Malachi

Overview

A century after the return, the temple stands and the sacrifices are offered — with blind and lame animals nobody would give a governor. The priests are bored, the people are divorcing their wives, and the tithes have dried up.

Malachi writes as a running argument: God states a charge, the people answer back — wherein have we done this? — and God replies. Seven times over. Then the Old Testament closes with a promise of a messenger, and four hundred years of silence.

Background

Nehemiah had gone back to Persia and returned to find the same compromises creeping in: neglected tithes, mixed marriages, a defiled priesthood. Malachi names the same problems, which is why the two are usually dated together.

There was no king, no visible glory, and no prophet after him. The last verses look ahead to Elijah coming before the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Key themes

• God loves His people and says so first, before any charge.
• Half-hearted worship insults the God it claims to honor.
• Marriage is a covenant God witnesses.
• Robbing God in tithes is answered with a challenge: prove me now.
• A book of remembrance is written for those who fear the LORD and speak of Him.

Outline

1. A charge against the priestsChapter 1

   I have loved you — and you bring blind sacrifices to my altar.

2. Priests and marriagesChapter 2

   A covenant broken by those who teach, and wives dealt with treacherously.

3. The messenger and the titheChapter 3

   A refiner’s fire, robbing God, and a book of remembrance.

4. The day, and ElijahChapter 4

   The sun of righteousness with healing in his wings, and Elijah before that day.

Key passages

• Malachi 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD.
• Malachi 1:8 Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?
• Malachi 2:16 The LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away.
• Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.
• Malachi 3:6 I am the LORD, I change not.
• Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith.
• Malachi 3:16 A book of remembrance was written before him.
• Malachi 4:2 The Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.

Christ in Malachi

The messenger of 3:1 is John the Baptist, as Jesus Himself said, and the Lord who comes suddenly to His temple is Christ. The last word of the Old Testament is a promise that Elijah will come first — and the New Testament opens with a man in camel’s hair by the Jordan.

Reading it

• Track the seven disputes: charge, objection, answer. The objections are the heart of the book.
• Read 3:16-18 if you have ever wondered whether faithfulness is noticed.
• Read the last verse, then Matthew 3:1-3. The gap is four hundred years.