Malachi 1:14 But cursed be the deceiver, which has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King… The prophets were God's messengers, commissioned to witness in His name against the sins of the people. To understand this remonstrance aright, we must remember what were the laws respecting the offerings. The prime of each offering was to be presented to God. But these profane priests thought that anything would serve for a sacrifice, though never so coarse and mean. They picked out the worst they had, that which was neither fit for the market nor for their own tables, and offered that at God's altar. With every sacrifice the law commanded them to bring a meat-offering of "fine flour, mingled with bread": but they brought "polluted bread," of coarse and refuse material. The principle illustrated is — that the service of God admits of nothing short of the most perfect offering that can be presented; and everything below this affixes upon the offerers the character of "deceivers," and the condemnation of being "cursed." I. THE SERVICE OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. 1. It is profane service whenever it is not intelligent, whenever it is not founded on a right understanding of the object of worship. You, who have watched the movements or the torpidity of your minds at the time of supposed prayer, will bear me witness how often you have failed to recognise the simple being of the God before whom you bow down. 2. No offering of worship is acceptable which is not also solemn and reverential. This it could not fail to be if we were possessed by a just sense of the transcendent greatness of Him to whom prayer is presented. His majesty is infinite and ineffable, and therefore we stand at an immeasurable distance from Him. And yet to such a Being we address ourselves in prayer. Do any of us detect in ourselves the vacant gaze, the roving thought? 3. Acceptable worship must be spiritual. Why so? "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." They must so worship Him, because it is not possible that He should receive any other. Do you assert that "God is a Spirit," then you contract Him into the narrow dimensions of your own being if you give Him no more than the devotions of the body, if you give Him not the ardent services of your soul. 4. If our worship be genuine, it will be marked by intentness of mind. Languor and laxness of the spirit are sure tokens that it" is not a glad offering, but an irksome task. In all these cases what is the sin which we charge home but that very sin for which the prophet utters his rebuke? They have a better offering which they might offer. They are capable of a worship more worthy of God. Instead, they bring the lame, and the sick, and the torn, they "sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing." II. THE HABITUAL SERVICE OF THE LIFE. Here too the service of God admits of nothing short of the most perfect offering that can be presented. Our baptismal covenant, made for us in our unconscious infancy, when our own reason was not privy to the engagement, is sealed and confirmed in maturer age; and then it is that we deliberately and personally "vow" to give the choice thing in our flock. But where is he to be found that fully recognises and performs the baptismal oath? The baptised man, the communicant, and the parent for his child, and he who is in near danger, has vowed, deliberately, unto God, the male that is in his flock; but he leaves off with sacrificing unto the Lord "a corrupt thing." (R. Eden, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. |
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