Malachi 1:2a
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”
The opening statement from the lips of God in the Book of Malachi is something that is glorious to hear. God says, I have loved you.” Think of the alternatives. What if God said to you, I don’t love you,” or “I hate you,” or “I used to love you, but not anymore.” Such phrases would be devastating. But here, at the very onset of the book of Malachi, God tells the people of God, “I have loved you.”
The tense of the verb when God says, “I have loved you,” indicates that the love of God is something that was accomplished in the past but which continues on into the present. It is God telling them that he loved them in the past and he still loves them today. His love is completely and totally established.
This word, loved, is a word that has more important meaning in it than simple affection. The word here used for love is a word that indicates God’s choosing Israel, his faithfulness to Israel, His covenant relationship with Israel. God’s use of this word brings to mind. . .
Deuteronomy 7:6-9
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
When God says that he has loved Israel, he is saying that he has chosen her and committed himself to a relationship with her for her good. He did not do this because Israel was special or better than any other nation. Instead, God did this simply for his own purpose, his own glory.
Israel responds to God’s declaration of love like a snotty teenager. “Oh yeah; how have you loved me?” What spite is in those words. “Sure, you say you love us, but we haven’t seen it. You don’t love us at all.”
What’s wrong with that question? One thing is that the issue of the love of God has been proved time and time and time again. Like the teen sitting on his bed given him by his parents, in the clothes given him by his parents, eating food provided by his parents, playing with gifts given to him out of his parents’ kindness, yet questioning the caring of his parents, so Israel acts as though God has done nothing to prove he loves them. Just because things are not presently going the way Israel wants, they assume that God has to do something extra to prove his love.
But God has loved Israel, and the proof is in the history. God chose them as a nation to be his special possession. God rescued them from Egypt. God gave them his commandments and a special covenant to teach them to act like his people. God brought them home from their captivity in Babylon even though they had rebelled against his commandments. God provided them the opportunity and resources to rebuild the temple so that they could continue to be the people who worship him. God had given them more than enough proof to make it obvious that he loved them.
What about you? If I tell you that God has loved you, how will you respond? Do you find that this brings you joy? Do you know it to be true? Or, like Israel, do you say, “Prove it”?
Romans 5:8
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Do you want proof of God’s love? We have all sinned against him and he has chosen not to immediately destroy us for our wrong. Not only that, God chose to send his only Son to die in order to purchase a people for himself. All who have put their trust in Jesus have seen the love of God proved, because all who have trusted in Jesus have been granted forgiveness of their sins and entrance into God’s family.
I want to urge you to do this one thing: Settle in your heart the issue of God’s love. Right now, you need to decide whether or not it is true that God loves you. Has God proved his love or not? Was sending Jesus to die as a sacrifice for the sins of God’s people enough to prove that God is loving? If not, what would prove God’s love to you? The very fact that you are drawing breath right now is proof that he has been more merciful to us than any of us deserve. Let’s get that fact straight in our minds right now.
Why is it so crucial that you settle in your heart the issue of God’s love? The reason is that you and I do not want to be like Israel, arrogantly and defiantly demanding that God re-prove his love for us over and over.
Henry Blackaby (a teacher I will seldom cite) tells the story of a day when he and his family were at a friend’s home for a gathering. On that day, a small child fell into the swimming pool and was under water for far too long. By the time the adults at the party were able to pull the child out, his little face was blue and he wasn’t breathing. As one person called 911, others began performing rescue breathing on the limp little child. After a horrifying and tense few minutes, the child coughed, spat up water, and began breathing normally. By the time the paramedics arrived, the child was sitting up and things were fine.
The next day, Blackaby was in his prayer closet, thinking about the rescue of the child, and thanking God for how good and loving he was. Over and over again he declared that God was so good. Then Blackaby said that it hit him like a shot: Would God not have been good or loving had the child died? Blackaby had to return to his knees before the Lord and confess his own sinfulness. He was measuring God’s goodness and God’s love based on his circumstances. You see, God has already totally proved his love for us, and nothing that happens in our own lives can change that fact.
If you do not settle in your own heart that God’s love is already totally true and totally proven, you will not be able to handle it when tough times come in your life. If you are not settled on the issue of God’s love, every financial difficulty, every medical test, every family crisis will put God on trial in your heart. Christians, we cannot live like that. It dishonors God for us to live like that. No, before the time of trial and before the time of testing, we need to already know this one fact beyond any doubt: God has proved his love and faithfulness to us in Christ. Nothing more need be done. Even if God allows all our visible means of support to fall away. Even if we end up sick, poor, and alone. Even if the worst thing imaginable should happen to us in this life, we should never allow that to intrude on the simple, totally proven truth that God has loved us. Christians, get this settled in your heart now, and it will save you much pain in the future.
Pastor Travis Peterson 