Through the Bible - Malachi

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. I 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, And I hated Esau... (Malachi 1:1–3)

The last words God spoke before four centuries of silence — seven questions of a backslidden people, and a God who does not change.

A Mature Book and the End of the Old Testament

The book of Malachi is rated M for mature. I hope all of you are at that place in your walk with the Lord where you can handle the things we're going to look at here. The writer to the Hebrews said, "By this time you should all be teachers," yet they needed to return to the basics. But I believe this group rightly divides the word of truth, so you'll be fine going through this mature material.

We have to recognize this is the last book of the Old Testament. A year ago, on August 11th, we started going through the Bible, a book a week. Here we are exactly a year later, finishing the Old Testament tonight. Next week we'll likely do one study on the intertestamental period — that time between the Testaments — and then begin Matthew and go right on through the New Testament. After this study, we'll have gone through the whole Bible together, an awesome opportunity to dig deep into God's Word.

God's Final Word Before 400 Years of Silence

Four short but very potent chapters — on the verge of God taking a 400-year break from speaking to His people. Our nation was founded 232 years ago, so put that span into context: these are the last words God would speak before stopping for 400 years. After that silence, the people were anxious for a divine move, looking for God to speak.

In Malachi 3, the prophet speaks of a messenger who would come and prepare the way before the Lord — 400 years before that messenger showed up. We know him to be John the Baptist; Matthew and Luke both quote this passage and apply it to him. Interestingly, the name Malachi means "my messenger." God sent this man Malachi to speak to the people.

The Backslidden Remnant

Remember the context. The children of Israel had returned from exile in Babylon. During Ezra's time they rebuilt the temple; the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them when the work languished about twenty years because the people built their own houses instead. They finished quickly once their hearts were stirred. About fifty years later, Nehemiah came to rebuild the wall, then returned to the Persian Empire as the king's cupbearer. It's believed Malachi came and spoke during that period, somewhere between 432 and 400 BC.

This was a people who had backslidden — hard to believe, because the 50,000 who returned were the committed ones who wanted God's work reestablished. From that very group came the Pharisees, separatists who claimed to follow God's law and traditions. The Sadducees and the scribes (the lawyers) were also rising. Outwardly they looked like they had it all together. Yet though they were the committed people, they had fallen away from the Lord.

Seven Questions of a Backslidden People

When we begin to backslide, we begin to doubt and question God. The book of Malachi is really built around seven questions Israel brought against God during this time of backsliding:

First, in 1:2, they deny God's love. Second, in 1:6, they despise God's name. Third, in 1:7, they defile God's table. Fourth, in 2:17, they distort God's word. Fifth, in 3:7, they depart from God's law. Sixth, in 3:8, they deprive God's house. Seventh, in 3:13, they defame God's character.

Note something as we go through: of the 55 verses in Malachi, 47 are God speaking directly to His people. "The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi" — by my messenger. Just as the last words of someone are often very potent, these are the last things God speaks before 400 years of silence.

"I Have Loved You" — Yet They Denied It

I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? (Malachi 1:2)

What a beautiful way to start a message to a backslidden people. And notice — God is not saying this in the past tense, as if "I used to love you." It is present perfect: I have loved you, I love you now, I will love you in the future.

After September 11th, 2001, Pastor Eric and a couple of us drove cross country to minister near Ground Zero. We were up at 42nd Street in Times Square, handing out flyers for a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association prayer hotline. Rick Kierstedt handed one to a well-dressed woman who walked about twenty feet, turned around with tears flooding down her face, and said, "God does not love us. He has forsaken us." She was a Jewish woman living in New York. Yet through Jeremiah God said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Their response is the first question: "Wherein hast thou loved us?" It reminds me of Gideon threshing wheat in the winepress in Judges 6. God calls him "thou mighty man of valour," and Gideon answers, "If the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?... the LORD hath forsaken us." Go to Israel today and many will say the same thing about God — and so do many backsliding Christians, blaming God for their trials.

Jacob Loved, Esau Hated

To answer their question, God uses Esau. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother? yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau." People stumble over that verse, which Paul also quotes in Romans 9. God laid Esau's mountains waste, and though Edom says, "We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places," God says, "They shall build, but I will throw down."

Weeks ago in Obadiah we saw God's promise to completely destroy the Edomites. So what about Esau did God hate? We don't get the full answer until Hebrews 12. Esau is absent from the hall of faith in chapter 11, but in 12:16 the writer warns the Hebrews not to be like Esau, a profane person who despised his birthright; "he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." All Esau cared about was temporal blessing.

I don't stumble at God saying He hated Esau, but I do marvel that He loved Jacob — a man whose name means deceiver and supplanter. On the surface you'd have liked Esau, the man's man of the field whom his father loved. Jacob was a tender man of the tent. Yet there was a difference: Esau found no place for repentance, but in Genesis 32 Jacob did, and his name was changed to Israel — from deceiver to one governed by God. God sees the end before the beginning.

The proud heart of Edom is plain: "We will return and build." Proverbs says the first thing God hates is pride. And here is God's love displayed: Edom was destroyed by the Babylonians at the same time as Israel, but Edom was never rebuilt, while Israel was. "Your eyes shall see... The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel." There was no border of Edom left, but there was a border of Israel.

Despising God's Name and Defiling His Table

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?... (Malachi 1:6)

Here the second question: "Wherein have we despised thy name?" The priests look at God as if to say, "What are you talking about?" He answers: "Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar." That's the third charge — defiling His table. They ask, "Wherein have we polluted thee?" by saying, "The table of the LORD is contemptible."

How did they say it? "If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?" They had good sheep and goats, but they'd go out and pick the lame one tripping around, the blind one bumping into things, and give that to God. God says, take that to your governor for your taxes and see if he accepts it. They despised Him, defiled His table, and doubted His love.

How should they respond? God says in verse 10 that He wishes someone would simply shut the temple doors: "I have no pleasure in you... neither will I accept an offering at your hand." Then comes a verse I have highlighted: "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." That speaks of you and me. Revelation reveals our prayers are sweet incense to God. In 70 AD the doors of that temple were indeed closed.

This echoes Isaiah 1, where before the exile God said their incense was an abomination, their feasts a weariness. Now, after the exile, they're doing the same thing. Religion has a way of becoming rote and mindless. God says, "Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King."

Devaluing the Word and Deserting Their Wives

In chapter 2 the priests devalue God's word and desert their wives. "Judah... hath married the daughter of a strange god." They covered the altar with tears, wondering why God no longer regarded their offering — because their worship had become sin.

Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously... And did not he make one?... (Malachi 2:14–15)

As always with marriage, God points back to Genesis 2, where He made two into one. Why? "That he might seek a godly seed." God desires godly offspring. "Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD... saith that he hateth putting away." God hates divorce. Does He forgive it? Yes — but we must recognize it as sin like any other. Twice He says, "Take heed to your spirit," because marriage is not just a physical union but a spiritual one, which is why the New Testament warns against joining oneself to a harlot.

Distorting God's Word

Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD... (Malachi 2:17)

This is the fourth question. Isaiah cried, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil." After 70 years in Babylon, after rebuilding temple, city, and wall, Israel was again distorting God's word, saying God doesn't mind the evildoer. Are we not living in such a day, with so many reinterpreting Scripture to suit themselves? The word "woe" means certain destruction.

The Messenger of the Covenant

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... (Malachi 3:1)

In the face of all this comes light in chapter 3. These people were discouraged — they'd heard from Zechariah that the glory of this temple would be greater because the Holy One would step into it, yet He hadn't come. God says the way still had to be prepared. "My messenger" is Malachi in the original; he prepares the way "before me" — the Messiah is God Himself.

The Lord "shall suddenly come to his temple" — His temple, as Jesus called it "my house" in John 2. He appears on the scene suddenly; as Isaiah 53 says, "Who shall declare his generation?" The people thought no one would know where Messiah came from — and they stumbled because they knew Jesus' family. And He is "the messenger of the covenant" — the new covenant He sealed in His blood the night He was betrayed.

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... (Malachi 3:2)

Jesus is the One who comes and cleans house — and He's cleaned our lives. But that cleansing is not done; it continues until He comes again. This points especially to His second coming, when He will purify the sons of Levi so "they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness." There is coming a day when the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will again be pleasant to the Lord.

We shouldn't be ignorant of this, as Paul teaches in Romans 9 and 11, nor jealous of it as the church. God still has a restoring work for Jacob, for "Jacob have I loved." He will tabernacle with His people in the millennial kingdom, becoming "a swift witness" against sorcerers, adulterers, and oppressors. The Messiah will rule and reign and deal with all things in righteousness.

"I Am the LORD, I Change Not"

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6)

Put an exclamation point next to that. It is so important that God says this in the very last book of the Old Testament, because many wrongly think the God of the Old Testament differs from the God of the New. Israel is not consumed precisely because God does not change and will not break His covenant with Abraham, even though Abraham's descendants broke it. How horrible if one day God simply said, "You Gentiles are done." But He changes not.

Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? (Malachi 3:7)

This is the fifth question. James 4:8 says, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." The Lord is not far off; our sin separates us. "Return" is the same as "repent." Yet they couldn't even see their sin: "Wherein shall we return?" You know your conscience is seared when you're distant from the Lord and can't even see it. They had the land, temple, sacrifices, and priesthood, but their hearts were far from Him.

Robbing God: Tithes and Offerings

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. (Malachi 3:8)

This is the sixth question, and here's where it's rated M. Every time we talk about tithes and offerings, the church shifts in its seats. People say it's only Old Testament law and we're under grace — but I've got a lot to share tonight.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. He's given us gifts, talents, and wages, but all of it is His. By taking and not giving, we rob Him. He required a tenth (the tithe) and beyond that an offering.

Understand: giving is not God's way of raising money — it's God's way of raising children. "For God so loved the world that he gave." Our Father is a giving God, and He wants to raise children like Himself. There are over 2,100 verses in the Bible on giving; one in every ten verses in the New Testament deals with our finances or time; sixteen of Jesus' thirty-eight parables touch on giving. Yet the richest church in the world, in the West, says, "That's the law, and we're under grace."

But the tithe came before the law. In Genesis 14, Abraham rescued Lot with 418 trained men from his house — they ought to make a movie about that — and on his way back met Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God and king of Salem, who brought out bread and wine. Abraham gave him a tenth of everything, hundreds of years before the law. Under the law, Israel actually gave more: a tenth to the temple, a tenth to the Levites, and every three years a portion to the poor — about twenty-three percent of their first fruits, before taxes.

And Jesus did speak about it. In Matthew 23 He told the Pharisees they tithed their spices but neglected the weightier matters of the law — justice and love — adding, "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Keep the weightier matters, but keep the tithe too. Paul speaks of it as well in 1 and 2 Corinthians.

The Storehouse and Testing God

Bring 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... (Malachi 3:10)

The tithe goes into the storehouse — the church, where the sheep are fed. The offerings go out to other places. Parachurch organizations like World Vision and Samaritan's Purse serve a great part in the body of Christ, and I support several as offerings — but they exist largely because the church hasn't fully done its job. The tithe belongs in the storehouse where you're fed.

Notice this is the only place in Scripture where God says, "Prove me" — test me. We're told not to tempt the Lord, yet here He invites the test: "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." This is not health-and-wealth doctrine, but there is a blessing in giving. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and Paul says those who sow spiritually may receive materially, and vice versa.

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground... (Malachi 3:11)

Many say, "I can't afford to give ten percent." But in Haggai, the people built their own houses while God's lay in ruin, and they sowed much yet brought in little — their wages went into a bag with holes, because the devourer took the fruit they withheld from God. Give Him the first fruits, and He rebukes the devourer.

Where Your Treasure Is

Consider this election year: in one month one campaign raised $52 million, while another party had $95 million in the bank. Visit the websites and the first word you see is "Donate." Millions give, hoping for change. But Washington cannot change our nation — the church can. Every revived nation began with a revival of the church. Twenty years ago in Russia, the wall fell not because of Gorbachev or Reagan alone, but because for years believers smuggled in Bibles and prayed underground.

I won't endorse a candidate. Neither one can change our nation for good — only God can. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and... turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven... and will heal their land." Righteousness exalts a nation; sin is a reproach. If we truly want to change America, it has everything to do with what happens within these walls and in the hearts of God's people — not only here, but in every church in town that preaches His word.

If you invest in the stock market, you watch the numbers. If you invest in the lottery, you check the numbers. But if you invest in the kingdom of God, your interest shifts to His kingdom, His word, His work. Up at camp this week the Lord pressed this on my heart: the interest is always in the investment. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Defaming God's Character

Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God... (Malachi 3:13–14)

This is the seventh charge. They defamed God's character, calling it empty to serve Him — "What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance?" They wanted a return on their service, the wrong way to look at it. They even called the proud happy and said the wicked who tempt God are delivered.

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. (Malachi 3:16)

There was a remnant. Those who fear God speak of His name and His things, and God's ears perk up. Just as moms keep baby books — a lock of hair, the first tooth, the first "mama" — God keeps a book in heaven of every time we speak good of Him. "And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." He will spare them as a man spares his own son.

The Coming Day of the Lord

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble... (Malachi 4:1)

The last book of the Old Testament and the last book of the New both look forward to the same day. At camp this week the fire that swept through Big Bear had come right up to the buildings; the great pines were burnt but not consumed. But God says the proud and wicked will be burned and completely consumed, left neither root nor branch.

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. (Malachi 4:2)

Those calves are well-fed, fat, and happy. And the book closes:

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... (Malachi 4:5–6)

When we reach the Gospel of Luke we'll see one who comes in the spirit and power of Elijah — John the Baptist. And there is yet a coming day when Elijah will come again before the second coming of Christ.

Closing Prayer

God, thank You for Your word; Your word is truth, Lord, and we thank You that You have given it to us that we may know You — Your nature, Your character, and Your will. So God, I ask that You would speak to us. I thank You for the maturity of my brothers and sisters here, and I ask, Lord, that You would help us to rightly divide Your word and understand it, take it to heart, and that we would see You exalted in Your church, glorifying You here on earth. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.