Bible Commentaries
Malachi 3

The Question of the Reality of God’s Judgment (2:17-3:5)

From Malachi’s point of view, seeing conditions as God sees them, it is obvious why the Lord does not show favor to the offerings of people who are guilty of such contempt for God and such faithlessness as he has described. No amount of "weeping and groaning" at the altar (Malachi 2:13) could remedy the defect in the personal character of the Jews of Jerusalem.

God has become weary of the words of the people (Malachi 2:17). It is easy to see here a projection of the feelings of the people (comparing 1:13 with 2:17): they have felt weary of the ritual of sacrifice; God himself must be weary. But the prophet declares: the people have wearied God by saying (in actions, perhaps, rather than words), "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them." It seemed that God took no thought of relative goodness or evil. Or, expressed in another way, the people were wondering, "Where is the God of justice?" When evil seems to prosper without restraint, when pious men find no reality in worship and are content to offer less than their best to God, the reality of God’s judgment is called in question. God either does not see the abuses or he does not care. The question was not new with Malachi (for example, see Habakkuk 1:2-4), and it remains relevant in every age.

As Malachi’s question is oriented toward the ritual of public worship, so the answer provided through him is related to the coming of the Lord to his Temple (Malachi 3:1-5). The coming of the Lord will be preceded, as was proper in the processions by which oriental monarchs approached their thrones, by the arrival of an advance messenger. The messenger will "sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" (see an earlier prophet’s use of the figure in Jeremiah 6:27-30), purifying the tribe of Levi until they offer sacrifices which God can accept. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will again be acceptable to the Lord as it was in ancient times, perhaps as far back as the idealized period following the episode at Peor, to which the prophet has apparently referred in 2:4-7 (see Numbers 25:10-13). Not only the ritual of the cult will be purified, but also the social behavior of the people; verse 5 pronounces a judgment against sorcerers, adulterers, false swearers, and oppressors of the weak. Beginning at the house of God, the judgment of the messenger of the covenant will purify the whole life of the people.

The effects of the promised divine visitation are thus clear enough. None can endure its arrival; priests will be first to be affected, but all others will be reached. Purification will be the order of the day. The consuming effects of the visitation are not mentioned here, but they are at 4:1; the important consequence is the re-establishment of an offering pleasing to the Lord. Protestant scholars deny the Roman Catholic view that this prophesies the establishment of the Mass, but they have provided little constructive interpretation to take the place of this idea. Actually Malachi does not look ahead as far as the Christian era, but only to a time when a proper worship of God will be central in Jerusalem and offered by a people who fear the Lord and who do not disobey his commands. The Christian equivalent is a community where worship is central and vital and where social relationships are animated by the high ethics of the Sermon on the Mount.

The problem of the identity of the messenger and of his relationship to the Lord has vexed interpreters from the time of the editor of the book to the present day. The editor of the book appears to have believed that the looked-for messenger was the prophet himself; an annotator (Malachi 4:5) seems to have thought that Elijah would be brought back to earth to be the messenger of the Covenant. Mark (1:2) and the early Christian community believed that John the Baptist was the expected messenger. It is probable that the writer of the prophecy thought only of the messenger who announced the coming of a royal personage, to be seen by the populace. The messenger is thus an agent, representing the coming of the Lord to his Temple, rather than a particular historical person. The prophet may have expected a priest to accomplish the reformation in the Temple, since his earlier idealization of Levi suggests the kind of messenger he would have approved.

But the Lord’s place in the expectation of Malachi must be considered. The messenger of the Covenant is closely related to the Lord himself, so closely related that it is difficult to determine whether God himself performs the cleansing function. It is clear that the traditional Davidic Messianic figure does not appear; instead, the direct intervention of the Lord himself is all that can be seen, Malachi’s expectations cannot be defined further, and it is unlikely that he had precise ideas of future events. Using expressions of the effects of the coming of the Lord similar to those of the earlier prophets, Malachi brought to his time a new sense of the reality of divine judgment.

Verses 6-12

The Question of Returning to God (3:6-12)

Malachi’s next section deals with the proper handling of tithes, but he sees these as a means by which the people may escape the consuming judgment of God. The prophet begins by declaring that the Lord does not change. Because of God’s unchanging concern the people have not yet been destroyed, in spite of their ritual abuses and moral perversity. In the spirit of the pre-exilic prophets Malachi invites a return to the Lord of hosts.

"How shall we return?" the people appear to ask, and the prophet proceeds to his indictment. The inconceivable is happening: the people are robbing God! A curse rests on the whole nation because all have been robbing God in the handling of tithes and offerings. The prophet indicates the specific particulars of his indictment in a direct command, "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house." It is possible to see the situation through these words. Tithes have been kept at home, presumably until times are better or are more convenient for delivery to the Temple storehouse; now the storehouse from which priests were supposed to be fed is practically empty. As a result, says the prophet, "the devourer," perhaps a locust swarm, has been abroad in the land, destroying the fruit of vines and fields. But if the people return by responding to the call for the tithe, the Lord promises to "open the windows of heaven . . . and pour down ... an overflowing blessing." Malachi takes his stand with the traditional reward-and-punishment view of God’s action, as this is expressed in the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy. With Malachi the reward for proper presentation of tithes and offerings is primarily material. It is not necessarily so for us, however, though many tithers insist that material blessings have followed the initiation of serious and careful setting apart of at least the tenth for the Lord.

In the generally nationalistic frame of Malachi’s thought, it is of interest to note one special reward mentioned in connection with the bringing of the tithes to God. "All nations will call you blessed" (Malachi 3:12). Malachi’s question, "Will man rob God?" — like the statement of 1:11 regarding acceptable pagan worship — refers to the human race as a whole. Malachi’s view sees God’s own people as peculiarly guilty in the light of their knowledge of God’s will through the traditional instruction of the priests. Other nations are ready to bless God, and are even capable of offering sacrifice which is acceptable to God; they would not think of robbing God! Malachi’s words provide a preface to a theology of world missions somewhat different from the traditional "rescue the perishing" view. With this prophet God’s call is to the elect community to be faithful to his command, so that the ensuing blessing will attract the attention of interested pagans.

Verses 13-15

The Question of Speaking Against God (3:13-15)

In a brief paragraph Malachi returns to an idea he has already expressed (Malachi 2:17). Replying to the question, "How have we spoken against thee?" Malachi tells his people that they have said, "It is vain to serve God." In the mood of disillusionment of the times, even the pious have been tempted to give up the effort to obey the commandments or to walk "as in mourning before the Lord of hosts." Having raised this question, Malachi simply leaves it unanswered. The kind of answer he would have given, and perhaps did give, is obvious. Or perhaps by this time his message was interrupted by the action described in 3:16. Some of the people, at least, saw that their actions, if not their words, had been against God.

Verses 16-18

CONCLUDING NARRATIVE AND FURTHER

DECLARATIONS

Malachi 3:16 to Malachi 4:6

The Book of Remembrance for Those Who Feared (3:16-18)

In the single verse of narrative (Malachi 3:16) contained in the Book of Malachi it is reported that "those who feared the Lord spoke with one another; the Lord heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and thought on his name." The remainder of the brief paragraph quotes God as declaring that those whose names were entered in the book of remembrance will be his special possession on the day when he acts, to be spared as a father spares a faithful son. Then, the prophet adds, "you shall distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him."

This experience of the prophet is not described as a vision, but clearly it involves something of the special powers of insight into divine reality which were the mark of the prophets. The attached prophetic word appears to contemplate an immediate action of God of such definite judgment as to make clear to all the difference "between the righteous and the wicked."