. The object in putting these verses
in the Bible by J. R. Miller. Malachi 1. The Lord Almighty says to the
priests, You have despised my name, but you ask, How have we
despised your name? You have despised my name by
offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. Then you ask, how have
we defiled the sacrifices? When you bring blind animals
for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or
deceased animals, is that not wrong, says the Lord Almighty? The Jewish law required that
every sacrifice offered unto God must be without blemish. No lame, blind, or deceased animal
would be accepted. It was an insult to God to bring
to His altar anything that was maimed, blemished, or worthless. Yet the people had been taking
the best of everything for themselves, and then bringing the refuse,
the blind, and lame animals as offerings to God. Well, how is
it with ourselves? The object in putting these verses
in the Bible was not to get us to condemn the people who lived
2300 years ago. It was to make us think whether
we are doing this base thing ourselves. Do we give God the
best of all we have? Our best love? Our best gifts? Our best service? Or do we take
the best of all for ourselves and then give God the blind and
the lame? How many people in the church,
when the collection plate is being passed, pick out the smallest
bit of money to put in the plate? We give our strength to our own
work or leisure, and then have only our weariness to bring to
God. We save our best things for ourselves,
and then have only worthless things to offer our wondrous
King. What kind of service are we giving
to our glorious Lord? The Lord's answer to the arrogant
defense of the priests is startling. Oh, that one of you would shut
the temple doors, so that these worthless sacrifices could not
be offered! I am not at all pleased with
you, and I will not accept your offerings. What do we bring to
God when we go through the forms of prayer, when we sing the sacred
words of our hymn, when we make our offerings, when we sit down
at the Lord's table? If there is only words, words,
words in all our worship, No heart, no love, no real presenting
of ourselves to God, no laying of our best on the altar. God
has no pleasure in us and will not accept our offerings at our
hand. Now these things occurred as
examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as
they did. 1 Corinthians 10.6.