Malachi 2:17-36
Introduction: During this season of Lent we are focusing on this premise: there is no true justice without Jesus, and there is no true Jesus without justice. Justice is a concept that is being actively debated in many of our cultural/political conversations these days. What does the Bible say? The prophet Malachi gives voice to a question that is at the heart of our struggles and experience in a world of injustice - “Where is the God of Justice?” There are three important ways we can understand this question and God’s response to it.
1. A Cry God Hears
Where is the God of Justice? For a Christian, this is a natural, unavoidable question, particularly when the following two things happen (spoiler alert: they should happen!):
When you learn more about the place of justice in the Bible, how it is the foundation of God’s throne, how God loves justice and that God delights in doing justice and righteousness on the earth.
The more you learn about and see injustice in our world, and come to know the stories of people who suffer from injustice.
There were many stories like this in Malachi’s day, people who cried out in their souls, “Where is the God of justice?”. Though they may not have seen deliverance in their day (see 3:5), does this mean that they were not heard? Certainly not! God heard their cries, he did not ignore them. This is an important part of growing in our knowledge of God and in caring about a broken world in which injustice and evil do happen. God tells the prophet Habbakuk: I haven’t forgotten. I hear your cries; to Malachi he says: I will come to set things right.
When we become aware of terrible, heartbreaking injustice throughout history, in our world, our nation, in the church AND as we become more aware of God’s heart for justice, we should expect deep struggle, doubts and dissonance to happen. But what do we do? We definitely should not hold it in or feel afraid to experience those emotions. It does not distance us from God – rather, it can draw us nearer to God, and in a way that does not question or violate God’s sovereignty in any way. These cries move God to action (see Ex 22:22, 23), so cry out!
BUT there is also a very different way that this same question can be asked. There is a way to ask this question that does not move us closer to God, but that wearies God and moves us farther away from Him and from justice, when the question is a complaint, rather than a cry – which is what God is confronting through Malachi in our passage.
2. A Complaint God Confronts
Verse 17 says that “You have wearied the Lord with your words”. What does it mean for God to be wearied? This usage carries the sense of being “weary with grief”. God is saddened/grieved by this complaint, and his patience is tested to the utmost.
This complaint comes from a cynicism directed towards God because of the evil of those who claim to be His people. In Malachi’s day (which was perhaps not so different to our own) there was good reason to have this attitude – priests were corrupt, sacrifices were halfhearted, injustice was widespread. The complaint can also be understood like this: God how can you let people who say they believe in you do these things? How are you ok with this!?
God says two things to this in response in 3:1-5: 1) “I am not OK with this – I will come in judgment”; and 2) “I have not changed”. God is letting us know that everyone – especially those who profess to believe in Him – will be held accountable. His standard and requirement for good/justice has not and will never change.
Sidenote: Struggling to hold on to belief in God because of the existence of injustice is also not a logically justifiable position. Questioning God about evil and injustice requires there to be an actual God of justice. To protest, to complain about the reality of evil and injustice in the world depends on the existence of a fixed standard of good and evil. To do away with God is to do away with the opportunity for justice.
There is also another more insidious aspect to this complaint. Sometimes it comes from a place of smugness and self-righteousness. An attitude of “What is really wrong with the world is those people/the other side/people who are guilty of such-and-such sin”, and standing over them in judgment. All the while, God states that if his judgment were to come now, we would not be ready and we definitely would not be safe. Perhaps it can also be stated like this:
It is hard to make sense of the disconnect (compromise) in faith we see in others – but it is even harder to see our own disconnects (compromise). Malachi cautions us about questioning God’s justice while we have done nothing about injustice ourselves.
3. A Question God Answers
Finally, there is a third way that we can understand this question, which is as a question that God does answer. God hears the question, God confronts the question, but our hearts want more: we want an answer to the problem of evil and injustice. Where is the God of Justice? In Matthew 11, Jesus quotes Malachi and tells us who the messenger is who will clear the way: John the Baptist. Which clearly implies that Jesus is the Lord who comes to his temple/people to refine and cleanse them. God answers the question by saying Behold Me, I am coming.
Christianity says that the only answer that will satisfy the heart and that it is literally historically true is that God did come, and hung from the cross. Christianity does not try to avoid the question of Where is the God of Justice? Rather, it encourages us to ask the question and discover that He hung on the cross for all, bore injustice with the poor and oppressed, and suffered as a victim of injustice, bearing his own judgment for all the unjust who come to him in repentance and faith.
God says in v5, “Because I don’t change you have not been destroyed.” In Jesus Christ alone we see unchanging justice meet unchanging mercy and grace. In what Jesus did, we see that: 1) God’s justice has not changed and 2) His grace/mercy has not changed either. The cross shows us how much God is committed to justice - every act of injustice, and all inaction in the face of injustice, must (and will!) be dealt with – either in the cross or at the final judgment. And – (here is the power for change) The cross shows us how much God is committed to us, every person who admits their sin and need and believes in Jesus is given the unchanging love of God.
This is the unchanging heart of God for the poor, oppressed, needy and helpless. If Jesus Christ does this for me despite how poor, needy, powerless I am – how can I not extend mercy and do justice for the poor, needy and powerless in the world?
REFLECT OR DISCUSS
What about this sermon most impacted you or left you with questions about the justice of God?
Has this question, “Where is the God of justice?” come up in your own mind/heart? How have you sought to resolve or address it?
Why should this question be an expected part of the spiritual journey for those who grow in knowing God and in knowing the stories of injustice in our world? What does this mean for us if this question has never bothered us?
What comfort does it give us that God knows we struggle with this question, that tells us that we can voice and that He shows us how to pray this cry to Him? (See Psalm 10 and/or Habakkuk 1:1-4 for other examples)?
What happens to our protest against injustice if we reject God because of injustice? (See sidenote above)
How does this passage help you deal with inconsistencies you have seen in people who claim to be Christians? What about the inconsistencies in yourself (especially in areas where you have self-righteously condemned others)?
How is Jesus Himself the ultimate answer to this question? How does Jesus’ life, death and resurrection move us to also do what we can to address this question?