Malachi Study
Good morning
When you hear some one teach lesson and say turn to Malachi what comes immediately to your mind? Tithes
Mal 3:8
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
Have you ever considered the rest of the book? This morning I’d like to do that. I’d like to see what came before and after. Let’s start with Malachi himself.
Ø Who is he? A prophet.
Ø Where is he? Jerusalem
Ø When did he write? @430 BC
o Why would that be significant? Look at your Bibles, what book comes after Malachi? Matthew
o When was Matthew written? @60 AD
o Malachi’s book marks the end of the writings of the Old Testament and the beginning of what we know as the silent years between testaments.
Ø In Bible Study, Malachi is classified as a minor prophet. That doesn’t mean he’s not important, that means his book is short.
o Malachi only has 54 verses.
We don’t know much more about Malachi.
Malachi’s words to the people are met with a series of sarcastic questions. This morning we’ll look at these questions and at God’s answers.
1 An oracle: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
When we define “oracle” we think of prophesy. But in Hebrew the word is better translated as “burden”. This is more than an important message, more than orders or directives from God. This is something you will be held responsible for – a burden, you must carry.
Not only does Malachi clarify his words as coming from God, but he reminds them of who they are by referring to them as Israel – the covenant people.
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
Question 1: “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
Can you imagine someone saying that to God? I want you to remember who God is talking to. This is taking place 100 years after the Jews returned from exile.
Ø The city and its walls had been repaired
Ø the temple rebuilt
Ø Prosperity had returned.
Ø God’s people had settled down to live the “good life”
They were spiritually dull. They didn’t have an urgent sense of a need for God. They really didn’t care about fulfilling God’s plans, or living out their destinies. All that mattered to them was what was going on “now.”
Sound familiar?
Answer 1: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” the Lord says.
“Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated,
You know the story. Isaac had 2 sons: Jacob & Esau. Jacob got his brother to give up his birthright for a pot of stew, and then tricked his father into giving him Esau’s blessing.
It’s not that God hated Esau, it’s that Jacob walked in God’s favor. Jacob got the inheritance.
Hold it Malachi! Edom didn’t go into exile. In fact Edom helped Babylon take Judah into exile by acting as informants and cutting off escape routes. (Ps. 137:7; Ezk. 25:12–14; 35:15; Ob. 8–16). Doesn’t look much like favor to me.
and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” 4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’
This is a reminder of one of Jeremiah’s prophesy. What it says in a nutshell is that Edom is not exempt and will face God’s judgment if they don’t get their acts together. Between 550 & 400 BC Edomites were evicted from their homeland. The people who conquered them let the towns go to ruin and over grazed their fields.
We know that the land of Judah was renewed. Israel today is one of the world’s largest producers of fruits and vegetable. The land of Edom, however today still remains a wasteland. So you can see how Jacob/Israel is favored, while Edom was not.
The real question then is not how has God loved Israel? But rather how has Israel loved God?
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.
Who’s in trouble here? The priests. Their job was to lead the people in Worshipping God. When Malachi mentions the names “Father” and “Master” he’s pointed out that Israel will give man respect by addressing him by titles, and yet even the priests are guilty of not showing God the same respect!
Question 2: “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
OK God, go ahead and blast the priests. But don’t condemn me. I’m just doing my obligation. I bring my sacrifice to the temple, like I’m supposed to.
Answer 2: 7 “You place defiled food on my altar.
Question 3: “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
Answer 3: “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.
I can remember as a little girl being chastised by my mother for keeping a messy room. It really didn’t matter much to me until my friends started having sleep-overs. When I asked if I could have a friend over, my mom would ask if I thought so little of my friends that I would want them to stay in that messy room? Of course not, and I would clean my room. It’s the same thing, you wouldn’t serve moldy bread to the governor, why would you bring it to the Lord’s table?
Who was responsible for inspecting sacrifices? Priests. So if an imperfect sacrifice reached the altar, whose fault is it? Priests
10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “But you profane it by saying of the Lord’s table, ‘It is defiled,’ and of its food, ‘It is contemptible.’
13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.
The truth is they were bored with worship. They had deluded themselves into thinking that when it came to worship or offerings, something was better than nothing, after all lukewarm was better than cold. And when they did complain about the condition of the sacrifices it wasn’t because God was dishonored, it was because they wanted choice cuts of meat for themselves. Remember the priests got a portion of some sacrifices.
13b “When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
2 “And now this admonition is for you, O priests. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.
3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.
Offal are the waste parts of a butchered animal. The stuff we wouldn’t eat, colon, intestines… The law said these parts were to be removed from the sanctuary, taken out of the city, and burned. The guilty priests would be disgraced and removed from their positions.
4 And you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
The Levites had it all. God had intended to bless them and provide for them all their lives. The law insured it.
7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction—because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
Leaders are held to a higher standard. Scripture tells us to not even give the suggestion of impropriety.
Question 4: 10 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
Think of it this way, “Oh come on God, we’re doing the best we can! That should be good enough.”
Answer 4: 11 Judah has broken faith. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves, by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
Their corruption could not be overlooked despite of their relationship with the Lord. Judah persisted in marrying pagan wives who worshiped foreign gods. Now we know that Israel had a history of inter-marriage with pagan people and it always got them in trouble.
You’ll remember I said earlier that when God addresses them as Israel or Jacob he’s referring to the covenant. Here he’s talking about marriage as a covenant relationship. Marriage is not just a contract, a two-way relationship between a husband and wife, but a covenant, a three-way relationship of responsibilities and privileges which involves God as a witness to whom the couple is accountable.
What is the result of this infidelity?
12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord cut him off from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings offerings to the Lord Almighty.
Did you catch that? The penalty is that God will not hear their prayers.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.
In their thinking, if God refused to accept their sacrifices, then they couldn’t earn blessings. So instead of crying out to God for forgiveness, they were accusing God of not playing fair.
Question 5: 14 You ask, “Why?”
Answer 5: 14b It is because the Lord is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
Rabbit trail: This is one of those passages that people often misinterpret. Some people suggest Malachi is talking about the covenant between God and Israel. In fact this passage is talking about Judah’s relationships among her people. We know that because God is never referred to as the wife. He is always the husband.
What this passage is addressing is that society had adopted divorce as a lifestyle motivated by lust—by an older man’s desire for a new and younger wife!
Question 6: 15 Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
Answer 6: 16 “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the Lord Almighty.
So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
Let’s move on, Malachi is speaking
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
Question 7: “How have we wearied him?” you ask.
Answer 7: By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or
Question 8: “Where is the God of justice?”
We would call that humanism or political correctness, when in fact its just doubletalk. In Malachi’s day society had slipped into the practice of calling evil good. It’s like when our society says pornographic movies are called “mature,” and homosexuality is an alternative lifestyle.
God continues,
Answer 8: 3 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
What is God referring to when he says, “the Lord you are seeking”? Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple were filled with the visible glory of God as soon as they were completed. The people of Malachi’s day had seen the temple rebuilt, and they knew the scriptures had promised that the second temple would be filled with an even greater measure of glory than Solomon’s temple. But they had yet to see any visible manifestation of God.
When will the glory fill the temple? When Jesus comes. When Jesus was presented in the temple on the 8th day, Simeon exclaimed that the glory had returned to Israel (Luke 2:32).
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Again this is not the messiah they are expecting. When he comes it will be not only for blessing, but also for judgment against all evil doers, including these cynics with all their self-justifying questions.
5 “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
If you do what is right, you have nothing to fear.
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
Question 9: “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
What they are really saying is “What do You mean, return? Why, we’ve never strayed!”
Answer 9: 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
This answer was very subtle. It says when you fail to do what God has commanded, you have turned away from him. We would call this a sin of omission.
Question 10: “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
Answer 10: “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Now do you have a better idea of how this passage fits into the context of the entire book? Malachi isn’t just about tithing. The people of Malachi’s day may have thought they did enough by rebuilding the temple – they didn’t need to tithe too.
For God when a believer chooses not to tithe he or she is choosing to separate himself from his source. The message remains the same, you can return to right relationship with God by putting God first, and—if you do—God will open the very windows of heaven and pour out blessings. Not because you “paid” for them by tithing but because, when God’s people are close to Him, He enjoys doing them good.
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God.
Question 11: What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.’”
What are they talking about? We just listed all the areas where they did not meet God’s requirements. Again remember that the people and the priests were trying to justify their behavior. They wanted to do as little as they could, meet the minimum obligation requirements and reap the benefits of someone truly sold out for God.
16 Then those who feared the Lord [the faithful remnant] talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.
Notice they did not ask God an impertinent question. I think it is safe to say that they humbled themselves and prayed for the people.
16b A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. 17 “They will be mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
God will not be mocked. He is neither blind nor dumb. We tell are children to be good because God is watching. We tell our teens to be careful of what they say because they will have to give an account of every idle word. And yet when we get saved we focus on God has forgiven us and ignore the fact that he is watching and listening when we give into the flesh.
4 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
“Surely the day…” There is a day of reckoning for the unjust. It cannot be avoided.
2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. 3 Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the Lord Almighty.
Hallelujah!
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
This is an exhortation. Go back, study the law, recommit yourself to serving God. God will still honor his promises.
5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
We know the prophet in the spirit of Elijah who prepares the way of the Lord is John the Baptist, and Jesus is the one who reconciles man to God.
Finally, “turning the hearts of the children to the Fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children” refers to the back-slidden returning to the faith of their fathers, so that they can receive the blessings of the Father.