God’s Word for You
Malachi 1:5 Great is the Lord
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, November 28, 2020
5 You will see this with your own eyes, and you will say, “Great is the LORD, even beyond the borders of Israel!”
God had told his people through Moses in the passage about the hornet: “The LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God” (Deuteronomy 7:21). There are verses like this all through the Old Testament, praising the great God (Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalm 95:3), the great and powerful God (Jeremiah 32:18), the great LORD God (2 Samuel 7:22), the great King (Psalm 47:2), the great Lord (Nehemiah 4:14), the great LORD (1 Chronicles 16:25; Psalm 48:1, 96:4, 99:2, 145:3, 147:5), and the great LORD of Armies (Malachi 1:14). And while there are Old Testament passages that praise the greatness of God’s many gifts, there is a shift in the New Testament to praising God’s great gifts in particular, especially his great mercy (Luke 1:58; 1 Peter 1:3) and his great love (Ephesians 2:4; 1 John 3:1).
Malachi grabs Israel by the beard and turns the nation’s gaze out toward the borders. Look there! Look at what our great God and LORD has done! We were thrown down so that we would finally repent, and what has happened? We have repented, we have rebuilt his temple and our cities, and now look beyond your own noses and look at our neighbors. Look at Edom! She has been thrown down, too, but Edom did not repent. So she is a wasteland. What do we have to fear when God, our great God, is on our side? We worried that without our temple we could not sacrifice, but did God want sacrifices from unrepentant sinners as we were? No. He told us through Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). Better to have the hand of God sweep out our tents than leave the refuse of idolatry cluttering up our lives. The sacrifices of praise should not be given if they are not for the praise of the great God.
Today we see the same thing when we see God’s blessings and God’s hand at work within our fellowship and also outside our border, outside our fellowship. Sometimes our people and even our leaders get worried about our small numbers, less than half a million in America, but we are growing throughout the world. Far more important than that, however, is that we acknowledge our great God’s grace, love and mercy. His forgiveness covers over the guilt of our sins. His grace has brought us into his family. His mercy is patient with us and guides us when we face temptations, turning us back to the cross of Jesus again and again. And his love lasts forever. His power is immense. He is “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Timothy 1:17). He magnifies and lifts up those who are humbled. He brings down and humbles those who trust in themselves. He has mercy on us when we are at our weakest, and he raised Jesus from the dead and has set him down at his right hand to rule over everything. So we let our hearts be ruled by Jesus, our great King and great God. To him be glory now and forever, and may our own lips praise him in eternity.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.