Our Response to a Gracious God

An overview of Malachi with a focus on:  MALACHI 3:7-12

The initial enthusiasm of their return from the Babylonian exile did not last.  High taxes by the Persians coupled with high inflation and famine resulted in extreme poverty.  The confiscation of property and debt slavery were widespread.  Even the priests lost their fear of the Lord and were just going through the motions.  Blaming God for their hard times all the people were being faithless towards God and one another.

The book of Malachi receives its name from its author. In Hebrew, the name comes from a word meaning “messenger,” which points to Malachi’s role as a prophet of the Lord, delivering God’s message to God’s people. Malachi offered no other identifying information about himself such as his father’s name or the current leader of Israel.  

However, based on the content of the book, it becomes clear that Malachi delivered his message of judgment to a Judean audience familiar with worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem. The prophet used the Persian word for governor, indicating a time period between 538–333 BC, when the Persian Empire ruled the Promised Land. Malachi also wrote about the corruption of the temple sacrifices, meaning that he likely delivered his message many years after the Israelites rebuilt the temple in 515 BC. The prophet’s concerns mirror those of Nehemiah’s, suggesting that Malachi prophesied to the people while Nehemiah left the city for several years, beginning in 432 BC.

At the time of Malachi the Israelites had the advantage of history. They knew of the rewards of faithfulness and the punishments associated with faithlessness, even to the point of being uprooted from their land. But even with that perspective, the book of Malachi teaches us that they still strayed from the Lord’s path. As a final statement of judgment in the Old Testament, this book anticipates God’s saving work through the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

By the time of Malachi, they had been back in the land for more than a hundred years and were looking for the blessings they expected to receive when they returned. Though the temple had been rebuilt, the fervor of those early returning Israelites gave way to apathy for the things of God. This led to rampant corruption among the priesthood and a spiritual lethargy among the people.  Malachi came along at a time when the people were struggling to believe that God loved them. The people focused on their unfortunate circumstances and refused to account for their own sinful deeds.  

God pointed the finger back at them and through Malachi told the people where they had fallen short of their covenant with Him. If they hoped to see changes, they needed to take responsibility for their own actions and serve God faithfully according to the promise their fathers had made to God on Mount Sinai all those years before.  Malachi’s call prompts us to live faithfully before God and offers hope that God is not yet through with extending mercy to His people.

OVERVIEW OF MALACHI 
THROUGH BIBLE EXCERPTS

God is speaking through Malachi:

If I am your father, where is my honor? And if I am your master, where is your fear of me? says the Lord to you priests who despise my name.  I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire on my altar! I am not pleased with you.  My name will be great among the nations, but you are profaning it… You say, "Look, what a nuisance!”

This decree is for you priests. If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heart to honor my name, says the Lord, I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings.  Then you will know that I sent you this decree, so that my covenant with Levi may continue. 

My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity and turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should desire instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord.  You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have violated the covenant of Levi, So I, in turn, have made you despised and humiliated before all the people.

By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions, you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. Bring me the full tenth.  Test me in this way, says the Lord. See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. Then all the nations will consider you fortunate.

You have wearied the Lord with your words.  You say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good, the Lord is delighted with them, or he is not the God of justice.”  You have said: “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord?" 

Now you consider the arrogant to be fortunate, because you believe that not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape. You have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. 

Return to me, and I will return to you, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,  And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord as in days of old and years gone by.

Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. They will be mine, says the Lord, my own possession on the day I am preparing.  You will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. 

For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,

Remember the instruction of Moses. I am going to send you the prophet Elijah (literally meaning “the Lord is God.”) before the day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.