1:6 - 'A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?' says the Lord Almighty.

'It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

'But you ask, "How have we shown contempt for your name?"

The second dispute (1:6-2:9) opens with what looks like a soliloquy, of God as if speaking to Himself. The privilege of sharing in this moment, however, turns out to be heart-piecingly painful: He who is "the Lord Almighty," "the Lord of Hosts," who has full command of everything under the sun and beyond, is denied even the honour that is enjoyed by every father or any who is a master of slaves!

Yekabbed, the verb translated "honour" here is the same verb elsewhere translated "glorify." Yahweh is not given His glory. God's glory is a central—some might even say it is the central—theme of the Old Testament; it underlines everything the OT is about, everything that God does is about. It, therefore, says a great deal about God, does it not, that yet Yahweh does not make His glory the subject matter of His initial dispute but raises it only after He has assured Judah of His love for them (as in the first dispute)? But this has always been the way of Yahweh even from the beginning. As Carmen Joy Ames, a professor at Talbot School of Theology, reminds us, "At Sinai, before God gives the Israelites any laws, he declares that they are his special representatives among the nations."¹

It says a great deal that Yahweh does not make His glory the subject matter of His initial dispute but raises it only after He has assured Judah of His love for them as in the first dispute.

But it turns out that this is not a soliloquy at all; this painful disappointment is rather directed specifically at "you, the priests." They have shown "contempt for my name," which, in OT parlance, simply means not showing honour to God.

But "How," Malachi anticipates the priests as protesting, "have we shown contempt for your name?" It appears the priests were clueless about what they have done. Yet all those of us who have been ministers in God's Church for sometime knows how easy it is to deceive ourselves that things are fine when we know all the time that we are not. It is easy to appear clueless. Think of the number of Christian organizations and denominations that in recent years have had the sins of their leaders exposed after years of strenuous attempts to cover them up. RZIM, Hillsong, the Southern Baptist Convention, the list goes on. Very often we even manage to deceive those closest to us. Here in Malachi, the sins of the priests are exposed, not to shame them, but with the intention that, lanced so that the pus of their neglect may been purged, their ministry may be renewed. "How have you loved us?" This is how. By God calling sin sin, and ensuring that they are exposed and cleansed.

Notes:

1. Carmel Joy Imes, "The Mission of the Church to Bear God's Name," Crux 58.1 (2022): 2-7 (5).

Low Chai Hok, 2022

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