Tree of Life Day 44: Malachi 1-4

I honestly think some of the language of the prophets gets lost in translation.  I think they might have been a little more disturbing, even violent, in their language than translators and Bible publishers will allow.  Malachi seems to be one of those and I'll give you a mere one example.

Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it (2.3).

Are you offended?  I mean, the message is pretty clear.  Your worship is crap ("the dung of your offerings").   How about now?  What if they had translated it with an even harsher, coarser, more profane word?

And now this question:  are you more offended at the language or that the worship of God was profaned by the ministers of the day?  Am I more offended by my ears hearing that or by my heart seeing God dishonored?

A minister named Tony Campolo spoke at my alma mater several years ago and had this line in his message:

40,000 kids are starving to death today in our world and the only thing worst than that is that most of us in this room, if we're honest with ourselves, don't give a sh--.  *Dramatic Pause*  And the only thing worst than that is that most of you are more offended that I said sh-- than you are that so many kids are dying.

There's a lot of prophetic truth in that, isn't there?

But God forbid we should ever be more offended by the delivery of the message than the sin that necessitated it.