Malachi Chapter Three
Read Malachi 3:1-5 – John the Baptizer and Christ
v.1 “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”
The prophet starts this section of his writing with a declaration of the coming of God’s special messenger and “THE LORD, WHOM YE SEEK”. This is obviously referring to John the Baptizer and Jesus the Messiah and is one of the most important prophecies in the Old Testament. When the angel appeared to Zacharias to tell him that Elisabeth would bear a child who was to be called “JOHN”, he also tells Zacharias God’s mission for his son:
Luke 1:17 “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
The records of Matthew, Mark and Luke confirm John’s purpose as Jesus himself assures his disciples and refers back directly to Malachi 3:1:
Luke
v.2 “But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:”
The Messiah, when he comes, will be like a “REFINER’S FIRE” and like “FULLER’S SOAP”. The words of Malachi parallel those of Isaiah writing about the coming of the church:
Isaiah 33:14 “The sinners in
Many times I think fear, as much as jealousy, was what caused Christ to be crucified. It served God’s purpose but was generated in evil men; those Jesus called hypocrites many times in his teaching. Also the words of Malachi parallel even more closely the words of Zechariah that we studied just a few weeks ago:
Zechariah 13:9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
We
understand how fire would refine or purify and I think it is used symbolically
here to represent a cleansing agent rather than persecution, though that did
purify the church in many ways. What is
fuller’s soap? A fuller was a person who
cleaned and prepared cloth for use.
Fuller’s soap was the alkaline solution that they used for that
purpose. The place where they dried the
cloth was called a fuller’s field, (II
Kings
v.3 “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, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”
Christ did
indeed purge all men “as A REFINER OR PURIFIER” by removing the sins of men
through the shedding of his blood. But
the term “SONS OF LEVI” don’t refer just to the Levitical priests. All of those that Christ has purged by the
washing away of their sins in baptism are priests in the
I Peter 2:5 “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
And as such our offerings to God are spiritual, righteousness or right living, the dedication of our lives to the precepts of the gospel of Christ; a dedicated service that Paul reminds us is “REASONABLE” or within reason:
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
v.4 “Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.”
Then the
prophet makes the simple observation that when men are purged of their sin,
when they have been cleansed or refined and purified, then their relationship
with God will be such as those of old when they walked with God. As we look back at the history of
II Chronicles 7:1 “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.”
v.5 “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.”
When his
Son comes to earth God will stand in judgment of mankind. In physical
Acts
God will add only those who have been purged by the washing away of their sins in baptism. So God adds us but we can remove ourselves, how?
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
And we no longer have fellowship with God or with those who are truly His:
I John 1:5-6 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:”
Observations:
2 Peter
Read Malachi 3:6-7 – God’s Unchanging Mercy
v.6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
God does not change. His love of mankind, His attitude toward sin, His requirement of exact obedience has not changed since before the beginning of time. Those things that he told us he hated in Proverbs 6:16-18 are still the things he hates today. The apostle Paul stated simply:
Romans
And James in the scripture that is probably more familiar to us than that of Paul:
James
Why is it important for the Jews to understand here that God has not and will not change? Because God is not only a God of justice for also a God of mercy; the apostle describes him this way:
II Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
If this were not so, then the sons of Jacob would have been
consumed, totally destroyed a long time before the days of this prophet. God had tolerated much,
carried
v.7 “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?”
These Jews
of the day of Malachi were no better than the generations of their fathers who
had rebelled against God, ignored God’s commandments, broken the Covenant God
made with
Malachi 1:6 “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? 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?”
God again shows his mercy toward his people because he tells them that if they will return to Him, He will return to them. The earlier prophet Zechariah carried the same message:
Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.”
But did they change? Not more than 450 years later Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin, speaking by the direction of the Holy Spirit declared:
Acts
Observations:
Romans 2:4 “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
Luke
Such is God’s call to man today just as it was in the days of Malachi.
Read Malachi 3:8-12 – The Jews Robbed God
v.8 “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”
God accuses
the Jews of robbing him and they asked how have we robbed thee? I expect that preachers by the hundreds have
used this scripture to preach in giving and rightly so. When Nehemiah came to put things right at
Nehemiah 13:9-10 “Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense. 10And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fled every one to his field.”
Because the Jews were not tithing and making offering as they had been commanded; the Levites and singers who were tasked with keeping the temple couldn’t do so because they had to be out in the fields making a living. This problem is becoming more and more of a common today as well.
v.9-10 “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 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.”
So God pronounces a curse upon those who robbed him, in this case the whole nation. When they obeyed God’s commandments there was plenty:
II Chronicles 31:10 “And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, and said, Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.”
They not only had plenty but the blessings of God would be such that the prophet says that there would not be room enough for them to receive the bounty He would provide. When they returned to their proper giving and secured these blessings God would also:
v.11 “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.”
How did Amos describe the devastation that God would bring upon the disobedient?
Amos 1:4 “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.”
But if the Jews would return to God he would stop the destroyer, the one who would devour all of their substance.
v.12 “And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.”
If they would but return to God; “ALL NATIONS SHALL CALL YOU BLESSED”; all those around them would recognize that they were God’s special people. They would be as Isaiah had promised:
Isaiah 61:9 “And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.”
They should be a delightsome or delightful land, rich, lush, blessed in every way.
Isaiah gives us a similar description, the source of the song “
Isaiah 62:4 “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.”
Observations:
Mark
Men rob God today in many ways:
e. By failing to labor in the Lord’s work; Mark 13:34ff
Read Malachi
v.13 “Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?”
God charges the Jews of speaking against him but they denied his charges. But what had the prophet already recorded? They had profaned their worship because:
Malachi
Does anyone do this today? What about the complainers, the whiners, those who come to worship God out of necessity rather than love? What about those who have decided to worship God as they chose rather than as God has commanded or authorized?
Malachi
v.14 “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?”
They questioned the value of serving God and concluded that it was in vain, that it was to no profit, that it served no purpose to walk mournfully before God. God punished them to the extent that:
“Then
the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou
not have mercy on
But they did not learn their lesson; only about 100 years later their tolerance for evil was such that the prophet declared:
v.15 “And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.”
They called the proud happy, they “SET UP” actually honored those who worked wickedness and “DELIVERED” protected and failed to punish even those who tempted God. The ungodly prospered just as the Psalmist wrote:
Psalms 73:12 “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.”
Observations:
Read Malachi 3:16-18 – Words to the Faithful
v.16 “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.”
Then they that “FEARED THE LORD SPAKE OFTEN ONE TO ANOTHER”; the Hebrew writer encouraged that we:
Hebrews
“AND THE LORD HEARKENED” “AND A BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE WAS WRITTEN”. What book might this be?
Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”
Contrary to what many of the Jews would have recorded in that book of remembrance; what we want to be recorded is our faithful service, our humble worship our life of respect and honor for God and His word.
v.17 “And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”
The people
of God – he promised
Deuteronomy 7:6 “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”
Speaking of the church, the prophet of God recorded:
Isaiah 62:3 “Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.”
And the Apostle Peter assures us that those who are God’s people:
“…are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;” I Peter 2:9
v.18 “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”
If we but
follow the admonition that the prophet provides us in the last few verses we
will indeed be able to discern between good and evil, be able to clearly see
the difference between what is righteous and what is wicked and who is a true
child of God and who his not. The advice
of the prophet Amos to
Amos
In so doing we will become as those approved of God because we will be able to handle the strong meat of God’s revelation as the Hebrew writer tells we must do:
Hebrews
Observations: