“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, 'In what way have You loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the Lord. "."Yet I have loved Jacob."
Malachi 1:2
Malachi is the last word of the Old
Testament and he is the last prophet of the Old Testament. The last message from God starts
by declaring His love for His people. Our translation of the word “love” does not do
justice to the meaning of this Hebrew verb. The idea is "I have loved you in the
past, I love you in the present and will continue to love you forever more."
His love is an act of pure grace, not dependent on anything we have done. Israel was facing
some tough circumstances. In view of their circumstances they replied to God’s
declaration of love saying, "How
have You loved us?"
The implication of
their question is that they deserved much better treatment than they had
received. Instead of acknowledging God’s kindness and the grace
that He has bestowed on them, they challenge God to produce proof of his love in
a material sense. They forgot about his past kindness, as if they were so few,
so small, and unworthy of taking notice. All they remembered was the bad things that had
happened. They had taken the blessings they
had received for granted to such a degree that they questioned whether God had
ever loved them.
None of us
deserve God's love. God is perfect, and even in our best moments we still
struggle with sin. And yet, He loves us so much that He sent His own Son to die
for our sins. God loves us because he
made us and he chose us. Never assume
God does not love you because of your circumstances. That is what the
Israelites did in this passage.
Their example should be sober reminder to all who
have enjoyed God’s blessings. Everything good and perfect in
our lives is a gift coming down to us from God our Father. It is so
easy to switch from an attitude of thanksgiving to “What have you done for me
lately? Or, “If you loved me, you would give me this or that, God.” According to Malachi, the remedy to
our questioning God’s love is to count our blessing one by one and give thanks
to God for each one.
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