three schools of thought on the interpretation of this.

And look, it's used here. It's used in Romans 9.

Listen to this.

Here's the first view.

Malachi, being a Jew, the writer of this book, obviously, he hated the Edomites.

The Israelites, the Edomites, they were bitter enemies.

They had been for centuries.

So one view is that Malachi's own hatred of the Edomites just kind of spilled over into his book.

And he wrote as though God hated the Edomites, or the descendants of Esau, and that he was just prejudiced, and his prejudiceness bled over into his writing.

That's the first view.

We don't believe that view. That's the liberal view.

These people come up with all kinds of things. Here's the second view. The second view considers this term hate to be relative, a relative term in this sense.

They say love means to love more.

Hate means to love less.

And that's basically the idea of the second view. To lend some credence to this view, they cite a passage over in Genesis 29, verse 30 and 31. Now, I tell you what, we're going to turn there, because this passage also reflects on some of the things we talked about this morning, remember, where Jesus said in Luke 14, if any man hate not his mother, his father, his sister, his brother, and his own life also, he can't be my disciple.

Remember He says you've got to hate your mother and father to be my disciple? Is that to be understood literally, that we're to hate them?

Well, I think that this passage we're going to look at here in Genesis 29 will shed a little bit of light on that as well. Genesis 29 and verse 30.

Let's look at this.

Genesis 29, 30. You know Jacob married Rachel, and he married Leah. He married two sisters.

Y'all remember the account how his father-in-law tricked him, gave him the older sister Leah, and then he worked seven more years and got the younger sister Rachel.

He loved, you know, that's what he did.

Well, anyway, y'all are familiar with that.

Let's read verse 30. He said, he went in also unto Rachel when Rachel was given to him to be his wife, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah and served with him seven more years. All right, you notice verse 30, what we just read?

He loved Rachel more than Leah. Now, look at verse 31.

And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Now, notice verse 31 says, He saw that Leah was hated, but the verse just before said that He loved Rachel more than Leah. So He loved her more than He loved Leah.

The idea is that this is a relative term. The idea of hatred here is a relative term. It's not that He hated Leah, but He loved her less.

He loved Rachel more, just like He speaks of in verse 29. He loved Rachel more, He loved Leah less.

And that's the idea of the hatred. It's a relative term.

He didn't hate Leah.

Not the way we think of hatred today. We think of hate in this term of despising and so forth.

But the idea was He loved her less.

He loved Rachel more. Jesus said, also, we quoted the passage this morning in Luke chapter 14, If anyone comes to me and hates not his mother, father, sister, brother, and own life, he can't be my disciple. Obviously, the Lord doesn't want us to literally hate our parents because He tells us in other places, honor your mother and father.

So, the idea is not that you hate them, but that you have to love God first.

You've got to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength.

He's got to be first and foremost.

And the idea of the second view then is that it's a relative term.

It means to love more and to love less. In other words, Christ must be preeminent.

We must love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

And our wife, our children, our parents, we love them too, but we can't put them first.

We love God first.

We love them less.

So, I see how the idea of the word hate, meaning, in this context at least, to take a secondary position, I think that view has some merit.

I think it's a meritorious view.

At the same time, there's yet a third view that says you cannot soften the language of the Scriptures. Love and hate are two opposites.

God says He loved Jacob as an expression of election. He said He hated Esau as an expression of rejection.

One was chosen.

One was rejected.

So, the whole of the truth lies somewhere in between those second and third views.

And perhaps one day we'll have it all figured out.

But at any rate, He describes this destruction of Esau, this destruction of the Edomites in verse 3.

He said it was waste.

It was, the waste was thorough.

I mean, it was inhabited now only by reptiles and desert creatures. And I'll tell you what else He says in Malachi 1 in verse 4. He says, not only is their waste thorough, it's permanent.

Because He says in verse 4, whereas Edom says, you see how He has this conversation, this conversation just back and forth.

You know, you say, God says, Edom says, Edom says, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.

We'll be back.

That's what Edom says.

But here's what God says. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down.

They shall, and they'll call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord is angry forever. The idea is, the Edomites were probably boasting.

We're going to come back.

We're going to rebuild our cities. We're going to put new cities in the sights of the old ones and so forth, but God, His word here is very emphatic.

They may build, but I'll tear them down.

They're not coming back.

The Edomites are not coming back.

And in fact, he says, their ruin is going to become a proverb, a byword. People are going to rename them. Look, he said, they will be called the border of wickedness, or the idea is they will be renamed the wicked land, the wicked people.

That's what they're going to be named. And the people against whom the Lord is angry forever.

Remember what Obadiah says?

I'm going to cut them off forever.

They'll be cut off forever, God said. So sober language, very, very sober language.

And then in verse 5, he says, well, this verse emphasizes the greatness of God.

He says, thank you, Sister.

He says, in verse 5, and your eyes shall see, and you shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.

This verse, in other words, emphasizes the greatness of God's, just God's greatness.

Israel had doubted his love, so God calls him, I want you to see.

I want you to see these things.

They were so absorbed with their own problems that they couldn't really see the truth, the fact, the reality of God's love for them.

I want you to see.

I want you to see what's going on.

I want you to notice.

Just see these demonstrations of my love for you. Look at Edom and see how I've loved you, and I've rejected them.

That's the idea.

Look and learn.

That's God's word to them.

Look and learn.

Wickedness, evil, it may look like it's prospering for a while, but let's all realize, God's going to always bring it into judgment. All right, let's wind this up tonight with this.

You know, I think the greatest single truth that we can learn from the Scriptures is actually what Malachi tells the people of God right here in verse 2, the fact that God loves us. There is no single greater truth than that.

God loves us.

God loves us.

He loves each and every one of us.

And you know what? There's nothing you can do that will cause God to love you any more than what He already does, because His love for you is perfect. His love for you is complete.

Nothing you can do is going to cause Him to love you any more than what He already does.

We learn also from this passage that we don't have to earn God's love.

You see, He didn't love Israel because they deserved it. He didn't love Israel because they were so good. He didn't love Israel because He looked into the future and saw how obedient they were going to be.

No, none of those things.

In fact, just the opposite was true. He loved them just because he chose to love them.

And the same thing is true, beloved, for you and I.

He loves us not because of what we are, but because of who He is.

I want to mention something else here that I think is very encouraging to me, and I believe relevant, and that is that we shouldn't be discouraged if we seem to be a small minority in the midst of a pagan environment, because that's where the people found themselves in Malachi's day, in a pagan society, surrounded by heathen, surrounded by ungodliness, idolatry, wickedness, surrounded by spiritual apathy. It would be very easy to become discouraged at such a time. But, you know, God calls us just to be encouraged in Him, trust Him, cling to the fact that He loves us.

Let's obey Him, and let's also remember that even Jesus told us that the way of truth, the way of righteousness, the way of obedience to God, really the way of discipleship, will never be the way of the majority.

Never, ever. Remember Matthew 7, 13, and 14.

Straight is the gate, narrow is the way, that leads to eternal life.

And few there be that find it, yet broad is the way, wide is the gate, that leads to death. 

And many there be that go in there at.

You know, the idea is the way of righteousness, the true way of discipleship, is traveled by the minority, not by the majority. So don't get discouraged.

I see, personally, the message of the cross as being far, far too costly to ever have any real mass appeal.

Well, also we want to point out in this passage that there are times in history, I guess you could call them waiting times, like what was going on in Malachi's day, when God seems not to be doing a whole lot, where things just seem to be dry.

You know, that's what was happening in the days of Malachi.

No profound miracles taking place, no mighty moves of God. In fact, religion had fallen into just kind of a routine, a rut, a rote, and unfortunately even a rot.

Sometimes those periods occur.

Malachi lived at such a time as that.

But even in periods like that, God's called us to trust Him and obey. And you know what? He'll visit us if we'll trust Him and obey.

Well, powerful lessons here from Malachi. Just one last thought, and I'm going to close with this.

And then I'm going to preach the rest of this chat. Next week.

You know, verse 4, Edom says I'm going to return, I'm going to rebuild. You know, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. So let's close with that thought tonight, that you know the best laid plans of mice and men?

You can have all kinds of plans, goals, dreams, ambitions.

I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.

Man, I'm going to build, I'm going to...

But God says, you can build.

I'll tear it down.

That's what He told the Edomites.

I'll tear it down.

If what we're doing, in other words, is not God's will, it's not going to last.

It's not going to stand.

Well, I guess we squeezed a whole lot into those few verses, but you know, this book is ripe. I'm telling you, it's ripe.

It's relevant. There's a lot here to preach.

It's so relevant to our own society.

Let's stand together.

Praise God.

Father, we pray tonight that You would take these things that we've heard, and Lord, make application to our own lives with it.

Lord, through these messages, we want to be encouraged in our faith.

We want to be encouraged in Christ.

Lord, we want to draw closer to You.

We don't want to fall into the snare of the routine, but, Father, may our relationship always be vibrant and personal and intimate and alive.

That our relationship with You be always personal.

So Lord, even in dry times, in difficult days, in perilous times, let us cling to You with confidence and faith. And Lord, let us believe You for just personal victory in our lives.

Father, we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

Hallelujah."