Malachi 2:1-9

3. THE PRIESTHOOD OF KNOWLEDGE

Malachi 2:1

In the third section of his book "Malachi" addresses himself to the priests. He charges them not only with irreverence and slovenliness in their discharge of the Temple service-for this he appears to intend by the phrase "filth of your feasts"-but with the neglect of their intellectual duties to the people. "The lips of a priest guard knowledge, and men seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the Angel" the revealing Angel-"of Jehovah of Hosts." Once more, what a remarkable saying to come from the legal age of Israel's religion, and from a writer who so emphasizes the ceremonial law! In all the range of prophecy there is not any more in harmony with the prophetic ideal. How needed it is in our own age!-needed against those two extremes of religion from which we suffer, the limitation of the ideal of priesthood to the communication of a magic grace, and its evaporation in a vague religiosity from which the intellect is excluded as if it were perilous, worldly, and devilish. "Surrender of the intellect" indeed! This is the burial of the talent in the napkin, and, as in the parable of Christ, it is still in our day preached and practiced by the men of one talent. Religion needs all the brains we poor mortals can put into it. There is a priesthood of knowledge, a priesthood of the intellect, says "Malachi," and he makes this a large part of God's covenant with Levi. Every priest of God is a priest of truth; and it is very largely by the Christian ministry's neglect of their intellectual duties that so much irreligion prevails. As in "Malachi's" day, so now, "the laity take hurt and hindrance by our negligence." And just as he points out, so with ourselves, the consequence is the growing indifference with which large bodies of the Christian ministry are regarded by the thoughtful portions both of our laboring and professional classes. Were the ministers of all the Churches to awake to their ideal in this matter, there would surely come a very great revival of religion among us. "And now this Charge for you, O priests: If ye hear not, and lay not to heart to give glory to My Name, saith Jehovah of Hosts, I will send upon you the curse, and will curse your blessings-yea, I have cursed them-for none of you layeth it to heart. Behold, I you and I will scatter filth in your faces, the filth of your feasts And ye shall know that I have sent to you this Charge, to be My covenant with Levi, saith Jehovah of Hosts. My covenant was with him life and peace Numbers 25:12 and I gave them to him, fear and he feared Me, and humbled himself before My Name. The revelation of truth was in his mouth, and wickedness' was not found upon his lips. In whole-heartedness and integrity he walked with Me, and turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest guard knowledge, and men seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the Angel of Jehovah of Hosts. But ye have turned from the way, ye have tripped up many by the Torah, ye have spoiled the covenant of Levi, saith Jehovah of Hosts. And I on My part have made you contemptible to all the people, and abased in proportion as Ye kept not My ways and had respect of persons in delivering your Torah."