“‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’”
Malachi 1:6
O Lord, how easy it is for me to sin and dishonor you, despising your name. Thank you for this warning from Malachi. It reveals how my heart tends toward despising your name. Help me to take heed and remember the two tendencies that quantify what it means to despise your name. Help me to hold onto this knowledge, because just as the priests asked incredulously “how have we despised your name?” I fear that I may also be blind not realizing when my heart drifts and I begin to despise you, my wondrous and awesome God.
1. To despise is to dishonor God by offering lame service. Each day has many assignments from you, Lord. Some are big and some are small. Do I go about my work limping, or do I run the race set before me, so as to win? How do I engage my heart in offering service; as though God needed me, or as one who is the beneficiary of your abundant grace? Do I dishonor God’s grace by limping along half-hearted?
2. To despise is to “sniff at” the good food God gives disdainfully saying, “how tiresome it is.” Woe is me if I find God’s food tiresome or noxious. God has set before me precious treasures, greater than all gold and silver. His Word is filled with the wisdom and knowledge of God. It is ripe for the picking. Am I too tired to pick? Does the fruit seem unappealing? Is the treasure it contains not worth the digging?
To despise my God, all I need to do is offer half-hearted service and fail to seek God as my greatest treasure. How guilty I am of that! The truth is my heart, by its nature, is cold and hard – it does not joyfully serve and it sniffs at God’s food disdainfully. Praise God that the cure for a hard heart is found in God and not in me! Only one thing can change my heart, keeping me from despising God. God must reveal His glory thus melting away my hardness and banishing my overcast spirit. God reveals the prescription for a hard despising heart, it is to see God as the one who says “from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts. Likewise it is to see God as He is, a great king, “‘…for I am a great King,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘and My name is feared among the nations.’”
Lord Jesus, open my eyes to your glory and melt away my fog. Let me see your glory and set my feet to running with joy, delighting myself in the abundant feast you’ve called me to enjoy in you. Keep me from despising your name, preserve and protect me – use your Word, remind me and provoke me when I fall asleep or lose my appetite for what is truly worth the eating. Thank you for your grace and your promise to complete the work you started in me. You are good, I want more of you.
I ask in Jesus’ name, for the glory of the Father. Amen.
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