Minor Prophets 12 - Malachi - The Prophet of the Lord’s Coming

Malachi: The Prophet of the Lord’s Coming – Cory Collins

(Sources include The Wiersbe Bible Commentary and the ESV Study Bible.)

Name: “My angel” or “My messenger.” Note play on his name in Mal 3:1.

Date and setting: Most place Malachi in the mid-fifth-century BC (around 450), the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Malachi, Ezra, and Nehemiah reprove the same sins. These include corruption of the priesthood (Neh 13:4–9, 29–31; Mal 1:6–2:9), marriage to idolaters (Ezra 9–10; Neh 10:30; 13:1–3, 23–27; Mal 2:10–12), abuse of the disadvantaged (Neh 5:1–13; Mal 3:5), and failure to pay tithes (Neh 10:32–39; 13:10–13; Mal 3:8–10).

Some 80 years have passed since Haggai and Zechariah. The temple has been rebuilt, but the Jews have not seen the glorious future that they expected. They have lost their zeal. Malachi uses a new “didactic-dialectic” style, which later became standard in Jewish schools and synagogues. First, an assertion is brought. Second, an imagined objection is raised by the hearers: “But you say …” Third, that objection is refuted by the speaker. The book contains six such charges.

Malachi promises that the Lord will send “My messenger” to clear the way before Him (3:1). He will send “Elijah the prophet” before the great and terrible day of the Lord (4:4-6). The NT applies both of these statements specifically to John the Baptist (Matt 11:10, 14; 17:10-13; Mark 1:2; 9:11-13; Luke 1:17, 76; 7:27; John 1:6-7, 21).

Outline:

1:1-5          Doubting God’s Love

God had punished Judah (descended from Jacob) with 70 years in Babylonian exile, while the people of Edom (descended from Esau) remained safe and prosperous. Was that fair? Did He really love His people? Answer: God had loved Jacob by choosing him over the “hated” (rejected) Esau for His own redemptive purposes. Edom would in fact suffer for her sins, too.

Note: God did not “hate” Esau in the sense of refusing to save him and his descendants. However, salvation for everyone would come, not through Esau, but through Jacob (>> Christ). This passage is quoted in Rom 9:13.

1:6-2:9      Dishonoring God’s Name

What is at fault is not God’s love for Israel, but Israel’s love for God.

1:6-14        People charged with offering defiled sacrifices

2:1-9          Priests charged with dishonoring the Lord and corrupting His teachings

2:10-16     Profaning God’s Covenant

2:10-12     Marrying heathen women

To marry an idolater (“daughter of a foreign god”) was to profane God’s holy sanctuary.

2:13-16     Divorcing their wives

One who is faithless to the wife of his youth breaks covenant with both her and God, who was and is witness to the marriage vows. One who hates his wife and divorces her defiles himself (“covers his garment with violence”). Therefore God would not accept that man’s worship. Cf Matt 5:23-25; 19:1-9; 1 Pet 3:7).

2:17 – 3:5 Questioning God’s Justice

The Jews charged God with treating as good those who did evil and thus being unjust.

God would bring justice for sure. He would send His messenger (John the Baptist) before Him. And the Lord Himself (Jesus Christ) would come – to refine, clean, restore, and judge. The sins named in Mal 3:5 include oppressing hired workers and neglecting the sojourner.

3:6-12        Robbing God’s House

When the Jews robbed God by not giving, they actually robbed themselves of His blessings.

To tithe was to give 10% of one’s income. This would express trust in God and gratitude to God. It would provide for the material needs of the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless (the orphan), and the widow. It would acknowledge God’s ownership of the entire earth. See Lev 27:30–32; Num 18:21-32; Deut 26:12–13.

3:13 – 4:3 Despising God’s Service

The complainers asking. “What good does it do us to serve God, when the wicked prosper?”

The believers receiving assurance. “God will spare the faithful and judge the wicked.”

4:4-6          Summary

Remember the Law of Moses – assertions / charges 1–3.

Remember the promise of Elijah and the coming day of the Lord – assertions / charges 4–6.

Key principles from Malachi:

Until we are sure of God’s genuine love for us, we will be unable to love Him and others.

Marriage is a three-way covenant. God holds us accountable to keep our marriage vows.

When we fail to give to God’s work, we are robbing God of what is rightfully His.

God would fulfill all His promises and warnings in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Key verses from Malachi:

Mal 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

Mal 3: 6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Mal 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Mal 4:2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

Mal 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”