Malachi 1:1-101The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 2I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, 3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 4Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall 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. 5And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. 6A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, 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? 7Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. 8And 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 thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts. 9And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of hosts. 10Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. (Malachi 1:1‑10)
WE have at length reached the last book of that part of the Holy Scriptures which is commonly called the Old Testament. The prophecy of Malachi does not contain a reference to the time of its utterance, but its message is exactly suited to the end position which it occupies in both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. As the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah belong to the period of Ezra, so that of Malachi suggests the time of Nehemiah, and he is believed to be the last inspired penman of the Old, as the apostle John was of the New Testament. The Old Testament Scriptures were now complete, and we have no knowledge of subsequent prophets, if there were such, until Christ came.
The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi is a very solemn, searching message, but it begins with a touching expression of His heart: “I have loved you.” How unfeeling, how cold, is their answer: “Wherein hast Thou loved us?”
Thirteen hundred years had now passed since Esau and Jacob completed their spans of life and passed into eternity, but their lives now pass in review before God, as He declares “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau,” The occasion for this sentence is found in the history of each as told in Genesis, but the children of Esau closely followed in the footsteps of then father, and God identifies them with him here. We have seen in several Scriptures, notably Obadiah’s short prophecy, the judgment of God concerning the nation which sprang from Esau; like their father, they had no regard for God (Scripture records not one as turning to Him), and they hated Jacob and his children. Yet it is only at the end of the Old Testament that God says, “And I hated Esau”; this is not the sovereignty of God (as in Romans 9), but what He felt having seen the course of one who made himself an enemy, and whose children kept up the enmity, deepened it.
Verse 3: “dragons” may be read “jackals”—wild creatures of the desert, Verse 4: “the border of wickedness” means the territory, or land, of wickedness. Verse 5 is more exactly translated “ ... ..and ye shall say, the Lord (Jehovah) is magnified beyond the border of Israel” (N. T.)
After speaking of His love for the children of Jacob, God in verse 6 begins to lay before them their shameful treatment of Himself; and, mark, this is after the return from the seventy years’ captivity in Babylon. Alas! the majority of the people had evidently not profited at all by the humbling God had given them, Deeper lessons must yet be put before the Jews, and fearful trials given them, before they will turn in heart to their God. The end of this book however reveals that there was a remnant at this time who really feared Him and thought upon His name, giving joy to Himself in an utterly contrary scene.
ML 11/14/1937