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Part 14 of the Series:
“search the scriptures” John 5:39
‘I have loved you’, Mal.1. 2
When writing to Timothy, the Apostle Paul predicted that in the ‘last days’ men would have ‘a form of godliness’ but deny ‘the power thereof’, 2 Tim. 3. 1, 5. This was the case in the last days of the Old Testament record of Israel’s history. There is much to be learned therefore from Malachi’s ministry as we, like him, live in the closing days of an era.
It is likely that Malachi ministered approximately 100 years after the Jews had returned to Jerusalem from the seventy years of exile in Babylon, about eighty years after the Temple was rebuilt, and after Nehemiah had finished rebuilding the walls around the city.
It may be the case that he was called to action in the period when Nehemiah had returned to the court of King Artaxerxes in Shushan, Neh. 13. 6, 7. During that time, and in the absence of his governorship, Israel’s society degenerated. Those who should have restrained the moral and spiritual declension were guilty of sponsoring it. The succeeding governor was more exacting than the self-denying Nehemiah, cp. Mal. 1. 8 with Neh. 5. 14, 15. The priests, whom the Lord says through Malachi, formerly ‘did turn many away from iniquity’, Mal. 2. 6, now ‘caused many to stumble’, v. 8.
Upon his return to Jerusalem, Nehemiah witnessed the malpractice that Malachi denounced. The Lord’s complaint, ‘ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi’, v. 8, resonates with Nehemiah’s lament that priests like Eliashib and his son Joiada ‘have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites’, Neh. 13. 29. It is plausible, therefore, that what Haggai and Zechariah had been to Zerubbabel and Joshua, Malachi was to Nehemiah.
A commendable analysis is offered by Brown in The Bible Book by Book, that is helpful in grasping the flow of Malachi’s writing:
The atmosphere in which Malachi delivered his message is reminiscent of our day. The enthusiasm that characterized former generations, the liberated remnant who returned from captivity in Babylon, had given place to spiritual indifference and lethargy. The freshness and vitality with which they reinstituted their God-ordained system of religion had morphed into torpor and ritualism by Malachi’s time.
There are two prevailing characteristics in Israel’s condition that are discernible in this prophecy, namely cynicism and formalism. These traits continued to evolve over the 400-year interlude between the Testaments and appeared in the Lord’s day in the form of the Sadducees (cynicism) and Pharisees (formalism). Such attitudes are prevalent today, and sadly, are all too often true of the people of God. We need to guard against displaying these behaviours.
The style of this book is most unusual. In the fifty-five verses of the prophecy there are twenty-seven questions. These are posed by Malachi, Israel, or God Himself. Often a question is responded to with a question. Despite man’s protestations, ultimately it is God who has the last word. He inevitably does. Of the ten questions uttered by Israel, eight of them respond to God’s assertions by expressing contemptuous disbelief at God’s assessment.
Two Sceptical Questions The other two questions spoken by Israel reveal scepticism rather than a genuine desire for enlightenment.
What temerity to question God’s considered opinion as if it were not true.
Let us be clear, God has never objected to questioning. He anticipates, indeed encourages it as being a legitimate method of learning. Witness how at the institution of the Passover remembrance He says, ‘when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son’, Deut. 6. 20, 21. What is reprehensible is when the question is asked in such a way that it reveals that the person is in denial of the assertion or betrays that they already have a closed mind and are not prepared to consider the reasoning. The questions from Israel recorded in this book are presented in this way.
Examples of their cynical attitude are:
May we guard against developing such cynicism toward God and His requirements of us.
With cynicism prevailing, their maintenance of Judaism became mere religion. What once was characterized by exuberance, cp. Ezek. 3. 11, had become lifeless formality.
By the time of Malachi’s writing, the nation was trying to revive and maintain a religious system that was 1, 100 years old. They falsely presumed that they were bringing sacrifices, making offerings, keeping ordinances and observing feasts in the way the law required them to do. But these were merely repetitious rituals and were devoid of the reality of their privilege. The Lord’s injunction against them was ‘ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name’, Mal. 2. 2. The routine had become mundane.
There is the danger that through repetition of tasks, formalism can develop. We in the church belong to an order that is 2,000 years old. Yet, in reality, we have only one event that is required of us with repetitious regularity. It was the practice of the early church ‘upon the first day of the week … the disciples came together to break bread’, Acts 20. 7. Let us ever remember ‘as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come’, 1 Cor. 11. 26. God preserve us from this becoming a formal ritual, and may we preserve the form of remembering Him in the way first enacted by our Lord in the Upper Room.
Their ritualism was also an exercise in hypocrisy. They were ‘solemn’ at their feasts, Mal. 2. 3, and ‘walked mournfully before the Lord’, 3. 14. This persona of piety was only superficial. The Lord commands them to ‘take heed to your spirit’, Mal. 2. 16. The teaching of the Saviour instructs us not to be preoccupied wholly with how we ‘appear unto men’ but rather be conscious that our Father ‘seeth in secret’, Matt. 6. 16-18.
It is evident that in ritual they realized an opportunity to profit thereby. ‘Neither do you kindle fire on my altar for nought’, Mal. 1. 10, suggests that they were mercenary in their attitude to the Lord’s service, and sought to exploit for gain what should have been treated as an honour. And this at such a time as they were defrauding God of ‘tithes and offerings’, 3. 8. Such a temptation presents itself in our day. Paul and Peter both warn of engaging in the Lord’s work simply to make a profitable living. Being greedy of ‘filthy lucre’ should not be our motivation to serve, 1 Tim. 3. 3, 8; 1 Pet. 5. 2.
Malachi presents that this situation will only be remedied by the coming of the Lord. Cynicism will be quelled ‘when he appeareth’, Mal. 3. 2, and formalism will be eradicated by ‘offering in righteousness’, v. 3.
Without question, the first coming into the world of Messiah, ‘the messenger of the covenant’, v. 1, is predicted by Malachi. The other ‘messenger’ who was sent to ‘prepare thy way’ for Him is unequivocally identified by the Lord Jesus as being John the Baptist, Luke 7. 27. Therefore, the one John directed men to ‘behold’ must be ‘the Lord’ that Malachi said would come.
However, the Lord’s first coming into this world did not have the full effect Malachi predicted. Of the One he said they should ‘delight in’, Mal. 3. 1, the assessment of the nation was, ‘there is no beauty [in him] that we should desire him’, Isa. 53. 2. Consequently, the refining, purifying, and purging of His people Israel remains to take place. This will be at the second coming of the Lord to His earthly people. Of that future appearing, the Lord says, ‘I will come near to you to judgment’, Mal. 3. 5.
Just as He ‘suddenly’ came the first time, so He will be ‘swift’ as the executor of divine justice when He returns in a coming day, vv. 1, 5.
The fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy of the Lord’s first advent was appreciated by those who were ‘waiting for the consolation of Israel’ and ‘all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem’, Luke 2. 25, 38. This fact gives great assurance that the as yet unfulfilled aspects of his prediction will also come to pass as he recorded.
Prior to the Lord’s predicted second coming to earth, we fix our gaze heavenward ‘from whence also we look for the Saviour’, Phil. 3. 20. As we await ‘the Lord himself’ to ‘descend from heaven’ when we ‘shall be caught up’ to ‘ever be with the Lord’, 1 Thess. 4. 16, 17, let us remember that on that occasion He will kindle ‘a refiner’s fire’ so to speak. Only on that occasion it will not be to deal with our sinful condition. That was purged in the crucible of Calvary. Rather, it will be to ‘try every man’s work of what sort it is’. Let us learn lessons from Malachi’s ministry and endeavour to avoid cynicism and eradicate formalism so that we ‘shall receive a reward’ in that day, 1 Cor. 3. 13, 14.
It is encouraging for us to read that despite the national malaise there were those that the Lord thought of as His jewels. They were those who were counter-cultural and ‘feared the Lord [and] spake often one to another … [and] thought upon his name’, Mal. 3. 16. May we similarly resolve in these last days, when men are ‘lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God’, 2 Tim. 3. 4, to be those who ‘love him, because he first loved us’, 1 John 4. 19.
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