Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 3 (Malachi 1.6-14)

The Evidence
There may be some of us who just simply don't realize that we are in that situation. We're kind of like the priests whose response Malachi anticipated, "But you say, ‘How have we despised your name'" (Malachi 1.6, ESV)? Most of us live lives in which we are oblivious to how we treat God. We go about life living retroactively rather than proactively. God is part of our lives but just one part of our lives. He is just part of our unconscious lifestyle and so we simply don't realize that we are living lives which display a disdain for His name. When someone approaches us about it we get just as defensive as the priests did with Malachi. "Say what? How have we despised God's name? Prove it!"
By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the LORD’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 1.7-8, ESV).
Back on Mount Sinai God gave Moses and the people of Israel the Ten Commandments. The third one down the list was this: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain" (Exod 20.7, ESV). We normally take this to mean that we ought not use God's name in vain verbally. But we can live lifestyles that make God's name worthless. We live lives that show the world that God, though we say differently with our mouths, is nothing to us! And that was what the priests were doing. The words, "We despise You, God!" never came out of their mouths but their actions spoke louder than their words. And they were taking the name of the Lord in vain by their very actions! As Jesus reminded the Pharisees what Isaiah had said centuries earlier, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15.8, ESV)
Malachi shows the priests and people that they are doing exactly opposite of what God requires. The priests were putting polluted food on the altar. There were various kinds of sacrifices that God required for certain times and reasons. Some were animal and others were grain. But no matter what the offerings and sacrifices were to be the very best of the very best. They were to be the cream of the crop. But instead the priests were putting up polluted food. The grain offerings were beginning to mold. The animals were lambs that were blind and crippled and sick. They were the animals that no one wanted. They were no good to anyone. They couldn't be sold. They were too sickly to eat. So....let's give them to God!
Really? This isn't just, we will keep the best but give God what is good. This is, we'll keep the best, the good, the mediocre, and even the bad, and give God what is left over!
Thank goodness we don't do these things. Praise God we are not like these evil priests! If that's our thoughts we are boastful and prideful no better than the Pharisee who stood upon the Temple steps thanking God he wasn't like the tax collector. It very well may be that we give God the leftovers. We will go to church if we can get up in the morning (after all it is our only day to sleep in). We'll go to prayer meeting and Bible study if there's nothing else going on and if it doesn't last too long. I'm not going to talk about the tithe as Malachi deals with that subject later. But when there is a project to be done at the church and maybe donations to be taken up we give couches that are ripped and chairs that are stained, keeping the good furniture for ourselves. When we buy coffee for ourselves we buy our favorite brand but when we buy coffee for the church we buy the store brand, or whatever is cheapest. We donate clothes that are 3 decades out of style and then go to the mall and buy ourselves a new wardrobe. We are too tired to give God time for prayer and Bible study or reading but somehow we can spend hours on the computer and watching television. So at dinner we say a token prayer of thanksgiving and maybe a quick, "As I lay me down to sleep," kind of prayer before we go to bed.
God dared the Jewish people of Malachi's day to invite the governor over for a meal. "Serve the governor what you're serving me. What do you think he would say? Do you think he would be happy with the meal? Do you think he would be grateful for the invitation?" The implied answer is not in a million years.
Imagine you just invited your favorite celebrity to dinner. What are you going to do? Would you have to laissez faire attitude? Que sera sera? Whatever will be will be? Would we leave our houses looking like a pig sty? Would we make sandwiches on moldy bread, wear our work clothes, and serve Hamburger Helper? Not in a million years. We would give our best. We would clean our houses, dusting and vacuuming every crevice. We would prepare appetizers and make our best dish. Now if our best dish is Hamburger Helper, that we cannot afford more then so be it. That is perfectly acceptable and respectful and loving. But the idea is there, is it not? We would give our best for the one whom we love and respect. But we give God the leftovers, as if He were a dog eating table scraps.