Malachi

Malachi spoke to God’s people about a hundred years after the first exiles came home from Babylon. The temple had been rebuilt in 516/515 B.C., the altar was busy with sacrifices, and Judah lived quietly as a small province of the Persian Empire under a governor (1:8). But the great hopes raised by Haggai and Zechariah had not yet come true in the way the people expected. Life was hard, the nations around them still prospered, and their worship had grown tired and careless. Malachi’s book is built around six disputes. In each one the LORD makes a statement, the people push back with a question (“But you ask …”), and the LORD answers them. Most of the book is the LORD himself speaking, and it is the last word from a prophet in the Old Testament.

The first dispute is about God’s love. “‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. ‘But you ask, “How have you loved us?”’” (1:2). The LORD pointed to two brothers, Jacob and Esau, and to the nations that came from them: “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated” (1:2–3). Edom, Esau’s nation, had been laid waste, and though it might try to rebuild, the LORD would tear it down (1:3–4). Israel, by contrast, had been chosen and brought back. “You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the LORD—even beyond the borders of Israel!’” (1:5). Paul quotes these words in Romans 9:13 when he writes about God’s choosing. Many readers understand “loved” and “hated” here as the language of covenant choice, choosing one and not the other, rather than of feeling.

The second dispute is aimed at the priests. “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? … It is you priests who show contempt for my name” (1:6). When they asked how, the LORD answered, “By offering defiled food on my altar” (1:7). They were sacrificing blind, lame and diseased animals. “Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?” (1:8). The LORD would rather someone shut the temple doors than keep lighting useless fires on his altar (1:10). The priests even said of their service, “What a burden!” and sniffed at it (1:13). Yet God’s purpose would not fail: “My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets” (1:11), “for I am a great king … and my name is to be feared among the nations” (1:14).

Then came a direct warning: “And now, you priests, this warning is for you” (2:1). If they would not listen and honor the LORD’s name, he would curse their blessings (2:2). The LORD reminded them of his covenant with Levi, the tribe of priests, “a covenant of life and peace” (2:5). The faithful priest of old “revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin” (2:5–6). “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty” (2:7). But these priests had turned from the way, caused many to stumble by their teaching, and shown partiality in matters of the law, so the LORD had let them be despised before the people (2:8–9).

The third dispute is about faithfulness. “Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?” (2:10). Judah had “desecrated the sanctuary the LORD loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god” (2:11), the same problem Ezra and Nehemiah faced (Ezra 9–10; Nehemiah 13:23–27). Men flooded the altar with tears because the LORD no longer accepted their offerings. When they asked why, he answered: “It is because the LORD is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant” (2:14). Marriage is a covenant made before God, and God wanted “godly offspring” (2:15). “So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful” (2:15–16). Verse 16 is hard to translate: older versions read “I hate divorce,” while the current NIV reads “The man who hates and divorces his wife … does violence to the one he should protect.” Both readings condemn the faithless divorce of a wife.

The fourth dispute begins, “You have wearied the LORD with your words.” The people said that evildoers were good in God’s eyes, and asked, “Where is the God of justice?” (2:17). The LORD’s answer is one of the best-known promises in the prophets: “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come” (3:1). But his coming would not be comfortable: “Who can endure the day of his coming? … For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap” (3:2). He would purify the Levites like gold and silver, so that their offerings would be acceptable again (3:3–4), and he would come quickly as a witness against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, and against those who cheat workers of their wages and oppress widows, orphans and foreigners (3:5). The Gospels apply the promise of a messenger to John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus (Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27).

The fifth dispute is a call to come back. “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (3:6). From the days of their ancestors they had turned away, but the invitation still stood: “Return to me, and I will return to you” (3:7). When they asked how, the LORD named one plain example: “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. … In tithes and offerings” (3:8). Nehemiah found the same neglect, with the Levites leaving the temple to work their fields because they had not been given their share (Nehemiah 13:10–12). “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (3:10). Then the nations would call them blessed, “for yours will be a delightful land” (3:12).

The sixth dispute answers a bitter complaint: “It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements …? … Certainly evildoers prosper” (3:14–15). But not everyone spoke that way. “Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence” (3:16). “On the day when I act,” says the LORD, “they will be my treasured possession,” and all will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked (3:17–18). “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace,” and the arrogant will be stubble (4:1). “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves” (4:2). The book closes with two names: “Remember the law of my servant Moses” (4:4), and “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents” (4:5–6). In Hebrew Bibles these last six verses are numbered 3:19–24.

Several themes run through Malachi. God’s love: the book begins with “I have loved you” (1:2). Honor God with your best: worship that gives God leftovers dishonors his name (1:6–14). Faithful leaders: priests were to teach the truth and turn many from sin (2:5–7). Faithfulness in marriage and community: God is witness to the marriage covenant (2:10–16). God does not change: his steadfastness is why his people still stand (3:6). Return and give: “Return to me, and I will return to you” (3:7–10). The coming day: the Lord will come to purify, to judge, and to heal (3:1–5; 4:1–6). Readers understand some parts of Malachi in different ways. The prophet’s name is usually taken as a personal name, though some think “my messenger” is a title. The date is usually placed between about 460 and 430 B.C., some placing him before Ezra and others near Nehemiah’s reforms. Worship among the nations (1:11) is read by many as a promise of future worship by all peoples, and by others as a description of worship already offered in Malachi’s day. Elijah (4:5) is understood by many Christians as fulfilled in John the Baptist, who came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17; Matthew 11:14; 17:10–13), though John himself said he was not Elijah (John 1:21); some also expect a future Elijah before Christ’s return, and Jewish tradition still awaits Elijah’s coming, remembered at Passover. The tithe (3:10) is seen by some Christians as a standard for giving today and by others as a principle of generous, trusting giving. The sun of righteousness (4:2) is applied by many Christians to Christ. This outline simply follows the text.