Faithful Ministers

“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.”—Malachi 2:5-6 The state of the Jewish priesthood, at the time this prophet wrote, was profligate40 in the extreme. As men, they were ungodly and licentious;41 as priests, they were unfaithful; and as teachers, they kept not “the law of truth,” but “departed out of the way” (Mal 2:8). Through them the office became a scandal and a byword.42 The sanctuary was defiled and the name of God blasphemed. Very fearful are the charges which the prophets were commanded to prefer against them, in the name of the Lord. From the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel to the days of Malachi, they had been receiving warning and rebuke, threatening and chastisement; yet, at the end of these two centuries, they were found even worse than at the beginning. Jeremiah had described them as “the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep” of God’s pasture (Jer 23:1). Ezekiel had represented them as [the shepherds who] “feed themselves” (Eze 34:2). “Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool…but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither…bound up that which was broken,…neither…brought again that which was driven away…neither…sought that which was lost” (Eze 34:3-4). Malachi also, many generations after, presents to us the picture of the priesthood in his day, unrelieved in aught from its former gloom. Though called priests of the Most High God, ministering at His altar, wearing the consecrated garments of their office, and bearing the holy vessels of the sanctuary, they yet despised the name of Jehovah: they offered polluted bread upon His altar—they brought the torn, the lame, and the sick for sacrifice. They said of His service, “Behold, what a weariness is it!” (Mal 1:13). They committed abomination, corrupting the covenant of Levi, and profaning “the holiness of the LORD” (Mal 2:11). It was thus that the last prophet of Israel was commissioned to proclaim the sins of an apostate and ungodly priesthood. It was thus that he 40 profligate – given over to evil and immorality. 41 licentious – unrestrained by law or morality. 42 byword – object of notoriety or scorn. 158 was sent forth, bearing to them the awful burden which his prophecy contains— denouncing against them the righteous displeasure of that God whose compassionate forbearance and patient love they had tried so long. But yet, at the very time that Jehovah was thus warning them of coming doom, and threatening them with the inflictions of His hot displeasure, He addresses to them words of most marvelous long-suffering and tender compassion; the words of One still lingering with fond forbearance over His desolate heritage, His bleating flock—unwilling to deliver up to vengeance that once honored, once faithful priesthood, who had borne His name for many generations, and been anointed with His holy oil! Ere removing from their office the unworthy representatives of Aaron, and Eleazar, and Phinehas, He reminds them tenderly, in the passage before us, of the gracious nature of that covenant which they were despising—a covenant of life and peace established with the fathers of the consecrated tribe that served the altar. He reminds them of the reverence and godly fear which had marked their fathers, and because of which the covenant of life and peace had been committed to their hands. He reminds them of the character, the speech, the walk, and deportment43 which had signalized their fathers; and He makes mention of the glorious success which had followed their labors as teachers of the people. Thus He recalls them to the holy associations of a better age—the still unforgotten blessings of a purer, happier priesthood. No rebuke could be severer than that here administered, by the contrast thus drawn between the prevailing corruption of the time and the purity of earlier days. Yet no admonition or expostulation could be more gently and more affectionately conveyed than this. It speaks as tenderly to the heart as it does loudly to the conscience. Nothing can be more beautiful than the description here given of the character of the early Jewish priesthood—the house of Levi, ere they had left their first love, and corrupted the covenant of their father. “My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.” Most precious words! Simply, yet strikingly, descriptive of the character, the walk, the speech, the successful labors of a faithful priest, and not less so of a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus. How forcibly do these verses recall the similar commendations bestowed by the Chief Shepherd upon some of the angels of the churches of Asia! “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and…hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted” (Rev 2:2- 3). Thus we are taught, that it is the same Great Shepherd under Whom we hold office as in the case of Israel: the same Master Whom we serve, the same errand on which we are employed, the same end which is set before us: the conversion of souls—the turning of sinners from the error of their ways. There is also the same holiness of life and conversation, the same peaceful walking in the light of God’s reconciled countenance, the same 43 deportment – the way in which one moves or carries oneself. 159 heavenly-mindedness and calm superiority to the world, the same simple, disinterested, devoted warmth, the same patient laborious zeal, the same tender compassion for souls—and the same desire to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.