How Do You Respond When God Requires Waiting?

Wearying God with Words of Unbelief In Your Waiting?

On Sunday evening, Rev. Devon Rossman preached at Fellowship Reformed, a Church in Mt Pleasant. And he continued our series through the book of Malachi, preaching from Chapter 2, verse 17. The Sermon title was “Tired of Waiting?” And the text of Scripture is as follows:

You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Sermon Introduction

This evening, we’ll be continuing our sermon series in Malachi. And keep in mind, Malachi has a unique place among the Old Testament prophets. Because he’s coming at a point where Israel has had so much of a shared history with God. God had shown so much kindness to Israel by establishing them as a special nation for his own possession, and giving them the land of Canaan, and communicating to them through his law and prophets. But the Jews turned away from God. They turned to various kinds of evil. And they wouldn’t listen when warned them of coming judgment. And so – just as we heard in our sermon this morning – God brought foreign armies to destroy the kingdom, and masses of the Jews were taken captive and carried into exile, away from their homeland.

But after several decades, God brought a remnant of the Jews back. He still had promises for good that he intended to fulfill. And as the first generation of Jews returned, God reaffirmed his continuing care. But as Malachi is writing, several more decades have passed. And these later generations of Jews have grown tired of waiting. They don’t see God bringing the sort of restoration they would expect. And so as we’ve seen over the last several weeks – a growing number of these people have become careless and corrupt. The priests have neglected their work to teach the people. People are offering their worst animals to God instead of their best. The people are being unfaithful in their marriages, and unfaithful in their relationship with God.

And the problem with all of it, is that the people hardly seem to even realize that this is happening. God speaks through his prophet, Malachi, here. And he points out the concerns that he sees in his people. And yet, in the text, as a standard response, the people seem to reply – What are you talking about, God? How have we polluted you? Why don’t you have favor with our sacrifices anymore? The people are dull-hearted. And they don’t seem to be aware how offensive their complacency and callousness is.

And we’ll see the same in our text today. So if you have a Bible nearby, please turn with me to Malachi, Chapter 2…

(For more, please listen to the audio).