MALACHI 1: HONORING GOD IS NOT A MIC DROP 

MALACHI 1 

VERSES 6-14 

“How have we shown contempt for your name?”  This whole passage is a response and a reflection on that one question. God was claiming that the Israelites were failing miserably.  They were not giving God His due and He noticed.  He noticed that their worship did not honor Him.  He noticed that they seemed to have a lack of respect and fear for Him.  Perhaps the priests were offering half-hearted prayers.  

They are going through the motions.  

They are doing it in their own strength. 

This leads to dishonoring God. 

We know from later in the text (verses 8-10) that their sacrifices were not up to standard, and this is the symptom that God chose to focus in on to describe the entire sickness that was taking over Israel.  And God meant to point out this symptom of sacrifices because the sacrifices were extremely important to Him. 

The most sacred duty that God delegated to the priests under the law was their service at the altar of sacrifice.  It was there at the altar of sacrifice that the priests helped sinful people find reconciliation with God.  These people came to the altar to receive forgiveness for their sins against God and get back to a right relationship with Him.  But that wasn’t happening—the priests were polluting the sacrifices with their negative sinful attitudes and actions. 

What would be a parallel to us offering God blind animals? Our heart matters. Giving Him our best matters. This is a difficult thing to apply for us in our current day. Jewish culture was different from ours. For us:  

Example, A preacher downloads a sermon from the internet and gives it as their own. 

Example, A person donates expired dented cans to the food drive from their cabinet. 

Example, Go to worship practice and don’t just show up and play/sing on Sunday. 

Example, Only going to church when you must serve. 

Honoring God is not a mic drop. In all our ways, we need to honor Him. God deserves our best because He loves us and He deserves our honor. Our goal is to focus and worship Him well. Our motivation matters. We have such a lackadaisical approach to God and the Church. We are very consumer-oriented and we need to up our commitment to Him. You have to have commitment to Kingdom build.    

God will not normalize sub-par worship and sacrifices. God our Father is worthy of all our honor and worship. He says, “Not in My house!” God calls this attitude out from among His people. 

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