Malachi 1:1-5: a reflection

1A revelation, the LORD’s word to Israel by Malachi. 2“I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD, “Yet I loved Jacob; 3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.” 4Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,” the LORD of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever.” 5Your eyes will see, and you will say, “The LORD is great—even beyond the border of Israel!”

The book of Malachi opens with a word of love: I have loved you, says the LORD. But the people respond with a jaded question: How have you loved us? They cannot see it; they doubt it. And God answers by pointing to his choice of them, his setting of his love on them when he need not have. He had loved them, chosen them, bound himself to them; and yet they, in their weariness and complaint, could no longer see or feel that love.

Notice the exchange: God declares his love, and the people doubt it. I have loved you, he says; and they answer, how have you loved us? They had grown so jaded, so focused on their complaints, that they could no longer perceive the love God had shown them, the choosing, the covenant, the faithfulness. God's love had not failed; but their eyes had grown dim to it, and they doubted what was plainly true.

That is a condition we can fall into: doubting God's love because we have grown jaded, or focused on our complaints. When life is hard, when things do not go as we wish, we can begin to question whether God really loves us, to say in our hearts, how have you loved me? But God's love is not in doubt; he has shown it, in choosing us, in binding himself to us, above all in Christ. The failure is in our dimmed sight, not in his love. When you are tempted to doubt God's love, do not trust the jaded feeling; look again at what God has actually done to show his love for you. He has said, I have loved you, and he has proved it; do not let weariness or complaint blind you to a love that is plainly, faithfully there.

Lord, Malachi opens with your word of love, I have loved you; and the people answer, jaded, how have you loved us, no longer able to see the love you had shown them. Keep me from that condition. When life is hard, when things do not go as I wish, I can begin to question whether you really love me, to say in my heart, how have you loved me? But your love is not in doubt; you have shown it, in choosing your people, in binding yourself to them, above all in Christ. The failure is in my dimmed sight, not in your love. When I am tempted to doubt your love, keep me from trusting the jaded feeling; help me look again at what you have actually done to show your love for me. You have said, I have loved you, and you have proved it; do not let weariness or complaint blind me to a love that is plainly, faithfully there. Open my eyes to your love, Lord, when I have grown dim to it.