Our church is currently in the middle of a series in the book of Malachi entitled "What People are Saying." Constantly throughout the book, God tells His people that He knows what they are saying - and why they are saying it. In chapter 2, God deals directly with the priests who are failing to give glory to His name. They are misrepresenting God to the people. And yet, at the solemn feasts, these same priests still take the choice parts of the animals sacrificed for their own livelihood. One of those choice parts is the maw (or stomach). It doesn't sound very appetizing to me, but then again, I pour hot sauce on everything I eat - so I'm probably not a very good judge. Apparently, before you can eat the stomach, you must clean it out thoroughly because it has refuse in it. In Malachi 2:3, God tells the priests that He will spread the refuse (from the sacrifices) on their faces. It's as if God is saying, "This is how you are causing people to think of me." The priests used their status and position to get what they wanted, and did not care how the people viewed God. It reminds me that as a pastor, I must always present God for who He really is. When Moses struck the rock (Numbers 20), instead of speaking to it as God commanded, he misrepresented God before the people and paid a terrible price. We are all called to give glory to God's name and the best way to do that is to show the unchurched who God really is. When people come to us with real problems, they need us to introduce them to a real God.CAP
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