Malachi 1:1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
The Only Friend You Have
What is the best deception you have pulled off on someone else? Hopefully you don’t have a good answer for that, but a better question is, “What is the best deception you are pulling off on yourself?” The fact is, we probably don’t fool nearly as many people as we think we do, and we probably deceive ourselves more than we think is possible. It is amazing the human capacity for self-deception.
The prophet Malachi spoke to just such self-deceived people. Their self-deception is found throughout the book of Malachi in the questions they asked, questions that show both the arrogance in their hearts and the ignorance of their minds.
Malachi 1:2 says, “I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?” Here were people who were so arrogant as to say, “How does God love us? I don’t see God’s love.” God goes on to say, “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob.” God chose the seed of Jacob to bring forth the Son of God.
In verse 6 He addressed the priests “that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?” Then God tells them that they had brought ragged sacrifices to Him that even a common governor wouldn’t put up with and were not worthy of the God of Heaven. Yet, they wondered how they had despised God’s name.
Malachi 2:11 says, “Judah hath dealt treacherously,” and in verse 14 it says, “Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously.” The man who is not faithful to his wife is not being faithful to the Lord either. These people had been treacherous against God, because they were not being right to their own wives.
Malachi 2:17 says, “Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them.” They brashly thought that God was indifferent towards sin.”
God says later, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?” They were not bringing their tithes and offerings, yet they said, “How have we robbed God?
In Malachi 3:13, God says, “Your words have been stout against me… yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee.” They said, “We haven’t talked against God,” yet they were saying it was a vain and unprofitable thing to serve God.
Time after time their questions betrayed their arrogance against God and their ignorance of themselves. What was the answer? The answer was the truth as it always has been and ever will be.
The beginning and ending of Malachi both talk about messengers God sent. Both in Malachi’s day and in the days he foresaw, God is shown to be One Who sends messengers of the truth.
The only friend you have is the one who will tell you the truth. I don’t mean that the truth must be hurtful or hard, though it may be. Nor do I mean that the truth has to bring comfort. It just has to be true.
There are two takeaways from all this. First, the only friend you have is the one who will tell you the truth, not merely what you want to hear, though sometimes it might be encouraging and comforting to hear the truth.
Secondly, you need to be that kind of friend. I don’t mean you need to beat people over the head just because you know the truth, but be the friend who gives truth whether it is a hard truth or a comforting truth.
The only friend a person has is the one who gives the truth. That is the kind of servant of God that Malachi was, and that is the kind of servant I want to be.