What you know should inform what you do. Israel was failing to remember their relationship with God. The relationship they had known should have informed their behavior, but they had forgotten. We must remember.
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It is in the nature of all of us to be selfish. However, by keeping in our selfishness, we lose. This is a principle of God’s world. We impoverish ourselves by hoarding when we should be generous.
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We need to guard against always seeing evil in others and not in ourselves. Sometimes the greatest evil in our hearts is the way we see other people. Instead of seeing the faults of others and wishing judgment on them, we ought to try to make a difference in the world.
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We can't go into God's presence and expect Him to receive our worship if we dishonor and abuse those He loves and those who are created in His image. Your treatment of others is a reflection of your estimation of the value of God.
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The second great offense in the book of Malachi was that the priests were allowing the first to take place. They were accepting and facilitating faulty worship. Because the Levites were provided for by the people, they were literally hurting themselves by accepting the pathetic offerings from the people. So the people were being lead to stumble, and by their stumbling they were hurting those who were leading. Our failure to do right hurts ourselves and others. We diminish our lives and the lives of others by failing to uphold the truth.
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When God's people act out of duty versus devotion, they're always going to do the bare minimum. This was the state of the nation of Israel in Malachi's day. God was not being honored. He was not even receiving the base levels of honor that were willingly given to men. The small amount God was given was a weariness to the nation. The fact that the pathetic gifts were a weariness was actually the bigger problem. God wasn't just concerned about the gift, but He was also concerned about the attitude of giver.
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At this point in Israel’s history, the nation of Israel was still under the power of Persia, and they were discontent. They felt that God hadn’t really come through for them. They wanted to move on as a nation as God had said they would. Instead of serving God in the midst of their unfavorable circumstances, they became very apathetic. God in turn sends messengers to address the nation’s condition. God, in His first message, reminds the nation of His love. When God chooses you, you’re chosen. That choice does not change. He loves His children because He chose them. Those who are God’s choice never stop being the objects of His love.
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