We're here to just talk about Malachi. It's my privilege to open for us this book. And it's a book that talks a lot about excuses, right, when things go wrong. What kind of excuses do people talk and come up with?

And that's the kind of response that we have when someone shows us our wrongs. Someone points towards our faults. And naturally, that's the kind of thing that comes up in our hearts. So when I was young, I was a rather mischievous boy. And there was this teacher I did not like. So there was one time after class that it just happened he forgot to log out of his computer. And being a mischievous, I think it was lower secondaries at one sec two, and I decided to play this prank, I go in and change his account password to just give him some trouble for the day. So needless to say, I was shortly found out and when they caught me, and they put me into like, almost an interrogation room. Just a bare room with a table and a chair. It's very scary as a 13 year old sitting there. And through my mind, I was running through all the kinds of reasons and excuses that could minimise the trouble that I will get in. And they will say, 'Okay, why did you do this or it wasn't on purpose. I didn't know it will be that serious. I was just fooling around. I was just exploring the computer. And I didn't know that the password was changed.' So I came up with all kinds of things. And of course, I was still punished. I don't know whether they saw through the lies or not. But of course, I was still punish for that misdemeanour.

Now, a similar situation could be said about the Jews and the Israelites. When they were shown up for the wrongdoings, they also came up with excuses. But unlike the school administration, God could clearly see the lies and the excuses that they will coming up with. And through some of them that we can see for the book of Malachi, we have just some simple examples. For example, in Malachi 1 verse 2, which we'll look at today, God says, I have love you, but they say how have you loved us? Where God? Where got your love? Where's your love? Can we see it? Can you show proof? Or in verse 6 where it says, God says you have despised my name. But then the people come again and say, Where have we despised you? Where got? Don't have. And again in 2:17. And God is reprimanding them. And they say, Where is justice? Where got justice being done to the unbelievers?

In 3:8, and God says, you have robbed me of your tithes and offerings. And again, the people say, where have we robbed you? where got rob you? One more time in 3:14.

And the people were being jealous of unbelievers, that the non-believers can get away with the consequences in their hearts. They say, where got consequence? God doesn't punish them.

So for all the things that God was showing them up for. For their lack of love. For their doubt. For God's love. For their wrong offerings, wrong worship. They came up with excuse after excuse, and God through the book of Malachi is going to point out to them all the ways that they have done wrong, highlighting the excuses they're coming out with and then giving  the evidence and finally showing them exactly how God wants them to behave.

So to start off the book of Malachi, allow us to dive a bit into the context in the history of how the people got to this stage and why their hearts had such an attitude.

So many centuries prior to this, the nation of Israel was once a powerful nation in a time of King David, King Solomon, that accumulated great wealth, great armies, and even foreign dignitaries will come and visit the country and take a look and try and learn the best practices and be amazed by their abundance, by their order.

And God gave them certain promises that even at this height of power, King David, he received a promise that his throne would be established forever. And possibly the Israelites. They got complacent. Then after generations, the people fell into moral decay. They started to abandon the God that they first love. They start to chase after foreign gods. They started to stop following the practices and the commandments that God had ordered them to follow. To keep separate from foreign nations, to worship God alone. And eventually, God had to discipline them for breaking all His laws by allowing them to be exiled, deported out of their home country. So God allowed foreign armies to come in and conquer them and punish them, and to bring them out as a form of punishment. So for 70 years, they were captured by another country, called Babylon. Most of their kingdom got destroyed, dismantled.

And for the Israelites, they probably fail to follow and read the next verse after that, Psalm. And he says that God will punish them for their transgression, with rod and iniquity with stripes. But you see, God is always still faithful to them. In his steadfast love, he will hold true to His promises. And the promise that throne will be established forever, will be upheld. So after that 70 years of punishment, God allowed them to eventually come back to their home country. And they started rebuilding their temple, rebuilding the city.

And as they were rebuilding, God came and send prophets to encourage them and reassure them that the promises still stand. He says in Haggai 2:5.

His Spirit remains in their midst, fear not that God is still going to move, He is still going to work. And He will fill His house, His temple with His glory.

So we come to the time in Malachi, that after maybe 60 to 80 years, that the temple has been completed. The remnant Jews have returned to their country, they are rebuilding their country. However, even after this time, all these time of waiting, that the presence of God had not yet returned to the temple. The promise Saviour, Messiah had not come and liberated them from the foreign rule that they were under. What's more, their economy has not recovered. They still face drought, pestilence. Their crops were no good. Their wars and their city was still much in ruins. And they were vulnerable to attack from thieves and raiders from foreign countries. And so as the Israelites, they were in this situation, they looked around them and they felt that, hey, the situation is dire. It seems that God is delaying on the promises that He has promised us. Where's the Messiah that will come and save us? Where is the glory that is going to fill this house? Where is the presence of God who said He will come and fill this temple. And so after all this time of waiting, the people started to become jaded and disillusion, that they started to neglect the things of God again. And they neglected the priesthood. Their priests who were in charge of the offerings. They were negligent or they were corrupted. The people, they will failing in their system of tithing and offerings to support the worship system. And apart from that, they were failing in the social and moral laws that God had set for them, for them to be a nation set apart from the rest. And they were neglecting to look after the poor among their midst. They were freely marrying and divorcing, and not upholding the secret laws of marriage that God wanted them to keep. They were marrying into foreign countries and mixing with the foreign influences. And that was also against what God wanted them to be, that was to be separate from the foreign cultures, practices and religions of the surrounding nations. And possibly this was what was on the minds of the Israelites in that day. There was the prevalent thinking is that, if God doesn't seem to care, why should we? As they looked around their situation, and they were seeing that bleak situation that was in the restoration of the kingdom seems to be delayed. They started to not care and doubt God's love, doubt God's reality for their lives. So that's the backdrop that which the prophet Malachi appears and that is the book that we'll be looking at today. So in verse 1, the oracle or the message of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

So, interestingly, the book starts off this way, and we have no reference or any other information whatsoever about who Malachi is. Usually some of the other books that we've had, we have great amounts of detail of who our speaker is. Usually they have some information of his background, or his whole backstory. We looked at 1st Corinthians and we know a great deal about the apostle Paul. But for Malachi, this is the only introduction we have and his name roughly translates to messenger. So all we know about Malachi is that he's a prophet that arrived on scene during this time. And I think the message for us is to not be focused on the messenger, but his message. And his message was a direct message from God that, in fact, out of the 55 verses, in the book of Malachi, up to 47 of them were direct messages from God to the people. And so that will be the focus of our attention, as well. So Malachi comes in and his main message for the book to the people in this time was that, despite everything that you have seen, despite every circumstance that you are living in, God still loves his people.

So the first point I'd like to make is that, God opens with this proclamation. And he says, I have loved you.

No matter what kind of situation you are going through, no matter how terrible the enemies that are rising up, no matter how bleak your economic situation is, I have loved you.

And of course, the the simple rhetorical argument is in the hearts of the people. Now, to be clear, the people do not have a direct conversation with God. But what's happening in the book of Malachi, is that he is drawing out what's on the hearts of the people. He's verbalising their thoughts on the inside, that when God tells them this. This is what they are already thinking on the inside. And inside, they are doubting God's love. When God says, I have loved you. They're saying, where God? Where is the love? Show me the evidence, show me the proof.

So they were doubting God's love for them, because they did not understand or see God's love. And in reference in response to that, God raises an explanation. He gives a further explanation. He says, it’s not Esau, Jacob's brother. I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.

I want you to look back into your history, and compare yourselves to a close relatives that they had.

Right, so Esau and Jacob were twin brothers, who were born from their father, Isaac, and Esau was born first. I know twins, but one has to come out at each time. So Esau was the firstborn, he came up first. And he was named Esau because his hair was a bit like mine. And maybe parents, that's not the best way to name your kid. Red hair name Red.

Right? But so was born first and Jacob came up second. And when they grew older, it is written that Esau was a bit more rugged, a bit more scruff. He liked hunting, went out in the fields, where Jacob was a bit more stay home and stay in the tent, do house chores. And the father liked Esau and the mother preferred Jacob. So if you want to get in good favour of your parents, stay at home and do the housework.

Esau went out hunting. And maybe his catch wasn't good. His aim wasn't right that day, but he came home, he had nothing to eat. He was very hungry. And he saw his brother cooking something on the pot and he saw red bean soup. Right? What would I give for red bean soup. And strangely enough, whatever was running through Esau is mind, he would give up anything for some red bean soup. And he had nothing on hand. So he decided to sell the only thing that was to his name, which remember, who came up first? Esau, right? He decided to sell his rights as the firstborn to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of soup.

Right. So maybe to us that's a bit hard to understand. But back in that day, the rights of a firstborn, they had a bit more significance in their culture. It had to do with the blessings and the inheritance for the firstborn. So Esau decided to sell off his rights as the first born to his brother in exchange for soup. So the deal was done. You can see his, I guess he enjoys it. He has no care for how he appears. He's just eating away and Jacob with a very smug look because he knows he's got himself a good deal.

So we fast forward another few years into the future. And it comes to a point in time where Isaac their father, decides that he's getting old. He wants to pass on the blessings of inheritance to his children. He's getting old, he feels that maybe sooner or later, he is going to kick the bucket. And he can't see that well, so he calls his favourite son. And he quickly tells him, hey, I want to bless you. So go hunt some animal. Cook me my favourite meal. And I'm gonna bless you today.

So we know that by right the blessing of the firstborn now belongs to Jacob. But Isaac favouritism, because it prefers the meat over the red bean soup. But interestingly, their mother, Rebecca overhears that conversation, and she quickly tells her favourite child, Jacob, Hey, I heard father is going to give the blessing to your brother. So they come up with a plan. And she goes back into the house, she grabs Esau's clothes that has a Esau's scent, Esau's smell, and she puts it on Jacob. And she helps him cook, faster cook up a meal that they know the father will enjoy. And they present it to the father and they managed to trick Isaac into thinking that Jacob is now actually Esau. His eye sight is really, really that bad. So parents, if you're getting of that age now, then make sure you get a spectacle so you don't give your children the wrong things. But eventually, he managed to treat his father and actually received the blessing of the firstborn, that Isaac will give him that main inheritance that belongs to the firstborn.

Now, Esau returns from his hunt, and he realises what has happened. So do you think he's pleased with that? No, of course. Now he feels he's been cheated twice. One he's given away his rights as first born with a bad trade. And secondly, now he's been sort of cheated of his blessing. So naturally, Esau is very unhappy with his brother, Jacob.

Esau, eventually his descendants became the nation of Edom. Whereas for Jacob, his descendants became the nation of Israel. So what's the relevance of this history that we have seen? And the Apostle Paul helps us to draw this relevance in Romans 9, where he helped us explain that, even though the children, though they have done nothing good or bad, but in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who calls. So the relevance of this story is that when God says, Jacob I've loved, Esau I've hated, is referring to how God has sovereignly chose Jacob to be the chosen nation. That through the the nation of Israel will come about, and through the nation of Israel, the Promised Messiah will come about. And it's not in anything that the children have done. Both you can see through the simple story earlier are equally sinful, equally human, equally flawed. But God is saying that though they have done nothing wrong, good or bad, even before they were born, I have decided to sovereignly choose and set my love upon Jacob.

So, coming back to Malachi, it's the proclamation that the nation of Israel have chosen you sovereignty over the nation of Edom or any other nation in that matter. And also this love that I've set upon you is unmerited, is unconditional. In the same way that the children have not done anything good or bad by God has chosen Jacob. Now in this same way, the nation of Israel, not based on any merit, that they have used to earn God's favour upon them but God has simply chosen them out of his sovereign will.

And so in God's love for them, there is no evidence on Israel's part to show that why God should love them but God is saying I have loved you because I have chosen you. So after our topic sentence, and then a simple explanation, what comes next for every good English essay is our supporting evidence. So the 2nd point is the proof. And God will show now proof of His love for His people. And God goes on to say, I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to the jackals of the desert. So what happened in this time again, a quick simple history is that by this time, the nation of Edom that had actually been driven out of their home country by kind of other surrounding Arabic tribes that have moved in and taken over their land, so the Edomites have lost their home country. And they are trying to claw back and get back some land, stealing from other countries around them, including the Israelites. So for the Israelites that is a problem, but God is reassuring them that no matter what the Edomites do, God will throw out their plans. He will stop them, He will prevent them from re-establishing themselves. And so by Malachi time, this has already happened. Edom has been ousted from their home country, and are trying to re-establish and rebuild themselves in some form. So you can see here, there's a parallel going on, that Israel or the Jews, the remnant Jews after their exile, and returned back to their land, they are in a state of rebuilding.

And also their relative country, Edom, is now also in a state of rebuilding.

God is reassuring the Israelites that even though both countries are rebuilding for Edom, I am going to stop them. They will say that they want to rebuild, but I will tear down.

So the proof is here. And again, God is saying, the proof that I love you as either rebuilds, God will prevent them. Whereas on the other hand, when the Jews rebuild, God will work to prosper them.

And for the Jews, that would have been very clear as a kind of comparison and contrast. Where for Edom, God is preventing them. But for the Jews, on the other hand, they received much benefit and help through God's sovereign plans. We can see examples in other books that happened around the same chronological time in the book of Ezra, where it says the house of God in Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The Persian King decreed through God's sovereignty, God's working in the background that even the rebuilding of the temple and the city will be paid for with Persian money. In the book of Nehemiah, where Nehemiah, the maybe second most powerful person next to the king, requested many things from the King, He requested leave of absence, he requested safe passage, he requested building materials. And he asked all of these things from the King, just so that he could return home and rebuild his city, Jerusalem, and it was granted upon him because the Lord God was with him. So we end the Israelites, back in the days. We can see the very clear contrast, that on one hand, Edom wanted to rebuild, but God will prevent them. He will tear that effort down, whereas the Jews as they rebuild, they have all the backing of God, who is ensuring that His will comes to pass.

So for the Israelites then, that's the proof that they could see with their very own eyes, that God's love is indeed upon them.

And so lastly, with all this evidence that the Israelites have been presented, they have no choice but to give the profession, thirdly that their eyes will see this, and they will all say Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.

So God is saying that what I have said, will indeed come to pass. My sovereign will will be done. Why, because your own eyes shall see this. You will truly see this happen, it will truly happen. And back then, maybe it was a common culture in that time, that different nations, they had their different little gods, right. And that there was this belief that each God only had authority or could exert power within their own national border. So the Philistines had their Philistines god that could only work within Philistines's border. Edomites have their Edomites god that could only work within their own Edomites's border. And maybe some of the Jews would have had that thinking, that their God, Yahweh. could only operate within Israelite's borders. But God was proving to them that as he works against Edom, that He is indeed actually sovereign. He is great beyond the border of Israel and the faithful Jews, when they see then, they will understand that God is sovereign. God is universal. God is powerful. God indeed, loves and he has power to fulfil all the promises, or the plans that he has promised them since the beginning that they thought were being delayed, that they thought that God didn't care, that they thought God had forgotten about them. But indeed, when they see this, they will remember and understand that God indeed does love them.

Maybe a question that you might be having in your minds is, is God unjustly punishing Edom?

But of course, the answer is no. Edom is being rightfully judged, rightfully punished for the sins that they had.

And Edom has, with the story that we looked earlier at the history of Israel and Edom. Edom has always been one of Israel's largest and most persistent enemies. And they have been constantly attacking Israel. And almost never was a time that Edom was allied with Israel. So for Edom's own sins, and their own wickedness, God is rightfully judging them.

And in fact, Israel also deserves equal judgement for their own sins. And the rest of my preachers in the coming weeks also will share with you some of the sins that Israel has committed. But the point is that it's even more amazing. And that should catch our attention that God does love Israel. He did discipline them for a season, but he has preserved a remnant to return home, and he has protected them, secured them, helped them to be re-established, because he has sovereignly set his love upon them. And that should amaze us even more. And the point is that God's sovereign plan includes the protection of this remnant Jews, such that His promised Messiah will come about. God will use Israel as the nation, that channel nation to bring about the Promised Saviour. And the Promised Saviour was not a Saviour that the Israelites were hoping for. A Saviour King to come and free them from the foreign domination. But the Saviour that God intended was Jesus Christ, who would come and take upon the sins of the entire world,

So as Jesus takes sin upon Himself, and dies for us on the cross. That is how God's nature of love and justice is fully satisfied. That God is not just letting the Israelites go scot free. But the sin is dealt with and paid for by his Promised Saviour, Jesus, who now opens that way of salvation to all Israel, and all people of the world.

So in conclusion, God does love his people seen in this five simple verses, that He gives that proclamation, that proof. And then finally the people gave that profession when they see and understand God's love.

So how does this apply to us today?

And the point that we can draw is that we similarly are God's chosen people. We may not be Israelites in the same position, but we are God's chosen people. And maybe today, the difficulties of life have made it hard for you to understand God's love. Maybe it's discouragement, maybe it's disillusionment, maybe it's just our own sinfulness. And I'll just share that when I was younger, as with any other teenager, I also went through a rebellious phase. And the point is that I could not see or understand God's love for me. And in that, not understanding my parents love for me. So not understanding that, then I went through a phase of defiance where I will talk back, I would argue with my parents. I will leave home and not want to return because I was angry with my parents for various reasons. And because I did not receive love in the way that I wanted, or I expected to be loved. But the point is, my parents did love me in many various other ways, just not how I wanted it to be.

But because I did not understand that, I thought that that would be a excuse for all kinds of sin against them.

Because I think that my parents don't love me, I use that as an excuse to talk back to them, to argue with them, to disrespect them, and not care about them. Because I think if you don't love me, then I don't love you back.

So, when we finally understand and see that God indeed does love us, that speaks as that testament and rebuke against why we should not be doubtful of God's love, and why we should not be continuing in faithlessness, in our Christian walk. Maybe there are other reasons why our faith is struggling. Maybe it's discouragement and disillusionment because of a difficult situation that you've been through. And understand in the past two years, Covid has affected many of our lives in more ways than one. For some it could have been loss of job or loss of opportunity. Or maybe for some of us, we could have even lost friends or loved ones to the disease. And in those bleak situations, it can be difficult to understand God's love as well, when we're going through such hardship and we thinking, how can a loving God allow us to go through this? How can God allow my loved one to pass away due to sickness? How can God allow me to lose my job, even though the economy is so bad? And I've been doing all these things for you, I've been attending church. I've been giving my offerings. I've been being faithful for all this time, and you allow this situation to happen. How can I believe that you are a good and loving God. And maybe through all these things that we start to fall away, we start to take a backseat.

The ceasing of activities that we experienced in, especially the early part of Covid. It was easy to get tired and even lazy with the faith where at first we were all still so on fire in early 2020. And we are thinking, what great thing can we continue to do for God this year. But as Covid comes, and all the lockdowns happen, and everything gets cancelled, and we just get isolated from each other, it was easy to just sit back at home and let the passion and fervour for God slowly fade and drift away.

And as you continue in that discouragement, it can be difficult to even regain that faithfulness, even when we're allowed back into services. And maybe you can consider it a time of rebuilding. Just like the Israelites where they were allowed to come home, return home and rebuilt their city, they establish their worship to God. But even in those times, it can be hard to find that faithfulness, that passion and love for God again.

So what I want to draw our attention is not to the circumstances that we've been going through, but the promises that God has made. And the promise and declaration that God has made for us is the same as the Israelites then that you are loved, that I have loved you as what God was saying in verse 2.

And we understand that love today, most magnificently displayed by the love of God, as displayed on the cross, that in Christ, we have been chosen before the foundations of the world, to be His people, that for us, Christ, would have come down and gave His life and die for our sins. And just like the Israelites, the oldest enemy Edom has been defeated. For us our oldest enemies, sin, death in the flesh has been defeated in Christ. We can look forward to Him for new life, new hope, a new relationship with God. God has set his love sovereignly on us, that is not anything that we deserve or worked for. But because God has simply chose to set his love on us that by grace we have been saved through faith, and it's not our own doing. But it is the gift of God, not of works so that none of us can boast. And so my friends, if today, we feel that it's hard to understand God's love. There's a struggle to be faithful in the Christian life. My encouragement to you, just as Malachi to the people back then, is to look back upon God's love upon us. And for us, it is displayed through Jesus who died on the cross for us, that the Gospel unchanging and certain is the proof and evidence that indeed we have been loved and chosen by God, nothing that we have earned or accomplish by simply that God has loved us. So may that be our motivation, encouragement, and the strength for us to remain faithful to God in our Christian lives. Thank you. God, we thank you for this time that you have allowed us to come and look into your Word to the book of Malachi. We thank you for the message being shared on your love. That is a sovereign love that you have chose to set upon us. It is an unmerited love, that nothing we did of our own merit or effort could have earned your love. And we thank you that is not that because what can we do as a sinful humans to deserve and earn your love. But the fact is that you have loved us, you have chosen us before the foundations of the world, to send your Son to die for us upon the cross, to take upon our sin, pay the p rice through your sacrifice and allow us to come back into a loving relationship to be reconciled to you and have that relationship with you again. So I pray that you will continue be our encouragement, our steadfast hope, our anchor in times of distress, in times of faithlessness, in times of struggling and that you will be our ever present motivation and help. So be with us as we continue to journey through the remaining sessions in Malachi. We thank you for everyone who are here to receive your Word. May your work find hearts that are eager to receive and grow and accept your Word today. We pray and ask in Jesus name. Amen.