Malachi 1:13-2:5

13 Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.

Snuffed= belittled, dismissed as unimportant or inopportune.

The sacrifices were not acceptable because they violated the criteria set out in the Law.  But worse, they were unacceptable because of the attitude of the people and of the priests.  The priests should have never accepted such sacrilege to be presented to the Lord.  It was their own indifference towards the sacrifices and to the Lord that made them to accept the unworthy sacrifices.  It was their lack of love and respect for the Lord that allowed them to bring them before the Lord themselves.  They shamed themselves by accepting such a sacrifice to be brought to the Lord.  Instead of seeing the sacrifice as an honorable deed and a recognition to God for his unwarranted love, they saw it as menial and a distraction. God was unfair to expect their best, when they are the ones who needed it, not God. They would gladly sacrifice their children to false Gods, but their livestock and their tithes to Jehovah was not so great a calling.

Unfortunately, they were so far from God that they could not see this.  Instead of seeing the sacrifices as a sign of the mercies of God towards them, that he should accept them, they saw it as a burden.  They had allowed their hearts to grow cold and forgot how he delivered them from slavery and drove out their enemies before them.  They forgot how he mercifully gave them a king.  They forgot how the gentiles feared them under King David, and how he made them the jewel of the nations under King Solomon.

They forgot their unique relationship to the Creator that no other people had. (Deuteronomy 4:7-40)

·        There was no nation like them in the world

·        God was closer to them than any other people

·        They could call upon God at any time in any circumstance

·        They heard the Words of God

·        They were carriers of the Word of God

·        They stood around the mountain of God, no one else has

·        They had a covenant with God

The Lord asks, should I accept an offering from someone who thinks it such a burden and a menial task?

14 But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words. (Exodus 24:7-8)

Chapter 2

1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

God commands his priest to comply with his will. 

2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Refusal to comply with the commandments of the Lord has resulted in God cursing the very blessings that he gave them, so that the blessings and prosperity they have received by the Lord will become a stumbling block to them, and bring scourging.

3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

The Lord affirms his covenant with Levi, that they should be his priests, as a testimony of his commandment.

5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

The priest of God must have a heart that fears the Lord.