Warning! Make sure you aren’t eating while you read today’s devotional. As we tell our kids – certain discussions aren’t appropriate table talk. Yes, we will be covering some bathroom topics straight from God Himself.
In Malachi, God uses a jarring image to convey His displeasure. He tells
the priest that He will smear their faces with poop and then they would be
carried away in it! Quite humiliating punishment.
Malachi 2:1-6
“And now, you priests, this warning is for
you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not
resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I
will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I
have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.
3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants;
I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices,
and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will
know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may
continue,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “My
covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them
to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my
name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and
nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and
uprightness, and turned many from sin.
The priests’ dishonor of God was deserving of severe consequences, far
worse than smeared poop in the face. As spiritual leaders, the priests were expected
to honor God and lead all their fellow Israelites to honor God just as their
Levite forefathers had done in the days of Moses. God had previously blessed their
faithfulness with a life of peace, provision, and protection.
How about you and me? Are we dishonoring God through our words or
actions? Or are we honoring God by speaking truth, leading people toward God,
lovingly confronting sin, and humbly revering Him as the only Almighty One?
