Malachi

KJV text with notes by Bill Lovegrove

Chapter 1

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
Through 1000 years of rebellion, captivity, restoration, and now disappointment
"I have loved you", saith the LORD.
And I still love you, although your circumstances don't always seem to show it.
Yet ye say, "Wherein hast thou loved us?" Where's the evidence of your love?
Well, think about Jacob and Esau for a minute.
"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" saith the LORD:
They were twin sons of Isaac. They both fathered great nations. But look where they are now.
Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste
for the dragons of the wilderness.
Of course Israel went into captivity too, but Israel has been restored. Esau, on the other hand:
Whereas [though] Edom [Esau's descendants] saith, "We are impoverished,
but we will return and build the desolate places;"
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, "They shall [may try to] build, but I will throw down;
and they shall call them, 'The border of wickedness',
and, 'The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.'"
So count your blessings, Israel, and realize how much worse it could be.
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say,
"The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel."

And now, I need to address the attitude behind your impertinent question.
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master:
if I then be a father [as you claim I am], where is mine honour?
And if I be a master [as you yourselves say], where is my fear? Saith the LORD of hosts unto you,
O priests that despise my name.

And ye say, "Wherein have we despised thy name?"
We take great care to protect the word "Yahweh" - we are very careful not to abuse it.

But God says, you have despised my name by not living in a way that matches your profession. For example,
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine alter;
And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee?
How have we done that? We don't do that either!

Yes, you do, in two ways. First, your attitude is that the sacrifices are a waste of time
In that ye say, "The table of the LORD is contemptible."
And second, your actions are to bring cheap, defective animals for worship:
And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?
And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?
Offer it now unto the governor;
Suppose you were to give a gift like that to him.
will he be pleased with thee, or accept the person?
Of course not! And neither will I
Saith the LORD of hosts.

And now, I pray you, [I beg you, or perhaps mockingly, how dare you]
beseech God that he will be gracious unto us:
This hath been by your means:
You did this - it came from your own hand.
will he regard your persons, saith the LORD of hosts?

Who is there even among you [Isn't there anybody] that would [just] shut the doors? [for naught]
It would be better to shut the temple than to carry on such hypocritical sacrifices.
Neither do [should] ye kindle fire on mine alter for naught. [if it is not for real worship]
I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts,
Neither will I accept an offering [of such a cheap kind] at your hand.

And lest you think I need you to do these sacrifices
For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same
My name shall be great among the Gentiles;
And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name,
The incense of prayers - Psalm 141:2.
And a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, "The table of the LORD is polluted;
And the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible."

Ye said also, "Behold what a weariness is it!"
And ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts;
And ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick;
Thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? Saith the LORD.

But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a [perfectly good] male,
And voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing [instead]:
For I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts,
Someone much higher than any human governor, whom you show respect to (verse 8)
And my name is dreadful among the heathen.
Who sometimes seem to fear me more than you do.

Chapter 2

And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart,
to give glory unto my name,
Which is the root of your problems, as Chapter 1 explained
saith the LORD of hosts,
Then here is a summary of the consequences: First, a future curse
I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings:
Second, a present curse
yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Here is what the future curse will be:
Behold, I will corrupt [or rebuke, or diminish] your seed,
your descendents, and possibly your crops, which will be resisted by God
and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts;
That unclean and distasteful part of an animal sacrifice
which every priest was familiar with
and one shall take you away with it.
You will be removed from the temple just like those unclean parts of the sacrifice are

And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you,
But not for your destruction. In mercy I intend the curse to produce this result:
that my covenant might be [maintained] with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
God did have a special covenant with the Levites - see Numbers 25 for example
My covenant was with him of life and peace;
and I gave them to him for [because of] the fear wherewith he feared me,
and was afraid before my name.
As Phineahas did in Numbers 25. Here is how those priests of old used to act:
The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips:
he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth:
for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

But that's not the way you act.
But ye [yourselves first] are departed out of the way;
[And then] ye have caused many [others to follow your example and] to stumble at the law;
ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

Now here is the present curse wherewith you are already cursed:
Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people,
The office of priest is not an honorable one any more. And it is your fault
according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

And now, people of the land, I have further accusations against you. As children of Israel
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?

why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother,
by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
You have committed an act of national treason
Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem;
for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved,
Specifically
and hath married the daughter of a strange god. [which my covenant with you clearly forbids]

The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this,
the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob,
From highest to lowest, no one will be spared, not even
and him that offereth an [hypocritical] offering unto the LORD of hosts.

And this have ye done again,
There are others of you who are also offering useless offerings
covering the altar of the LORD with tears,
with weeping, and with crying out,
insomuch that [or, because you sense that] he regardeth not the offering any more,
or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

Yet ye say, Wherefore?
Why is He not receiving our offerings?
Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth,
against whom thou hast dealt treacherously:
In divorcing her. And this is also a form of treason, because
yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
That is what a marriage is - a covenant between you and your wife.
If you divorce her, you are a traitor to your covenant.

And did not he make [of Adam and Eve] one [flesh - Genesis 2:24]?
Yet had he the residue of the [or, a sufficient] spirit [to create any kind of relationship].
And wherefore [why then this unique union of making two people into] one?
That he might seek [or, because he knows this is the best way to produce] a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away [your wife in divorce]:
for one [that divorceth his wife] covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts:
therefore take heed to your spirit, [because that's where marital problems begin, in your spirit]
that ye deal not treacherously.

Now here is another accusation:
Ye have wearied the LORD with your words.
Saying things that are offensive to God.
Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him?
[Here are some examples:] When ye say,
Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them;
The wicked are so prosperous, it seems like God is actually helping them instead of us
or, [you say] Where is the God of judgment?
at the least He is not doing anything about them.

Chapter 3

Behold, I will send my messenger,
John the Baptist, we know from Mark 1:2-4,
And apparently another messenger before His second advent as well (John 1:21).
and he shall prepare the way before me:
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,
As He did several times at His first advent,
And as He will again at His second (Ezekiel 40-48).
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in:
The Messiah who was as the heart of the Old Testament covenants (Galatians 3:8).
behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

But who may abide the day of his coming?
and who shall stand when he appeareth?
You delight in his coming, but it may not be what you expect.
for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' [or laundryman's] soap:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,
Not to destroy them, but so
that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD,
Not like it is now (1:10), but
as in the days of old, and as in former years.

And I will come near to you to judgment;
and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulterers, and against false swearers,
and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow, and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me,
saith the LORD of hosts.

For I am the LORD, I change not;
I remain faithful to My covenant even though you don't.
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

And now another accusation:
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances,
and have not kept them.
But what you need to do is to:
Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.
But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
What would be the first step in returning to a proper worship of God?
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?
In the only way a mortal man could rob God;
in failing to return to Him something He had entrusted to you.
In tithes and offerings.
Ye are cursed with a curse:
for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
There were three of them:
The tithe for the Levites (Lev. 27:30-34),
The tithe to be spent for your own family's spiritual edification (Deut. 14:22-27),
And the tithe for the poor, fatherless, and widows (Deut. 14:28-29).
that there may be meat in mine house,
and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground;
neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field,
saith the LORD of hosts.
And all nations shall call you blessed:
for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

Glorious promise! And yet sometimes our circumstances don't seem to bear it out.
In the face of such disappointment, here is how some people react:
Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD.
Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
Ye have said [complaining to one another], It is vain to serve God:
and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance,
The thing he demanded and promised blessing in return.
and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

And now we call the proud happy; [or "blessed", the condition promised to God's people]
yea, they that work wickedness are set up; [the very thing God promised to do for his people]
yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. [contrary to what Psalm 78 claims]

But there is another kind of person
Then they that feared the LORD
Who, though perhaps they also are disappointed, yet they
spake often one to another:
of how to rightly interpret their circumstances in light of what they know about God
and the LORD hearkened, and heard it,
and a book of remembrance was written before him
So that, though their vindication might be long it coming, they will not be forgotten,
because they were this kind of people:
for them that feared the LORD,
and that thought upon his name.

For that kind of people I have this promise:
And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts,
in that day when I make up my jewels;
Not so much that I will reward them with treasure,
But they will be the treasure.
And when the judgment finally comes,
and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
And then your confusion about the prosperity of the wicked will be cleared up.
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked,
between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Chapter 4

For, behold, the day cometh,
That "Day of the Lord" spoken of so often by the Old Testament prophets.
that shall burn as an oven;
Bringing the fire that is God's chosen form of judgment. See Revelation 8-21.
And note how that fire will affect different people differently.
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble:
That is the nature of the life they live - worthless, combustible stubble.
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts,
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But for God's people the fire that comes is a refiner's fire (3:2),
not the scorching of an oven but the blazing dawn of a sunrise.
But unto you that fear my name
shall the Sun of righteousness arise
with healing in his wings;
and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Any you will take part in straightening out the inequity that so puzzles you now.
And ye shall tread down the wicked;
for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this,
saith the LORD of hosts.

And how would one prepare for that day?
God still expects just what asked 1,000 years ago - obedience to the Law.
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel,
with the statutes and judgments.

And here's what God himself will do to help prepare for that day:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Not to emphasize the threat of a curse,
but as a promise that God has a plan whereby we can escape it.
To see that plan unfold, just turn the page...