A Covenant with Levi

Order of Service

• Hymn — When Morning Gilds the Skies
• Call to Worship — Psalm 34:1-3
• Hymn — When Morning Gilds the Skies
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — Psalm 38
• Assurance of Pardon — Isaiah 12:2-3
• Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 28:15-24
• Hymn — Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Father of Mercies, in Your Word
• Sermon
• Hymn — We Gather Together
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: A Covenant with Levi

Scripture: Malachi 2:1-9

I. Covenant Responsibilities Neglected

A. The Covenant with Levi was a covenant of fear — the priests were to stand in awe of Yahweh, yet they feared the Persian governor more than God

• They offered unblemished sacrifices to the Persian governor but blemished ones to the Lord (cf. Malachi 1:6-14)

B. The priests showed partiality in their instruction (Malachi 2:9)

1. They favored those of high financial and social status
2. True ministry in Yahweh's name shows no partiality, especially caring for the poor and weak (cf. 1 Corinthians 12)
3. Fear of man in ministry rubs shoulders with the powerful and passes by the weaker vessels; fear of God makes the weak feel seen

C. The priests failed to instruct the people in God's law — a primary duty of the levitical priesthood

1. The model of faithful instruction is seen in Nehemiah 8, where Ezra read the law publicly and the Levites gave understanding to the people
2. Malachi was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, showing how quickly the priesthood had fallen
3. Malachi 2:6 — the ideal priesthood turned people from iniquity; Malachi 2:8 — these priests caused many to stumble

D. By being careless in their own obedience, the priests became careless in caring for the souls of the people

1. Sin went unchecked; deformed sacrifices were accepted
2. Illustrated by J.C. Ryle's concept of "jellyfish Christianity" — ministers and worshippers without doctrinal backbone, unable to distinguish truth from error

II. Covenant Reversal Enacted

A. Yahweh declares the Covenant curse has already come upon the priests (Malachi 2:1-2)

• If no priest is courageous enough to shut the doors against false worship, Yahweh himself will act

B. The curse takes three forms:

1. He will curse their blessings — the benedictions the levitical priests pronounced over the people after worship

   • The great priestly benediction is found in Numbers 6:24-26: to place Yahweh's name on the people is to invoke his presence, peace, and blessing
   • The word "name" occurs eight times in Malachi 1:6–2:9
   • Because the priests have soiled Yahweh's name, their blessings upon the people are turned to curse

2. He will rebuke their offspring — the priesthood was hereditary; just as Yahweh promised in Deuteronomy 28 to shut up the womb for disobedience, so he will cut off the wicked priestly line

3. He will spread dung on their faces (Malachi 2:3)

   • Extreme language picturing Yahweh's intense anger
   • The dung refers to the entrails of sacrificed animals burned outside the camp on the dung heap
   • God will utterly destroy and put these priests out of memory, just as the entrails were cast outside the camp
   • Rather than his countenance shining upon them (Numbers 6:25), God flings their worthless sacrifices back upon their faces
   • Isaiah 65:6-7 — "I will repay into their lap… I will measure their payment into their lap"
   • What is hell? Ultimately, it is the dung heap an individual has been building up through a life of worthless offerings to God — apart from Christ, who took our filth upon himself

III. Covenant Repentance Intended

A. Amid the darkness of this passage, a word of comfort appears in Malachi 2:4

• The command is one of repentance: those who repent will turn and serve the Lord rightly; those who do not will meet the curse
• The harsh language of judgment is intended to stir the objects of wrath to repentance and life

B. The harsher the language, the more the grace — God's warnings are meant to draw people into his mercy and love

• The backward reasoning of using God's harsh warnings to deny his grace ignores that the warnings were designed to lead to life
• "Don't say in the end God didn't warn me"

C. However, this covenant repentance could never ultimately fix the problem with the levitical priesthood

1. The priesthood was hereditary — righteousness could not be made permanent through fleshly descent
2. Like the office of king in Israel, the office of priest fluctuated from generation to generation between righteousness and wickedness
3. The unchangeable God could not be properly represented by ever-changing, mutable priests

D. The levitical priesthood pointed forward to and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest

1. Hebrews 7:11-12 — perfection was not attainable through the levitical priesthood; a new priest after the order of Melchizedek was needed
2. Christ's priesthood is not based on bodily descent but is permanent and unchanging, like the mysterious figure of Melchizedek in Genesis 14 (Hebrews 7:3)
3. Christ intercedes permanently at the right hand of God, perfectly representing the immutable God to his people
4. His offspring is not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit — sons and daughters born of the Spirit, united to the priest-king
5. We are therefore a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), serving God as living sacrifices through the Eternal High Priest in the Eternal Temple
6. As another election season approaches, our ultimate hope must not rest in the fluctuating rulers of this world but in the priest-king whose rule and intercession is forever