Malachi 1:7
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
Malachi 1:7 rebukes the priests for dishonoring God by placing defiled food on His altar while denying any wrong and declaring His table worthless. The defiled food was damaged animal sacrifices that were blind, lame, sick, torn and diseased, though He had required offerings without defect, the best and most perfect. To substitute the common for the holy despises His name and withholds the honor due Him as Father and the reverence due Him as Master, and it is evil that He rejects and will not accept, as a governor would refuse such a gift. A defiled offering stands for a sin-stained life brought by those who profess to serve Him, which He does not accept and which must no longer be brought to Him undefiled by sin. This same sin is committed by corrupting what is offered through careless disregard instead of keeping body and daily habits fit as a living, holy sacrifice, and by taking for common work the seventh day He reserved, sanctified and blessed, and presenting in its place a day He has not blessed.
Priests' Contempt for God
Malachi 1:7 is a rebuke to the priests for dishonoring God by placing polluted bread upon His altar while declaring His table contemptible and denying that they had polluted Him. The polluted bread was animal sacrifice that was defective and diseased, including the blind, the lame, the sick, and the torn. God had required that offerings be without defect, the best and most perfect.
To put the common in place of the holy is to despise His name and to withhold the honor due Him as Father and the fear due Him as Master. To bring the blind, the lame, and the sick is evil, and He rejects it and will not accept it, just as a governor would not accept it or be pleased with the person who brought it. It also includes treating worship as a duty not worth doing without payment.
That same indifference continued to the time of Christ's birth, when priests were still offering polluted sacrifices. They did so in pomp and pride in the chosen city and in the temple where the divine presence had been manifested for ages, yet with the same indifference as the rest of the nation. They showed no expectancy of the Messiah's coming, no voice of praise and triumph that His coming was at hand, and no preparation for the Prince of life.
Polluted Offerings Today
A polluted offering is a sin-stained soul brought by those who profess to serve God. What is offered to God must not be defiled by sin. God does not accept a polluted sacrifice, and such an offering must no longer be brought. Unconfessed and unrepented wrongdoing leaves a person's life unfit for service to God.
That sin-stained condition includes bowing to the idol of men's opinions and being slaves to shameful lusts. It includes ranging with transgressors of God's law by seeing with the eyes and hearing with the ears and understanding with perverted senses, of the kind represented by the offerings of the Moabites and Amorites. The rebuke requires that what is offered not be corrupted by careless disregard. Believers must therefore keep their bodies and daily habits fit to offer to God as a living, holy sacrifice.
Taking for common work the seventh day that God reserved for Himself and sanctified and blessed as His Sabbath, and presenting to Him in its stead a day He has not blessed, is this same sin of offering polluted bread and saying His table is contemptible. It is a great sin of robbing God. Those who claim to keep God's commandments and serve Him must not betray sacred responsibilities or let corrupt influences shape their choices. They must stop these practices and press together and labor to become a unit, holy in life and pure in character.