Psalm 36:7
⁷ How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

PRIESTS REBUKED
MALACHI 2:1-9

“And now, this commandment is for you, O priests. ²  If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you  and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. ³ “Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.  ⁴“Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi,” says the LORD of hosts.  ⁵“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. ⁶ “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. ⁷ “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.⁸ “But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of hosts.⁹ “So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.

Vs. 1-2 “And now, this commandment is for you, O priests. ²  If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you  and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. The priests have despised and profaned the name of the LORD by allowing the people to bring unlawful sacrifices to be offered up on the altar. This commandment is for you, O priests, the priests are addressed because they are failing in their duties, unlawful sacrifices brought by the people. The prophet is calling the priests to a genuine and through repentance. The Jews are not being instructed in obedience to the commandments, and the priest’s attitude towards the LORD. If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name. the LORD is angry because the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction—because he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts (vs7). The LORD is going to curse your blessings because you do not believe Him, or you are not taking it to heart. Indeed, I have cursed them already, from the time they began to despise His name and not give Him the glory due to the Almighty God. These priests did not believe the warnings.

Vs. 3 Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.Their children would be rejected which sits aside their appointed place of privilege as the sons of Levi. When Aaron had made the golden calf in the wilderness, while Moses was talking to the Lord on Mount Sinai; the people were in rebellion, only Levi feared the Lord; he and his sons went through the camp and killed about 3,000 men without regard to their status as brother, companion, or neighbor. Therefore, an everlasting covenant had been made with him by the Lord—now it is set side by the LORD. In addition, refuse (dung) of the creatures brought for sacrifice will be spread on the faces of the priests, even the refuse of their solemn feasts, the animals brought for sacrifice, because they were not acceptable to God. God makes them to appear as refuse heaps and you will be taken away with it. If you want to live in rebellion to God, He will make you into a dung hill.

Vs. 4-6 Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi,” says the LORD of hosts.  ⁵“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so, he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. ⁶ “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. Now the prophet drops his calling to the priests regarding their attention to their sins; instead he calls them to listen to what the LORD is saying and to set their hearts on honoring Him. I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi,” says the LORD of hosts. A God of grace speaks forth in love to these erring priests, I want my covenant, which you are breaking, to continue with Levi. It was a covenant of life and peace and the LORD gave Levi this covenant because he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. In verse 3 above the record of what Levi and histribe had done at Mount Sinai is provided, coupled with the fact that “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. Levi was pleasing in God’s sight as he walked with God in peace and uprightness, was obedient to both the Moral and Ceremonial Law showing his reverence to God.

Vs. 7 “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. Malachi quotes God saying the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his lips. He is not talking about the mere conveying of information as if the priest was to be a storehouse of information about the Hebrew Kings or quotations from the giants of history; he is talking about knowing God (salvation) and the way to live a God pleasing life.

Vs. 8 “But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of hosts.The LORD directly addresses the priests, but as for you, you are without excuse, you are a descendent of Levi, a priest, of the tribe of the priesthood, however you have turned aside from the way. You have left the good way which I prescribed for the priests, the way your godly ancestors walked in. You have not kept My ways, nor kept them yourselves, and done your part to have others keep them. You are responsible for these worthless offerings the people are bringing to be sacrificed. The instruction you have provided are causing the people to break the law have caused many to stumble, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi. These are the LORDS statements regarding the priests, and it caried forward to the New Testament with the chief priests, Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees of the New Testament, as they followed in their ways.

Vs. 9 “So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction. You manage your office as if it were designed to feed you and make you great, and not for the glory of God and the good of the souls of men.Therefore, they have forfeited the covenant of Levi. The priests wanted to pick and choose those things in the law that they wanted to do, and then ask how much they would be paid for doing it. These priests misrepresented God to the people, doing great harm to their souls, so the LORD made them despised and abased before all the people; because they were not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction. In these nine verses we have been able to see that those priests that were violating God’s word were warned, if you will not lay it to heart judgment would follow. This implies that if you will take it to heart and operate in your daily life accordingly anger will be turned away, but if one persists in wicked courses you must hear your doom—your sin will be your ruin. Matthew Henry writes, “Those who violate the commands of the law lay themselves under the curse of the law. Neither their employments nor their enjoyments, as priests, shall be clean to them: I will curse your blessings, so that you shall neither be blessed yourselves nor blessings to the people, but even your plenty shall be a plague to you and you shall be a plague to your generation.” 

Is the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior? Then hear the words of the words of the apostle Peter: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies  of Him whose has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10).

THE NECESSITY OF PREACHING

Luke 9:2 And He sent them to preach. The importance of preaching as a means of grace, might easily be gathered from this passage. . .it is but one instance, among many, of the high value which the Bible everywhere sets upon preaching. It is, in fact, God’s chosen instrument for doing good to souls. By it sinners are converted, inquirers led on, and saints built up. A preaching ministry is absolutely essential to the health and prosperity of a visible church. The pulpit is the place where the chief victories of the gospel have always been won, and no church has ever done much for the advancement of true religion in which the pulpit was neglected.

Would we know whether a minister is a truly apostolical man? If he is, he will give the best of his attention to his sermons. He will labor and pray to make his preaching effective, and he will tell his congregation that he looks to preaching for the chief results of souls. J. C. Ryle.