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"I will rebuke your descendants"

Text: Malachi 2:3

A CURSE THAT WILL AFFECT POSTERITY

The warning of a curse was to be taken seriously. The curse would affect the next generation!

“Behold, I will rebuke your descendants
And spread refuse on your faces,
The refuse of your solemn feasts;
And one will take you away with it.”
Malachi 2:3

1. “Behold, I will rebuke your descendants”

a) This was a direct rebuke to the priests and the Levites.

b) God will also rebuke the descendants:

i) If they were to behave as sinfully.

ii) If they were to be as stubborn and wicked.

2. “And spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts”

a) Refuse may have reference to:

i) Offal (internal organs of an animal that are to be burned – Exodus 29:14)

ii) It may also be read as “dung”.

b) It is unclean and any contact with refuse would render the priest ceremonially unclean and thus unfit for service.

c) To spread refuse on the face;

i) It is a very severe form of rebuke.

ii) It is a grim word of warning to show how seriously God looked at the sin-problem of the priests and Levites.

d) Solemn feasts;

i) These feasts were to be regarded as “sacred”.

ii) These would include Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.

3. “And one will take you away with it”

a) This kind of warning was given to Eli and his sons.

b) If they were to continue to be unrepentant and sinful, they would be taken out of the priestly or Levitical ministry (1 Samuel 2:27-36).

c) Eli, Hophni and Phinehas and his wife perished in fulfilment of what God had warned (1 Samuel 4:19-22).