THIS verse in my copy of the New International Version of the Bible treats this verse as the beginning of a new direction of thought, linking it to what follows in chapter 3. I don't believe this is a right appreciation of the purpose of this verse. In the previous verses which we have considered together in the last two sermons, have been dealing with serious sin and attitude to sin in Israel, and it seems to me that this verse is a summing up of God's attitude to the thinking and acting which was evident in Israel. Israel seemed to be impervious to the sinfulness of their lives, seen in the fact they acted in ways that were an offence to God, and still believed that the way they lived was acceptable to God. They still expected God's blessing simply because they carried out the outward performance of their religion handed down from the time of Moses. In verse 17 God, speaking through the prophet Malachi, sums up his attitude to the living of the people, showing the offence which the way they lived was in the sight of God. Chapter three logically follows verse 17 by God telling what he is going to do to Israel in reaction to their sinfulness.

God tells Israel his reaction to their way of living. God tells them the way they were living and acting wearied Him. This is an extraordinary expression concerning the reaction of the Lord to the lives and living of his people. The world sins blatantly but the world does not pretend to honour God. Israel pretended to honour God, and in spite of God speaking to them continually about their attitude to him and their behaviour towards him, they still were impervious to what he was saying to them, and believed their living and religious ways were acceptable to God and deserved God's approbation.

Through the prophet Malachi God tells them how he feels about the way they were behaving and coming before him. He tells Israel that the way they sought to approach him wearied him, because they came with unclean hands through the sinful way they lived. What is the attitude of God towards the his people expressed in the meaning of this word 'wearying'? Surely it speaks of God being tired of the attitude of Israel towards him, and tired of the way they carried out their religious duties when still living sinful lives. It speaks of God being tired of being approach by the people when they were disregarding his words to them. It speaks of God being offended by the peoples insincere profession in their religion.

We become weary of people being insincere to us, saying they will do something, and never doing it. Our reaction is to turn away from them, and be offended in them. How much more is God wearied by insincere worship, and worship which falls short of the true religion God calls for and requires. How wearying it must be to God when people who claim to be his people, and expect his blessing, come before him in ways that are contrary to the way he has laid down in his words that he should be approached.

It may be a surprise to us that God can say he is wearied by people approaching him, expecting his favour, but still living and acting in ways that offend Him. The attitude in the church today is to speak of the love of God in such a way that believes his love will never be weary with us whatever way we think or live. God loved Israel. God had chosen them and blessed them. Yet because Israel acted in such disregard for his love and as to what pleased Him, God tells Israel that he was weary of them, and this had repercussion in the attitude of God towards them.

It is plain from this verse that because God was wearied by the behaviour of the people, he had withdrawn his blessing. God was not listening to their prayers. God had ceased to listen to them. This caused the people to feel God's disfavour which they express in saying God was treating them without justice, seeking to justify the way they lived before him. God's reply to the complaint of Israel of 'How have we wearied God', was to expose their attitude to him as sinful. Israel had convinced themselves that the way they lived and performed their worship was thoroughly acceptable and worthy of God's acceptance and blessing. God tells them that they were saying that evil was good in the eyes of the Lord, and therefore God was not treating them justly.

What do we learn from all that this verse is revealing to us? It is so easy to pass over what we read of the ways of the people of Israel, and think that they have no relevance or parallel in the church today. If this is the way we read this Old Testament history, then we have only to look at the history of the church down the ages, to see how this pattern of religious life has been repeated all down history, and from this we have to face the fact that it is being repeated today, and the church needs to react seriously to such a verse as we read in verse 17 of Malachi chapter 2.

APPLICATION.

As we seek to see the relevance of the word of the Lord in this verse we need to appreciate to whom the Lord is speaking. The words of this verse are not addressed to the world, but to Israel, the people of God. In other words, as we seek to apply the message of this verse to the situation today, we have to realise that this verse is addressed to the visible church of today.

The next thing we have to appreciate is that there are so many different ways that the church can weary the Lord by its living, thinking and acting. Coming to this verse we may appreciate what God is saying to his people Israel, but ignore the message with the idea that the complaint of God against Israel in the days of Malachi have no counterpart in the life of the church today. It is easy to imagine that the living and action of Israel is so different to things as they are today, that the message of God was only for them and has little relevance for us today. It is true that the situation at the time of Malachi in the life of God's people was very different to life today. We are not a nation of God's people, but a people of God called out of the world unto salvation. We disprove of divorce in order to marry someone else that suddenly attracts us. Yet the particular evil God speaks against Israel can be passed over as not really relevant for us today. However this is very shallow thinking.

The question for us in the church today is whether there are signs of the church wearying the Lord in our worship, thinking and living. What was the sign that God was weary with Israel? The sign was that they felt that God was not dealing with them justly, and they felt that they deserved his approval. The thought here is of people feeling that the blessing of God they had experienced was somehow withdrawn. They felt God was treating them unjustly in consequence. What is the counterpart in the life of the church today. Surely we must observe whether, in the largest context, God's blessing of the church has been withdrawn. Here again it is so easy to deceive ourselves. The church is a large organisation, busy and active, well organised with churches up and down the land. I am thinking of the Church of England in the UK as I write, but whatever denomination we belong to the application is basically the same. But what is the true reality? In the Church of England there is no doubt that on the whole congregations have decreased in number. The church does not seem to have much appeal to people. Clergy work hard. A great deal of action is taking place, but there is an underlying feeling that the diminishing numbers coming to worship God cannot be reversed. Is not this a sign of God's blessing being withdrawn!

Human effort alone can never touch souls, however active or well done it may be. History makes clear that when there is life in the church, and people are turning to the Lord in repentance and faith, it is by God's gracious action. This happens when God pours out his Spirit in power, as he did at Pentecost, which is recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles.

Is it not plain that in the wider church today God is wearied by the life of the church. There are examples of blessing in come churches in the Anglican communion, where souls are being saved, and coming before God in true repentance, and putting their trust in Jesus as their Saviour, and these congregations are flourishing with evident blessing from God by his Spirit; but in the Church of England, as one example, the majority of churches are struggling and the number of worshippers are small. This is evident in the fact, as one example, that now today there is only one service in church held on any given Sunday, and the practice and desire to worship God twice on Sunday has ceased. What is it that is wearying the Lord?

This is a serious question. Like Israel in the days of Malachi the church is carrying out the worship of God in a time honoured way. Israel never ceased to come before God in sacrifices laid down by God from the time of Moses, but they had turned this into an outward action, where the meaning for them was that God must be pleased with them and bless them because they were outwardly doing what God commanded. They had forgotten what the sacrifices were for. They had forgotten that they were sinners, and that sin needed to be atoned for in the sight of God, and that the sacrifices were ordained by God as a means of atonement, whereby the animal offered in death was suffering the punishment for sin in the place of the one bringing the sacrifice. This attitude was seen in Israel in that they disobeyed God in keeping themselves free from sin, and from the evil of the worship of the heathen all around them. They had no realisation that worship before God was only acceptable when they showed true repentance for wrong living and thinking, and that the offerings they brought were necessary because sin must be atoned for by death.

When we understand where the Israelites were sinning and so wearying God by their religious activity, we are able to begin to see the same pattern in the church today. It is not just that the church has accepted into its life so much of the ethos of the world, but that the church has begun to despise the Gospel.

Where is the centrality of the cross of Jesus seen in the worship of the church today. Just as the Israelites offered their sacrifices in the belief that the outward action was all God required, so the church today gives lip service to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, while at the same time emptying it of its meaning. In the cross people simply see an action of Jesus whereby he was ready to die for his principles and his teaching of love, so that by his death Jesus is seen as actively living up to his teaching. In this way they empty the cross of Jesus from the tremendous action of God in Jesus to provide a means that we who have failed to meet God's standards and requirement, may be able to be forgiven and reconciled to God, and be saved from suffering God's just sentence of death on account of such failure. The church today speaks about the love of God, but is unable to see the real and infinite love of God shown in God giving his Son, Jesus Christ, to death so that his just wrath may be turned away from us who do wrong, because it is exhausted on Jesus, the beloved only begotten Son of God, who God gave to do this for us in total grace and extraordinary love.

God has revealed in the Bible that God's love is shown to sinners only as they acknowledge how far short they have fallen from his requirements, seen themselves as lost sinners perishing under his just anger, and in their desperate need believe the word of God's love, that whosoever believes on Jesus as their sin-bearer and Saviour has eternal life; that is they are forgiven all their sins, reconciled to God, exalted to the family of God to know God as their Father, and become heirs of heaven.

God has given Jesus as Saviour from sin and death, and as a propitiation for our sins, and if we seek to present ourselves in worship before him in any other way than in Jesus as our substitute before God, bearing our sin in his body of the cross, we will be like Israel in the days of Malachi, and weary God and cause him to withdraw his blessing. The problem of those who seek to come to God in worship in any other way than through the cross of Jesus is that it follows that a lower standard of life is accepted, and the thinking of the world replaces the word of God.

CONCLUSION.