Malachi

1. Do you understand God’s love for you (1.1-5)? When the people asked the LORD, “How have you loved us?” (v. 2), Malachi responded with a message of covenant mercy. As descendants of Jacob—whom God chose over his older brother Esau (cf. Gen 25.19ff)—they had not been destroyed like Edom, the descendants of Esau. The fact that Edom had suffered just as Judah served as a reminder of God’s love for His own; though He had disciplined Judah, she would be rebuilt—Edom would not
2. Do you reverence God in temple services (1.6-2.9)? Malachi accused the priests of despising the LORD, giving Him no honor or reverential fear. But the priests were not without company in their shallow, rote religious practices; the people brought defiled animals for temple sacrifices. The prophet warned that since these animals would be rejected by the human governor, certainly they were unfit as an offering to the Holy One of Israel (cf. Lev 22.17-33). The situation had gotten so bad that Malachi declared the word of the LORD: “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you…and I will accept no offering from your hands” (1.10; cf. Lev 10.1-7). The prophet foresaw a day when the nations would make acceptable sacrifices to the LORD, and confronted those in his hearing who said concerning temple sacrifices, “Look, what a nuisance!” (1.13). These unfaithful ones vowed to give the LORD their best, but actually kept it for themselves and brought to the temple that which was defiled (1.14). Malachi blamed the priests for the people’s shallow religion; unlike Levi, they showed little reverence for the word of the LORD, caused many to stumble by the partiality that so dominated their man-centered instruction, and generally violated the covenant of Levi (2.5-9; cf. Gen 46.11; Ex 32.25-35)
3. Do you honor the marriage covenant (2.10-16)? Malachi prodded the people to consider their heritage, and the fact that they all had one Father; should it not thus be the case that the descendants of Abraham avoid intermarriage with pagans (vv. 10-12), and Jews avoid acting treacherously against their spouse (vv. 13-16)? According to the prophet, the marriage that pleases God produces godly offspring—an impossibility for mixed marriages, or those dishonoring the marriage covenant. The people were exhorted: “watch yourselves carefully” (v. 16) in the matter
4. Do you trust the God of justice (2.17-3.6)? In observing the world around them, the people thought that God’s justice had disappeared; they surmised: “Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD’s sight, and He is pleased with them” (v. 17). According to Malachi, the day of justice would come when the Messenger of the LORD appeared to purify “the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver” (v. 3). This would be a great day, when all would tremble before Him who renders verdict “against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and cheat the wage earner; and against those who deny justice to the foreigner” (v. 5). According to the prophet, Judah had no grounds to question the LORD’s justice in the present—since they had not been destroyed (v. 6)!
5. Does your tithe come from your heart (3.7-12)? Malachi accused Judah of turning from the LORD just as their ancestors. When the people protested and asked, “How can we return?” (v. 7), the prophet exhorted the people to stop robbing God of what was rightly His. The exhortation to “bring the full 10 percent” (v. 10), was at bottom an exhortation to trust God for their necessities; “‘Test Me in this way,’ says the LORD of Hosts. ‘See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your ground, and your vine in your field will not be barren…Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land” (vv. 10-12)
6. Does your service honor God (3.13-4.3)? The people had fallen into a rut of serving the LORD with a view to their own profit. Since they didn’t feel that the LORD had adequately recompensed them for their devotion, they retorted: “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?” (3.14).  Though many in Judah pursued this pragmatic paradigm, the faithful among the remnant were not, and would not, be forgotten. The prophet reported that the LORD took notice of those who feared Him, who had a high regard for His name; their names were written in a “book of remembrance” (3.16). Concerning these faithful ones, the LORD said: “They will be Mine…a special possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (3.17-18)

1. Malachi prophesied of the coming of the messenger of the LORD, a prophet like Elijah, one who would speak justice. In Mal 2.17-3.6 the prophet chastised the descendants of the exiles for their lack of righteous judgment, praising the wicked, and slandering the faithful. The LORD would thus send His messenger, promising: “he will clear the way before Me” (3.1). And toward the conclusion of his prophetic writing, Malachi spoke: “Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the LORD comes” (4.5). According to Luke’s Gospel, the angel of the Lord who appeared to Zechariah told him that Malachi’s prophecy pointed to his son, John the Baptist; the angel announced: “He will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people” (Lk 1.16-17). Zechariah later prophesied concerning his son, “And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways” (1.76). Jesus too understood Malachi’s prophecy to be fulfilled in John the Baptist; in praise of John the Baptist He told a crowd, “This is the one it is written about: ‘Look I am sending My messenger ahead of you; he will prepare Your way before You’…If you’re willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come” (Mt 11.10, 14; cf. Mk 1.1-3; Lk 7.26-27). After the transfiguration, Peter, James, and John were perplexed about the coming of the Son of Man, and asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” (Mk 9.11). Jesus replied, “I tell you that Elijah really has come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it is written about him” (Mk 9.13). John even applied Malachi’s prophecy autobiographically, replying to his disciples’ concern that Jesus was baptizing more than him, he retorted: “No one can receive a single thing unless it’s given to him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of Him’…He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3.27-28, 30)
2. Malachi prophesied concerning God’s special love toward His elect. In Mal 1.2-3a the prophet recorded the dialectics of the LORD and His people, saying: “‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. But you ask, ‘How have You loved us?’ ‘Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?’ This is the LORD’s declaration. ‘Even so, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.’” The apostle Paul employed the words of the prophet to describe the principle of God’s covenant love upon the elect—both Jews and Gentiles—despite the fact that during his day many of the former had rejected Christ (Rom 9.13); “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Rom 9.6) he wrote. After the coming of Messiah, one’s status as a true Israelite—as opposed to those of national Israel—becomes dependant upon their belief in Him
3. Malachi prophesied that the doors of Messiah’s blessing would open wide to the Gentiles. In Mal 1.11 the prophet spoke the word of the LORD, “For My name will be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to its setting” (cf. 1.14). In many places in the New Testament this theme is applied to the proclamation of Jesus, as in 1 Tim 3.16—what may be a proto-confessional statement of Christianity: “He (Jesus) was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory”
4. The prophet declared that the LORD would vindicate the righteous and condemn the wicked. In Mal 4.1 the prophet announced that there would be a differentiation between the righteous and the wicked, “For indeed the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them.” Among the many connections between the latter half of the prophecy of Malachi and John the Baptist include John’s point that Messiah would come baptizing with “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3.16). Jesus employed the prophet’s motif, applying it to the differentiation between those who participate in the kingdom of God and those who suffer in hell (cf. Mk 9.42-49). In 2 Peter the author echoed Malachi’s announcement, saying: “The present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (v. 7), and “The heavens will be on fire and be dissolved, and the elements will melt with the heat. But based on His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell” (v. 12b-13). The story of the rich man and Lazarus likewise pointedly differentiated between the suffering of the wicked by fire, and the peace of the righteous (Lk 16.19-31). Ultimately, all those who deceive, the Devil, and his false prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, “and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20.10; cf. Rev 19.20), while those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will enjoy the presence of God (Rev 21.1-4)

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