The Book Of Malachi
Introduction The Book of Malachi
J. Deering

MALACHI

"The Sin of Self: Self indifference, Self righteousness, Self seeking, Self indulgence, Self centeredness"

Rebuke of Restored Remnant with Announcement of Future Purging and Blessing.

The Word of the Lord through Malachi

His name means “Messenger of the Lord,” or just “My Messenger.” He was connected with the reform movement that began with Nehemiah and then Ezra, and condemned the same sins.

The people had been restored to Jerusalem and the temple and temple wall had been rebuilt. The people had interpreted the glowing prophesies of the exilic and pre-exilic prophets in such a way that they expected to realize the blessings foretold in by those prophets. However, those prophets were telling of a distant time when God’s wrath and blessing will be poured out upon Israel (and the rest of the world) at the latter days of God’s program for mankind.

At this time in their lives they were experiencing difficulties such as shortages of food, crop failures, and other inequalities of life. This led them to become sensual and neglectful of their duty and finally to grow doubtful – and to doubt divine justice. While they did not become idolatrous, they did grow neglectful of vital religion and replaced true piety with mere formalism – they were good keepers of the Law. Worldliness crept into their lives. Their evil conduct became such as we see today in communities that claim to be Christian but lack personal faith in God (Jesus Christ).

Malachi rebuked the Priesthood for their callus and spiteful treatment of God and His Holy Sacrifices, and their rampant hypocrisy.

Malachi will also rebuked the people for their mixed and impure marriages, their lack of personal godliness, their failure to pay the tithe and their skepticism.

In all of this he was trying to revive their relationship and encourage their reliance upon Almighty God. In the effort to revive their hopes he foretold of the coming of the “forerunner, “ and the Messiah and described the manner of their coming.

Malachi saw a much bigger plan of God that included the Gentiles and was remarkably rejoicing that Jehovah was being honored out in the Gentile world. He speaks of that time that is yet future, “The Day of The Lord,” with its promised wrath and great blessing for the Nation of Israel.

We’ll look at 6 specific areas of God’s message brought through Malachi’s preaching and writing.

1.      God’s love for Israel

2.      Israel’s polluted offerings

3.      The sins of the priests

4.      Their heathen marriages and divorces

5.      The separation of the righteous from the wicked

6.      The effect of their paying or withholding the tithe

MALACHI

Recap of Malachi 1:1

"The Sin of Self: Self indifference, Self righteousness, Self seeking, Self indulgence, Self centeredness"

Rebuke of Restored Remnant with Announcement of Future Purging and Blessing.

The study of Malachi should be seen as a comparison of Israel in the past with Christendom in our own time. We also need to look deep within ourselves and identify those areas where each of us is guilty before the Lord of being self-centered instead of Him-centered. Malachi’s message of the revelation of God should affect us as we study each part of it. We need to keep our minds and hearts open to what God had to say to Israel – for He says the very same things to us today.

I.       Jehovah's love for His people, “I have loved you,” and Israel’s response: "Wherein hast Thou loved us?" 1:1‑15

1.      Jehovah’s Compassion Declared, 1:1‑2a

(1) The oracle [burden] of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi , (2) “I have loved you,” says the Lord.

The designation of the prophecy as a burden indicates that the message is one of rebuke rather than comfort or encouragement.

Malachi directs his word to Israel – which is now all of the reunified twelve Jewish tribes which have begun to return to Jerusalem following the Babylonian/Persian captivities.

In this very last prophecy of the Old Testament, on the last pages of that sacred revelation, God reiterates the persistence of His love for Israel and its people.

A.      His Compassion Doubted, 1:2b

(2b) But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob;

In response to this love Israel asks with ungodly boldness, “Wherein hast thou loved us?” The root of their sin was their unawareness of the truth of God’s love for them and their own sinful condition in their ungodly attitude toward Him.

Malachi reminds them of the origins of their race. It was through Jacob that God’s love was poured out as the vehicle of the fulfillment of His covenant with their father Abraham. It was the family of Jacob, whom because of God’s love of him, named him Israel – the name which the “People of God” would forever be named. It would be through the tribe of Judah that the Messiah would come to save His people from the penalty of sin, and spiritual death.

B.      His love Demonstrated, 1:3‑5

(3) but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” (4) 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 [whom the Lord has cursed] toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.”

Jehovah responds to Israel by citing the example of His actions performed in delivering Israel from their long term problems with Jacob’s brother’s clan – Edom and He also removed them from the land and from existence as a nation. God reminds them that it was Esau and his descendents that boasted continually that He could not make them go away – and yet that is exactly what he did. They were dispersed and their land was made barren even until today. They had continually sinned against God and demonstrated their arrogance toward Him. They never turned back to God, nor would they. Therefore God removed them as a nation from the land.

(5) Your eyes will see this and you will say, “The Lord be magnified [will be great] beyond the border [territory] of Israel!”

The last line of this pronouncement indicates that Israel would see the hand of God laid against sinful Edom, however they would not see that their own sinfulness would also bring judgment down upon themselves. The meaning of the verse might seem confusing, however Malachi is speaking and telling them that the will be a day – in the future - when Israel will look upon the Gentiles and see that it is there that He is working, and not with within Israel.

Thinking and Discussing:

1.     When God, through Jesus Christ, bought you back from the world of sin, how did you recognize and respond to the Love of God for you?

2.     How do you respond, and what do you do to demonstrate to God that you are aware of His great love for you?

3.     Are their times in your life when you question God’s love for you? Are their times when you enter into self pity and cry out, “Why me God?”

4.     How do you handle those times, and what draws you back to Him?

5.     What do you see as evidences in your life that His love for you is far different that how He feels toward those who refuse His love.

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