The Unchanging Love of God

1. Malachi – the book, the man and the message
a) Malachi – the book
The Jews divided their scriptures into three parts, and Jesus said that the whole of the OT (the law, the prophets and the writings) found their fulfilment in him (Lk 24:27, 44). Within this prophetic tradition are the major prophets and the minor prophets. Major because they were larger and minor because they were smaller. Malachi was the last of the OT prophets and is a bridge between the Old and the New. In our Bibles the two testaments are separated by a blank sheet of paper, representing a period of 400 years between the two messengers - Malachi and John the Baptist.

b) Malachi – the man
But who was Malachi? Usually the prophets give us part of their family tree and some indication of their background and circumstances. But not so with Malachi. We know next to nothing about him: where he lived and when he lived. And since scripture reveals nothing about him the commentators love to speculate. Malachi could be hiding his true identity. Malachi could be a name or a title. Clearly Malachi was identified with his message, and some suggest that the prophecy comes from the mouth of 'the angel' or 'the messenger'. In 3:1 we read that the Lord sent his messenger to prepare the way of the Lord. Of course 'the messenger' could be Malachi himself or a prophetic figure in the past like Elijah (4:5) or a prophetic figure in the future like John the Baptist.

So when did Malachi proclaim his message? Probably Malachi was living in the mid fifth-century BC, and was a near contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah. We know this because the Temple had already been restored. But the restoration of the building had not brought about a revival of the religious life of the nation. The people had grown worldly and careless. They failed to worship the Lord as they should (1:7), they failed to pay their taxes (3:8) and they failed to maintain the purity of marriage (2:11).

They lived in a broken and divided society. The people had become indifferent to the God who had saved them. They had broken the covenant (2:8, 10). Their faith had become a formality. They had lost touch with their roots, with their identity as the people of God. What they needed was to return to their first love the faith of their fathers. This ancient text equally applies to our broken and divided society; to a nation that has also turned away from the Lord, rejected his laws and gone its own way.

c) Malachi - the message
What sort of message should be addressed to those who had forgotten what the Lord had done for them? They needed something more than a pep talk or a rap on the knuckles! We are told in v.1 that Malachi delivered a burden or oracle to the people. He felt compelled to deliver it. Why was this? Because it was a message from the Lord. It was 'the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi'. He revealed to the people the mind and the will of the Lord. Malachi reminded them of their covenant obligations, and of their pledged relationship to the Lord. Malachi reminded them that they were the covenant people of God. Malachi reminded them that God loved them and they were to love him in return.

Central to the OT is the covenant – the binding agreement between the heavenly king and his subjects; between the Lord and his separated and saved people. '"The time is coming", declares the Lord [to the prophet Jeremiah], "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord' (Jer 31:31-32).

Did you notice that the Lord was like a husband to his people? His covenant with them was like a marriage contract. God's covenant-love was unchanging, it was pure and undefiled, and in return he expected his people to remain faithful and true to him. But though he was loving and faithful his spouse was adulterous and disobedient. It was to this ideal relationship that the prophets directed their message. Malachi's burden was to remind the people that the covenant was to be at the heart of their relationship with the Lord.

Malachi challenged his hearers. He confronted them. He pointed out their sinfulness and their failures. He reminded them of their covenant obligations. But how does this ancient message speak to each one of us today? Do you need to be reminded of the love of God for you? Do you need to be assured that you are one of the Lord's own people? In what way have you become unfaithful to the Lord – whether in your thinking or lifestyle? How much do we constantly play at being religious and fail to live and to love as we should? How much have we 'broken faith' (2:11) and gone our own way?


2. Malachi – some questions and answers
a) Eight questions and eight answers
In the book of Malachi there are a series of questions and answers. The prophet picks up the questions and then delivered the Lord's response. How precisely this process took place we are not told. Was it through a dream or vision? By an audible voice or an inner conviction? We don't know. But however the message came to Malachi, it became the substance of the burden that he had to proclaim. There are eight questions (1:2, 6, 7; 2:14, 17; 3:7, 8, 13) the first of which is The Lord said 'I have loved you' and this was followed by the people's question, 'But how have you loved us?'. And as we each dialogue with the text we should ask: What sort of question is this? And: What sort of people would ask such a question?

Have you ever wondered why was it that God chose Israel? And more important for each of us - 'Why did God chose you and me?' Of all of the nations on the earth, why did God chose Israel? Was it because the nation was rich and mighty and powerful? NO! Were they more religious and pious than other nations? NO! So why did God chose Israel? In one of the most profound passages in the OT we have the answer: ''You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and chose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery ...' (Deut 7:6-8).

So why did God chose Israel? And why did God chose you and me? While they had no merit of their own (as we have no merit of our own) they were chosen. Chosen to be his holy people beloved of the Lord, and to be his treasured possession. He loved them and he chose them to be his own. And the same is true of you and me – we are equally undeserving of God's favour, yet by his grace and love and mercy he made us his own. So what of his love – and what of his choosing?

b) Love
In Malachi 1:2 we read that the Lord said 'I have loved you and I still love you' and this was followed by the people's question, 'But how have you loved us?'

How have you loved us? Isn't the answer obvious? Certainly not because they were rich and mighty and powerful. God loved them because he treasured them and he chose them to be his own. He delivered them and redeemed them from slavery and set them free, and in return they were to love him and to serve him.

His unchanging covenant love, was expressed not merely in words but also in deeds. The people had been slaves but he set them free. They had been poor but he made them rich. They were made holy because God lavished his love upon them. This is the substance of covenant love, but there is also the personal, intimate love of God. We find it expressed in Zeph 3:17. 'The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing'.

'He will be quiet (or silent) in his love'. This is the deep love of a mother for her baby; the lover for his beloved; the love of God for his people. This 'wordless adoration' is not the response of a being who is cold and distant and untouched by the human situation. But it is the response of a loving God who has shown us his love. Remember the words from Romans 5? 'While we were still sinners, Christ died for us' and 'God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us' (Rom 5:8, 5).

Too often we preachers move too quickly from expounding the OT and jumping into the NT. But here there is the very obvious connection between the two. The love of God is made plain to us. 'I have loved you and I still love you'. The Lord had redeemed his people from slavery in Egypt: he has redeemed us from the slavery of sin. The blood of the sacrificial lambs was smeared on the wooden door posts, foreshadowed the blood of the Lamb of God splattered on the wooden cross. 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life' (Jn 3:16).

How do you respond to the question - How have you loved me? You may be someone who has never ever responded to the love of God shown to you in Jesus. Then come to him today and put your trust in him, and bow your knee at the foot of the cross. And 'behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' (Jn 1:29). You may be someone who has become cold in your heart. Indifferent to God's word, and unresponsive to God's Spirit. Religion has obscured your first love. If that is you, then return again to the foot of the cross. And 'behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' (Jn 1:29). And for the rest of us we need to show that wordless adoration of being in the presence of the beloved One, as we contemplate upon all that God has done for us in Christ.

As Isaac Watts put it:

See from his head, his hands, his feetSorrow and love flow mingled downDid e'er such love and sorrow meet,or thorns compose so rich a crown

c) Election
In Malachi 1:2 we read that the Lord said 'I have loved you and I still love you' and this was followed by the people's question, 'But how have you loved us?' All of us can experience the reality of the love of God but what about the concept of divine election? That's not so easy to understand. Love we can grasp but election that's another matter!

Malachi refers back to the birth of the twins Esau and Jacob born to Isaac and Rebekah. God showed his love for Jacob and his hatred for Esau. To our ears that sounds terrible. We are shocked by what we hear. So what does it mean? In the biblical narrative we read that the parents showed favouritism – Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob. Through deception the scheming Jacob aided and abetted by his mother obtained the blessing of his poorly sighted father. The younger brother took precedence over the older son. Gen 25:23 simply states: 'The older will serve the younger'.

We read in Malachi that God loved Jacob and hated Esau (vv.2-3). This is a biblical way of saying that one was preferred over the other. One was chosen and the other was rejected. Though he did not deserve any special favour Jacob was raised to a position of honour. It was the same sort of priority that we read about in the NT when Jesus said , 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple' (Lk 14:26). Love is to put first. Hate is to love less.

From Jacob sprang the nation of Israel and from Esau the nation of Edom. On the map, Edom was to the south of Israel. And from the beginning of the OT (and to the rise of the NT) the two nations were estranged. They shared a common boundary but they were poles apart. Though they were neighbours they were bitter rivals. Instead of being friends they were enemies.

The book of Obadiah gives the Lord's condemnation of Edom. Before Jerusalem fell in 587 BC, Edom sided with the enemy and some of its soldiers may well have fought in Nebuchadnezzar's army. When God's people were defeated Edom rejoiced; and for this they would be judged. Though geographically close to Israel they were far from God. 'They had ignored the divine laws [and] ignored the very reality of God.' In time God would judge them and destroy them, and they would be no more. That such a nation and such a people should be judged should be a solemn warning to us and to our nation!

The doctrine of election is taught in scripture, and we are unwise to tread where scripture is silent. Divine election is a mystery and known only to God. John Stott wisely commented that 'many mysteries surround the doctrine of election, and theologians are unwise to systematise it in such a way that no puzzles, enigmas or loose ends are left.' (Stott, Romans, 268). The doctrine of election is taught in scripture, and Article 17 of the Church of England states that 'we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in holy scripture.' The key phrase is 'generally set forth'. Rather than given in precise detail.

Election should evoke from us wonder and praise, delight and humility, but never pride and arrogance and superiority over others. Remember that grace comes before faith. So when we ask the question, 'How have you loved me?' We could do no better, than to echo Charles Wesley's great hymn called 'free grace':

And can it be, that I should gainan interest in the saviour's blood?Died he for me – who caused his pain!For me? – who him to death pursued.Amazing love! how can it bethat thou, my God , shouldst die for me.