Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, bringing down the curtain - so to speak - as the last word from God to His people for 400 plus years. Not too dissimilar to John the Baptist – the first prophet of the New Testament, Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament and “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” – a voice in the gathering gloom. Since Malachi is a mere four chapters and we have ten weeks, we will have the privilege of plunging deeply into this rich unique prophecy. As you know every Word of God is profitable for us as Scripture states:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
Indeed, I love the quote by Rob Bell as it is so true regarding God’s Word:
“The rabbis spoke of the text being like a gem with seventy faces, and each time you turn the gem, the light refracts differently, giving you a reflection you haven’t seen before. And so we turn the text again and again because we keep seeing things we missed before. When you embrace the text as living and active, when you enter its story, when you keep turning the gem, you never come to the end. Inspired words have a way of getting under our skin and taking on a life of their own. They work on us. We started out reading them, but they end up reading us.” Rob Bell
We will discover that Malachi directs his message of judgment to a people plagued with corrupt priests, wicked practices, and a false sense of security in their privileged relationship with God. There was a definite decline in the overall spiritual state of God’s people who should have known better. Unique among the prophets, using the question and answer method, Malachi probes deeply into their problems of hypocrisy, infidelity, mixed marriages, divorce, false worship, and arrogance. They had become so sinful that God’s Words to them lacked any impact. They had relegated their faith to mere formalism and traditionalism. God’s Word held no power over them. Sounds a bit like our day and age does it not? We will discover that Malachi’s message will certainly be applicable to our times. To be sure, all of God’s Word is relevant to our times. We would do well to remember that God does not change. He is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Indeed, Malachi states in chapter three:
6 “I the LORD do not change.” Malachi 3:6 (NIV)
This serves as a heads up and a reminder for us all! We each are in process and never “get there” - so to speak - until we see Jesus face to face. Therefore, we are to be spiritually vigilantly watchful over our lives and the lives of our children. John Piper fairly recently took an eight-month leave of absence from all his pastoral duties to examine his life seeking to put the crosshairs on besetting sins such as selfishness, anger, self-pity, quickness to blame and sullenness. This makes me question: What are the natural reflexes of my original, unmortified sinfulness? We must seek to blast the pattern of passivity that we have developed in relation to what we deem as acceptable sins and force ourselves into the reality that canceled sin must be killed and not coddled. To be sure, it is the little foxes that will ruin our vineyards. Paul does not teach passivity in the pursuit of holiness – it is the conscious effort of our wills availed by the precious blood bought, Spirit wrought achieving power. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians:
*5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test? *
6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 (NIV)
Read Our Most Neglected Spiritual Discipline – (1)
Believers have been crucified with Christ as Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20:
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
Paul goes on to add:
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:1-14 (NIV)
We are easily deluded about our own hearts since the heart is deceitful beyond cure. We, like King David, are to ask God to search our hearts and point out to us our deceitful ways and lead us according to His righteousness:
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
Back to Malachi (finally)! Malachi’s name means “My messenger” and he has been deemed “the unknown prophet with the angel name” – “angel” meaning messenger. He was the last of the writing prophets yet he wrote nothing about himself. We have no biblical information about his ancestry, his call or his personal life. Yet the most important thing about God’s messengers are the messages they bring not who they are or where they came from.
Since the Old Testament canon came to a close when Malachi finished his prophecy we can be certain that his words were vital to God’s endangered people. It was a wakeup call so to speak as it is for us as well. It would be the last Word from God for over four centuries. God becomes silent. Let that soak in for a minute. There were no prophet’s voices ringing. The next voice the Israelites would here from God would be from the lips of John the Baptist’s. Malachi’s strident, angry, threatening voice rang out loud and clear and then a somber silence of four hundred years descended. His words carried great weight as he was like the Baptist – 3A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God” as Isaiah 40:3 states.
God had outlined rules and regulations for His people both for their protection as well as for their intimate fellowship with Him. These rules and regulations are always for our good and His glory never one surpassing the other. Indeed, Moses had told the Israelites that God’s Word was to be their very life. They are to be our life as well. We see in Deuteronomy:
45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you--they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 32:45-47 (NIV)
Yet His people were straying far from them. Just as in our generation. Heads up! When this happens, He lovingly corrects. Love is a double-sided coin – it is not unloving to discipline – it is unloving not to. Sometimes the most loving actions can appear very harsh.
Throughout Malachi, we will see how God as a loving Father confronts, corrects, and challenges the people of Israel about straying from Him. No one is excluded. Beware if you are not ever corrected by God because God disciplines those He loves and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son. The writer of Hebrews tells us:
5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:5-11 (NIV)
God’s end goal is always a harvest of righteousness and peace for His children – which sounds delicious does it not? Who wouldn’t like to see a harvest of righteousness and peace in their own lives and in the lives of those we hold dear?
Reforms were badly needed in Malachi’s day. Just as they are in our day. It was a low time spiritually for Judah and they desperately needed to hear and heed the Word of God. His messages against the sins of the saints sorely need to be heeded today as well. Prayerfully, we will be able to glean many take-aways from this rich and oh so relevant Book of Scripture. Amazingly, Scripture is never out of date but always pertinent for every generation.
“The Bible is the most amazing book in the world. And when we’re tempted to feel bored with it, we may need to step back and remember how marvelous and unique and powerful this piece of literature is. The Bible is simply unequaled in its influence, audacious in its claims, and unrivaled in its power to transform hardened sinners into humble saints.” Jon Bloom
Read Jon Bloom’s article: Yawning at Majesty How To Fight Boredom With The Bible (2)
“The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” A.W. Tozer
“If the Bible is the word of God and inspired, all who refuse to believe it are in fearful danger; they are living on the brink of eternal misery.” J. C. Ryle
Paul tells his beloved Timothy:
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV)
The Psalmist states:
89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Psalm 119:89 (NIV)
97 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. 98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. 100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. 101 I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. Psalm 119:97-101 (NIV)
*165 Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. Psalm 119:165 (NIV) *
Malachi prophesied sometime after the days of Nehemiah. The majority of scholars agree that the book was written sometime after Nehemiah’s return to the Persian court in 433 BC. and before 400 BC. Almost a century after Haggai and Zechariah began to prophesy. There had been sufficient time for corruption to again take root and flourish. The prevailing attitude was that it was not worth serving Yahweh as evidenced by the moral and religious corruption. Yet God continues to reveal His love for the people despite their attitudes and their actions. In Nehemiah 13 we discover Nehemiah was beginning to experience some of this straying of God’s people and his overt reaction to it. They had desecrated the Sabbath, intermarried with pagans and even their children could not speak the language of Judah giving us a picture of the spiritual climate. Furious, Nehemiah tells us:
22 Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love. 23 Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. 25 I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. 27 Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” Nehemiah 13:22-27 (NIV)
Moral decline had set in and was simmering. As we will discover, moral degradation was at an all-time high, with adultery, divorce, falsehood, fraud, and sorcery running rampant throughout the city; the source of much of the corruption was found with the priests themselves. It started at the top with those who certainly should have known better. Plagued with corrupt priests with wicked practices, there was also a false sense of security in their privileged relationship with God. Profanity and sacrilege marked the religious attitude of the people and the sin of robbing God was widespread. Intermarriage between Jew and Gentile was a practice prohibited in the Mosaic law and was now commonplace. Additionally, traditionalism was beginning to trump the commands of Scripture, laying the foundation for both Pharisaism and Sadduceeism. There was a spirit of smugness and complacency that eventually produced the Pharasaic party and spirit of skepticism and worldliness that eventually produced the Sadducean party. They were indeed blending with the culture around them instead of being set apart as God’s people. If one desires to live for God they simply cannot blend with the world. We are to be in the world but not of it. Furthermore, as prior stated, there was a prevailing attitude that it was not worth serving Yahweh. God’s patience was far spent – it was time for revival or ruin. There was a desperate need for a fresh visitation from God, and God sent Malachi.
With the boldness of a spiritual hero, the lone prophet confronted priest and people alike. He reminds them a day of reckoning would surely come when God would judge the righteous and the wicked. It would behoove us to remind ourselves of this as well. Their reaction was righteous indignation and self-defense. Not a good reaction to be sure! Seven times this Old Testament Martin Luther challenged Israel and seven times they answered God back: (V1:2) “How have you loved us?”; (V1:6) “How have we shown contempt for your name?”; (V1:7) “How have we defiled you?”; (V2:17) “How have we wearied Him?”; (V3:7) “How are we to return?”; (V3:8) “How did we rob you?”; (V3:13) “What have we said against you?”. They were so spiritually insensitive and dead that they wondered why they were not being blessed by God. They had become both disillusioned and doubtful and their faith imperceptibly degenerated into cynicism. Their hardened hearts deluded them. Remember what Scripture states about our hearts:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NIV)
9 For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV)
*The Prophet Jeremiah also tells us that our hearts can become so hardened when our standards become one with the world’s that we lose all moral perspective and no longer even blush over sin: *
15 “Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD. Jeremiah 6:15 (NIV)
Their heart attitudes manifested themselves in mechanical observances, empty ritual, cheating on tithes and offerings, and crass indifference to God’s moral and ceremonial law. They begin to question God’s providence as their faith imperceptibly digressed down. Sin always will go further still in a spiral down. Over and over these false conclusions and rationalizations of the people were overcome by irrefutable and convicting arguments. Of the fifty-five verses in Malachi, forty-seven are spoken by God, the highest proportion of all the prophets. Malachi is also the only prophet who ends his book with judgment. It is a fitting conclusion to the Old Testament because it underscores the sinful human condition and anticipates God’s solution in the work of the coming Messiah. God sent Malachi but the Jews refused him, so the snug little land of Judah would soon be shaken by troubles, persecutions, wars, rumors of wars, and military and ideological onslaughts unlike any it had known before. Flesh never seems to learn.
Sadly, we find ourselves in the same pattern in our day and age. We are quick to be defensive and question God. Self-righteous in our own eyes. This is particularly true if He is getting close to our Delilah’s. As we spoke about prior, it would greatly behoove us to examine our lives through the lens of Scripture - opening our hearts to the moving of the Spirit indwelling within us to teach us and to show us what we are to be about changing or doing in our own lives – through His power for His glory for our good. Again, we never get there until we are home with the Lord. There is always something that He is working on in and through us. Malachi reminds the people that a day of reckoning will surely come when God will judge the righteous and the wicked. We can be certain that it will come for us as well either upon our deaths or when Jesus returns.
*The words given to the Prophet Malachi were extremely weighty. He was not communicating a health, wealth and prosperity message. Indeed, he didn’t prescribe “Ten easy steps to be the best you can be”! Much like Jonah to the Ninevites, his words were “repent, or be destroyed” to his own people. Sadly, as was the case with the majority of his prophetic contemporaries, his words – God’s Words – were merely brushed off and not taken to heart. Red Flag - God always means what He says! *
These are Beth’s personal notes, due to this fact sources are not often stated.