A Great Name

Mal. 1:11 "'For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations.' Says the Lord of hosts."

This is almost a follow up from the any questions, question that was asked through Zechariah. The Lord shall be King over all the earth…the Lord is one, and now through a different prophet, Malachi: "My name shall be great among the Gentiles…My name shall be great among the nations." This is not anyone else's name. This is God's name. This is the Lord of hosts' name. There is no wiggle room here. There is no shared greatness. This is God the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the God who at the beginning of this chapter said: "Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated." This is the same God who is referred to in Romans 9 when this quote was used. This is the God of the Bible. It is no one else. God did not stutter. He refers to His name three times in this verse. He wanted Israel to get this right. He wants us to get this right. It is the one and only true God of creation. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And He repeats another word in this verse: "Great". Great among the Gentiles and great among the nations. The name of God is going to be great, large, intense, important, distinguished. God will be exalted. And this is the cool thing, even though Malachi is writing to the nation of Israel, he is telling them that God is not just for them. He is for the Gentiles. He is for the nations. Everyone is going to experience this. No one is going to be left out. All day long. From the rising of the sun, even to its going down God's name will be the most important thing in the world.

The problem was, the nation of Israel forgot this. They were more concerned about their stuff. They wanted to keep the good stuff for themselves and give God the leftovers. They were not offering the best to God. Instead they were giving Him the blind and the lame and the sick. They were distracted from His greatness.

The problem is, we forget this too. We get distracted. We want to keep the good stuff for ourselves too. We don't give God our best. We may think about praying sometimes, but we have so many other things to do, we can just shoot up a prayer to God when we get the time or when we absolutely need help. We feed out bodies. We eat three meals a day but we don't have the time to feed our inner man through God's word. We want something so we go out and buy it and we are not generous to others and we give God a tip at church. We are no better than these people Malachi was writing to 2400 years ago. We lose sight of the fact that God's name is not just going to be great, it is great now. It is exalted now. It is important now. This is His reputation. There is nothing else that can compete with Him.

God help me. You deserve my best. Your name is great all the time. Let me honor it all the time.