Malachi 2:1-3

“And now, O priests, this command is for you. ²If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name,” says the Lord of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not take it to heart. ³ 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."

God’s not pulling any punches here. Dung on their faces? Really? Let’s review for a second. The exile is over. The Israelites (collectively in the Northern and Southern Kingdoms) were exiled due to disobedience to the Law and their blatant flaunting of sin. Now, some of the Jews have returned from exile to Jerusalem. The city walls and temple were rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah, and the religious rituals, sacrifices, and festivals have been reinstated. Just as God promised to Jeremiah, “When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill My promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God made good on His word and arranged events in history to allow for the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their lives.

You’d think that the Jews would have learned their lesson, right? You’d think that they would say, “We don’t ever EVER want to go through that again.” The truth is, this is not a “Jewish” problem. It’s a human problem. It’s the human problem, because what is underneath all of this is a lack of belief in the truth, and a whole lot of belief in a lie. Let me use a personal example.

I grew up doing gymnastics. If you or anyone you know has done gymnastics you know that it is probably one of the most intense and thrilling sports out there, and that the people who partake, are just a little bit crazy. Why else would you even try to do flips, leaps, and twists on a leather-covered piece of wood that is only 4 inches wide? That’s right, four inches. If you talk to doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors they will tell you that the gymnasts they see have the craziest physical injuries, and collect stress fractures like marbles. Probably, because they have lost a few of their marbles. I can say all this because I have been there and done that, and now I am a coach. But, if you talk to a gymnast, you will hear the joy in their voices as they talk about how much fun it is to pull G-forces while swinging around the bars[1], to run full speed towards a stationary vault so they can spring over it on their hands, and to feel the grace and beauty that comes with perfecting their leaps, jumps, and turns on the balance beam and floor exercise. There is something magical and amazing about discovering just how far you can push yourself, and just how much your body is capable of.

But like all things, to get “good” it takes lots of time and effort. And then, around the age of 18, it’s suddenly over. You don’t see many female gymnasts in their twenties. So my story begins, at the age of 18, I had just graduated from high school and officially hung up my leotard as I headed off to college. But there is something about being a gymnast that takes a long time to leave you, so six years later, I found myself back in the gym as a coach. I knew my competing days were over, but so much of my identity was tied into gymnastics, so that even demonstrating the simplest of skills to my students brought me a lot of joy. Two years later, while demonstrating a difficult leap with a twist out of it for one of the Team girls, I didn’t get enough height and was still turning when my feet hit the floor and instantly dislocated my right knee. In the months of recovery that followed I found myself realizing that I had wrapped my entire identity, worth, and value up in gymnastics, and not God. I had believed the lie that I was only worth what I could do, teach, and perform. The truth is I had done that leap hundreds of times and had even landed still twisting, but this time, I honestly believe God was trying to get my attention. It hurt, but it worked. That may have been the first time that I realized how much I placed my value and identity in a sport, what I could do, and what others thought of me (even if they were 10 years old).

I sympathize with the priests. They had placed their identity and value in what they did, not who they did it for. They weren’t honoring God’s name by bringing less than perfect animals to sacrifice before Him. They weren’t honoring His name by just going through the motions and forgetting why they did what they did. So, God tells them he will curse them, and curse their blessings. Gymnastics was a blessing for me – it kept me sane, it gave me joy, and it taught me discipline, focus, and the value of hard work. But all that became a curse in a split second because I forgot who I was.

You don’t have to use too much of your imagination to begin to see how so many of the things you think are blessings can be turned into curses in the blink of an eye. Your cars, your homes, your things that you prize so highly can all be turned against you. And God will do it too, not because He is being mean, but because He loves you too dearly to watch you burn for eternity in hell. He will make them all like dung, that’s right, a big, steaming pile of freshly-laid dog poop on your face that is so vile and repressive you have no choice but to cry out, “Dear God! Take it away!”

The priests had issues in Malachi’s day, but they are not so far removed from us because if we claim to be Christ followers then we have entered into the priesthood of believers: “But you are a Chosen Race, a royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light… (1 Peter 2:9)” You are a child of God and a royal priest that is meant to bring His light and grace to others. This is what should define us; not any sport, event, ability, or person. We are defined by God and no one else. If we forget this, or stop believing it, then we believe lies and not the truth, and God does what He must to bring us back.

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[1] Its true. Check out what Sports Science discovered about the stuff gymnasts do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEMeoeriz78