Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(God’s messenger). Last of minor prophets. Nothing known of nativity or lineage. Contemporary with Nehemiah, B. C. 445-433. His book foretells the coming of Christ and John the Baptist.
Concise Bible Dictionary:
The last of the minor prophets. Nothing is recorded of the prophet’s personal history, he is named once only. He was prophet near the time of Nehemiah’s return to the land, and the prophecy reveals the moral condition of the people. The first chapter, while it shows their insensibility, shows also the sovereign love of Jehovah to them, a love on which His purpose depended. When charged with their sins, they asked wherein had they sinned. The answer is that they brought to the Lord that which was torn, the lame, and the sick, and had offered polluted bread upon Jehovah’s altar: in effect saying, “The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.” This brought judgment upon those who were insensible to what was due to the Lord. Yet Jehovah should be magnified beyond the border of Israel, and His name be great among the Gentiles.
Malachi 2. The priests who ought to have been guides to the people, are called to account. Judah had intimate fellowship with idolatry; had symbolically married the daughter of a strange god; and had associated this with the worship of Jehovah. Israel had also dealt treacherously with the wife of their youth: this was but the discovery of a treacherous principle in them. God hated putting away: notwithstanding all this, they were apathetic, and asked wherein had they wearied God.
Malachi 3 opens with the announcement of the Lord’s messenger, which was fulfilled in John the Baptist. But the first coming of the Lord is here connected with His second coming, when He will sit as a refiner, and will purge away the dross, and then shall the sons of Levi offer an offering in righteousness.
God challenged the returned Jews to be faithful to Him, and they should have such a blessing that they would not have room enough to contain it. When called upon to return to Jehovah they are still unconscious of their condition, and ask, “Wherein shall we return?” and “Wherein have we robbed Thee?” “What have we spoken so much against Thee?” They had said it was in vain to serve the Lord; they had called the proud happy; the wicked were built up, and they that tempted God were delivered.
Yet God’s purpose should stand: their land should be a delightsome land, and all nations should call them blessed. In the meantime the remnant are spoken of as those that feared the Lord and thought upon His name: they communed often one with another. God had a book of remembrance of such: they shall be remembered when the Lord of hosts makes up His jewels, and shall be spared when He comes in judgment.
Malachi 4. A day of great judgment is coming when the wicked shall be consumed. But to them that fear His name the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings (not the morning star here, as for the church). There will be judgment for the disobedient, as was indeed fully shown in the law at the beginning of the covenant with them.
But Elijah will come as Christ’s forerunner, to call them to repentance before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. John the Baptist would have fulfilled this mission had they received him; but, except a few, they did not, and therefore when asked if he was Elias, he said, No. He fulfilled the prophecy in the first clause of Malachi 3:1; but not that of Malachi 4:5-6: the people did not repent. Elijah will still come. There will be judgment first, but great blessing in the end to those that are spared.
Bible Handbook:
397 B.C. – 4 Chapters – 55 Verses
Of Malachi, personally, nothing is known; the name signifies “My Messenger” (ch. 3:1).
This last book of the Old Testament closes with a dark and sorrowful picture of the moral condition of the returned captives. As time wore on, the state of the remnant was marked by rapid decline, so that in the days of our prophet a remnant out of it had to be distinguished (ch. 3:16-18) from the mass which had grown corrupt and wicked. At the time of the prophecy, the people had been once more established in the land, although under Gentile sovereignty and permission; the temple had been rebuilt, a regular and genealogical priesthood, and the great body of Levitical sacrifice and feasts reinstituted, but the moral state of all, both priest and people was at the lowest possible ebb.
A Most Humbling Sight
The sight presented by the closing prophet of the Old Testament is a most humbling one. The spirit of zeal for the glory of God and of worship characterized the remnant at the commencement of their return to the city and land of their fathers: here the spirit of unconcern for Jehovah and His interests, of unbelief and scorning, stamp their features upon them at the close. Contempt for all that formerly distinguished them in their early history, is terribly demonstrated in offering to God sacrificial animals expressly prohibited by the Levitical law. What an answer to the grace of Jehovah in thus offering polluted bread, and the blind, lame, and sick, yea, the blemished animals in sacrifice. What a contrast is presented in chapter 1:11; if they are so utterly indifferent to the grace and glory of Jehovah, He knows how to vindicate His own blessed name, and within the compass of the prophetic word a richer, fuller exposition of the glorious future is not to be found than in those beautiful words: “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, and a pure offering: for My name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts.” The earnest, lovely, and pleading expostulations of the Lord are received and answered in a high-handed reasoning spirit. Vision and prophecy were to be sealed up till the coming of John the Baptist, the immediate forerunner of Christ and greater prophet than all who had preceded him (Matt. 11:9-11). Elijah too is promised after Christianity and before the day of Jehovah — in the short interval lying between — who will wind up the prophetic testimony of our God. While John the Baptist was “The Messenger” (ch. 3:1), he was also to faith the Elias to come (Matt. 11:14); on the other hand, chapter 4 of our prophet distinctly declares that Elijah will come to prepare Israel for the day of the Lord; this coming, therefore, is yet future.
The opening words of the prophet are quoted by Paul in Romans 9:13; while the closing utterances are again and again referred to in the Gospels. Thus “the Scripture cannot be broken.” The Divine inspiration of the whole is attested — repeatedly attested by our Lord, the apostles, and writers of the New Testament. While the prophets and holy men of old spake the “Word of the Lord,” their testimony was not their own, but what they spoke and wrote in Jehovah’s name was in the power and inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, which was in them (1 Peter 1:10-12).
General Divisions
Chapter 1 — The moral insensibility of the people to God and His worship.
Chapter 2 — The sin and integrity of the ecclesiastical leaders of Judah.
Chapter 3 — Jehovah coming in grace, preceded by His messenger — John the Baptist, with the remnant distinguished.
Chapter 4 — Jehovah coming in judgment, preceded by His prophet Elijah.
Note
The coming of Jesus in grace was heralded by John the Baptist (ch. 3:1). The coming of the Lord in judgment is to be introduced by the ministry of Elijah the prophet (ch. 4:5).
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Transliteration:
Mal`akiy
Meaning:
from the same as 4397; ministrative; Malaki, a prophet
Jackson’s Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names:
my messenger
Potts’ Bible Proper Names:
A messenger of Jehovah; ministrative:―last of minor prophets, Mal. 1:1. {Nuntius Domini}
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