Eight Foolish Questions
Introduction
The other day, I was accused by my wife for breaking some of her flowers which she looked after so dearly. I did not remember clearly if I was the one who did it. But since she felt pretty sure that it was me, she continued to accost me for it. I did not like it and tried defending myself with what I remembered. In other words, I was simply trying to justify myself and downplay the whole thing.
Indeed, we humans have the tendency to try to justify ourselves when we are confronted with our mistakes or sins. In fact, we tend to retort with foolish questions to make ourselves more at ease.
The Israelites did the same thing when God accosted them with their sins and negligence during the times of the Prophet Malachi. They asked foolish questions to try to justify themselves and perhaps also to make themselves feel better.
This morning, we will look into these foolish questions of the Israelites and see what they had to say even when they were in the wrong and, at the same time, try to see where Christians today are also at.
Malachi
Malachi was the prophet of God some decades after the first Jewish exiles had returned from Babylon to Judea and had rebuilt the temple. Some scholars believe that Malachi prophesied during 420-397 BC.
He probably lived at the same time as Ezra and Nehemiah.
Earlier, Cyrus, the first Emperor of the Persian Empire had issued a decree that ended the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and allowed these Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple. 2 Chron. 36:23 says, “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also in writing, saying: ‘Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Let any of those among you who are of his people—may the Lord their God be with them!—go up.’” The same thing is recorded in Ezra 1:1-4.
This was about 80 years after the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged the Israelites to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. These prophets had said that the rebuilding of the temple would result in peace, prosperity and the return of God’s own glorious presence (Hag. 2, Zech. 1:16-17; 2:1-13; 8:1-9:17).
But now, in contrast to what the prophets Haggai and Zechariah promised, there appeared to be great economic difficulties due to something. Malachi 3:11 infers that there may have been the problem of locusts or devourer that destroyed their produce and their soil. Moreover, they remained an insignificant territory and no longer an independent nation. Worst of all, they were experiencing a great spiritual decline.
In short, they were experiencing spiritual numbness or insensitivity. Therefore, it was not surprising at all when they replied in all smugness or self-satisfaction to the words of the Lord through Malachi when he prophesied during this time. They asked all sorts of foolish questions or retorts against the Lord.
Their first question was:
1. “How have you loved us?” (1:2)
When the LORD told them that He loved them, they retorted, “How have you loved us?” They did not want to recognise God’s love for them. It’s not that they did not know, they just did not want to accept it because accepting it would bring guilt upon them. And so, to justify themselves, they retorted with a foolish question, “how have you loved us?” As such, they completely failed to see God’s love for them because they did not love Him back.
To doubt God’s love for us, to reject it and say “how have you loved us?” shows the hardness of their hearts. In how many ways have we also ignored God’s love for us?
2. “How have we despised your name?” (1:6)
Even when they despised and looked down with disdain the LORD, they still asked, “How have we despised your name?” They never wanted to accept their sins and mistakes. What a foolish question.
What about us? Do we also ask the same thing without ever remembering our own mistakes?
3. “How have we polluted you?” (1:7)
The Israelites offered to the LORD polluted food and animals that are blind, lame or sick. Yet they did not want to admit their wrongs and asked nonchalantly, “How have we polluted you?” The LORD was not pleased with them and said, “I have no pleasure in you… and I will not accept an offering from your hands” (1:10).
How have we polluted the LORD by giving unto Him all that we do not want and still ask Him how we have polluted Him?
4. Why (did the LORD not accept their offerings)?” (2:14)
They had become corrupt and turned away towards other gods. As such, the LORD refused to accept their offerings or look upon them with favour. Yet, they did not understand it and asked Him why He wouldn’t accept their offerings.
The LORD is a jealous God and is never happy with those who turn to others. God says, “I hate divorce” (2:16). But the Israelites tried to justify themselves by trying to put the ball into the LORD’s court by asking why. Let us also ask ourselves, what have we come to love more than the LORD?
5. How have we wearied Him? …Where is the God of justice?” (2:17)
They refused to accept that all the bad things that has befallen them came because of their sins. They regarded themselves as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad.’ As such, they now have a crooked view of what was happening in the world. This let them to say, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them” (2:17) .
Yet, they asked, “How have we wearied Him? …Where is the God of Justice?” How similar this view is with the current worldview that many of us have today! Some people today unconcernedly say, “How can a good God allow all these sufferings to happen?” never willing to accept that it is this crooked generation that has caused all these sufferings.
6. “How shall we return?” (3:7)
The LORD constantly invited them to return to Him so that He would also return to them. Even then, they asked, “How shall we return?” It’s as if they said, “How can we return to a place where we did not leave in the first place?” They never accepted that they had left the LORD. What a hard hearted people!
How many of us today are like them – refusing to acknowledge that we are lost and wandering away?
7. “How are we robbing you?” (3:8)
How can we rob God? God says they robbed Him. They did not understand and asked yet another foolish question, “How?” The LORD said, “In your tithes and offerings” (3:8). The Israelites knew it. They were simply asking the rhetorical question to please themselves and justify themselves. Leviticus 27:30-34, Numbers 18:21, Deuteronomy 12:5-6 and many others have clearly outlined how they should give their tithes and offerings to the LORD.
We also know what we ought to do today, but we have kept so many things from the LORD. They still amount to robbing the LORD. Remember this always.
8. “How have we spoken against you?” (3:13)
Though they speak harsh words against the LORD, they still ask, “How have we spoken against you?” They have become so inured/habituated to their habits and ways. They also said, “It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts? Now we count the arrogant happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape” (3:14-15). They were so wrong!
They have become like those the prophet Jeremiah said, “they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy” (Jer. 5:28).
How many times have we also been like Asaph in Psalm 73 and say, “I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked… They have no pain… They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people… Their eyes swell out with fatness… (They are) always at ease, they increase in riches…” (3-12).
But let us remember that the LORD takes note of all those who revere. Malachi 3:16-17 says, “those who revered the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the Lord and thought on his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them. Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.”
In short, the Lord knows who fears Him. He takes note and will save those who fear Him.
And so, my dear friends, May these questions help us to see through the collective numbness of Christians today. Let them help us to wake from our slumber and get up and move forward to the true path that our Lord Jesus Christ sets for us in these troubled times.
