MALACHI
MALACHI 1:1-5
1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord, “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
3 But Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.”
4 Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; they shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.
5 Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’
In ancient times prophecies were called “burdens”, especially if they contained dire warnings. For example when God spoke to the prophet Zechariah, He said;
ZECHARIAH 12:1
1 The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel.
Esau was Jacob’s older brother of whom it had been prophesied that Esau would serve his younger brother Jacob. When their mother Rebekah was pregnant, Scripture says;
GENESIS 25:23
22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 And the Lord said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.”
Scripture records that Esau came from hunting one day and his younger brother Jacob had made a stew. Esau was famished and foolishly sold his birthright as firstborn to Jacob for a bowl of stew, Esau not caring at the time as to what he had done. Jacob then received the ‘lion’s share’ of his father’s inheritance and blessings causing Esau to bitterly hate his brother.
Scripture and history show that Jacob became the father of the Jews and Esau became the father of the Edomites as God had prophesied. Esau had been wild, troublesome and rebellious, and his wives were a source of grief to his parents;
GENESIS 26:34-35
34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
When the Jews were slaves in Egypt, Esau’s descendants settled to the south of Canaan in the mountainous deserts. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt 430 years later, they had asked to pass through Edom as the shortest route through Canaan. Scripture records;
NUMBERS 20:14-20
14 Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us,
15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers.
16 When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border.
17 Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ”
18 Then Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.”
19 So the children of Israel said to him, “We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.”
20 Then he said, “You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand.
21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.
Scripture and history record constant enmity of Edom against Israel causing God to say;
AMOS 1:11
11 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.
and;
OBADIAH 1:10
10 “For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.
MALACHI 1:6-9
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. if then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’
7 “You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’
8 And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” says the Lord of hosts.
9 “But now entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, will He accept you favorably?” says the Lord of hosts.
The priesthood had grown corrupt and contemptuous, allowing sick, lame and blind animals to be sacrificed on God’s altar, I suspect because greedy people wanted to keep and sell the best of the flocks. The sacrifices were symbolic of the future perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ and by offering unfit sacrifices the priests were insulting Jesus and the Father who would send Him to be sacrificed for our sins. As God had said concerning sacrifices;
LEVITICUS 9:3
3 And to the children of Israel you shall speak, saying, ‘Take a kid of the goats as a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering,
ALL such offerings were to be unblemished and were to be inspected by the priests before being offered. And the priests by allowing diseased animals to be offered endangered themselves as they were allowd to eat the meat of the sacrificed animals as part of their daily food. But the priests and Levites had become bored and the Law of Moses had lost its meaning to them. An irritated God told the prophet Isaiah;
ISAIAH 28:13
13 But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.
God pointedly asked, “If you wouldn’t present these animals to your Governor, why would you present them to ME?”
The fact that the term “Governor” is used indicates that Malachi prophesied after the Jews had returned from their 70 year Babylonian captivity. The last king of Judah, Zedekiah, had been taken to Babylon and had died there. When they returned 70 years later, there was no king and Nehemiah (author of the book of Nehemiah) and Ezra the priest (author of the book of Ezra) ruled over the remnant of Judah under the authority of Artaxerxes I Longimanus, king of the Persian Empire.
When rebuilding the Temple a book of the Law of Moses had been found, and Scripture records;
NEHEMIAH 8:9
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.
Apparently this didn’t last long, as both Ezra and Nehemiah record being appalled by the actions of their countrymen contrary to the Law and their inaction in rebuilding the Temple.
The prophet Haggai who seems to have lived during that time spoke God’s words to the people;
HAGGAI 1:2-4
2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” ’ ”
3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?”
MALACHI 1:10-14
10 “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.
11 For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts.
12 “But you profane it, in that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled; and its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’
13 You also say,‘Oh, what a weariness!’ And you sneer at it,” says the Lord of hosts.“And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” says the Lord.
14 “But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished— for I am a great King,” says the Lord of hosts,“and My name is to be feared among the nations.
God is disgusted with the people of Judah, they had just returned from 70 years of exile because of their sins, and they were returning to their old sinful ways. God says that He would rather the Temple doors be shut, rather than have them offer defiled sacrifices on His altar. The priests hypocritically said that the food from God’s altar was defiled, yet they are the ones who sacrificed unclean and unacceptable animals!
God prophesies that the time is coming when all nations will know the Lord and will offer pure offerings and incense to Him, which will happen when Jesus returns to rule the Earth.
MALACHI 2:1-6
1 “And now, O priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to My name,” says the Lord of hosts, “I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.
3 “Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts; and one will take you away with it.
4 Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord of hosts.
5 “My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; so he feared Me and was reverent before My name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.
Unfortunately when God blesses some people their natural wickedness comes to the fore. This happened to Israel numerous times, as God angrily told the prophet Jeremiah
JEREMIAH 5:7-9
7 “How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were like well-fed lusty stallions; every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord. “And shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?
God warns through His written Word and through chosen people concerning their sins and wickedness. He will many times plead for years before He acts, and hopes people will repent before He is forced to act. He punishes sin because He must for threatened actions are powerless unless those actions are finally carried out.
And what would restrain Man’s tendency to sin and wickedness if God never punished sinful behavior? God will sometimes make examples of people and places to demonstrate His wrath against sin. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were a frightful example of His wrath against homosexuality, a lesson remembered even today. It took 10 frightful plagues which nearly destroyed Egypt before Pharaoh’s will was broken enough to release Israel from slavery.
God gave Levis descendants the priesthood because of their obedience and reverence to the Law given to Moses. As a result, God blessed his descendants with the priesthood and Temple service for nearly 1500 years.
One of the main duties of the priests was to teach the tenets of the Law of Moses free of charge to the people which the Levites apparently did diligently.
MALACHI 2:7-9
7 “For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But you have departed from the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts.
9 “Therefore I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways but have shown partiality in the law.”
The priests were also set as judges in matters concerning the Law of Moses, but they had corrupted their judgments to favor the unrighteous. As God angrily stated of Jerusalem through the prophets Zephaniah and Micah;
ZEPHANIAH 3:3-4
3 Her princes in her midst are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning.
4 Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
MICAH 3:11
11 Her heads judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.”
MALACHI 2:10-13
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord’s holy institution which He loves: he has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
13 And this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying; so He does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
God is disgusted with Israel’s two-faced worship in which they worshiped Baal, Molech, Ashtoreth and other Canaanite gods yet sacrificed to the Lord and asked for blessings. And when God brought disasters upon them because of their sins, they wept over the altar, hypocritically asking why God was punishing them.
As God had said through the prophet Jeremiah;
JEREMIAH 7:8-11
8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,
10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?
11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.
MALACHI 2:14-17
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?” because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
15 But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks Godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
16 “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence,” says the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” Or, “Where is the God of justice?”
God hates divorce, it causes all kinds of anger, heartbreak, strife, bitterness and sorrow, and emotional scarring, especially if children are involved. Children view parents as a security blanket so to speak, as happy parents make for happy children.
Marriage is a joining of physical, emotions and spiritual aspects of two people, and divorce rips apart all three connections which can take years to heal, if they ever do.
Marriage was meant to be a lifetime contract, with both partners working out differences and becoming stronger as a result. Children emulate their parents and if they see their parents tackling problems together, they will learn to do so as well.
The double-standard of the Jews concerning this was shown during Jesus’ time;
JOHN 8:2-5
2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”
The scribes and Pharisees were supposedly experts in the Law of Moses, and they were correct in that the Law said she was to be put to death. But, they didn’t quote the entire commandment concerning adultery, which said;
LEVITICUS 20:10
10 ‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.
If the woman had been caught in the act of adultery, where was the man who was committing adultery with her?
MALACHI 3:1
1 “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.
This is a very important Scripture!!!! Note carefully that it says that the Messiah will come suddenly to His Temple. Yet the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., so the Messiah had to have appeared before the Temple was destroyed!!!!
There are only two people in all of history that have fulfilled this prophecy, namely John the Baptist who heralded Jesus’ coming, and Jesus Christ Himself.
There are over 400 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled during His lifetime. Statistical analysis states that for one man to fulfill just 8 prophecies during his lifetime would be like covering the State of Texas 2 feet deep in silver dollars. Mark only one coin, then stir the whole mass thoroughly. Have a blind man pick out a coin on the first try and it must be the right coin. The odds are 1 x 1028 (1, followed by 28 zeroes) that he would select the right coin on the first try.
MALACHI 3:2-6
2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.
5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien— because they do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts.
6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
There has never been a more controversial figure in all of Jewish history than Jesus Christ. He wasted no words condemning the religious leaders of His time as recorded in the four Gospels, pointing out their blatant corruption and hypocrisy. Even today, His words and teachings resound through history, affecting both Jew and Gentile alike.
And the prophecy in verse 3 above was fulfilled after His death and resurrection, when it was stated by Luke in the book of Acts;
ACTS 6:7
7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
And the fact that God never changes is a benefit to the Jewish nation, for He has said that He will never cast off Israel completely in spite of all they have done;
JEREMIAH 31:37
37 Thus says the Lord: “If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.
MALACHI 3:7-12
7 Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts;
12 “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.
This is the only place in the Scriptures where God invites His servants to test Him. He blessed Judah with abundant harvests and asked for only 1/10th of the harvest to be brought to the Temple in the form of tithes as a way of giving thanks to God for his blessings.
The food brought to the Temple was for the priests to eat, as they were to do no other work but minister in the Temple. But greedy people either kept back the required tithes or gave less than 10 percent back to God.
God in turn cursed their harvests to remind them Who gave them harvests and to show His displeasure with their wickedness and disobedience.
MALACHI 3:13-15
13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,” says the Lord, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’
14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts?
15 So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’ ”
The Jews deceived themselves by worshiping God but also worshiping idols and committing abominations before the Lord, then wondered why God was angry with them. And they mistook God’s mercy, patience and forbearance in not punishing the wicked as His not seeing or caring about their unlawful deeds. So they figured, ‘Why be righteous when the wicked prosper more than the righteous?
MALACHI 3:16-18
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.
17 “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts,“on the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”
18 Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
The written book that it speaks of here appears to be possibly the Book of Life in which the names of the redeemed are written. This may be the same book that Moses spoke of after Israel had made the golden calf at Mount Sinai.
EXODUS 32:30-33
30 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
31 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!
32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
33 And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
This book will be checked for our names at the Judgment, and anyone whose name does not appear will be cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity.
REVELATION 20:15
15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
MALACHI 4:1-6
1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the Lord of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.
3 You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the Lord of hosts.
4 “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
The “Day which is coming” apparenty refers to the coming destruction of Jerusalem by Rome. The fact that God reminds the readers to remember the Law of Moses and prophesies of the coming of John the Baptist reinforces this as the Law of Moses was superceded by the New Covenant after Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Evidence indicates that the book of Malachi, the last book written in the Old Testament, was written in about 407 B.C. Actually this is about the right time-frame for the following reasons;
First, Israel spent 430 years in Egypt without hearing anything from the Lord;
EXODUS 12:40-41
40 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
The apostle Paul reiterated the fact that the Law of Moses was enacted 430 years after the covenant made by God to Abraham;
GALATIANS 3:17
17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Now, the fascinating part!!! Just as there was 430 years of silence between the time of Abraham and when the Law was given to Moses, there was 430 years of silence between the prophecy of Malachi and the time that Jesus Christ began His public ministry.
Evidence points to the fact that Jesus was born in the Fall of 7 B.C., more than likely on Yom Kippur, the great Day of Atonement. (For evidence concerning Jesus’ birth date, please see the study on the issue in this site).
If He was born in 7 B.C., and He was crucified at the age of 33, this means he died in 26 A.D. Jesus started teaching when he was 30 years old (23 A.D.),
LUKE 3:23a
23 Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age,
God was again speaking to His people, giving them His laws after 430 years of silence just as He did with Moses, fulfilling Moses’ prophecy of;
DEUTERONOMY 18:15-16
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,
16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’.
The appearance of Jesus Christ and His teachings would also fulfill the ancient prophecy of Jeremiah in which God said;
JEREMIAH 31:31-33
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
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