Book of Malachi - Bible Survey
Answered from the commentary of Hamilton Smith, Arend Remmers, Edward Dennett and 6 others
Malachi is the Lord’s last message to the returned remnant, exposing their moral and spiritual failure beneath an outwardly correct religious life. The Lord begins by declaring His unchanging love, but the people’s question, “Wherein hast thou loved us?” shows their blindness to it; their repeated denials reveal how little they saw their own departure from Him. The priests despised His name and corrupted their service, while the people dealt unfaithfully with one another, joined themselves to idolaters, put away their wives treacherously, and withheld tithes and offerings. Yet the Lord remembers those who feared Him and thought upon His name: they spoke together, and He observed them, heard them, and recorded them as His own for the day when He makes up His jewels.
The Lord’s coming will bring judgment as well as blessing: He will purify and sift, distinguish the righteous from the wicked, and bring full blessing to those who fear His name, while the proud and wicked face judgment. Most passages treat this day and its full earthly blessing as still future; some also see the messenger’s coming and the Lord’s coming to the temple as partially fulfilled in John the Baptist and Christ’s first coming, while the judgment and purification remain future. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, but most passages say Elijah’s promised work before the great and dreadful day still awaits fulfilment; Dennett allows that John would have fulfilled it had Israel received him. Malachi closes by calling the people back to the law of Moses and promising Elijah before that day, so that the land need not be smitten with a curse.
Verses: Malachi 1:1, Malachi 1:2, Malachi 1:3, Malachi 1:4, Malachi 1:5, Malachi 1:6, Malachi 2:10, Malachi 2:11, Malachi 2:12, Malachi 2:13, Malachi 2:14, Malachi 2:15, Malachi 2:16, Malachi 2:17, Malachi 3:6, Malachi 3:7, Malachi 3:8, Malachi 3:9, Malachi 3:10, Malachi 3:11, Malachi 3:12, Malachi 3:13, Malachi 4:4, Malachi 4:5, Malachi 4:6
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
MALACHI bears to us the burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel: His reproaches fill the prophet's spirit. And no wonder, for the returned remnant had failed completely, as left by Zechariah on the ground of responsibility, whatever long-suffering or active grace from God might do for them. Jacob, though loved, profaned and was weary of His service and holiness; the priests too had corrupted the covenant of Levi, and He had made them to His own grief contemptible. There remained nothing but for Him to send His messenger and come Himself; but who should abide the day of His coming? Yet He owns with tenderness and complacency the remnant that spoke often to one another in His fear, surrounded by the incredulous hypocrisy of the Jews. And those righteous ones should be His in the day that should burn as an oven for all the proud; but for those that feared Him the Sun of righteousness should arise with healing in His wings, and they themselves go forth as calves of the stall treading down the wicked in that day. Finally, he reminds them of the law of Moses, and promises Elijah the prophet before that day to turn the hearts of the people, lest His coming should be only for a curse.
The pages of Malachi deal with the grievous moral condition of the remnant of Jews whom God had mercifully brought back from captivity in Babylon. In particular the evil state of the priests is dwelt upon upon.
Malachi ("My messenger") shows us the miserably self - complacent condition of the Jews who had returned from the captivity. Their energy had very soon deteriorated into a state of callous indifference to the claims of God, a state of self â pleasing. It is a deeply pleading word from God, in which He reproves their gross contempt for Him expressed in various ways. Yet with brazen defiance they reply as though they were entirely without blame! Hence, this is God's last word to Israel until four hundred years later, when John the Baptist was sent from God. Israel, refusing to listen to God, would be left to reap the bitter results of their own haughty choice.
God’s last message to His earthly people Israel is directed to the remnant that returned from the Babylonian captivity. This remnant had totally failed during the decades after the return in their testimony for God. It is true that the Jews did no longer serve the idols as they did before the exile but their moral condition was marked by indifference, despising of God and unbelief.
The Book of Nehemiah gives the partial and outward re-establishment of some of the Jews in their own land. There was no throne of God nor throne of David, and they were still subject to the Gentiles. The decree Lo-ammi was not removed; but they were restored to the land, ready for the manifestation of their Messiah, who would come seeking fruit, and ready in grace to bless them. The prophecy of Malachi followed this return, and shows the sad moral condition of the people, and the coming of Jehovah in judgement.
Such, in a few words, were the circumstances and characteristics of the nation in the Malachi period. Now, although the prophecy opens with the words, "The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel," it was clearly only to the remnant in the land of Palestine that this, God's last message, was actually addressed. We find allusions to the Temple, to the sacrifices, to the priests, to tithes, etc., all features perfectly natural to Jerusalem and Canaan, but which could not have been descriptive of those in exile.
Malachi neither places nor establishes anything as Haggai does, and Zechariah. He only pronounces judgment upon the result in Israel of that which God had done in grace, by re-establishing the remnant; shewing how little the worship, by which He had connected Israel with Himself, had been maintained in such a manner as to glorify Him.
The Lord had left them in Zechariah under their responsibility. Malachi feels the reproaches of the Lord Jehovah on account of their unbelief after their return, notwithstanding His goodness; he announces to them the day of the Lord; the distinction between the remnant (the faithful) and the mass (those who are not so), (Mal. 3:17-18); he announces the blessing of the remnant, and the coming of Elijah before the day of the Lord.
The prophecy of Malachi, which was uttered after this, declares and denounces the corruption already brought in after the blessing restored in a measure by mercy; and the coming of Jehovah in judgment.
MALACHI pronounces the judgment of Judea after the return to the holy land: and he makes known the message of Elijah to call the people to repentance before the day of Jehovah.
Verses
- Malachi 1:1–61The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi. 2I have loved you, saith Jehovah; but ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith Jehovah, and I loved Jacob, 3and I hated Esau; and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave] his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness. 4If Edom say, We are broken down, but we will build again the ruined places, — thus saith Jehovah of hosts They shall build, but I will throw down; and [men] shall call them the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever. 5And your eyes shall see [it], and ye shall say, Jehovah is magnified beyond the border of Israel. 6A son honoureth [his] father, and a servant his master if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, priests, that despise my name. But ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
- Malachi 2:10–1710Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal unfaithfully every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11Judah hath dealt unfaithfully, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the sanctuary of Jehovah which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 12Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man that doeth this, him that calleth and him that answereth; and him that offereth an oblation unto Jehovah of hosts. 13And further ye do this ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the oblation any more, nor receiveth [it] with satisfaction at your hand. 14Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because Jehovah hath been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt unfaithfully yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 15And did not one make [them]? and the remnant of the Spirit was his. And wherefore the one? He sought a seed of God. Take heed then to your spirit, and let none deal unfaithfully against the wife of his youth, 16(for I hate putting away, saith Jehovah the God of Israel;) and he covereth with violence his garment, saith Jehovah of hosts take heed then to your spirit, that ye deal not unfaithfully. 17Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, and ye say, Wherein have we wearied [him]? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?