Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge, and that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?
Here God repeats His people's own words back to them: serving Him is pointless, and obedience has paid them nothing. These were people He had brought back to their own land, and they did not even hear their own words as an attack on Him.
Malachi's book runs on a repeated pattern. God states a fact; the people answer with a question that denies it. One writer describes these people, then lists case after case:
They were satisfied with a correct position and the outward performance of religious duties, and had no sense at all of their low condition... If God reminds them of His love, they say, "How have You loved us?" (Mal. 1:2). If God charges them with robbery, they say, "How have we robbed You?" (Mal. 3:8). If He says, "Your words have been hard against Me," they say, "How have we spoken against You?" (Mal. 3:13).
Verse 14 is God's answer to that last denial. It quotes the very words they claimed they had never spoken.
Who speaks the words matters as much as the words.
What is more solemn is the language of God's own people in the book of Malachi. They are a people God had served for centuries in the greatness of His love, and yet they say, "It is vain to serve God." It is solemn indeed that men in the world should refuse His service. It is more solemn, intensely more solemn, that those who had experienced the blessedness of His love should say it.
The complaint is an accounting question. One writer puts it in today's currency:
These people of Malachi's day go on: 'What is the profit of our keeping His charge…?' (3:14). They looked only at their possessions. They might have said, as we might say today, 'What has obeying God put in my bank account? Or into my home? Has it been the source of my cars, my boat, my equipment, my entertainment, my household comforts?'
The same writer answers by pointing to a different accounting:
This is a short-sighted and lopsided view. We ought to consider it alongside verses like these: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil" (2 Cor. 5:10)… "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matt. 6:19–20).
Their grievance was not only about money. It was about what they believed God was like.
The Book of Malachi is a solemn exposure of the low state of the remnant of Israel. God had brought them back to the land in His sovereign mercy. Priests and people alike had no feeling for the glory and honour of the Lord. Few cared about keeping the dignity that belongs to His service… They not only had no feeling for God's honour; they also thought God was indifferent to everything that was taking place.
Set against that, the chapter shows God still pressing blessing on them:
The remnant persist in self-justification, yet He comes in and blesses them. He does not leave them, though they keep shutting the door on His claims… Are you not struck with the patience, the unwearying love of God? Anyone else would have been repulsed and driven away long ago. There was only one heart that would have borne it all. Yet in verse 14 they say God has not been true to His word.
The verse does not describe everyone in Malachi's day.
There are two classes in this chapter. First, those who say: "What is the profit of our walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts?" (v. 14). Second, the faithful ones, a feeble and afflicted remnant. They speak to one another, acknowledging the ruin, but waiting for the Messiah who alone can give them deliverance. These do not say: "What profit is it?" Their humbling is for their profit. It turns their eyes to Him who "raises up the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes."
One writer states the opposite verdict:
Despite what the people said in the time of the prophet Malachi, it is not vain to serve God in fearing Him and in walking mournfully before Him (Mal. 3:14).
- Denial. The people ask, "How have we spoken against You?" Malachi shows them meeting God's every charge with a question, blind to their own words.
- Downgrade. God had loved and served these people for centuries. That history is what makes their complaint so serious.
- Demand. "What profit" turns obedience into a bank statement. The real accounting comes at the judgment seat of Christ, in treasure laid up in heaven.
- Distortion. Beneath the words lies a belief that God is indifferent. All the while He kept pressing blessing on them with unwearying love.
- Division. The chapter splits into two groups. Some ask, "What profit?" The feeble remnant find their humbling is itself their profit. For them it is not vain to serve God.
And now we hold the proud for happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and they escape.
The last book of the Old Testament records God quoting His people's own words back to them. In this verse they sum up how they think life works: pride pays, evildoers get ahead, and testing God costs nothing.
In the verse before, they complained that serving God brought them nothing. So they began to envy the wrong people.
The people had been serving God in this official and ceremonial way, and they felt they got nothing out of it in the form of material gain, which was what they wanted. This completely twisted their sense of real values. In their view, to be proud was to be "happy", and evil among them rose high. We see just this in the Gospels; people counted the proud Pharisee the happy man. Because of this, when the Lord "opened His mouth and taught" on the mountain, the very first blessing He pronounced was, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). To be "poor in spirit" is the exact opposite of being proud in spirit. The leaders were proud in Malachi's day, and in the day when Christ came. We fear such pride is not absent in our day either.
Calling the proud happy — the wording of older translations — was more than flattery. It wiped out a distinction.
This is another mark of their condition. They want to break down all distinctions. "Call the proud happy" — class them all together, and make them all alike. That is the judgement of a heart not in communion with God. They "put darkness for light, and light for darkness."
The same writer points to what changes by verse 18:
Another thing, in verse 18: instead of calling "the proud happy," you will "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him." There will be no more writing pleasant names over those who are doing evil.
Behind their observation lies a charge against God Himself.
The prophet first shows how hopeless the moral condition of most of the nation was. They had lost all moral perception. Worse, they were charging God with siding with the proud and the wicked, and favouring them. That proved how deceived they were about their own condition, and how ignorant they were of the character of God… Nothing confuses our moral perceptions like self-righteousness, and no sin before God is worse than the religion of the Pharisees.
They judged by what they could see. A later verse in the same book sets a date:
They judged from outward appearances when they called the proud happy. Pride and wickedness may look as if God overlooks them. But He takes account of them, and He will deal with them in His own good time. Malachi 4:1 says: "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble." God is patient, giving men time to repent, but judgement awaits those who do not repent.
Centuries later the same verdict still clung to Jerusalem's religious leaders, and it cost them:
The King of the Jews was born in Bethlehem, and yet for weeks they knew nothing about it… Of all people, the chief priests should have heard of this great event. They claimed to be waiting for it — the birth of the Messiah. Luke 2 tells us that heaven made the event known within a few hours at most, and made it known to humble people who feared the Lord. The Psalmist told us that "the friendship of the LORD is for those who fear Him" (Ps. 25:14). We see this in the shepherds and others, but not in the religious leaders in Jerusalem. They were among "the proud" whom men called "happy" (see Malachi 3:15-16). So they were as much in the dark as the wicked Herod.
The same conditions brought another group into view:
This state of things brought to light those who feared the Lord… Such people may have to walk in quiet obscurity. To the mass of that proud and stubborn nation they counted for very little and were of no use. But they had the approval of the Lord, and in that dark day, when the nation despised God, that was all they truly valued.
- Cause. They served God for gain, got none, and lost their sense of what is valuable. So pride looked like happiness.
- Consequence. Call the proud blessed and every distinction collapses. Evil gets a pleasant name; darkness passes for light.
- Charge. Their words accused God of siding with the arrogant. That exposed their ignorance of Him, not a fault in Him.
- Correction. They judged too early. A day is coming that burns like an oven. God's patience is time to repent, not indifference.
- Contrast. The same darkness made a quiet group visible: those who feared the Lord and valued His approval above everything.
Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed [it], and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.
Malachi's closing chapters show a people who had turned away from God — proud, self-satisfied, and unwilling to be corrected. Against that background a small company appears, and the surprise is not what they did but who was listening. (The writers below quote older translations, which read "spoke often one to another" and "thought upon His name.")
The verse turns on its first word. It stands against everything said just before it.
Ruin had come in. The people who professed His Name had turned away from the Lord. The enemy had lulled them to sleep so completely that they did not see their own terrible state. It seemed as if all had gone and there was nothing left for God. Yet in the darkness there is a glimmer of light. "Then" — with all the emphasis on the "then" — "they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another." It is doubtful whether the word "often" should be there. The Revised Version leaves it out, and so does the French edition of J. N. Darby's translation. Speaking to one another seems to have been characteristic of those who feared the Lord.
One trait sets these people apart from everyone around them.
In the middle of all this proud self-conceit and refusal to be corrected, there was a godly remnant. They are described as "they that feared the Lord." This "fear" produced a reverence for God and His will. It made Him the governing factor in their lives. This at once put them in complete contrast with the mass of priests and people around them.
To think on a name is to hold a person dear.
Thinking on His name involves having affection for Him and for His interests. In natural things, thinking of our friends gives us pleasure. Affection is what connects us to them. It is the same here. Those in that dark day who sought to be true to God thought upon Him, and they spoke often one to another.
A collapsing situation tempts a believer to withdraw alone. Here it did the opposite.
For the believer there is a second danger, more subtle than the first because it is more plausible: to isolate yourself as you watch indifference and worldliness spread among the children of God. This tendency runs straight against God's thought for His own. It is exactly in view of these times of ruin that the prophet says to us, "Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another." Falling away does not isolate those who fear the Lord; it stirs them to come together.
What held them together was not agreement on a platform.
Certain views or opinions they held in common did not bind them together, though no doubt they had their views and opinions. Neither did ritual services or ceremonies hold them together. They had something far better and higher than any of these. Deep personal devotedness to the Lord drew them together and knit them together, and this was pleasing to His heart.
God did two things here. He noticed them, and He listened.
The Lord "hearkened," or, in a better translation, "The Lord observed it." The crowd around them took no notice, or noticed them only to despise them. Yet they were not too insignificant to attract the notice of the Lord. He "observed" them, and His eye could rest on them with delight.
Israel's finest hours never produced such a book.
What a contrast to the general condition of things! We may range through the whole history of the nation and find nothing like this. Where do we read of "a book of remembrance written before the Lord"? Nowhere — not even amid the brilliant victories of Joshua and David, or the splendours of Solomon. Someone may say there was no need. That is not the point. Here is the striking fact to ponder. The words and ways of this feeble remnant, in the very middle of abounding wickedness, refreshed the heart of God so much that He had a book of remembrance written about them.
Where God kept the record matters as much as the record itself.
But it was "before Him" that the book was written, not before the world. A God-fearing walk, godly conversation, godly jealousy for the Lord's name — these traits will never put a man's name on the world's list of great names. The world has only a short memory for such people. It is to the heart of the Lord that they are dear.
F. B. Hole draws the lesson forward to our own day.
God does not forget any sacrifice made, or service given, for His work and interests. He records it before Him... That book was not peculiar to Malachi's day. It existed in Nehemiah's day, and exists in our day too. Let us not forget that!
The same kind of company reappears at the start of Luke's Gospel.
The opening chapters of Luke, which we have already referred to, fit naturally onto the end of Malachi, showing us still a "remnant according to the election of grace." We may safely take it for granted that such a remnant was never lacking through the 350 to 400 years that passed between the two.
- Then — the verse begins where the darkness is thickest. The worse the times, the brighter this small light shines.
- Feared — this fear is reverence that makes God the deciding factor in a life. It is the opposite of the pride around them.
- Spoke — decline does not scatter such people. It draws them together, held by personal love for the Lord rather than by shared opinions.
- Heard — the Lord noticed what everyone else overlooked. He listened to their talk with delight.
- Written — the record stands before Him, not before the world. That book is still open today.
And they shall be unto me a peculiar treasure, saith Jehovah of hosts, in the day that I prepare; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
The verse answers a question the prophet's generation had all but stopped asking: does God notice when only a handful still care? To a small group who feared Him while the nation drifted, God says what they are to Him now and what He will do with them on a day still ahead. (Where the ESV has "my treasured possession," older translations read "my jewels." The writers quoted below use that older wording.)
The nation had gone cold, but not everyone had. One writer describes the few who stood out:
Yet we find a remnant in the middle of this appalling state of things. Some, in the face of everything, "feared the Lord" and "spoke often one to another." The fear of the Lord became a bond between those who loved Him. And this was in the darkest state of things anyone could imagine. This was so sweet to the Lord that He kept a book of remembrance. He did so even when they said nothing, but only "thought upon His name." The Lord says, they shall be My peculiar treasure.
The promise is not that God will start valuing them. It is that He will say publicly what He already thinks.
They not only knew the Lord's secret approval in a day of ruin. He will also honour them openly in the day of glory. In a day of ruin they were indeed precious in His sight — His jewels, though not yet "made up." In the coming day they will be jewels displayed in a glorious setting. "It does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
A jeweller does two things with loose stones: he gathers them, and he sets them.
The word "jewels" — "when I make up my jewels" — shows how precious the saints are to God, and how much they are worth in His eyes. They are hidden in obscurity now, but His eye is on them. He will gather them together and recognise their beauty and excellence — the beauty and excellence He Himself has put on them. Then He will place them for ever in the treasury of His eternal kingdom.
Between the gathering and the setting comes a long process:
The heavenly Jeweller bends over the rough, mis-shapen stones as they turn on the spinning wheel of life. He touches them with many a sharp tool, and polishes them with their own dust. But He will neither harm them Himself nor let anyone else do so; and He says, "They shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels!"
What God prizes here is not achievement:
These were the outstanding marks of this godly remnant within the remnant. We do not hear of great gifts that might have raised them up among the people of God. Nor of great works of charity that would have earned the world's applause. Nor of great numbers that would have brought them into prominence. Yet despite their outward weakness and small numbers, they had the Lord's approval in a day of ruin, and will shine as His jewels in the day of glory.
A day of judgment is in view, so the sparing means real protection. Behind it stand three things: whose they are, how they served, and what God gave.
When God punishes the proud and the evildoers, He says of the faithful remnant, "I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him." He spares them not only because of the relationship they stood in with the Lord, but because within that favoured relationship they served God. Others brought the blind, the lame and the sick to God's altar. They were serving themselves. They kept the best back and gave God what their governor would have refused. In the middle of such irreverence, the remnant sought to serve God and to please Him. Yet the only true ground of their blessing — the only way they could be spared the righteous judgment of a holy God — was through His own Son who served Him. We too are spared, because God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.
The display is not for the jewels' sake:
When that day appears, the Lord will "make up His jewels." Then every tear wept for His sake will shine like a diamond in the sunlight of His face. He will "come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all those who believed." Then the countless hosts of His saints will reflect His beauty, like dewdrops in a field at sunrise.
- Noticed — a few feared the Lord when the crowd had gone cold, and He listened, remembered, and wrote their names down.
- Claimed — "Mine" is His secret approval in a day of ruin becoming His public recognition in the day of glory.
- Kept — jewels hidden in obscurity are still under His eye; He gathers them, polishes them, and lets no one harm them.
- Spared — not for gifts, works or numbers, but because they were His, they served Him, and God did not spare His own Son.
- Displayed — set at last in His treasury, every tear wept for Him shining like a diamond in the light of His face.
And ye shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
People had said that serving God brings no profit, and that the arrogant get ahead (vv. 14–15). This verse is God's answer: a day is coming when the difference between the two kinds of people will be impossible to miss.
It replies to an accusation: that God had blurred right and wrong. It tells the accusers that they will one day see clearly.
The last verse, we understand, speaks to those who, in verses 14, 15, had charged God with identifying Himself with evil. They had said, "Those who do evil are set up; yes, those who put God to the test are delivered" — as if God were confusing all moral distinctions. But the prophet now tells them what will happen when God appears for the feeble few who had thought upon His name. They — the very people who had accused God's ways of being unrighteous — will return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him. They had shut their eyes on purpose until then. Now they would have to see. The Lord would once again be justified when He was judged, and He would show in public that His ways are right, before the eyes of ungodly men. The prophet goes on to explain that this separation between the wicked and the righteous will happen at the Lord's appearing. That is the subject of the next chapter.
These writers use an older translation, which reads "you shall return and discern" where the ESV reads "once more you shall see the distinction."
The complaint is one any generation can recognise. One writer puts it in today's terms:
These people of Malachi's day go on: 'What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance …?' (3:14). Looking only at their possessions, they might have said what we in this age might say: 'What has obeying God put in my bank account? Or into my home? Has it been the source of my car(s), my boat, my equipment, my entertainment, my household comforts, etc? What profit then is there to me in keeping God's Word?'
The change here is a change of values inside the people themselves. Outward privilege stops counting.
The Jews themselves will no longer take the ground of being mere Jews. They will see the emptiness of an outward place; they will value what is of God; they will hate all the more those who are wicked because they are Jews. God's judgment in Jerusalem will make wrongdoers hateful to everyone, but here we find that discerning happening even before that judgment is carried out. God will bring the heart of the righteous to feel the nature of what He will do when judgment comes.
The verse measures people by one thing: whether they serve God. One writer weighs that service against merely holding right thoughts about God.
They "served" God (Mal. 3:18). Their thoughts of Jehovah's Name found practical expression in service. They were not mere thinkers. This is a great point. A true believer can have his mind pointed in the right direction and still fall short in practice. To think without serving is nearly as bad and useless as to serve without thinking.
The same discernment can begin now. It shows up in what a person is willing to call good.
Another thing, in verse 18, instead of calling "the proud happy," you will "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him." There will be no more writing pleasant names over those who are doing evil. If God is God, serve Him, and there will no longer be trying to paint up what is contrary to Him. The heart discerns what is true amidst a great deal that is unfaithful and untrue. True grace and true love discerns.
Waiting for that day is what keeps a life holy and separate from evil.
But notice, in this connection, "Then you will return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked…" Nothing will promote holiness of walk and separation from evil men like this great hope of the coming of our Saviour. It will make us like men who wait for their lord.
- Charge — People accused God of siding with evil and rewarding the proud. The verse promises they will have to see otherwise.
- Vindication — God answers by what He does, not by argument. He shows His ways are right in front of the people who questioned them.
- Service — The line is drawn at service, not at background or outward standing. Right thinking without serving falls short.
- Sight — What God will make obvious then, faith can discern now. It stops giving pleasant names to what God condemns.
- Hope — Waiting for the Lord's coming is what keeps that discernment sharp and the walk holy in the meantime.