INTRODUCTION:
Today we are starting a new teaching series in the Book of
Malachi. Although Malachi is a small book (4 chapters, 55 verses), we will
divide the series into 8 parts.
If you have paid attention to my preaching you have probably
noticed that I try to alternate between doing studies from the Old Testament
and the New Testament. Frankly, I personally find it easier to preach and
teach from the New Testament because the Early Church culture was more like our
own than that of the ancient Hebrews. However, the Apostle Paul tells us
in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that, “All
Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; that the man of
God may be adequate [complete], equipped for every good work.” Moreover,
in Luke 24:25-27 we read of the conversation between the risen Christ and the
two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and
how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did
not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’ 27 And
beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
Himself.” And one
more… in Acts 17 starting at verse 2 we read: “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue
[in Thessalonica], and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and
proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am
proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’
he said.”
In each of these cases [and there are many more examples] the
“Scriptures” that the preacher used were the Old Testament Scriptures, not
the New Testament, for that had not even been written yet. I have actually
had Christians tell me that they think I am wasting my time, and theirs, by
teaching from the OT because they believe that the OLD was superseded, made
obsolete, and done away with by the NEW. Apparently, Jesus did not think
so, and neither did the Apostle Paul nor any of the other writers of the NT,
but what do they know? Right?
TRANSITION:
Many Christians do not know that there occurred a 400+ year gap
between the last book of the OT and the beginning of the NT period. It was
a 400-year period of silence in which there was no prophet, no mouthpiece for
God, no mediator between Jehovah God and His people, Israel. During those
4 centuries Heaven remained silent. God stopped taking Israel’s
calls. He did not check His voicemail messages. He unplugged His
answering machine. He did not respond to their faxes and
emails. Their text messages went unanswered. But why? That is
what we are going to try and find out.
There are two good reasons why Malachi is listed as the last book
in your Old Testament. (1) First, it is the last book of the section we call,
“The Minor Prophets.” Now lots of people think that means these 12 books
are less important than the so-called “Major Prophets.” That is untrue! They are called Minor
Prophets because of the length of the writings, not because of their relative
importance. The short books are just grouped together, and Malachi is the
last of those because it was the last one written. (2) The second reason
why Malachi is placed as the last book of the OT is that those scribes who set
the order of our modern Bible (i.e. the translators of the Septuagint, aka LXX,
the Greek Version of the OT completed in 132 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt)
recognized that Malachi had the last word before communication between God and
Israel broke down completely, only to be re-established with the coming onto
the scene by John, the Baptist, the last of the Old Dispensation prophets and
the Forerunner for the Messiah.
You will observe that I have also provided you with an annotated
outline of the book along with some introductory information that I hope will
be of use to you. I would encourage you to refer to it often as you take time
to study Malachi on your own during the week.
MAIN BODY:
Verse 1: The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.
- The
word “oracle” used here in several of our versions is a translation of the
Hebrew word meaning “burden or weighty message.” This is more than
just a personal conviction on the part of the Malachi. It is a heavy
message that God has given him to deliver to the people of
Israel. The designation of the prophecy as a burden indicates that the
message is one of rebuke rather than comfort or encouragement.
- An “oracle of the word of the LORD…” This message
originates with God. It was not something that Malachi thought
up. I can tell you that Malachi was neither the first nor the last
preacher to discover that proclaiming the Word of the Lord is a weighty
responsibility (e.g. Jonah, Jeremiah, Moses, Elijah, etc.). There are
many times that it would be far easier just to say the things that the
audience wants to hear. In fact, many have gone that
route. There are many churches where “the oracles of the word of the LORD” are never shared from
the pulpit. There are so-called messengers who bring no message from
God, but merely from their own ideas or give little morality talks based
on the current events. In those churches you can die of spiritual
starvation for want of the Living Bread. But I am an old-fashioned
sort of preacher and I agree with Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:2, “I resolved to know nothing while
I was with you [in Corinth] except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Similarly, he
says in 1 Cor. 1:23, “…But WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED: a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles.” Later, in his second letter to Timothy,
Paul advises: “I solemnly charge you… PREACH
THE WORD; be
ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great
patience and instruction. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled,
they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own
desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside
to myths” (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
- The
title “LORD” used here, all in capitals, is the personal, covenant name of
God, i.e. Yahweh (Jehovah), and it is used exclusively in the book of
Malachi. Then starting down in verse 4 we begin to see this personal
name coupled with another Hebrew word and the result is used 24 times in
the book— “LORD of hosts.” This is the translation of the compound name
for God, Yahweh-Tzavaót (Sabaóth) meaning “Yahweh, of
hosts, or of armies” (c.f. 1 Samuel 1:3, 11). The name pictures
Yahweh as the commander of the angelic host and the armies of
God. (cf. also Isaiah 1:24; Psalm 46:7, 11; 2 Kings 3:9-12; Jeremiah
11:20 [In the NT: Romans 9:29; James 5:4; Revelation 19:11-16]).
- The
burden, the message, is so important that the message-bearer (Malachi) is
overshadowed. The prophet was merely acting as God’s tool, God’s
megaphone, to transmit this last message from God to His people.
Verse 2-3: “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But
you say, “How hast Thou loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?”
declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob; 3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his
mountains a desolation, and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the
wilderness.”
- The
LORD starts out by once again declaring His love for the people of Israel,
His covenant nation. The truth is, God had told them many times that
He loved them (cf. Deut. 4:37, 7:8, 10:15, 33:3, Jer. 31:3, Hosea 11:1,
etc.). Moreover, He had proven His love repeatedly throughout their
history, despite their constant whining, complaining, rebellion, and
adulterous relationships with foreign gods.
- But
notice their immediate response: “How have You loved us?” You can hear
their snotty tone of voice coming through this question. “You say that You love us, but what
have You done for us lately? Oh
sure, You did some nice things a long time ago, in the days of our
forefathers, but how come we never see any of that nowadays? You love
us? Phooey!”
- You
will notice that this book is built around a series of these little
dialogues between God and the people. God makes an assertion and then
the people throw up a defensive, argumentative question, and they do it
repeatedly. These conversations remind me of conversations between a
loving and patient parent and a spoiled, bratty teenager. No matter
what Dad says, the smart-alecky kid has an excuse or a smoke screen.
- God’s
answer: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I
have loved Jacob…” On the surface this seems like a strange
answer to their question. Why would God bring this up and how does it
prove His love for Israel? First, you must remember that before Jacob
there was no such thing as “Israel.” The name “Israel” is Jacob’s other
name, the one Yahweh gave to him back in Genesis 35:9-12. The name
Jacob literally means “he who grasps the heel,” also translated as
“supplanter” meaning someone who cheats someone out of what is rightfully
theirs. That is what Jacob did to his brother Esau. He cheated
Esau out of his legal birthright as the eldest son of Isaac. This
kind of shenanigan came naturally to Jacob because he was a devious little
weasel from the day of his birth, which is exactly why his father gave him
that name. However, God in His sovereignty chose to use that low-down
lying punk Jacob to carry out His master plan. However, He had to do
several attitude adjustments on Jacob before He could use the
guy. One of those experiences involved an all-night wrestling match
that left Jacob with a permanent limp and a whole different perspective on
God. It was after that when God changed
Jacob’s name to “Israel,” which means, “he struggles with God.” Here
is the passage in Genesis 35:9-12— “Then God appeared to Jacob again
when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is
Jacob; yet you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” Thus, He called him
Israel. 11 God also
said to him, “I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]; be fruitful and multiply; a
nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come
forth from you. 12 The land which I gave to Abraham
and Isaac, I will give it to you, and I will give the land to your
descendants after you.”
- Jacob
and Esau were twins, but Esau came out of the womb first so technically he
was the first-born, in line to receive the bulk of his father Isaac’s
estate. But into this picture steps the LORD. He chose to do His
redemptive work, not through the lineage of the elder son but through the
younger. Why? I think it was to prove that He could use even a
donkey like Jacob. Later, the Lord chose David, the youngest of the
household of Jesse, to become King of Israel. Why? I think again
that it was to prove that nothing could stop Him from working out His
sovereign plan to one day bring to His covenant people their promised
Messiah who would willingly give His life as the ultimate sacrifice for
their sins. You see, that is how God spells LOVE!
- So,
what is this about God “hating Esau”? What did Esau ever do to
deserve such “hatred” from God? First, we need to look at this word,
“hate.” Many times in the Scriptures we see this word used in the comparative sense rather than in the
absolute sense (e.g. Gen. 29:30-31; Deut. 21:15-16; Prov. 13: 24;
Matt. 6:24; etc.), where the thought is love less versus love more. For His own
reasons God chose to pour out His favour on Jacob rather than on
Esau. He chose Jacob. He did not choose Esau. And
this preference for Jacob was expressed in His electing grace in extending
His covenant to Jacob and his descendants (cf. Gen. 25:21-26; Isaiah
44:1-5, etc.). Whether or not we think it is “fair” God fixed His
love on the one and not on the other and chose to carry out His redemptive
plan through Jacob’s seed, not Esau’s. The Apostle Paul explains this
in detail in the NT in Romans 9:10-18. But to be honest with you, my
biggest question is not why the scripture says that God hated Esau, but
why it says that God loved Jacob. To me, that is the harder question
to answer.
- We
know that God does not exercise His sovereignty to deliberately reprobate
or damn anyone. However, God’s anger and hatred toward the sons of
Esau was well deserved after their continued opposition to Jehovah through
the centuries. Esau turned out to be a prideful, wicked man and so
did those who came after him (cf. Gen. 26:34; 27:41; Obadiah 10-14,
etc.). His descendants, the Edomites, set themselves against God and
walked in the paths of prideful rebellion, wickedness, and idolatry, not
to mention their maltreatment of their Israelite cousins. The Babylonian
invasion resulted in their destruction and captivity, but even through all
that they refused to turn to the God of Abraham. At the time of
Malachi they had come back into their land and were vowing to rebuild, but
God says here that He will tear down everything that they put up so that
their land will serve as a constant reminder and warning to other nations. Look at it in verse
4.
Verse 4: Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we
will return and build up the ruins”; thus says the LORD of hosts, “They may
build, but I will tear down; and men will call them ‘the wicked territory, and
the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever.’”
- The
Edomites, who were the descendants of Esau, were a wicked and stiff-necked
outfit. Moreover, they were a constant thorn in the heel of
Israel. They wanted nothing to do with God, and they hated Israel, an
adversarial relationship going clear back to the time of Jacob and Esau.
- Though
Esau in his pride should attempt to rebuild his waste places, God says that
He will throw down whatever he builds. Every attempt of the Edomites
to rebuild their land will meet with defeat. God vows that He will
never allow Edom to regain its former position and power. Moreover,
He says that men will come to realize that the desolate condition of Edom
is because of their sins and their rebellion against Almighty
God. Historically, God’s final destruction of the Edomites was
carried out by the Nabatean Arabs who between 550 and 400 BC drove them
permanently from their land so that Esau’s heritage became a desert place,
fit only for jackals and other wilderness beasts (cf. verse 3).
Verse 5: And your eyes will see this, and you will say, “The
LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”
- Malachi
infers here that his Jewish contemporaries would witness the conquest of
Edom. Their descendants would, at any rate. And when Israel
should behold Edom in perpetual ruins, but Jerusalem rebuilt and restored,
she would have to recognize God’s love for them, and would offer praise to
Him. Moreover, their praise and worship would spill over their
borders as a witness to the nations around about, so that they too would
come to magnify the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, the LORD of hosts.
- That
is what was supposed to happen. That is what should have
happened. That is what God and Malachi hoped would happen. But
is that what really happened? Sadly,
no. We will see in the studies to come that the hardness of the
people’s hearts deafened their ears to the prophet’s message and blinded
them to the reality of God’s love for them.
CONCLUSION:
This final book of the Old Testament is about the error of
forgetting the love of God and what that causes. When people forget God’s
love, it affects their attitudes, their families, and their worship. When
we begin to doubt God’s love and loyalty our sacred commitments no longer
remain sacred. God sent Malachi to awaken the people from their spiritual
indolence and to exhort them to return to the living God. But this book
reveals a people who question both the reality of their sin as well as the
faithfulness of their God, a people whose hearts have become spiritually
hardened. Thus, you will see that the Book of Malachi ends on a poignant
note, in a confrontation between a disappointed God and a disappointed people.
The
Book of Malachi lowers the curtain on the Old Testament. Malachi brings us
to the edge of a great canyon, with the whining and argumentative voices of the
people on one side, and the stern warnings of God on the other. Only the
Lord Himself could provide a way out of this stalemate. Malachi looks
forward in faith to a day of future deliverance when he speaks of the one who
would someday appear to prepare the way for the Messiah. For indeed, the
promised Messiah was the only One who could bridge that widening chasm between
the people and their God.
That is true for us as well. Only Christ can bridge the gap between God
and us. Our sin is what separates us from Him. The blood of Jesus is
the only solution. Have you, like the children of Israel, doubted God’s
love for you? Have you questioned whether He really cares? The proof
of His love for you is that He sent His only begotten Son so that if you will
but believe in Him with all your heart and accept His sacrifice in your place,
you will not perish but will have eternal life.
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