The Root of Indifference
Malachi 1:1-5
October 30, 2022
It was actually 2 weeks ago that we introduced this book of Malachi.
(Last week was D-Now)
And this morning we are ready to begin our study of this book.
Hopefully you remember THE THRUST of the book.
“The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.”
“oracle” means burden.
This book represents God’s burden.
Malachi even makes the statement, (2:17) “You have wearied the LORD…”
God’s people have created a burden for God.
Malachi arrives on the scene to express that burden to the people.
And while various problems are addressed,
They all come from the same source and that is INDIFFERENCE.
GOD’S PEOPLE JUST DON’T CARE WHAT GOD THINKS.
• The exile is a distant memory.
• Zerubbabel’s temple is now 100 years old.
• Nehemiah finished the city walls around 25 years ago.
• The people are settled in the land.
AND GOD IS NO LONGER A PRIORITY IN THEIR LIVES.
They are failing to “love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength”
Well let’s begin looking a little closer at God’s burden.
THIS MORNING we begin by discussing “THE ROOT OF INDIFFERENCE”
The people are clearly indifferent, but what caused it?
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
IT COMES FROM A LACK OF GRATITUDE.
Indifferent people are indifferent
Because they are ungrateful.
• They have failed to take inventory of all that God has done for them.
• They have taken for granted how fortunate they are to be children of God.
• They have forgotten what a privilege it is to be able to draw near to God.
• They have forgotten what a privilege it is to be able to gather for worship.
• They have forgotten what a privilege it is to own a Bible and to be able to read and understand it.
• They have forgotten what a privilege it is to know the gospel and to share it.
• They have forgotten what a privilege it is to be able to pray.
Their indifference is because of their lack of gratitude.
You want a good illustration?
Luke 17:11-19 “While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
• There we had 9 indifferent men.
• They were interested in Christ purely for the benefit He could have on their life.
• And the second His power enabled them to get back to their lives as normal
they were gone.
We saw that in Israel’s history didn’t we?
Ever read the Judges?
• When things were hard they certainly cried out to God,
• But no sooner would God deliver than would they run right back into their
comfortable lives
• Where God was no longer needed.
THAT IS WHAT 9 OF THESE LEPERS DID.
But 1 was filled with gratitude.
One returned to give thanks.
And Jesus said this is the one who was saved.
I HOPE YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE.
And so at the outset of this study I can promise you this:
If your gratitude is not obvious
Then I can promise you that your indifference is.
AND THAT IS WHERE WE’LL BEGIN.
Malachi starts his book off with 3 things Israel had forgotten.
• Forgetting these things is what led to their lack of gratitude
• And their lack of gratitude was the root of their indifference.
Fixing the problem then is to remember what God has done.
3 things Israel forgot.
#1 THEIR GRACIOUS SELECTION
Malachi 1:1-2
The segment begins with a simple statement.
“I have loved you,” says the LORD.”
Let’s just take that statement at face value for a moment.
“loved” is AW-HAB in the Hebrew.
And it is a pretty universal word for love.
• It is used to speak of human love for one another, even romantic love.
• It is used to speak of the human appetite for things, (i.e. “I love pizza”)
• It is used of humans love for God.
• It is used of God’s love for humans.
• It is used of love between friends.
In some ways it almost seems better to translate the word “desire”
It can be an emotional attraction, a desire, a fondness, a preference,
Or full-on self-sacrificing love.
We know those famous 3 Greek words which are used to describe love.
• We talk of AROS – which is that romantic love.
• We talk of PHILEO – which is brotherly love.
• We talk of AGAPE – which is God’s love.
The Hebrew word AW-HAB seems to encapsulate all of them.
It is the love which Abraham had for Isaac.
Genesis 22:2 “He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
It is the love which Isaac had for Esau.
Genesis 25:28 “Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”
It is also the love which Isaac had for eating wild game.
Genesis 27:3-4 “Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
• It is the word used for Jacob’s love of Rachel.
• It is the word used for Jacob’s love of Joseph.
• It is the word used in both the greatest and second greatest commandments.
• Both to love God and to love your neighbor.
And this is what God announces to Israel here through Malachi.
“I have loved you”
Like Abraham loved Isaac
Like Jacob loved Rachel
Like David loved Jonathon
Like Isaac loved wild game
It is speaks of desire and it speaks of preference.
GOD DESIRED THEM.
God preferred them.
And in this sense it is MORE THAN
Just the general love which God has for the world.
WE KNOW that God loves His enemies.
WE KNOW that God causes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
WE KNOW that God causes His sun to shine on the evil and the good.
But this love is God’s love of preference and desire.
Now you’ll notice that THERE IS A REASON
THAT GOD BEGINS with this declaration.
It is because there is a COMMON COMPLAINT coming from Israel.
“But you say, “How have You loved us?”
This had become a common belief of Israel,
• Namely that God doesn’t love us.
• Or that God hasn’t shown any love to us.
We can understand this in our culture even if we don’t fully understand theirs.
Someone doesn’t get what they want from God
“Well I guess God just doesn’t love me.”
In our society we have somehow linked love with selfishness.
“If you give me what I want then you love me
And if you don’t give me what I want then you don’t love me.”
It seems as though Israel had done something similar.
They had questioned God’s love.
So God is about to set the record straight.
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob;”
When dared to prove His love for Israel,
God turns the page all the way back to Israel’s birth.
You should remember the story.
Isaac had married Rebecca but she was barren.
Genesis 25:21-23 “Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why then am I this way?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.”
Here we have a woman whom God graciously caused to get pregnant
And when she did get pregnant she conceived twins.
And God told her she was carrying two nations
And God made this declaration.
“the older shall serve the younger.”
• God showed preference to the younger son.
• God showed His desire was for the younger son.
• God showed love directed to the younger son.
Paul commented on this reality in the New Testament.
Romans 9:10-13 “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”
Paul added that “the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad…”
God just chose the younger one.
He set His love on Jacob.
“I have loved you,” says the LORD”
We are talking about God’s sovereign election of Israel.
It actually began way back with Abram and then Isaac, but it carried on through Jacob.
God just determined to set his love on Jacob.
No reason other than God’s sovereign prerogative.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
It was a totally UNCOERCED love.
There was nothing in it for God.
God just CHOSE to love Israel so He loved Israel.
Ezekiel 16:6-8 “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ “I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. “Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD.”
God loved Israel. God graciously chose Jacob.
Deuteronomy 10:15 “Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.”
• God just desired Jacob.
• God just preferred Jacob.
• God chose Jacob.
Now, stop there and ponder YOUR SITUATION for a moment.
Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
God has done the same for His church.
• God chose us.
• God desired us.
• God preferred us.
It had nothing to do with our worth or works or value or merit.
It is what Cavinists refer to as “Unconditional Election”.
God just chose us because that is what God wanted to do.
IT JUST PLEASED GOD TO DO THIS.
AND ISRAEL HAD FORGOTTEN THIS.
God chose you.
• Ingratitude creeps in when you forget that you were chosen by God.
• Indifference creeps in when you forget that God chose you when you were unworthy.
• Indifference shows up when you lose sight of God’s gracious selection of you.
DID GOD LOVE ISRAEL?
Of course He did! He chose them above all others.
He has done the same for us.
Now that part is relatively easy.
It is THE NEXT TRUTH that people today have difficulty swallowing.
Their Gracious Selection
#2 THEIR GRACIOUS SITUATION
Malachi 1:3
Here’s the part that people jump up and down and throw a fit about.
Most today like to say that “God chose everybody, the saved people are merely those who chose Him back.”
Well, I’m sorry, but that is not what Scripture says.
“but I have hated Esau…”
Let’s talk about that word “hated” for a moment.
“hated” is SAW-NAY in the Hebrew.
And it is the OPPOSITE of that word AW-HAB
Genesis 29:30-31 “So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years. Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”
• You see that Rachel was AW-HAB “loved”
• And you see that in contrast Leah was SAW-NAY “unloved”
Deuteronomy 21:15-16 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn.”
• There again we have a AW-HAB “loved” woman.
• And we have a SAW-NAY “unloved” woman.
But that’s not the only way this word is translated.
It is also translated “enmity”
And it is translated “turns against”
See it’s not just a word that speaks of being overlooked.
What God showed to Jacob, He showed the opposite to Esau.
Scripture DOESN’T say
“I have loved Jacob; but I have not considered Esau.”
WHAT’S THE POINT?
GOD DID FOR JACOB WHAT HE DID NOT DO FOR ESAU.
GOD DID THE OPPOSITE FOR JACOB
THAN WHAT HE DID FOR ESAU.
Do you see that?
I know in our desire for “FAIRNESS” and “EQUALITY”
It just flies all over us that God chose Jacob but not Esau.
And preachers and theologians have danced for years
To try and get around that verse.
But if that verse means anything other than
God loved Jacob and God hated Esau
Then God’s argument here makes no sense.
Israel is questioning God’s love.
“How have You loved us?” they ask.
God says, “Go look at Esau and I’ll show you someone I have not loved. You on the other hand must admit that I have done great things for you.”
And that’s the point.
GOD DID FOR JACOB WHAT HE DID NOT DO FOR ESAU.
• God chose Jacob.
• God blessed Jacob.
• God put Jacob first.
• God gave the inheritance to Jacob.
• God gave the blessing to Jacob.
• God gave preeminence to Jacob.
And God did none of those things for Esau.
You can argue this all you want, but it doesn’t change what is true.
And then CHURCH you have to consider this again in your life.
God chose you for salvation.
• God did not choose everyone.
God predestined you to the adoption as sons.
• God did not predestine everyone.
If God had chosen everyone then everyone would be saved.
Wait preacher, what about?
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
You’d do good to answer one question.
• Who is “any” and who is “all” in that verse.
• Peter said that God is “patient toward you”, not everyone.
• Peter is talking about the elect, the chosen. That’s who he wrote his letter to.
That verse says that God is not going to destroy the world
Until everyone whom He has chosen comes to repentance.
He will not destroy this world until everyone of His elect comes home.
The fact is that God has NOT done the same thing for all people.
Again, that may hit you sideways, but He is God and you are not.
Romans 9:19-21 “You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”
God is the potter and He can do with the clay whatever He wants.
But HERE IS THE POINT for you who are redeemed.
How does that make you feel knowing that God chose you when He didn’t have to?
How does that make you feel knowing that God preferred you when He didn’t have to?
Do you see what great things God has done for you?
• You were chosen!
• You were selected!
• You were predestined!
And not everyone is in your situation.
• Not everyone is saved.
• Not everyone is redeemed.
• Not everyone has a relationship with the Father.
Yes, it is true, everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved.
God never turned anyone away who came to Him.
But the reality is that no one ever came without God’s choosing.
You are redeemed because God chose you.
It is a gracious situation you find yourself in,
And a situation that not all people find themselves in.
Israel was back in their land.
Israel was living in their inheritance.
What about Esau?
“I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”
• Both Israel and Edom were destroyed by Babylon.
• But 170 years later and Israel is back in her land, Edom is not.
Can you not see that I have done for you
What I have not done for everyone?
That is God’s question to those who question His love.
There’s a 3rd point.
#3 THEIR GRACIOUS SUPPORT
Malachi 1:4
Listen to God’s plan for the future for Edom.
“Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins”; thus says the LORD of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever.”
• You are talking there about Edom’s destiny.
• God has destined them for wrath and for wrath they will go.
• Sure they can try to rebuild, I’ll just destroy it again.
God is “indignant forever”
He’s not indifferent forever, He’s “indignant forever”
Psalms 7:11 “God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.”
So do you see the difference?
• God chose Jacob, He did not choose Esau
• God put Jacob back in his land, He did not do that for Esau
• Jacob has a promise of a blessed future, Esau has a promise of judgment
And you can’t see how God has loved you?
NOW LET ME MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS RIGHTLY.
God did all this for Jacob
DO NOT ASSUME it is because Jacob was somehow better than Esau.
SURE Esau was wicked.
YES Esau sold his birthright.
NO Esau would not repent.
Esau never received anything from the hand of God that he did not deserve.
In the judgment Esau will not be able to blame God,
Esau chose to sin and Esau will reap the consequences of his sin.
Hebrews 12:14-17 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”
But DON’T assume that God chose Jacob because he was the good son.
Jacob was every bit the liar Esau was.
Jacob was every bit the schemer.
Jacob was arrogant and self-righteous.
Have you read about Jacob’s life?
• How he conspired to steal the birthright…
• How he conspired to steal the blessing…
• How he tried to show off to win Rachel…
The difference between the two boys?
God gave Esau what he deserved.
God gave Jacob what he did not deserve.
• God revealed Himself to Jacob.
• God promised Jacob an inheritance.
• God delivered Jacob from Laban.
The only difference between those two boys
Is that God chose to love Jacob.
AND LISTEN TO ME CHURCH.
THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE WORLD
IS THE EXACT SAME THING.
I’ve heard Lee Kidd say it several times.
“If it weren’t for Jesus Christ, I’d either be dead or in prison.”
Listen, if God had not intervened in your life
You’d be just like the vilest offenders you see in the world.
You were no better than Esau.
1 Corinthians 1:26 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;”
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you…”
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Titus 3:3 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
Do you understand that none of us were worthy?
WHAT HAPPENED?
• God chose us!
• God loved us!
• God predestined us to adoption as sons.
Every one of those verses are followed by the exact same word:
“BUT”
1 Corinthians 1 said there were not many wise:
1 Corinthians 1:27-28 “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,”
1 Corinthians 6 said that we were fornicators and idolators and adulterers and homosexuals:
1 Corinthians 6:11 “…but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
Ephesians 2 said we were dead in our sins.
Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Titus 3 said we were foolish and filled with hate.
Titus 3:4-6 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
There’s no way that any of us can say, “How have You loved us?”
Look back to your Gracious Selection,
Your Gracious Situation,
And your Gracious Support.
God loved us and saved us when we did not deserve it.
Israel had fallen into indifference because they forgot that.
Israel had fallen into indifference because they had failed to realize that
Were it not for God they would be no better off than Esau.
Have you forgotten what God did for you?
• Have you forgotten what it was like to be in darkness?
• Have you forgotten what it was like to be in sin?
• Have you forgotten what it was like to be without hope in the world?
Then how is it that gratitude can be so lacking?
• How is it that God can receive no honor?
• How is it that we bring junk to God?
• How is it that we defile His altar, ignore His word, break His covenants, and give preference to every other thing in life over Him?
That’s what Israel was doing because
They had forgotten just how loved they were by God.
But it’s more than that.
This segment ends with a sort of LITMUS TEST.
God makes one statement that will show
When Israel’s indifference has ended.
In other words God says, “On the day when you realize how much I have loved you and your indifference comes to an end, we’ll know it.”
HOW?
How can you spot people who have repented of their indifference?
(5) “Your eyes will see this…”
That is, on the day you see how much I have loved you.
“Your eyes will see this and you will say, “The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”
On the day your apathy ends not only will you prioritize worship.
You will also prioritize missions.
You want to know the chief characteristic of grateful people?
You want to know the chief characteristic of people who aren’t indifferent?
1) WORSHIP – “The LORD be magnified”
• Worship is not a burden for grateful people.
• Worship is not the last priority of grateful people.
• It is indifferent people who don’t care whether or not worship takes place.
2) MISSIONS – “The LORD be magnified beyond the borders of Israel!”
• Those who are grateful to God.
• Those who are not indifferent long to see God worshiped
• And long to spread His glory across the world.
Do you want to know if you lack gratitude?
Do you want to know if indifference resides in you?
Do you want to know if you have forgotten God’s great love for you?
Then check your worship and check your evangelism.
Is worship your priority or is it just something you have to do?
• People who know they were plucked out of the fire don’t have to be told to give thanks to the one who delivered them.
Is missions your priority or is it something for someone else?
• People who have been delivered don’t have a problem telling people about their deliverer.
Israel forgot that all that God had done for them
And indifference was the result.
The solution was to ponder again the great love God had demonstrated in choosing them while they were yet sinners.
It is the solution to our indifference as well.
• Ponder God’s great love!
• Ponder where you’d be without His salvation.
• You could be Esau, but He has made you Jacob.
Can you not worship Him for that?
