Worthless Words

“You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts. 9 “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.” - Malachi 2:8-9


It's very rare now that an athlete will stay with their professional sports team for the entirety of their career. In fact, many will demand a trade before their contract ends for different reasons. At the same time,  many owners will not honor the contracts of their players. It seems they will squeeze as much as they can out of the athletes and when they feel like they can not offer anything else, they cut them regardless of how long they have left on their contract. Rarely in today's sports do we see players stay with the same team for their entire career. It's the nature of the game though, contracts are not worth the paper that they are written on. What happened to  "let your word ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’"(Matthew 5:37)? 

The reality is that God could ask us the same thing! Many people make commitments to God and then they turn around and break them. The Israelites had the same problem. When looking at Malachi 2:1-3:6 one can see that the Israelites had broken their commitments to God. 

God first of all addresses the priests. At the very foundation of the problem was the priests lack of keeping their covenant with God. God promised that He would curse the priests (2:2) and He would do this by cursing their blessing, their descendants and their name/pride. He states graphically in Malachi 2:3 "I will spread animal waste over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices, and you will be taken away with it." You see what God is saying there? He is so disgusted with the priests breaking their commitments that He likens them to animal waste that should be taken outside the city and burned! It doesn't take too much to realize that God is serious about His people keeping their commitments especially those in leadership!

Next God moves from the priests to the Israelites and He confronts them about their very basic commitment that they fail to keep, marriage. God was upset about their mixed marriages! Now before anyone gets too excited, let's look at what God was calling a mixed marriage here in scripture. The mixed marriage He is referring to is a marriage between a Christian and a Non-Christian. Too many people have used this scripture as a basis for their racism. Their mixed marriages were detestable and so were their frivolous reasons for divorce. God desires for marriages to last but the Bible does give the exception in regards to adultery (Matthew 19:9) and Abandonment (1 Corinthians 7). Also, the Israelites were profaning the Lord's altar with their detestable pagan practices.

Finally, there is a great reminder in Malachi 2:17-3:6 and that is the fact that God will keep His commitments! God is going to judge the wicked. He states in Malachi 3:2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who will be able to stand when He appears?" God takes commitments seriously! Humanity does not. We use our salvation as a license to sin and have an attitude of "I'll just do what I want to do, God is a loving God and He'll just forgive me anyway." When we exercise that type of mentality we cheapen our salvation and trample our commitments that we made to Him!

Have you turned away from the Lord? Are you cheapening His salvation? It's time to take our commitments seriously! If you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then live for Him! The priests in Malachi 2 were not living for God, they were living for themselves. We must constantly view our life through the Word of God. When we read the Word of God, are we convicted? If so, then we should adjust our life to God's standards. If you join a church then you have made a commitment to support your church with your service, time and money. If you have committed to be a church member, then be a committed one! If you commit to serve in a ministry, then serve! Too many Christians today are like the Israelites in Malachi 2. They have mixed marriages. They want the salvation of the Lord but they want to live in their sinful desire. They are just as faithful to their church as these Israelite men were committed to their wives. Are you cheating on your church? Are you divorcing your church because another one looks better?  As these men needed to invest in their marriages to make them work some today need to invest in their church to make the relationship work!

Commitments made without follow-through are worthless and unfortunately our churches are filled with people who have made worthless commitments! Are you one?