THE FINAL BOOK in the Christian canon of the O.T. is the Book of Malachi, the last of the twelve minor prophets. It chronicles the mid-fifth century B.C. condition of the priesthood in the time between the Babylonian exile and return. Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed and the people of the nation scattered; they had not yet begun to return. The corruption of the moral and ethical values of the nation began with the corruption of the priests, and this is what had brought about the destruction. Through the prophet Malachi, God brings a scathing rebuke against the deplorable spiritual condition of the priests as a precondition of release of the people from exile. “‘A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘It is you priests who show contempt for my name.’” (Mal. 1:6) How was this? “By offering defiled food on my altar. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice. When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals.” (Mal. 1:7-8)
This may seem incongruous to Christians, unless we understand that the Mosaic Covenant was a blood sacrifice covenant. Pre-dating Malachi by perhaps nine centuries, Moses instructs both the people and the priesthood on laws regarding animal sacrifice in atonement for sin. “The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect.” (Ex. 12:5) The animals placed on the altar were indeed food for the Levitical priesthood as part of their inheritance. But far more importantly, the sacrifices, especially the sin sacrifices, were made as an atonement for sin and guilt; these demanded the best that the people could give, and the best that the priests would use for these purposes. Instead, the people gave, and the priests used, ‘blind, lame or diseased animals,’ keeping the best for themselves. The abhorrence of this to the Father is rooted and grounded in his foreknowledge of the Covenant of Grace, which demanded the perfect sacrifice of his son Jesus on the cross at Calvary.
The corruption of the priesthood was not a unique event. “The stingy are eager to get rich and are unaware that poverty awaits them.” (Prov. 28:22) It had happened numerous times before, and always with consequences to the nation. This was true of the rapidly descending culture of the priesthood at Jesus’ time, which bottomed out with disastrous consequences to the nation. He was furious with the merchandising of God at the Temple. “Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.” (Mark 11:15-16)
This has happened recurrently wherever and whenever God has started a movement of his Spirit in a people. The people rise up in the power of that movement, a culture strengthens, and a nation also rises. Progressively and ultimately the leaders of the movement become corrupted by a common failing. The Apostle Paul pierces through the complexities to the core of the issue: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Tim. 6:10a) This same thing is happening now, in our time, across the established Christian cultures in the nations of the world. “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Tim. 6:10b)
Let us be clear. This does not apply, has never applied, to the remnant of the faithful. It does apply to movements of God that have stalled out and are approaching death, some of them great and mighty institutions of hundreds or even thousands of years. God bless them for the light they once were, and that perhaps still flickers. It does apply to the charlatans and faith hucksters of the modern prosperity gospel; there is no light here, and the moths drawn to this dark flame do so at their own peril. But the faithful always know the true light. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) And the faithful will always “walk in the light, as he is in the light.” (1 John 1:7a) If we are walking in the light, we should also insist that those who lead us walk in the light. That is ultimately our own responsibility, and is best done by examining what we are taught, like the Bereans, who “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)
It is important that we know that each and every one of us is a priest of Jesus Christ. Peter speaks specifically to this: “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,” and he completes this thought by reiterating the honor due God because of this: “Offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 2:5) Paul reveals, “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Rom. 12:1b) Ultimately, the moral and spiritual quality of the church, the culture, and the nation begin with the individual. We must not negate nor abdicate our personal responsibility.
Q. Am I salt and light?
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