The Most Powerful Word!

Thoughts on Malachi 1:1-5

Words are powerful!  There are words that are conveyed that can make people stop dead in their tracks.  Words can change minds and hurt deeper than any sword or gun.  Words are powerful.

We yell STOP! And most likely everyone within earshot will stop and look up. We yell FIRE!  And it can send a crowd full of people into a frenzied panic.  A word of MARCH! From a commanding officer can set your body into movement regardless of desires.  Words are powerful. 

Proverbs says a calm word can turn away wrath.  Soothing words from a mom can calm down a frightened child.  A single word of tacit knowledge between friends can evoke uncontrollable laughter.  Words are very powerful.

Words can bind.  We say I promise and it binds us to do what we say.  We say “I do” at the altar signifying that these words are binding us in covenant with someone else until death do us part.

 I am convinced that one of the greatest and most powerful words in the world is love.  I remember when I was on the phone with Brita in high school and at the end of the phone call I blurted out “I love you” as we hung up the phone.  I was shocked!  Those words are powerful and are an outpouring of my heart towards Brita.  Thankfully she felt the same way about me.

But in each of these instances the words have power, only to the degree with which the speaker has authority.  A friend says stop, you may stop, but if a police officer says STOP, you stop.  A partner in your barracks may say march, but if your sargent says march you do it!  If a stranger says I love you, it has no power and is kind of creepy, but if someone who you love and has demonstrated their love to you says I love you, it is infinitely meaningful.

Words are powerful.  So when Malachi open with a word to Israel that says “I have loved you,”, it is weighty.   But the weighty words turn infinitely powerful when it’s THE LORD who is saying them.   I have loved you says the LORD.  He could have said I have been your God, or I have been your Helper, or I have been your Master.  But he uses the most intimate words he can; I have loved you.

The infinite all powerful and sovereign God who created the universe with a word, saying Let there be light” and it was so, has loved you!  How can such a thing be?  This is truth to Israel.  The Lord needs no other words.  If he speaks, it is so.  Therefore if The Lord says that He has loved you, then it there is no other words of clarification. 

“How have you loved us?” is the deafening reply.  “PROVE IT!”  Is the response of the creature to the creator!  If there is any antithesis to the Almighty God declaring his love for His people, its this.   Isaiah says  “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground.”

The scorn is palpable.  Make no mistake; this is not an innocent question.  This is a loaded declaration of God’s unfaithfulness, distance, and indifference to Israel.  Look at us!  Don’t you care?  Don’t you see us?  The temple is rebuilt, the walls of Jerusalem are up again, and sacrifices are going again.  So where is the blessing?  Where is the prosperity?  Where is the benefits that come with all the pieces in place?  We are doing our part!  But our enemies despise us.  The kingdom is in shambles, and there is opposition everywhere.  How have you loved us??  How?

The Lord replies to their question.  But not how we might think.  We are expecting for the Lord to respond with a recounting of the mighty work of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, or sustaining them for 40 years in the desert.  We might expect God to point to his faithfulness as the Israelites cross the Jordan and drive out the nations before them.  We might even think He will point to the exile, and how He had sustained them for 70 years in Babylon and made a nation return to their land where it seemed all hope was lost.

But He didn’t respond with those truths.  Instead he said, “ Remember your brother?  Remember your elder brother Esau?  Son of Isaac? You were one and the same, yet I have loved you Jacob, but Esau I hated.  Look Israel.  Look outside of yourself-absorbed world.  Edom, the nation descended from Esau, is laid waste.  Their portion I gave them has been removed forever.  And if they try to rebuild, I will tear it down.  Do you have an inheritance now?  Have you rebuilt?  Don’t you see it? 

You are here and talking with me right now because of my love towards you!  I am carrying out my plan and purposes in Israel and in the whole world.  You returned to the land I gave you because of my love.  You rebuilt the temple because I have loved you.  You raised up the walls of Jerusalem, because I love you.  I am working in the whole world my purposes for My Name!  I am no petty tribal god. 

Even now, Israel, my love and faithfulness are guarding you.  You question and accuse me of wrong.  But I, the Lord, do not change, therefore you O children of Jacob are not destroyed” though you deserve it as much as your brother Esau.



Now this may seem obvious to us.  We may look at Israel and say “How can you question God’s love towards you?”  But you and I are not any different.

We work hard, doing the things that we ought.  We can be involved in many great and good works and yet feel at times alone.  We can perhaps stop and look at our circumstances and say “this isn’t what I expected.  I have served God and now look how things have turned out.”  Maybe a family member dies.  Maybe you get very sick.  Maybe you are struggling to make ends meet.  We can, like Israel, look up from our Bible that declares Gods love toward us and say “How?  How have you loved me?”  This, right now, doesn’t seem like love.

And like Israel, we will hear the sovereign voice of the Lord say, I chose you.  You did not choose me (Jn 15:16).   I chose you before the foundations of the world to be a people for my own possession.  Did I not love you?  If ever we are in that terrifying position of questioning Gods love towards us, we need to look only as far as the cross.

We have a brother, Jesus Christ, who was despised and rejected, who took the full wrath of Gods just punishment, for his brother and sister.  This is love!  And we have done nothing to deserve it! 

We can confidently boast, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.  Great is the Lord beyond our sphere of current circumstances.  He loves us!  He chose us!  He does not choose everyone!  He is accomplishing his Sovereign purposes throughout the world!  This is truly amazing love!

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1

So if you are in the depths of questioning God’s love towards you, when circumstances are not what you thought they would be, when your heart says PROVE IT, look to the cross.  See the wonder of the God-Man Jesus.  God’s sovereign love and righteousness on display to the world!  See his purposing power revealed to make a chosen possession. 

Worship the God who chooses whom he wills. You were worse than Jacob.  You were dead.   God made you alive with Christ.   By grace you have been saved!  You are alive!  He chose you!  You will be in the presence of God in unimaginable and full joy forever!  What a God, what a Savior, what a LORD, what a KING we have!!! 

So meditate on some of the most powerful words spoken by the most powerful and intimate being in the universe, our loving Father………… I have loved you! 

Finally, meditate, look to, and delight in the greatest word, THE WORD made flesh, Jesus Christ!