1:6
The next complaint is that the priests do not honour God properly, if at all. We are used to people complaining to God or, rather, complaining about God. In Malachi it is God’s complaints about us! In the world a son honours his father, and a slave his master. Ie we know there are situations where one person shows respect to another person. Yet with God respect was not being shown. And God is both our Father and our Lord, so He is doubly deserving of respect in these terms! And it was the priests who were the chief culprits.
1:7,8
The priests would have asked how they were failing. Often leaders are utterly deluded, and all of us involved in church leadership need to check ourselves every so often. The priests were failing by offering defiles sacrifices. The lack of respect that this was showing to God was highlighted by asking them if they would offer a broken gift to the governor (by the way, this is indicative of a post-exilic date for the book, as prior to the exile Israel was ruled by kings). We so easily treat God with less respect than we would a boss at work. Today many church leaders show scant regard for the word of God, preferring to follow the world’s so-called wisdom.
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