Countdown to Christmas, Anticipating Jesus (Malachi 1:1-5)
Jordan Byrd
When I was in high school, I trained for gymnastics in a town about 30 minutes away from my parent’s house. The drive home from my gym could happen by a couple of different routes. One was a two-lane highway most of the way, and a few country roads part of the way. The other was that same two-lane highway halfway, and some more country roads the other half of the way. One wintry night, I was driving home from practice during a decent snowfall. Snowy weather wasn’t new for me. And I debated on the way home, if I should stay on the highway, where it might be plowed more, and I could see where other cars had driven ahead of me to stay on the road; or if I should get off and take the country roads the rest of the way home. I decided I was capable of driving in the wintry weather on the country roads, so I got off and continued home that way. I traversed the first country road fine, made the first turn onto another road, and as I continued down this road, it was completely snow-covered. There was no sight of another vehicle having been down it since it started snowing. As I reached a few hundred feet from a stop sign at an intersection, I began to slide and fishtail, and next thing I knew, I hit black ice, under the snow; and began spinning in a circle and heading toward the ditch – where my car eventually rolled over and landed on its side, and I ended up totaling the car.
I thought I knew the best way to drive home that night. In hindsight, I made a poor choice; and should have stayed on track with the highway path. I should have stayed on track with the path… where I could see where other cars had traveled – where the ice on the road was salted and melted. But, in my arrogance, I went off track and ended up in disaster.
In the coming weeks, many of you might have a model train that you set up as a decoration for Christmas. A common issue with model trains like this is to make sure the train and the cars are on the track – to make sure they’re on track to keep moving forward. When the train or car ends up off the track, disaster ensues. One of the popular movies during this time of year is The Polar Express where a group of children takes a train to the North Pole, but brushes with disaster, when the train goes off track, during part of its journey.
So often, this imagery is a reflection of our own lives. Where we think we know best, and we try to make our own track. Where we think we know what’s best. Where we think we know what needs to happen. Where we think we know the answer to the problem. Where we think we know how to bring about justice. Where we think we know how to become important. Where we think we know what true love looks like. But, as we get off onto this track, we end-up realizing there isn’t a track at all. We end up realizing that the path is bumpy, causing destruction to whatever is in front of us, and coming to a flaming halt at some point.
The people of Israel that we encounter in Malachi 1 have experienced this reality. They were on track to experience God’s blessing and abundant life in the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, and the descendants of Jacob. But, along the way, they derailed and created their own track. Which resulted in compromising their ethics, weakening their culture by intermarrying with other people of ungodly nations and unjustly treating impoverished and disadvantaged people; and ultimately choosing their own wisdom to curtail invading nations at their borders, rather than turning to the Lord God for direction and protection – and they eventually ended-up taken into captivity by foreign nations, and spread across the ancient, Mediterranean world. All because they thought they knew better than God. All because they let themselves arrogantly direct God’s blessing and life onto a different track. All because they arrogantly thought they could make God’s promises happen according to their wisdom.
We’re no different in our day and age either. We are constantly tempted to lose track of God to pursue our own track – of what we think is best. And when we, like the Israelites of old, end up with derailed lives, we’re also tempted to blame God for not showing up as we needed – for not showing up as we think he should. Saying things about God like the Israelites did in Malachi 1, How have you loved me?! Where are you in this mess?! Why aren’t you doing something about this?! When will you do something?! How have you been present in my situation?!
We may reach the point of needing help to get back on a good track but we can’t see how God is present to get back on God’s track. Like ancient Israel, In our context, we’re tempted to look for God’s presence in our life, according to how we want God to act.
However, God’s word in Malachi 1 reveals a different reality. In Malachi 1:1-5, we encounter that the only way to truly see God’s presence in our life… is to see how God has already been present in history. God's message in Malachi 1:1-5 encourages us to see God for who He is based on what He’s already done and promised to do, not on how we think He should act. When we lose track of God’s actions we lose track of who God is.
God’s word reveals good news to us in Malachi 1:1-5 that we can be aware of God’s presence and action in our life, by being aware of how God has acted acted, and promises to act by how God has revealed himself to us in history, and not just in word, but also in action. It’s at the intersection of how God has acted and what he promises to do that we can start to gain a sense of how God is present and active when it’s hard to see.
God’s word in Malachi 1:1-5 invites us to keep track of God’s actions. To be aware of God’s action in the past, so we can look for similar actions in the present and future. The more we understand how God has acted in the past, the more we'll know what to expect from Him in the present and future. The more we look for God to act as He knows best, rather than how we think He should. When we lose track of God’s actions we lose track of who God is.
Recently, many families in WNY were impacted by the burden of the message that their job at the Sumitomo Tire plant was no more, and the company plant was closing down altogether. No one wants to hear the message: “Hey, in a couple of days, you’re not going to have a job.” No one wants to be the bearer of that message either.
That is the nature of the prophetic word of Malachi. Some translations even reflect the burdensome nature of Malachi’s prophecy, by how the opening of the prophecy is translated. The opening words of Malachi very literally read, The burden of a word of Jehovah unto Israel by the hand of Malachi… (Malachi 1:1, Young’s Literal Translation)
The message of Malachi is a burdensome one because it is addressed to the people of Israel who have lost track of God and God’s law. Malachi is addressed to the people of Israel who have been overran by foreign people, scattered across the region, and given the opportunity to return to their homeland, but are still prone to heading down their own track. A broad picture of Malachi’s message is that this is one of the last times that God will speak to his people for another 400 years. This is one of the last times that God will speak to his people before God enters into their reality in flesh and blood in the birth of Jesus.
One of the overall messages of Malachi is that God’s people are warned to pay attention to what’s going on – to turn their attention to God and his law so that they can beware of God’s presence when it comes or else, the people will find themselves heading toward destruction – and missing the promised, blessings of God’s very presence with them in flesh and blood.
But, as we quickly encounter in Malachi’s message, the people of Israel are so derailed from God’s track that they struggle to see how God is acting, let alone how he’s about to act in the coming of the promised Messiah – in the coming of Jesus.
Overall, God’s message to Israel, through Malachi, is a father’s warning to not miss God and miss out on how he’s about to show up. We see God’s fatherly heart in how he warns and tries to guide Israel back to him, and back on track with his promises to them.
Caleb Williams was the first overall pick by the Chicago Bears in the most recent NFL draft. It was reported that Caleb texted the following comment to the punter the Bears drafted in the 4th round of the draft, “hey you're not going to punt too much here…” Through week 12 of the NFL this season, Caleb Williams has 2,356 passing yards on the season; and Tory Taylor has 2,528 punt yards on the season. Taylor has over 150 more punt yards than Williams has passing yards – more than halfway through the season. Words are empty without the actions to prove them. and this is what the people of Israel accuse God of.
Malachi’s message from God begins with God’s fatherly love for the people of Israel, “I have loved you,” says the Lord. (Malachi 1:2a) To which the people claim, ‘How have you loved us?’ (Malachi 1:2b) The people make an accusatory claim that God has not loved them. “You say you love us.” “You say you’re present with us.” “You say you’re acting for our best interest.” “Then show us?” The people ask in an accusatory fashion, claiming that God has no actions to back up his words. In the people’s thinking, God is not showing up as they think he should be.
But, unlike Caleb Williams’ empty claim about Tory Taylor’s need to punt this year, God’s word is always backed up with action. God never claims something he can’t back up.
God didn’t need to condescend to the people’s accusations, but he compassionately responded anyway. God directly points to his loving action toward the people of Israel throughout their history. Specifically, he harkens back to how he chose to love Jacob’s descendants, rather than Esau’s descendants. Jacob eventually took the name Israel, which is where Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel. But God’s choosing to bless Israel’s descendants, and not Esau’s descendants is an alteration to the conventional protocol of the ancient world, where the firstborn children are given priority in continuing the family’s legacy, where the firstborn sons were blessed above the sons that were born second. God breaks this protocol – to intentionally choose to bless Jacob, who was born after his twin brother, Esau.
In Genesis 25ff, we encounter Jacob deceivingly receiving his Father, Issac’s blessing. But in Genesis 28, God specifically promises to bless Jacbo’s descendants in the continuation of the promised blessing he made to his father, Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham. Jacob deceptively got a blessing. But God on his own initiative, chose Jacob to continue his great promise — to have all peoples of the earth to receive God’s blessing through Jacob’s family lineage.
In Malachi 1:2b-3, God reminds the people of Israel that they became a people, that they have the land they live in now, that they became a mighty nation under King David, that they were returned from Babylonian exile – to live in the Promised Land again because God chooses to bring about his blessings to the world through them.
God reminds the people of Israel that the blessings they have enjoyed are a result of God’s grace and love, and not because they deserved it, or earned it. But only because God in his wisdom knew it best to bring about his blessing for the world through Jacob and not Esau.
The USPS has regular mail and what they call Priority Mail. The USPS will send and deliver both kinds of mail. However, the Priority Mail is given priority action over the regular mail in terms of attention and urgency.
The language of God’s word in Malachi 1:3 can come across as awkward to us if we approach it thinking that it conveys God’s emotional state toward Jacob and Esau, and their descendants. But, if we realize that the “love/hate” language used can also convey “priority” it conveys a very different picture.
God’s expression of love to Jacob and hate to Esau is a way of conveying priority of specified attention to one over another. It’s not that Jacob and his descendants are inherently more special and deserving of God’s love, and Esau and his descendants aren’t. Rather, God is conveying that he’s made a specific promise to bring about a blessing to the whole world through Jacob’s descendants that he hasn’t made to Esau’s descendants.
But, it’s not that God doesn’t care or love both men and their descendants. Genesis 36 shows God's care in blessing Esau with family, possessions, and land, forming the nation of Edom. Deuteronomy 2:4-5 shows God's protection of the Edomites, forbidding Israel from taking their land, given by God to Esau as his inheritance. God's love for all nations, including Edom, is shown in Acts 17:26-27, where He creates all nations and desires them to seek Him, and in Matthew 5:45, where He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good. God loves both Jacob and Esau’s descendants. But Malachi 1:3 is specifically highlighting that God is fulfilling his promise to bless all nations through Israel – through the descendants of Jacob. Which, eventually will be the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, through the people of Israel.
In our age of social media, we’ve become deadened to filtered snapshots of life: enhanced, photoshopped, or AI-generated images – all made to give the appearance of reality, but are a skewing of reality. These images are not the full picture of reality.
God responds to Israel’s claim that he doesn’t love them by also reminding the people of Israel that: with Esau’s descendants, when they went off track of God’s way – when they were violent and unjust, God also allowed them to experience the consequences of their sin and in the day of Malchi, the Edomite’s land was still desolate. But with the people of Israel, even though they also went off track of God’s way, God still remained faithful to his promise and brought them back from captivity not because they were morally better than Edom, but to continue fulfillment of his promise to bless the world through Israel.
God’s point to the people of Israel is that they continue to experience God’s blessing and presence only because of the promise God initiated with Israel. It’s only out of God’s grace that Israel continues to experience God’s presence.
But, the people of Israel are unaware of God’s presence because they’re expecting God to act differently than he has. We see a glimpse of this in Malachi 1:4, where the people of Israel are intimidated by the Edomites. Where the people of Edom claim that they will be rebuilt as a nation, and establish their power. This perspective of the nation of Edom communicates the reality the Israelites were expecting God to make them into: to make them into the mighty nation they were under David – to be the envy of the region again.
But God exposes this skewed perspective. God demonstrates how the Edomites' claim does not even come to fruition. Their claim of rebuilding is a perception, but not actually reality. The reality is that they never become a mighty power again, and evidence of that is that God allowed their sin to run its course, and allow them to be overrun by other nations. And in Malachi’s day, Edom is still a deserted land, where jackals live. God also demonstrates that this is not the kind of future God is guiding the people of Israel to have. God is not present with them to have a mighty nation, like David’s, and he’s not present with them to be above all other nations. Rather, God is present and active among the people of Israel to make them a place where God is known beyond the borders of Israel. God’s action is to have all people of the earth encounter his presence through Israel; and ultimately through Jesus who is born in Israel.
In 1968, 3M scientist, Spencer Silver created a low-tack adhesive that didn’t seem to have an immediate use. Years later, a colleague of his, Art Fry, needed a way to keep bookmarks in place in his hymnal, during choir practice. He discovered that Silver’s adhesive was the perfect solution. This singular use led to the invention of what we know today as sticky notes. What was once thought of as an invention for one man’s purpose eventually became a globally used product.
In verse 5 of Malachi 1, God highlights the purpose of his relationship with Israel – with Jacob’s descendants – beyond the people of Israel. God highlights that he will be known as ”Great” beyond the border of Israel. Israel is reminded that God is known by his action to make himself known in Israel, and beyond. Israel is reminded that this is what God has been doing all along. God has been acting within human history to make himself known, and to reveal his character and life for all people to experience, and live into, and experience the abundance of his life.
Throughout this section of Malachi, we encounter God reminding the people of Israel to Keep track of God’s actions. When Israel lost track of God’s action to bring about his blessing to all nations Israel lost track of who God is, and who they are as his people, and the role they played. When we lose track of God’s actions we lose track of who God is.
When we pay attention and are aware of and track what God has been doing throughout history, to deliver us from our disastrous desires – so that he can pull us back on track to his wise and good way to live – we too, like Israel will see God for who he truly is, and we too will see and understand the greatness of the Lord God. The God who wisely and graciously entered into our world through the family line of Israel in the birth and life of Jesus. When we keep track of God’s actions, we keep track of who God is and what is striving to do in the world, and in our lives. When we keep track of God’s actions, we’re able to see God for what he actually is and does, rather than our skewed perception of what we want God to be.
Search the Bible to see how God has acted.
Today, if you’re unable to track God’s presence in your life, I invite you to vulnerably share that perception with God. Cry out to him. Accuse him, if that’s where you are. Ask him, “Where are you?” How are you present? What are you doing with my life? How do you love me? And vulnerably – openly – listen for God to respond. I invite you to turn to God’s word – begin reading and listening to Scripture, and see and hear how God has already acted; and allow God’s actions to reveal to you – how he is acting to bless you through Jesus just like he’s been acting to do all throughout history. I invite you to find me, or another trusted follower of Jesus to help you respond to God in faith, entrusting your life to God’s wise way of life – allowing God to put you back on track, uniting your life to his in baptism, through faith in Jesus. Please find me or another trusted follower of Jesus to help you discern taking a step of faith toward Jesus.
If you’ve already surrendered your life to Jesus, how aware are you of God’s actions? How much are you able to track God’s actions throughout history? Are you able to know what God has done so that you can anticipate what God is doing in your life now? So that you can anticipate what God is going to do in the future? How Are you consistently meeting with God’s Word? To discover – or be reminded – how God has acted to bring the world to know him? Are you vulnerably sharing with God asking him to show you clearly in his word how God has acted, so that you can anticipate him acting that way in your life today and in your life in the future? When we lose track of God’s actions we lose track of who God is.