Great Among Nations

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 290, Great Among Nations.

"For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts." Malachi 1:11.

Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, and it opens with a hard rebuke: God confronting priests for offering second-rate sacrifices — blind, lame, diseased animals — things they wouldn't even dare give to an earthly governor, let alone the God of the universe. It's in that context of spiritual negligence that this remarkable verse appears.

Notice the scope of the phrase: "from the rising of the sun to its setting." That's the entire world. God isn't only talking about Israel, about the temple in Jerusalem, about the priests failing right in front of him. He's looking further out, seeing worship that will spread across every place on earth — peoples who don't even know his name yet bringing pure, genuine offerings from the heart.

This is stunning in its original context. A people accustomed to seeing themselves as the sole recipients of God's covenant hears this promise of universal greatness — something that sounded almost unimaginable at that point in history. But that is exactly what God announces: his name will be great among the nations, whether the priests in Jerusalem do their part well or not.

I find that liberating, my friend. Notice that God's greatness does not depend on our faithfulness. Even in the face of negligence, spiritual mediocrity, the second-rate offerings we sometimes hand him, God's name remains great. He doesn't need our perfection to be who he is. But — and here's the invitation — he wants us to participate in that greatness, to bring pure offerings, not the leftovers that cost us little.

I want to ask you: in what area of your life have you been offering God only what's left over? Maybe it's time — you pray only when you have nothing else to do. Maybe it's attention — you read the Word on autopilot, without really listening. Maybe it's your heart — you show up physically at church, but your heart is somewhere else entirely.

Malachi invites us to something different: bringing a pure offering. Not because God needs it to be great — he already is. But because we need it in order to flourish in a real relationship with him.

So today, I want to invite you to examine one specific area where you've been giving God your leftovers. And choose, with genuine intention, to give something of your best today — whether that's time, attention, or simply a heart more present in prayer.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.