GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MALACHI 1:7-8
7 By offering defiled food on my altar.
Here we are continuing the challenge of the priests to God. They asked (verse 6), “How have we despised your name?” God’s answer is that they offer defiled sacrifices.
But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ By saying that the LORD’s table is worthless. 8 When you bring blind animals to sacrifice them, is that not evil? And when you bring lame ones, or sick, is that not evil? Bring that, why don’t you, to your governor! Will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of Armies.
The defiled food is identified in different ways. Luther caught the reference to the showbread since the word for “food” in the first part of verse 7 is lehem “bread,” as in the word Bethlehem “house of bread” (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6). Then in verse 8, the Lord talks about animals that were brought as blood sacrifices. These might have been brought as burnt offerings (Leviticus 1:3), fellowship offerings (Leviticus 3:1), sin offerings (Leviticus 4:1) or guilt offerings (Leviticus 5:5). In any case, the animals were to be “without defect” (Leviticus 1:3; 3:6; 4:3; 5:15). The Lord says: If you bring blind, lame, or sick animals, are those “without defect”? Would you give them to the governor when he claims an animal from your flock to pay your taxes? “Governor” was a new title used in the days after the captivity for men like Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:23; Jeremiah 40:7), Shealtiel (Haggai 2:2), and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 5:14). If the governor wouldn’t accept lame or blind animals as offerings, what makes you think that God Almighty in Heaven would accept them?
But this matter of defiled food wasn’t about animals alone, nor about the altar in Jerusalem alone. This was about their attitude toward God and toward the word of God. If the priests ignored God’s word about the quality of the temple sacrifices, they would ignore God’s word about other things.
Let’s give our attention to the terrible words, “The Lord’s table is worthless.” In this context, this could refer to the table of the showbread, or “bread of the Presence” (Exodus 25:30). This was the special table in the holy place spread with a blue cloth which held plates, dishes, bowls and jars in addition to the bread (Numbers 4:7). These were the consecrated dishes for offerings in God’s house. If verse 7 refers to the bread and verse 8 refers to the other sacrifices, then we should think of the bread as well as the defiled animals. In fact, it was the task of the priests to pay attention to all of these details, to make certain that what was offered to God was holy in every way, not just the outward appearance, but the attitude of those who offered these things.
We should also focus our attention on the way we apply God’s word in our worship and our lives, and even the way the Lord’s table is held to be worthless even today among so many Christians. This is done in two ways. First, by individual Christians who reject the Bible’s teaching of fellowship, and second, by pastors who lead their people to deny fellowship practices or to deny the real presence of Christ’s body and blood.
Those who deny the presence of Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament defile the table of the Lord. There are those who do this clearly and obviously, but there are also those who do this so subtly that the sheep of the flock do not notice what their ferocious shepherds have coaxed them into believing. One of the most dangerous of these lies is when the people are told that they receive the true body of Christ, but only by faith and not by receiving the bread and the wine in the sacrament. This defiles the table of the Lord. The Holy Scriptures teach that the body and blood of Christ are received by everyone who takes the Supper, and not only by those who take it with faith. This is shown especially in the words of Paul, who warns, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27).
The quickest path to understanding any church’s position on this doctrine is to ask: What does an unbeliever receive if he takes the sacrament? If the reply is that he receives nothing, or bread and wine only, this rejects the Bible’s words, that is, Paul’s warning. If the reply is that they receive the body and blood of Christ, but to their judgment, then they have a correct understanding of the sacrament and they pay attention to whether a guest at the table is worthy or unworthy.
There is only one kind of unworthy guest, and that is anyone who does not believe. Such a guest “is condemned already” (John 3:18), and he increases and aggravates his condemnation the way Capernaum increased and aggravated its condemnation by rejecting Jesus (Matthew 11:23-24). But how could an unbelieving guest be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord unless the body and blood are truly present and are received? So everyone who takes the Supper receives what has been sacrificed, namely the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The same was true of the ancient believers who brought their animals to the altar of the tabernacle or temple. The sacrificed animal was divided by those within the fellowship. The Lord received the blood and the fat that were burned, and the right thigh was the share of the priest and his family (Leviticus 7:33-34). The rest of the sacrifice was consumed by the family who offered it, which they ate within the tabernacle in fellowship with the priests. Anyone else who ate it was to be thrust outside the camp; they were not permitted the holy food. But no one would deny that they had actually eaten the food even if they did so without faith.
So it is with the body and blood of Christ. They were offered for us to cover our sins, and he permits us to feast on them because we are in fellowship with him. Our faith is not the sign of receiving the food, but our faith is the way we receive its benefits. The food is the body and blood of the one who was sacrificed for us. Christ instituted the Supper especially for Christians who have weak faith to be strengthened, and for heartbroken Christians who are weighed down by particular sins, to be reminded that their sins are truly paid for by Christ as they receive that forgiveness in their own bodies, through the mouth. This intimate manner of eating and drinking is given to us because what we eat and drink we know for certain that we have within us. So the Lord has given us forgiveness in this very manner so that we will understand that we possess his forgiveness within us. It is ours. To know this and trust it is to give him glory and to show our faith. To reject it as a mere symbol, or less, is to defile it, and to reject the God who gave it. Will the God who they defile accept them, Malachi asks? Will the God of Armies show them favor?
Give God glory by trusting in his word, as you hear it, as you put your faith in his message, and as you receive the Lord’s Supper. The gospel of forgiveness is God’s great gift to us. He gives us the very faith he looks for. Cherish it. Even though we stumble and fall, he picks us up, declares his love, and gives us the promise of everlasting life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Malachi 1:7-8 The Lord’s table defiled