“Therefore, this decree is for you priests:
If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heart to honor my name,” says the Lord of Armies, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings.
In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.”
Malachi 2:1-2
Last time Malachi’s prophetic burden continued with the priests accepting unacceptable sacrifices. Today we continue on with this rebuke.
We start with the phrase “This decree is for you priests…”
This is zoth (hereby in it, such deed), and decree is mitzvah (prescribed, terms).
Now this very term I command to you priests…
Next is “If you will not hear and if you will not take to heart…”
Hear is our familiar shama (listen with intent to obey), and take is sum (to put, place, set, appoint, bring, call a name, care, cast in, change, charge). To is al (hover over) and heart is leb (inner man, mind, will, heart).
“Appoint it to hover over your inner man.”
Appoint what?
“To give honor to my name…”
Give is nathan (to give, put, set) and honor is kabowd – gloriously, glory, honorable; from kabab – weight, but only…in a good sense, splendor or copiousness – glory, honor. Name in “to my name” is shem.
“To give glory and weighty splendor to my Name and reputation”
Did you catch how the weight is only in a positive sense? The weight of splendor only working for good.
So put all together…
Now this very term I command to you priests:
If you will not listen with intent to obey
And appoint it to hover over your inner man to give weighty splendor to My Name and reputation…
And what will happen if they don’t take this rebuke seriously?
“I will send curse upon you…”
Whoa. Send is shalach (appoint, bring, sow, spread, lay, cast away, forsake, give up, leave, let depart, push away) and curse is meerah – the noun which comes from the same word as curse last time, arar.
“…and I will curse your blessings.”
Curse is the verb here arar, and blessings is berakah (benefit, generous, gift, peace).
I will sow a curse among you, cursing everything of gracious gift I’ve given you.
Yikes. Not only will those who are to be serving God be cursed, but gracious gifts and sources of peace will, too.
“In fact, I already am cursing them because you do not take it to heart…”
In fact is gam (moreover, again, alike, also, to gather; properly, assemblage; used only adverbially: also, even, yea) and do not is ayin (nothing, naught). Take it to heart is “hover over your inner self” again.
That ayin definition is hitting me today: you have done nothing to take my glory to heart. And did you catch what part is already being cursed? The berekah: generous gifts, benefits, peace.
Actually, yes, I’ve already cursed your gifts and peace
because you have done nothing to appoint the glory of My Name to hover over your inner man.
Well, time to do a team huddle. Any time there are conditional curses and blessings in the Word, I try to focus on the character of the One making them. For example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 in my Bible have two headings each:
Blessings for Obedience
Curses for Disobedience
Yours too? Both the first half of these chapters record in the Law things like:
If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit…
I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people…
The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground…
…the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth
Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you…
And, as a Good Father, the second half is a fair warning of what will happen if they do not obey:
But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant…
You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it…
The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks…
If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me…
I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.
The thing is, the weight of His glorious splendor hovering over their daily lives, is the bottom line for whether they will be obeying His commands. We know this is true: if you could not care less deep down about His fame manifested in your obedience, doing whatever we want is sure to follow.
So, what do you think about the blessings being the first to be cursed? The way this can turn so fast into some sort of prosperity gospel – if I obey I am promised health, wealth, ease, comfort, and my wildest dreams – scares me. While yielding harvest and financial blessing was often cited in God’s first covenant, the new covenant written in Jesus’ blood promises spiritual fruit, peace despite terrible circumstances, and His glory in our lives.
Some of the godliest people I know do not have lives most would described as blessed or full of ease or prosperous. And yet, their prayers are powerful and their lives “bear much fruit, showing themselves to be His disciples.”
But in this same vein, I know in my life the gift of peace is the first to fly away when I’m not living in line with what He’s asking me to do or who He’s making me to be. Not punishment, more like reaping what I’m sowing. What does this look like in your life?
Now how about us communally? How is our influence, aroma of peace, and light in the world as His Church affected when we are not obeying Him? When we cease to look like His Spirit has changed our lives? When we’re more concerned with being right than following only One who is righteous?
In my opinion, the best part of all this blessing and cursing talk – even in the Law – is the end of Leviticus 26:
“But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors…then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,
I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land…
…for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God.”
All throughout Scripture, God says to His people, “Even now…”
Even now if you confess your sins…
Even now if you turn from that and toward Me…
Even now if you will obey…
I will redeem it all for your good and My glory.
And why?
Because of the glorious Gospel. The good news preached forward in Leviticus, and the fullness of the good news preached in the death and resurrection of Christ.
May we appoint our inner selves to take seriously the fame of this merciful God today.