But You Retort

Malachi 1:2

2, “I have always loved you,” says the Lord. But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”

No one likes to be called out. It is one thing to be called out when you know you have done something wrong and were caught. It is an entirely different thing to be called out for something and have no clue what for.

Take the priests in the first chapter of Malachi. The title of our devotional is “But you retort…”. The Lord is calling them out on some very basic things: the love of God, the reverence of God’s name, and the food and sacrifices being made to God. We have the benefit of reading the Bible in today’s world. Back then, copies of the Old Testament were not for sale at the local bookstore. The priests had the only copies. Every Jewish boy was to learn the Torah and recite it (the first five books of the Bible). If you were not a priest, I can see how, if you did not practice reciting the Torah, you could lose all those memorized books. But the priest, well, it was their life’s job to know it and teach it. These are the ones the Lord is calling out.

The first “but you retort” has to do with the love of God. Year after year of hard times rebuilding the temple and dealing with unruly people can take its toll. You could even hear the priests say, “What’s the use? They just go and sin without any thought of God, so what’s the point?” A calloused heart begins to form until you hear the Lord say through a prophet, “I have loved you.” Really? I can see them turn their heads and say in a sarcastic tone, “How have You loved us?” These responses from the priests reveal a group of men that have cast the Lord aside and reduced Him to a list of things to do, just going through the motions. They had lost the love of serving the Lord.

When you have important guests coming over for dinner, you want to serve really awesome food and provide great entertainment, hoping they leave after all the fun saying, “Wow!” You don’t get too excited when a door-to-door salesman rings your doorbell. You open the door and shut it quickly behind you while you look for a reason to say, “No thanks,” and hope he leaves quickly. Which scenario do you see yourself acting like when it comes to obeying the Lord? Are you quick to listen and heed His direction, or are you the one who just pacifies the Lord’s direction without really caring about doing it? When we lose the love of serving the Lord, we often stop caring and stop listening to Him and His direction for our lives.

We can get so far from the Lord that we do not even recognize His direction when it hits us in the face. That relationship that just ended? It may be God taking you out of something you cannot see. That job you were hoping to get? It may not be the place God wants you to land. That sassy teenager that seems to get the best of you every time? God may be teaching you to handle things differently. But you say, “How is God moving in my life?”

If we are made by God, for God, with an internal hole only filled by God, you would think the good Lord could move in your life in many different ways, and He does. The ones who reduce the Lord to a checklist or who have checked out entirely will miss Him often. He is watching even when we are not. Do not be the person that starts out the rebuttal with the words of the priests in this chapter. Reverence the Lord in all you do. Defiance has a way of deafening the words of the Lord. Israel was deaf and their hearts were hard from years of disobeying Him. Today, make the decision to follow the Lord. Give Him your best: the first of the day, the first of your finances, the first of your thoughts. Pray that you will hear and heed the direction of the Lord today. The first chapter of Malachi reveals how we can get so far from the Lord, especially when it becomes a chore instead of worship.

Prayer: Father, I pray that we worship You in all we do. I pray that we spend precious time with You every day. We should take daily showers to clean ourselves, and I pray that we read Your Word and pray daily so that we flush the world and all its filth and sarcasm from our hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name, amen.