The Book of Malachi is the transition link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It has been called, “the skirt and boundary of Christianity.” Malachi announces the advent of the Great Messenger of the New Testament. He supports the labors of Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the governor of Judah. He addresses the profane and corrupt character of the priests, the people’s marriages with foreigners, the non-payment of tithes, and a lack of sympathy towards
the poor.
Parts of Malachi are written in the form of a debate. God makes a statement of truth that is denied by the people. In His rebuttal, God refutes the denial in great detail, restating and proving the truth of His original statement.
Although the priests and people were violating God’s Law, negligent in their worship and delinquent in their tithing they could not understand why God was dissatisfied with them. They were claiming God no longer loved them. Through Malachi God reveals to the priests and people why He is displeased with them, but reminds them of the love He has bestowed upon them.
The debate between the Lord, the priests and the people opens with the Lord’s response to the doubting of the compassion of the Lord and a demonstration of His compassion.
Chapter One
God’s Love doubted
Verse two - “I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob;”
This verse reveals the extent of the ingratitude of those who doubt the compassion of the Lord. The Lord, through Malachi, told the doubters He has loved the descendants of Jacob and still loves them, above all other people, even the other descendants of Abraham and Isaac.
In this one word, “love,” all the Lord’s gracious dealings with the sons of Jacob are summed up. Their doubting reveals a lack of a suitable response to the love the Lord has extended to them. Instead they question His love. They challenge the Lord to produce proof He loves them.
The foundation of the ingratitude of these people, as well as the people of this age, is the insensibility to the Lord’s love and to their own wickedness. They believed the taking away their prosperity was all the evidence they needed to doubt the love of the Lord. Rather than consider what has been given to them they were looking at what was taken away. They were blinded by their determination to accumulate the temporal comforts of life. They didn’t see the freedom to return to the land they loved was evidence of the love of the Lord. Today, there are people in the church who have lost sight of the great freedom that has been given to them through God’s love. Like the Israelites they have been blinded by their determination to accumulate temporal comfits and pleasures of this life.
When we are going through a troublesome situation and it appears we are alone and have no one we can turn to for comfort we must not let the enemy of our soul use our situation and feelings to get us to doubt the love of the Lord. Even when the Lord is correcting us for what we have done, are doing or are not doing, that is contrary to His will, we must not think the correction is a sign the Lord no longer loves us. If we only remember God’s love is not like man’s love. His love is unchanging. Instead of blaming the Lord for the problems and troubles we encounter in this life we need to recognize the proper source of the problems and troubles, our disobedience or the disobedience of others that often has negative effects upon the lives of the children of the Lord.
What is often overlooked when we read verse two is, both Jacob and Esau were objects of God’s love. The word “hated” is generally taken out of the context of the answer to the question asked by the priests and the people. They were gifts from God. They were an answer to prayer. Isaac had prayed many years, the Lord would bless him with a son. God blessed him with two sons.
When Rebecca realized she would give birth to two children she was greatly concerned because, “The children struggled together within her” (Genesis 25:22). She wanted to know why was this struggle taking place if this was the will of the Lord. Like Rebecca, we often experience problems and troubles we weren’t expecting when we are in the center of God’s will. This can cause us to be discontent and uneasy and ask questions.
There was much more going on in the womb of Rebecca. She was about to bring into this world two sons who will be the fathers of two nations. Like the two sons these two nations will be different in their manners and dispositions. The struggle between the two sons was over service. According to God’s will the elder will serve the younger. For many years the Edomites, the descendents of the elder (Esau) was subject to the house of David, a descendant the younger (Jacob), till they revolted and set up a king to rule over them (2nd Chronicles 21:8).
When we question the ways of the Lord, we need to remember He is a free agent in dispensing His grace. It is His prerogative to make a difference between those who have not done either good or evil. In the struggle between grace and corruption in the soul, grace shall certainly get the upper hand at last.
It is not unusual for the Lord to choose the weak things of the world to manifest His love and power, and to pass by the mighty (1st Corinthians 1:26-27). Esau, the stronger, came forth first; but Jacob “came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’ heel” (Genesis 25:26).
Esau was a man of this world. He was a hunter; and knew how to live by his wits. Recreation was his business; he studied the art of it, and spent all his time in it. He was a man of the field, like Nimrod and Ishmael. Jacob, on the other hand was a shepherd, dwelling in tents.
God’s Love Demonstrated
In the Lord’s answer to the question, “How have you loved us?” The Lord told the priests and the people, I have loved Jacob.” He is telling them He has revealed His love through what He has done for the descendants of Jacob.
Verse three - “but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation for the jackals of the wilderness.”
This statement by the Lord has been debated for centuries. The debate has been over the word ”hated.”
Hated, as used in this verse is not the opposite of love. It is not absolute. It does not mean God didn’t love Esau. It means He didn’t love him in the same way He loved Jacob. The evidence God loved Esau is, He made the mountains of Seri, an inheritance that He gave Esau and his descendants. Seri was a desolated wilderness, it was not a land of milk and honey. It was a suitable place for a man of the field. What the Lord is saying here, He didn’t bless Esau in the same way He did Jacob. Esau did prosper in the land the Lord gave him. The Lord didn’t bless Esau in the same way as He blessed Jacob because Esau didn’t value the promises that God had made to Abraham and Isaac. Jacob did.
Jacob and Esau’s decisions played a vital role in their relationship to God, what is more important is the decision that was made by God before the conception of Esau and Jacob. We can not deny the decisions we make effect our lives and the lives of others. But, it is the decisions God makes that determine all that takes place in this world. If this were not true He wouldn’t be all powerful and man could override the power of God with the decisions he makes. It is true we are free to make decisions and act upon those decisions. We are also responsible for the decisions we make that have a negative affect on our lives and the conditions existing in this world. But God maintains control of this world regardless of what we may or may not do. He will permit only those events that do not interfere with His goal for the human race and the universe.
There is something interesting in this demonstration of the Lord’s compassion that is often overlooked.
Verse four - “Though Edom says, ‘We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins;’ thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘They may build but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.’”
The Lord is holding the descendants of Esau responsible for the decisions they made. The wickedness of Edom is recorded in Genesis 26:34; 27:41 and Obadiah 10-14. Because the Edomites rejoiced over the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians God said they would be an everlasting monument of His justice.
In verse four we are showed a second demonstration of God’s love. Both the cities of Jacob and Esau were destroyed by the Babylonians. Jacob’s cities and the temple are being rebuilt while Esau’s cities remain in ruins. They will never be rebuilt. There is coming a time when the sufferings of the righteous will end. Their grief turned into joy. But the suffering and grief of the wicked will never end.
The captives who have returned from Babylon are told,
Verse five - “Your eyes will see this and you will say, ‘The Lord will be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”
Those who doubt the compassion of God will see a demonstration of God’s love. They will see what they didn’t believe.
The first “oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi ends with a statement of the greatness of the Lord. The second one begins with a question, “Why don’t the priests of Israel honor the Lord?”
God’s Complaint Against Isreal
Cheating
Verse six - “’A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who have despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’”
Although the priests are appointed judges and are to call the people to give an accounting of their
behavior, Malachi, by a special commission, is calling the priests to give an accounting for their profaning of their office. In the house of God there is one above those who are called to serve, who oversees the activity of the servants. He has something to say to the unfaithful servants. The Lord of hosts has some- thing to say to these unfaithful servants. It has to do with what the Lord expects from them and why He expects them to do what they have been called to do.
Their children and servants respect and honor them. But the priests, who are the Lord’s children and His servants, are not showing the Lord the same respect and honor. They are not honoring or obeying their heavenly Father and Master. Because they are not honoring and obeying their heavenly Father and Master they are guilty of despising and profaning His name.
The response of the priests to this charge is evidence of their spiritual blindness. They want to know how they have despised the name of the Lord. First, they don’t regard His name as being worthy of consideration in their daily activities in the house of the Lord. They use His name to draw attention, respect, and honor to themselves. They misuse sacred things and use them for the worst and vilest purposes, their pride, covetousness, and luxury. The greatest evil anyone can do is the profaning the name of the Lord. His name is how He has made Himself known to mankind.
Nothing profanes His name more than the misconduct of priests and ministers.
The priests deny this charge brought against them by the Lord of hosts and challenge the Lord to prove they are guilty.
Verse seven - “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is to be despised.’”
It is common practice with proud sinners, when they are reproved, to justify their behavior. These priests profaned sacred things, and yet, they said that they had done no wickedness. They were so involved in what they were doing they could see no wrong in what they were doing, or so ignorant of the divine law that they thought there was no harm in what they were doing. They
couldn’t understand how what they were doing could be considered a profaning of the name of the Lord. Add to this, the hardened of their hearts through their rejection of the prophets the Lord sent to warn them of their evil ways and evil deeds and the pride they took in making fun of and belittling the prophets. Their hearts became so hardened they were not aware of the dangerous ground they were walking on.
The question, “How have we despised Your name?” was not a humble desire to be told how they had offended the Lord. It was a challenge, prove it if you can. If this was a humble and honest desire to know how they had offended the Lord it would have been evidence of a desire to repent and turn from their evil ways and evil deeds. This is not the case. The question is filled with disdain and defiance.
When the Lord is challenged He responds. He will prove the charge He has brought against the priests. He will show them how they have despised His name and what the contempt was that they have cast on Him. They despised God’s name in what they said and in the low opinion they had of his institutions.
They said, perhaps in their hearts, or among them-selves out of the hearing of the people, “The table of the Lord is to be despised and is defiled (v.12). It is to be regarded as any other table. This could be a reference to the table the show-bread was placed on. Because they didn’t understanding the mystery of it, they regarded it as insignificant or it could be a reference to the altar of burnt-offerings. It is called a table for there God, His priests, and His people, did, as it were, feast together upon the sacrifices, in token of friendship. This they thought was contemptible. The altar of burnt offerings was considered contemptible in comparison with the
altars of the heathen in the days of King Ahaz when he ordered the bronze altar to be moved to make room for a new heathen altar (2nd Kings 16:14-16). Now the altar is thought contemptible in comparison with their own tables, and those of the great men of the day.
Verse eight - “But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly? says the Lord of hosts.”
The priests despised God’s name in what they were doing. They thought any thing would serve for a sacrifice. They didn’t offer the best they had but the worst they had, which was not fit for the market nor for their own tables. They used bread that was considered servant’s bread which was made of the refuse of the wheat. The animals the people offered, although it was stated in the law should not have a blemish, were blind, lame, and sick. Animals that were about to die from diseases. They had no market value. By accepting these animals and offering them as a sacrifice the priests were telling the people what they were doing was not wrong. When we don’t fully give of ourselves to the Lord are we not doing what these people were doing? Is it not a great wrong and injury to our souls when we put our will ahead of the Lord’s will? Shouldn’t we give our best to the Lord who has given His best to us? When we don’t freely
give of ourselves to the service of the Lord are we not doing what the priests were doing? The priests would do no more than what they were paid to do.
Verse nine - “But now will you not entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?”
The answer to both of these questions is “No.”
Verse ten - “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from you.”
In this verse the Lord of hosts is telling the priests He prefers no worship to contemptible worship. It was foolishness on the part of the priests to ask the Lord to bestow His favor on them when they were despising Him in these ways. It would please the Lord if someone would shut the gates, so no one could enter it or bring a sick animal to offer to the Lord. Even if they did continue offering sacrifices He would have no regard for them.
Verse eleven - “For among the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts."
Because the priests and the people despise the name of the Lord of hosts He will find others who will magnify His name. They will not offer the blind, lame, and sick. There offering will be the best they have and it will be accepted by the Lord.
Verse twelve - Is a renewal of the charge in verse seven.
Verse thirteen - “You also say ‘ My, how tiresome it is! And you disdainfully sniff at it’ says the Lord of the hosts, ‘and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your Hand?’ says the Lord.’”
The question is, “Did these people really think these offerings would be accepted by the Lord or didn’t they care? Were they just going through a ritual that had no meaning to them? These people were swindling the Lord. They vowed to offer an acceptable animal as a sacrifice but when it came time to keep their promise they substituted one of inferior quality. What they were doing was total foolishness. The Lord is the great King, the King of kings and Lord of lords. His name will be feared among all nations, and here are His own people and their spiritual leaders treating
Him with contempt. Is there a lesson for the present day servants of the Lord in this incident in the lives of the Israelites?
