Ye have said, It is vain to serve god.
The service God demands
Those who were the immediate objects of the prophet’s ministry had departed from the service of God. The priests having broken their covenant, the people were ruined by their vile example, and went back from God by a perpetual backsliding.
I. The nature of that service which God demands.
1. Our service to God must be sincere. All true religion ceases when the heart is not right with God.
2. Our Christian service must be scriptural.
3. This service must be uniform. There is, in matters of true religion, a balance power--always keeping its possessor in happy and perfect equality.
4. In this service you must be diligent.
5. In this service you must be employed until you die. Having once put your hand to the plough, you are not to look back.
II. The advantages of that service.
1. It gives, m return, the richest blessings. The Christian service gives us liberty, and liberty of the highest kind; for, if the Son make you free, then are you free indeed. So rich are the blessings this service bestows, that we cannot speak their worth; and so numerous, that to tell their vast amount our efforts are all vain.
2. Another advantage is elevation and honour.
3. This service brings contentment.
4. This service takes away the fear of death.
5. This service will be rewarded in heaven. Apply to four descriptions of persons.
(1) You who are not engaged in this service.
(2) Those who have just entered on this service.
(3) Those who were once engaged in this service; but have left it.
(4) You who are old servants in this good cause. (R. Croxton.)
Religion delineated and depreciated
I. RELIGION DELINEATED. Three expressions used to represent it
1. To serve God. A great difference between serving God and serving man. In the one case the servant benefits the master, in the other the sole benefit is the servant’s. In the one the service is estimated by work actually done; in the other by work earnestly purposed. In the one there is a surrender of freedom; in the other there is an attainment of it. He who engages to serve man must surrender some portion of his liberty; he who serves God alone, secures the highest freedom.
2. To keep His ordinance. This is only a branch of the service, or, perhaps, the method of doing it. God has ordinances or institutes, some are moral, some are ceremonial; the latter may cease to bind, the former are everlastingly in force.
3. To walk mournfully before the Lord. To “walk” before the Lord is religion in perfection, religion in heaven. It implies an abiding consciousness of the Divine presence, and continual progress in the Divine will. Walking “mournfully” characterises the religion of earth; it is associated with penitence, contrition, etc. The walk of religion is only mournful here.
II. Here we have practical religion depreciated. “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it,” etc.
1. Men say this when religion does not answer their secular expectations. Many take up with religion in these days because of the secular good they expect will accrue from their profession of it; if the good come not they think it vain.
2. Men say this when they see the truly religious in poverty and affliction. Asaph saw this when he said, “I have washed my hands in vain.”
3. Men say this when they have taken up religion from selfish motives. A man who takes up with religion for the sake of good will get no good out of it; nay, will get disappointment, for “he that seeketh his life shall lose it.” No truly religious man has said religion is vain, he feels it to be its own reward--the highest reward. In truth, it is the only service on earth that will not prove vain. (Homilist.)
Is religion useless
The charge here is, that they who sin, prosper. A similar complaint common to all ages. God takes it as a charge against Himself.
I. The charge. Those who profess to serve God complain that there is no “profit.” They are not happy--not blessed. What is the inference? That the proud, the self-willed, self-confident, self-complacent, are “happy.” “The tempters of God,” who practically set Him at defiance--dare Him to do the worst--are delivered. Happiness and visible advantage are connected with rebellion.
II. Examine the facts.
1. The religion itself is not that which God requires, and which He has promised to bless.
2. The happiness is only fleshly, imperfect. The deliverance is present and temporal. The happiness is not true--not of She whole man. See the true servant of God; pardoned, spiritually renewed, glorifying God in body and spirit. See him in the peace and joy of his soul. See him walking under the guardianship of providence. Dying in hope. Carried to Abraham’s bosom. Accepted in the judgment. Admitted into heaven. Will you say then, “It is vain to serve God,” and that there is no profit in walking before Him? (G. Cubitt.)
Unacceptable sacrifices
The law was not only typical institution; it was a system of government appointed and administered by God Himself. It contains, therefore, references to the great principles, rules, and characteristics of acceptable obedience. The text refers to priests, but not exclusively. It describes the union of formal piety--something must be offered; avarice, producing unwillingness to offer what God required, as being too costly; and cunning, devising an expedient, namely, to “offer the torn, the lame, and the sick.” Thus they brought an offering, but it was unacceptable, and, instead of a blessing, produced a curse. Lessons--
1. God requires that we offer Him a sacrifice.
2. Rightly offered, He accepts the offering, and blesses the offerer.
3. While there are those who will offer nothing, there are others who seek to reconcile duty with their own carnal interests. They seek not spiritual preparation for duty, they present partial, formal service, while they live in habitual disobedience.
4. Such persons are, as far as their object is concerned, “deceivers.” Actually they cannot deceive God. Practically, and in their own intention, they act as though they could.
5. They are “accursed.” God accepts not their sacrifice. They have no positive blessing. If you would accept ably sacrifice, you must give yourselves up entirely to God. For this, spiritual preparation is requisite. You must have spiritual regeneration, healing your soul, that your offering may be acceptable. Thus prepared, the whole must be given, in holy obedience, holy exercises. Your formal religion confesses that something is necessary. You are self-condemned. Your religion, such as it is, aggravates your guilt. (G. Cubitt.)
Accusing God
They bring a twofold accusation against God, that they received no reward for their piety when they faithfully discharged their duty towards God, and also that it was better with the ungodly and the despisers of God than with them. We hence see how reproachfully they exaggerated what they deemed the injustice of God, at least how they themselves imagined that He disappointed the just of their deserved reward, and that He favoured the ungodly and the wicked as though He was pleased with them, as though He intended the more to exasperate the sorrow of His own servants, who, though they faithfully worshipped, yet saw that they did so in vain, as God concealed Himself, and did not reward their services. That the good also are tempted by thoughts of this kind, is no wonder, when the state of things in the world is in greater confusion (Ecclesiastes 9:2). There is really no occasion for indignation and envy offered to us, but as God designedly tries our faith by such confusions, we must remember that we must exercise patience. Let us learn to form a right judgment as to what our life is, and then let us bear in mind how many are the reasons why God should sometimes deal roughly with us. Thus all our envying will cease, and our minds will be prepared calmly to obey. In short, these considerations will check whatever perverseness there may be in us, so that neither our wicked thoughts nor our words will be so strong as to rise in rebellion against God. (John Calvin.)
The worshipping service required of Christians
The Jews were required by the Levitical law to offer unto God the best of their flock in sacrifice. This they did in their happiest and purest times. In the age of Malachi their worship had greatly degenerated. It had become, in fact, a totally hypocritical service. Heavy judgments are denounced against them by the prophet for this contempt of God. First, the rejection of their service. Next the abolition of their Church, State, and privileges, and the transfer of them to the Gentiles. And a withering curse upon them, both individually and at length nationally, for their hypocrisy. These things happened to them as examples to us, the people of God under the new dispensation. God requires the best of us, and of what belongs to us. We stand engaged to render this to Him by the acceptance of His covenant.
I. The nature of the requisition which god here makes.
1. We must serve Him with our best powers. First and chiefly the powers of the mind. Bodily service, apart from any interest taken in it by the mind, is of little worth. God requires the “heart.” We must worship Him in spirit, for He is a Spirit. By the spirit we are to understand the mind with all its powers. The body is the altar, but the spirit is the oblation. The spirit includes memory, judgment, and affections. Bodily service, as the offspring and expression of the mind, is required, and is highly acceptable.
2. We must give Him the best season of life. This is the season of youth. Then our powers are fresh and vigorous; and then we are most beset by other suitors.
3. We must give Him the best portion of our time. Religion must not be regarded as a relaxation, but prosecuted as a business--the great business of life. It is termed a calling and a work.
4. We must give to God the best of our talents and substance. We ought, as Christians, to surpass others in common charity and benevolence; for grace is to improve and heighten all human virtues, as well as to improve those that are Divine.
II. The reasons by which this requisition of our best in the service of God is enforced. God will only accept the best, for the following reasons--
1. His greatness. God is a great king, for the extent of His dominions, the number of His servants, and the reverence paid to Him by them. For the information He receives of our service. For the numerous methods in which He can express His displeasure.
2. His goodness enforces His claim. What have we that we have not received? All the faculties of our mind and organs and members of our body we owe to Him. The same may be said of our substance. To Him we are indebted for the ability, the health, the industry by which it was obtained.
3. The credit of our religion demands this service. This ought to be dear to us; and it is to be maintained and promoted by such a service as has been specified. And how is a religion advantaged when a just picture is given of it in the lives and tempers of its recipients!
4. The evils avoided and the benefits obtained by compliance with the demand, enforce its obligation. How fearful the communication of Christ to the lukewarm Church of Laodicea. What encouraging promises, in the Scripture, meet those who are careful, diligent, and devout in the service of God!
Improvement--
1. Let all see that they are properly capacitated for this service. In order to this, a twofold change must take place: in our state--in our character.
2. Let us be thankful for the existence of public worship among us, and seek after its improvement and extension.
3. Let us hail with a spirit of religious joy and co-operation the approaching diffusion of Gospel-worship all over the world. (J. Leifchild, D. D.)