Honor, or Else Dung

DEVOTION

MALACHI

HONOR, OR ELSE DUNG

Mal 2:1-9

2:1 "And now this admonition is for you, O priests. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name," says the LORD Almighty, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. 3 "Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the LORD Almighty. 5 "My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. 7 "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction — because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi," says the LORD Almighty. 9 "So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law."

NIV

Here is an admonition as well as a clear message of what a correct heart looks like. First, the Lord is truly against those who do not set their heart to honor him. This is especially true of the priests. Those who have been called to serve Him in the temple need to have their heart set to honor the Lord. This would be true of the modern-day pastor who has been called to serve the Lord in the pulpit. Here God tells them even if they give someone a blessing, he will curse their blessing because their hearts are not about honoring him, which could only mean they are all about honoring themselves. What is interesting is that God will spread the dung or excrement of their festival sacrifices on their face. Just think how humiliating that would be. As they prepare an animal cutting up and making either a fat offering or other parts of the animal, God will take the dung of the animal and spread it all over their faces. That is how upset he is over their showing partiality in the matters of the law as well as in the way they have broken the covenant he made with Levi. Here we see how God honored Levi because Levi honored the Lord. His covenant with Levi was one of life and peace and the covenant called for reverence and Levi revered the Lord and stood in awe of him. The lips of the priest, and today the lips of the Pastor ought to preserve knowledge and from his mouth men should seek instruction, because he is a messenger of the Lord Almighty. This is an awesome responsibility and those who have been called to preach the word of the Lord should be careful to revere Him and stand in awe of the Lord. To fail might just mean to have a face full of dung. Certainly today there should be some dung faced speakers using the word of God for their own self-interests, breaking a covenant of the Lord, being a messenger, preserving knowledge, and giving correct instruction to the people. They should be humiliated by God in the manner he did with those priests. That seems harsh, but God cannot be pleased with self-serving preachers or pastors. The task, the calling is to instruct the people in the ways of the Lord, without perverting it. It is essential to have the anointing of the Spirit, to have a heart for God, to hear from the Lord, to revere Him, to honor Him with our heart and thus our lips. If we honor God, he will honor us, if we despise the Lord, he will despise us. It seems that simple. So, let our hearts and our lips always be about giving honor to our Lord.