July 18, 2010
Scriptures:
I’d like to bring a thought that begins in Exodus 25. Vv.17-22. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies. Aaron sprinkled blood on the ark, and in front of the ark. God looked at that blood, and it reminded Him of what His Son would do in a future day. On that basis, He could go on with Israel. On the top of the ark was the Mercy Seat, but no one ever sat on it. Aaron never sat down in the tabernacle; there were no chairs, and the work never stopped!
1 John 2:2. The Mercy Seat of the tabernacle is like propitiation, or God’s side of the cross. On God’s side of the cross is the fact that Jesus dealt with sin. He dealt with it to God’s satisfaction. The other side of the cross is man’s side. We had a need, because we had sinned before a holy God who must judge sin. Jesus met our need, creating a way for us to be reconciled to God, and a way for God to redeem us. Jesus met our needs and God’s needs; wholly, completely and forever.
So we can rejoice that Christ has met our needs, dealt with our sin nature, and completed the work. Also, we can now draw near to God. We can go on in the perfection of Christ’s work. May this cheer our hearts.
Hymn 148 - Lord while our Souls in Faith Repose
Prayer
We’ll go on with two more creatures today; however, these aren’t nice creatures. They are the Canker-worm and the Caterpillar.
The references for the canker-worm are:
Joel 1:4, 2:25, and Nahum 2:25.
The references that talk about the caterpillar are:
Isaiah 33:4 and Psalm 78:48.
Both these terms refer to the larva stage of the locust. They love to eat green plants, and can be very destructive. I’ve seen places where caterpillars have eaten almost all the leaves off the trees. Farmers don’t like these worms. They make us think of Satan, who doesn’t want us to be fruitful for the Lord. He wants to eat up our time and Christian heritage. We must be good stewards of our time. How do we use it? Do we use it for things of the world? or things that will bring us closer to the Lord and help our walk as Christians? It makes me think of those two verses. If we’re doing things of the world:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”
And if we’re doing things that don’t count for eternity:
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be passed,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
May we be careful with our time, and make it count for eternity.
Last week, we saw how the priests had despised the Lord’s name. They didn’t realize what they were doing. This happened many times in the book of Malachi: they were charged with doing wrong, and they returned with a challenge: wherein?
V. 7: we usually talk about the sacrifices as animals, but here Malachi uses the term “bread.” Similarly, the meat offering is spoken about as “food” in Leviticus 3:11. This is interesting, because these offerings are for God’s consumption. Read John 6:33; note that the Lord is not the bread from Heaven, but the bread of Heaven. This is because God enjoys Him Himself. In Malachi, they polluted God’s very food. So can we do the same today? What we offer to God is His food from His people; are we giving Him what is worthless to us as they did? Or are we giving Him something He is worthy of? They claimed that the table of the Lord was contemptible. If we don’t make the Lord a priority, we might be guilty of the same.
They were offering blind and lame animals to God. They didn’t obey the law to offer only perfect animals to the Lord. God told them to take those sickly animals to their governor and see how he liked them. God is the Lord of all, not just the governor of a city; they should have been giving the Lord their best not what was worthless to them. We must do the same; however, we can only give the Lord our best through the strength of the Spirit.
The Jews didn’t realize that the sacrifices they were offering were a type of what the Lord would do. Even the perfect sacrifices were only a small picture of the sacrifice He would make. The Lord was the truly perfect sacrifice and He fully pleased God.
However, offering imperfect animals was only part of the their offence. They also wanted to be paid for what they were doing at the temple, v. 10; they wouldn’t do anything for nought.
V. 11: The Lord’s name is mentioned 3 times in this verse. We can see, as the Old Testament closes, that the Lord is shifting His focus from the Jews to the Gentiles. He goes on to say that his name will be great among the heathen. The Jews hadn’t given up making sacrifices and worshipping God. But they didn’t do it with sincerity: God’s name was no longer great to them. When we worship the Lord, do we do it in His way? Our biggest concern should be that He gets His portion.
Hymn 179 - Nothing but Christ, as on we tread
Prayer