Thought from today’s Bible reading from Malachi 1-4.
In the final book of the Old Testament, Malachi revealed God’s condemnation of worship that is not done in sincerity and truth.
“‘Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘nor will I accept an offering from you’” (Malachi 1:10).
It might seem strange to some that God would wish that someone would prevent others from offering sacrifices to Him. This shows, without any shadow of a doubt, that God does not accept all worship that is offered to Him. Notice the reasons why God rejected their worship here:
- The priests despised His name by presenting the blind, lame, and sick for sacrifices, rather than the sacrifices He prescribed (Malachi 1:6-8).
- They evidently respected their civil rulers more than the Lord because they offered to the Lord what could not have been given to their governor and be accepted by him (Malachi 1:8).
- Worship was nothing more than a grudging obligation to them, rather than being seen as a privilege to be able to offer to God the sacrifices He deserved and the praise of which He was worthy (Malachi 1:13).
- They hypocritically spoke as though they were offering the Lord their best, but they kept the best for themselves and offered inferior sacrifices to Him (Malachi 1:14).
The only type of worship the God accepts is worship that is offered “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). We must worship with the proper attitude and the proper actions. We cannot do whatever we please in worship and expect God to be pleased as well.
Tomorrow’s reading: Luke 1; John 1:1-14
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
