Whether one is in the practice of making resolutions or not, there is something about the New Year that encourages reassessment and recalibration. Seeing a new number on the calendar can prompt thoughtful and goal-inspiring questions, such as, “Where do I want to be in twelve months?”, “What changes should I make?”, or “In what ways must I grow?” Similarly, God’s people may find this introspective and aspirational practice helpful, asking ourselves, “What kind of disciple does my Saviour want me to be?” and “What can I do to mature in the Lord?”
As we think seriously and prayerfully about our walks with God, our dedication to Christ, and our usefulness to the Spirit, what spiritual resolutions might we make this year? Through his prophet, Malachi, God gave Israel six corrective and foundational resolutions to embrace as they entered a new phase of their lives. We’ll learn along with them.
SERMON MANUSCRIPT
I know that some are opposed to or have soured on the practice of resolution-setting, but there is something about turning over the calendar that encourages reassessment and recalibration. This could apply educationally, relationally, physically, financially, vocationally, or even spiritually. Looking at a new year, we may ask ourselves “Where do I want to be twelve months from now? What do I want to change? How will I grow?”
Jonathan Edwards was an 18th-century American theologian who, in no small part, contributed to one of the greatest revivals in history. When young, Edwards wrote seventy resolutions to aid him in becoming the man he wanted to be. Hear four of them:
- “Resolved: Never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
- “Resolved: When I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom—both of Jesus and of Believers around the world; and remind myself of the reality of hell.
- “Resolved: To study the Scriptures so steadily, and so constantly, and so frequently, that it becomes evident—even obvious—to myself that my knowledge of them has grown.
- “Resolved: To be strictly and firmly faithful to whatever God entrusts to me. My hope is that the saying in Proverbs 20:6, “A faithful man who can find?” may not be found to be even partly true of me.”
Edwards was intense about godliness and God used him intensely.
To what kind of man or woman of God do you aspire? To what kind of assembly of believers do we aspire? Thinking of our walks with God, our dedication to Christ, and our usefulness to the Spirit, how might we finish this sentence: be it resolved _____ ?
I want to help us fill in that blank as we begin 2025 by studying the book of Malachi, the final book of the Old Testament. Turn there if you have a Bible and, as you do, let me set its context.
In 586 b.c., Babylonian armies invaded the Promised Land, raided Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and captured Israel, essentially ending their national and religious life. It was a dark and disciplinary time for God’s people. Decades later, the Lord arranged for their return to rebuild and reestablish what had been lost. But life was hard. Crops were poor, building was slow, sin was common, and hearts were heavy.
And it’s into this stew of trauma, doubt, and immaturity that God sends Malachi to help his people reassess and recalibrate as they face a new beginning. Six times in four chapters the prophet charges the people with a life-changing correction to make, a character-shaping burden to bear, a God-glorifying resolution to keep. If they want to live how God wants them to live, if they want to be who God wants them to be, here’s where they start.
And so should we. Be it resolved: I will not doubt God’s love. I will not question the Lord’s faithfulness. We, as a church, will not look with suspicion upon his kindness and with uncertainty upon his devotion. Be it resolved!
GOD’S PEOPLE
But that can be a hard one to keep, can’t it? It was for God’s people during Malachi’s ministry.
In verse 2, God tells them, “I have loved you” (1:2), a statement they’ve heard often. Moses said it a lot. [Deut 4:37; 10:15; 23:5] While in exile, God sent Jeremiah to remind them, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3). All their lives Israel sang the words of the psalmist: ‘He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loves’ (Ps 47:4).
But now it’s hard to reconcile with what they’re experiencing. God’s people look at what their land has become, they see the pathetic temple standing where Solomon’s monument to God’s power used to be, they observe the plague-infested fields, they recall the years in captivity, and they remember the names of their family members who died abroad and they, through gritted teeth and with a tone of accusation, ask God: “how have you loved us, exactly? Where’s the evidence of your divine favour in the smouldering garbage heap of our lives?” God tells his people, “I have loved you,” and they respond, “Really? How so?”
Some of you feel the same way. Sure, you know the verses: “For God so loved the world … we love because he first loved us … [nothing can] separate us from the love of God … for God is love.” You’ve heard many times and maybe you used to believe it with every fibre of your being but now you’re struggling.
You winced when we just sang, “Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King, his love endures forever.” Really? “Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Saviour’s love.” Hey, I feel the weakness but where’s that loving strength?
I’m not suggesting that you’re losing your faith. In Malachi, God’s people never stopped being God’s beloved people. But, like them, when you look at your life and consider the stresses, heartbreaks, rejections, and rebellions, you can’t help but put your finger in God’s face and ask, “How have you loved me? It seems like you’re punishing me, ignoring me, or hiding from me.”
GOD’S PROMISE
In our passage, that’s the testimony of God’s people. But let’s now shift our attention to God’s promise. Israel was doubting God’s care so God brings the receipts, reminding them of the love he has shown them in the past, proof that he loves them in the present, and a guarantee that he’ll love them in the future.
In the past
[1:2–3] In the past God made a covenant with Abraham, a divine oath guaranteeing that, through Abraham’s line, would come a nation-creating, people-securing, world-blessing reality. What an honour to be used by God like that!
From Abraham came Isaac, the default carrier of that hope. From Isaac came Esau and Jacob, twins that created a potential fork in the road of God’s redemptive plan. Which one would he choose? Culturally, it should’ve been Esau, the firstborn, but, instead, God selected Jacob, a choice that was made before the boys were born. Jacob didn’t earn the honour and Esau didn’t lose it. It simply pleased God to set his selecting love upon the younger boy. This wasn’t an election to eternal life—not all of Jacob’s descendants, Israel, were saved and not all of Esau’s descendants, Edom, were damned. This was a divine election to a blessed service.
Israel whines, “God, you haven’t loved us!” God says, “Really? I picked you, a wildly unimpressive people, to be the recipients and bearers of my convent through which came divine intimacy and will come global restoration! That’s a love so deep that, in contrast, your “more deserving” brother, Esau, appears hated.
In the present
And, if looking to the past isn’t enough, consider the present. “Babylon attacked Edom too but look around, Israel—you still exist. Edom doesn’t.” [1:3–4]
Esau’s descendants became a proud and hostile opponent of Israel. But, because they were conduits of God’s blessing, Israel enjoys God’s preservation and vindication. Edom suffers desolation and humiliation. Israel has inherited the privilege of the covenant. Edom has inherited “the jackals of the wilderness.” Israel will be remembered as the bearer of Messiah. Edom will always be called “the wicked territory.”
In the future
And you can hear God already pointing to the future, something he continues in verse 5. [1:5]
One day Israel will recognize God’s love as it spills beyond their borders. God promised to bless the world through them and, despite their unfaithfulness, he’s going to do it. And when he does—when the nations join in worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—then, even doubting Israel will clearly see it all.
“I haven’t loved you?” God says. “Remember what I have done for you, what I am doing for you, and what I said I will do for you. And remember that you deserved none of it, fought me on all of it, and rebelled against me during it. I haven’t loved you?”
This passage reminds me of a cliched parent-teenager argument: “You never let me do anything! Why do you hate me?”
To which the parents responds: “Hate you? I couldn’t list the ways I’ve loved you, provided, cared, corrected, protected, encouraged, and guided you. Not to mention that this accusation comes while you’re living rent-free in my house, eating my food, using my internet, and borrowing my car. Throw in the fact that we’ve promised to help with future tuition, job hunting, and relationship advice. I haven’t loved you?” It’s hard to imagine a more ignorant, self-centred, ungrateful, and foolish claim.
Doesn’t that sound like Israel in Malachi? They’d just been delivered from a corrective exile about which they’d been warned often. They’re back in a land they didn’t earn as a nation they couldn’t sustain carrying a covenant they don’t deserve. And they look at their God and say, “You haven’t loved us!”
And God, with far more grace and patience than I have as a parent, says, “Yes, I have. Yes, I do. Yes, I will.”
Those words, brothers and sisters, drift through the centuries and land before us today. God has loved you. God does love you. God always will love you. This is a foundational truth of the Christian worldview; the cornerstone of our reality. If we lose sight of God’s love for us, if we lose our grip on his acceptance of us, if we doubt his commitment to us, we’re in trouble.
It matters not what you’ve experienced in life, what you are enduring these days, or what is coming in 2025. Pain, disappointment, diagnoses, loss, and even death are marks of this sin-scarred world, but they do nothing to shake, mute, or weaken the reality of God’s love and we need to take care not to view his kindness through the lens of our fallenness.
Now, we could spend time listing all the ways in which God has provided for us, guided us, and reassured us. But let me go right for the big ones. In the past—roughly two thousand years ago—God sent his Son to die for us. You and I, being sinners, were owed death. But God the Son incarnate tasted it for us. He who knew no sin became sin for sinners. The Lamb of God became the covenant ratifying sacrifice to offer absolute forgiveness, total liberation, and endless life to all who trust him for it.
In the present, we are indwelled by the Spirit of God—our teacher, comforter, and helper. We are sealed in Christ Jesus for the day of redemption. We are equipped, used, led, and blessed. We are, right now, full participants of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, filled with purpose, brimming with worth, sent with power, and freed from condemnation.
And, what about the future? The Lord has promised to be with us until our last breath on earth and, after that, glory, resurrection, justice, peace, bliss, reward, eternity. The God who cannot lie has promised these things to his new covenant people.
Be it resolved: I will not doubt God’s love. I will not, even in my darkest moments, accuse my Lord of such self-centred, ungrateful, foolishness. Instead, I will face what may come from the firm foundation of his love for me, because of what he has done, what he is doing, and what he has promised to do.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
- Josiah Boydhttps://oakridgebiblechapel.org/author/josiah-boyd/
- Josiah Boydhttps://oakridgebiblechapel.org/author/josiah-boyd/
- Josiah Boydhttps://oakridgebiblechapel.org/author/josiah-boyd/
- Josiah Boydhttps://oakridgebiblechapel.org/author/josiah-boyd/