The Book of Malachi

Malachi, meaning “My Messenger”, (Smith) is the last book of the “Old Testament” or the Old Covenant of the Bible. It is a book that consists of only four chapters, but strong and powerful chapters. In these chapters, Malachi, the prophet, addresses three points to the people or Israel. The three points start with Israel turning away from God, move to not being unified, and finally focuses on how Israel wears God down.

The Israelites were going about their business, they were intermarrying, giving sacrifices, giving to God as they saw fit and they felt they were justified in how they were doing things. They were not receiving the blessings they thought they should and they became bitter. Malachi’s first address was in regards to how Israel had turned away from God.

The LORD starts off asking where is the honor due him (NIV Bible). God noticed that the people honored their parents but were not honoring him (Keathley). The Jews had a lack of zeal and pride had built up within their hearts. The Jews were blindsided; they could not see their sin. God wasn’t feeling honored by his people. He wasn’t feeling “splendor” or “glory” (E-Sword) from the Israelites. These feelings were a direct result from poor sacrifices.

What is a poor sacrifice? In a sense, this whole book of Malachi is addressing this one question. But in the literal sense, in dealing with animals, the Israelites were not giving the best animals. They gave “injured, crippled or diseased animals” (NIV Bible) instead of what the LORD commanded of a sacrifice. This led God to feel disrespected and dishonored. But God says he will work, either with the Israelites or with the other the nations. And he will be feared or more importantly, revered. It was best said in 1st Samuel 22 “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?”

The second point is about not being unified with one another. It can take shape in many ways, (this, too, could be another focus on the entire book – unity between God and his people) but for the Israelites, it was an issue of the priests and Judah. It was an issue of what the people wanted to do and what God wanted them to do. The priests were causing people to turn away from the LORD due to their corruption (Smith). And with the people bringing the bad sacrifices and the priests taking them, it was a lose-lose situation for the people. God was simply upset that the priests were not teaching and rebuking the people. (Keathley) The priests were not taking the leadership role seriously. “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.” (NIV Bible) God didn’t see this in the priests. In fact, God so much as says that the priests have “undone” (E-Sword) the work the LORD has done, thus God will see to it they will be despised and humiliated.

It still goes further into marriage. God sees it on many, many levels. Judah broke faith with the LORD (NIV Bible). And how did Judah do this? The men would divorce an older wife and marry a younger woman of a foreign god. God hates divorce. The Bible says it. And this is the whole reason the LORD is upset in this passage. As I see it, God doesn’t like the good things to break down and that is what divorce does to people. It also is a statement by man saying that God cannot work in marriage, therefore I, man, will end the marriage. But in the last part of verse 16, God sparks some hope to his people. He first starts the verse by clearing any and all doubt on his feelings of divorce. “I hate divorce.” (NIV Bible) and then he finishes up by saying this: “So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.” (NIV Bible) God tells the Jews that they can, in a sense, protect themselves, and guard their heart. If they do so, they will be better equipped to not break faith.

God says he is worn out by all the evil things that the people have done. The LORD is exhausted. This is the third part of Malachi’s book, how Israel wore down God. People were saying that God approved of wickedness and while others said that God had simply abandoned Israel. God was worn out by this attitude. The LORD knows the hearts of his people. 1st Samuel 16:7 says, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (NIV Bible) And then to take this a step further, Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active… it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (NIV Bible) With these two in mind, it brings to light this third part.

The first thing that wore down God is the grumbling. The people are faithless. Even though the LORD was upset by the faithlessness of the people in this regard, he offered reassurance. The book of Malachi prophesied about Christ, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver” (Wesley). God is always there to instill hope, even in the toughest of messages in the Bible; there is always a message of hope within the pages.

The second thing that wore down God is the tithing. “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.” This is one of those eye-popping scriptures. “Will a man defraud (E-Sword) God?” One of the ways they were not keeping God’s statutes was by withholding their tithes and offerings. It says they were robbing God. This means that not giving is stealing! (Keathley) God wants the heart of his people to give to us. I have a son who just learned to walk. He ran to me once and he gave me a handful of cheerios. He was excited to do it. His heart was to give. And that is the heart that God is looking for. Not the heart that would continually say “It is futile to serve God.” (NIV Bible) When these people say it is futile to serve God, it is like saying it is useless (E-Sword) to serve him. It is worship that is in vain. They are saying it is rules created by men to follow an empty god. The people didn’t want to serve the LORD simply because the heart they wanted to receive first and then maybe give.

Now the best part isn’t waking up with Folgers in your cup. It’s the last three verses of chapter three. The LORD talks about sparing those who serve him, even those serving him who do not have the best of hearts (Wesley). He does this simply because those serving are children of God, because they are obedient and serving God. And that makes for a good distinction of believing and doing nothing and believing and doing something.

This whole book talks about how God felt robbed. He was robbed with poor sacrifices. He was robbed with disrespect, robbed with dishonor. When people turned away due to false teaching, he was robbed. When Judah turned away and gave into divorce, he was robbed. People gave poor offerings and tithes, and the LORD was robbed. When people have a futile perspective, it is robbery. And in the last chapter, the promise is that if a change doesn’t occur, then things will not get better for the world, for the earth. Then the question remains, are things changing in the way that the LORD is wanting, in a positive way or are the people still robbing God?

Works Sited:

1. E-Sword. 7th Ed. Online Software on the Bible. Available from http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html; Internet; accessed 8-2-06


2. Keathley IV, Hampton, Th. M. The Minor Prophets. Online resource on Malachi. Available from http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=979; Internet; accessed 7-23-06.


3. NIV Bible. Colorado Springs: International Bible Society, 1973.


4. Smith, Jeff. Minor Prophets: My Servants the Prophets. Jeff Smith, 2000.


5. Wesley, John. Wesley’s Notes on the Bible. Online eBook on the Bible. Available from http://www.biblestudyguide.org/ebooks-comment/index.htm; Internet; accessed 8-2-06.