1“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.
The additional warnings to the priests consist of a loss of blessing. This is two-fold. First, the material blessing of the sacrifice. Secondly, the priestly blessings given to the people. The idea her is a beneficial one for all people who choose disobedience over obedience. When we are disobedient, although God is good and gracious and desires to bless us, those blessings wander away. See
Haggai 2:15-19:
“‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the Lord. 18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
“‘From this day on I will bless you.’”
The Jewish exiles from Babylon returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, yet in Haggai’s time, they chose to forego the building of the temple for 15 years in order to build their own houses and conduct their own lives. What is the Lord’s response? Because you have disobeyed, my hand has been against you. I have made life difficult for you. God removed the blessing and instituted a curse on the people until they understood the depth of their disobedience and returned to Him.
In the same way, the people of Malachi’s time are experiencing the same training. God is warning the priests, who should be the religious standard and guide for the people. Yet, they are the very ones allowing disobedience; they are not at the gate, not minding the important task of guiding people to obedience. For this dishonor, God will curse them in their disobedience.
3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
Not only will there be a curse on the priests, but because of their disobedience, their descendants will experience a curse as well. We may step back from this and claim that isn’t fair. God is punishing future generations for the sins of the former. But here’s the deeper concept: When the generation who is responsible for keeping the truth doesn’t keep it, how is the next generation going to know the truth? The rebuke of future generations is the training God will give them to understand and latch onto the truth.
During the process of sacrifice, an animal retains dung in their system unless it is removed. Due to the practices of the original sacrifice (Exodus 29:14), the dung of the animal was to be burned outside the sanctuary. Because the priests were not practicing the sacrifices in the way God commanded them to, the dung would have been left inside the animal during the sacrifice itself. The spreading of that dung, on their faces, meant that the priests themselves would be unworthy of being in the sanctuary and it would be necessary for their removal (you will be carried off with it).
Why is God doing this? Why is it so important to Him? The motive is Levi’s covenant.
My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
What is Levi’s covenant? This is the Levitical Covenant, based on the promises given to the tribe of Levi. The tribe of Levi is also the tribe of both Moses and Aaron. Originally, the firstborn son of each family was consecrated to God and inherited this birthright (Exodus 13:2). This birthright was meant to “open the womb among the people of Israel”. It meant that the priests, consecrated to God, coming from the tribe of Levi, would lead the people in the right way. When leadership is strong, then the people are strong. Earlier, we discussed “first fruits”. This is the same concept: giving God the best of what we have first and trusting God with the rest. This is obedience.
Levi was chosen by God because of their faithfulness (Exodus 28:1-4). Jacob would prophesy the Levi’s descendants would be scattered through all of Israel (Genesis 49:7). They weren’t allowed land as the other tribes were given, but their inheritance would be given through the sacrifices of the temple. They were caretakers of the tabernacle and eventual temple. Through this extremely important designation, they were caretakers of the nation. In doing so, they had to remain pure and assure their conduct was righteous. This was a priesthood that eventually would end with Christ and the end of the Old Covenant, but their contribution to guiding the people was vastly important.
7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
Now we can understand more fully why God is calling out the priests: they aren’t living up to the very covenant that they were called to. Their new teaching is causing people to stumble. There is a violation to the convent. Because of these previous action, God is calling the priests out, via Malachi, so they will understand their sin.
10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
Moving to a new subject, Malachi brings up the issue of infidelity first, to one another, and second, to God.
11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.
This idea of infidelity in important due to its two-fold nature. Judah’s unfaithfulness begins with disobedience to God, then manifests into action. The disobedience appears now as a “detestable” action: the marrying of foreign women.
Now why is this so wrong? When we book historically, we can find some answers. In Nehemiah 13, we see Nehemiah returning to Jerusalem after a long absence. He had built the wall and consecrated it, left leaders in charge and returned to Artaxerxes, the king who he had previously served in Persia. But upon return (12 years later), he found that things had turned to a state of sinful ambivalence. The Jewish officials returned to fleecing the people, the sabbath was disregarded, and men were marrying foreign women. Nehemiah finds that there had been men marrying women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Ammon and Moab are both places that God strictly forbid the Israelites to associate with, let alone let into the assembly of God. Ashdod is also a problem. It was one of the five major cities of the Philistines.
Malachi was written during this timeframe, probably before Nehemiah’s return. It is a time when the priests have fallen down in their duties, the people don’t understand proper worship, and there is a return to seeking out foreign women. This destroys the purity of the Jewish bloodline, and mingling it with evil nations is expressly what God warned Israel about even before they entered the Promised Land.
Removing from the tent of Jacob - This means that men who indulge in the practice of marrying foreign women, curse the very foundation of their heritage, and should be removed as an Israelite, even though they hypocritically bring offerings. This is the greatest type of hypocrite, a person who feigns religion but actually remains in sin.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
You flood the Lord’s alter with tears – Since the ordinary person couldn’t approach the altar (it was reserved only for the high priests), this passage implies that the priests themselves cry over the altar, meaning not only the people, but the priests, are guilty of this blasphemy. The reasoning here is simple: the tears are hypocritical and misunderstood by those complicit in sin yet doing the work of God. God sees the sins of the priests, even if the muddled priests cannot see it themselves.
15 Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.
When we yoke ourselves to unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14), we forget that God made marriage, between a man and a woman, for two specific purposes. 1. It binds the man and woman together, as one (Genesis 2:24). 2. It produces children form that union who are meant to grow up Godly (Ephesians 6:1-3). This is God’s intention, certainly for Israel but for us also. The concept is that Israel, if it remained pure and chained to God and His teachings would produce generations of followers. When we understand God’s intention, it helps us to understand His purpose.
Unfaithfulness spreads to divorce. Malachi associates it with violence. But it’s violence against the very person who is his own flesh, who he is dedicated to protect (Ephesians 5:25-33).
Lastly, why should one be on guard for unfaithfulness. This speaks to another New Testament principle found in 2 Corinthians 13:5:
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
It is easy to fall away, easier to drift away, just as we see the priests and people of Malachi’s time doing. When we forget who God is and what He offers and drift into life, we often get distracted and wander away. In the book of Judges we see this happen again and again to the Israelites, so much so that there is a name associated with it: The Sin Cycle. The Israelites drift away, follow another god, become pressed by an outside force, see the error of their ways eventually, come back to God, and God sends them a “judge”, or an avenger, who kicks out the opposing force and brings them back into alignment with God. It’s the same with our walk. So we must be vigilant to test ourselves and make sure that we are “in the faith.”
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
“How have we wearied him?” you ask.
By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”
The next dispute comes from the long-standing issue of Israel once again blessing those who do evil. This, again, happened earlier in the scripture. Remember the Golden Calf? Tower of Babel? Those stories are found in Exodus and Genesis, respectfully. Back from the very beginning there was an issue with calling evil good, and this is coming from the priestly class. This is a cry of injustice, where the wicked succeed and the good perish. But there is a remedy for it…
The additional warnings to the priests consist of a loss of blessing. This is two-fold. First, the material blessing of the sacrifice. Secondly, the priestly blessings given to the people. The idea her is a beneficial one for all people who choose disobedience over obedience. When we are disobedient, although God is good and gracious and desires to bless us, those blessings wander away. See
Haggai 2:15-19:
“‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the Lord. 18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
“‘From this day on I will bless you.’”
The Jewish exiles from Babylon returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, yet in Haggai’s time, they chose to forego the building of the temple for 15 years in order to build their own houses and conduct their own lives. What is the Lord’s response? Because you have disobeyed, my hand has been against you. I have made life difficult for you. God removed the blessing and instituted a curse on the people until they understood the depth of their disobedience and returned to Him.
In the same way, the people of Malachi’s time are experiencing the same training. God is warning the priests, who should be the religious standard and guide for the people. Yet, they are the very ones allowing disobedience; they are not at the gate, not minding the important task of guiding people to obedience. For this dishonor, God will curse them in their disobedience.
3 “Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. 4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
Not only will there be a curse on the priests, but because of their disobedience, their descendants will experience a curse as well. We may step back from this and claim that isn’t fair. God is punishing future generations for the sins of the former. But here’s the deeper concept: When the generation who is responsible for keeping the truth doesn’t keep it, how is the next generation going to know the truth? The rebuke of future generations is the training God will give them to understand and latch onto the truth.
During the process of sacrifice, an animal retains dung in their system unless it is removed. Due to the practices of the original sacrifice (Exodus 29:14), the dung of the animal was to be burned outside the sanctuary. Because the priests were not practicing the sacrifices in the way God commanded them to, the dung would have been left inside the animal during the sacrifice itself. The spreading of that dung, on their faces, meant that the priests themselves would be unworthy of being in the sanctuary and it would be necessary for their removal (you will be carried off with it).
Why is God doing this? Why is it so important to Him? The motive is Levi’s covenant.
My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin.
What is Levi’s covenant? This is the Levitical Covenant, based on the promises given to the tribe of Levi. The tribe of Levi is also the tribe of both Moses and Aaron. Originally, the firstborn son of each family was consecrated to God and inherited this birthright (Exodus 13:2). This birthright was meant to “open the womb among the people of Israel”. It meant that the priests, consecrated to God, coming from the tribe of Levi, would lead the people in the right way. When leadership is strong, then the people are strong. Earlier, we discussed “first fruits”. This is the same concept: giving God the best of what we have first and trusting God with the rest. This is obedience.
Levi was chosen by God because of their faithfulness (Exodus 28:1-4). Jacob would prophesy the Levi’s descendants would be scattered through all of Israel (Genesis 49:7). They weren’t allowed land as the other tribes were given, but their inheritance would be given through the sacrifices of the temple. They were caretakers of the tabernacle and eventual temple. Through this extremely important designation, they were caretakers of the nation. In doing so, they had to remain pure and assure their conduct was righteous. This was a priesthood that eventually would end with Christ and the end of the Old Covenant, but their contribution to guiding the people was vastly important.
7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. 9 “So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
Now we can understand more fully why God is calling out the priests: they aren’t living up to the very covenant that they were called to. Their new teaching is causing people to stumble. There is a violation to the convent. Because of these previous action, God is calling the priests out, via Malachi, so they will understand their sin.
10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
Moving to a new subject, Malachi brings up the issue of infidelity first, to one another, and second, to God.
11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.
This idea of infidelity in important due to its two-fold nature. Judah’s unfaithfulness begins with disobedience to God, then manifests into action. The disobedience appears now as a “detestable” action: the marrying of foreign women.
Now why is this so wrong? When we book historically, we can find some answers. In Nehemiah 13, we see Nehemiah returning to Jerusalem after a long absence. He had built the wall and consecrated it, left leaders in charge and returned to Artaxerxes, the king who he had previously served in Persia. But upon return (12 years later), he found that things had turned to a state of sinful ambivalence. The Jewish officials returned to fleecing the people, the sabbath was disregarded, and men were marrying foreign women. Nehemiah finds that there had been men marrying women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. Ammon and Moab are both places that God strictly forbid the Israelites to associate with, let alone let into the assembly of God. Ashdod is also a problem. It was one of the five major cities of the Philistines.
Malachi was written during this timeframe, probably before Nehemiah’s return. It is a time when the priests have fallen down in their duties, the people don’t understand proper worship, and there is a return to seeking out foreign women. This destroys the purity of the Jewish bloodline, and mingling it with evil nations is expressly what God warned Israel about even before they entered the Promised Land.
Removing from the tent of Jacob - This means that men who indulge in the practice of marrying foreign women, curse the very foundation of their heritage, and should be removed as an Israelite, even though they hypocritically bring offerings. This is the greatest type of hypocrite, a person who feigns religion but actually remains in sin.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
You flood the Lord’s alter with tears – Since the ordinary person couldn’t approach the altar (it was reserved only for the high priests), this passage implies that the priests themselves cry over the altar, meaning not only the people, but the priests, are guilty of this blasphemy. The reasoning here is simple: the tears are hypocritical and misunderstood by those complicit in sin yet doing the work of God. God sees the sins of the priests, even if the muddled priests cannot see it themselves.
15 Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.
When we yoke ourselves to unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14), we forget that God made marriage, between a man and a woman, for two specific purposes. 1. It binds the man and woman together, as one (Genesis 2:24). 2. It produces children form that union who are meant to grow up Godly (Ephesians 6:1-3). This is God’s intention, certainly for Israel but for us also. The concept is that Israel, if it remained pure and chained to God and His teachings would produce generations of followers. When we understand God’s intention, it helps us to understand His purpose.
Unfaithfulness spreads to divorce. Malachi associates it with violence. But it’s violence against the very person who is his own flesh, who he is dedicated to protect (Ephesians 5:25-33).
Lastly, why should one be on guard for unfaithfulness. This speaks to another New Testament principle found in 2 Corinthians 13:5:
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
It is easy to fall away, easier to drift away, just as we see the priests and people of Malachi’s time doing. When we forget who God is and what He offers and drift into life, we often get distracted and wander away. In the book of Judges we see this happen again and again to the Israelites, so much so that there is a name associated with it: The Sin Cycle. The Israelites drift away, follow another god, become pressed by an outside force, see the error of their ways eventually, come back to God, and God sends them a “judge”, or an avenger, who kicks out the opposing force and brings them back into alignment with God. It’s the same with our walk. So we must be vigilant to test ourselves and make sure that we are “in the faith.”
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.
“How have we wearied him?” you ask.
By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”
The next dispute comes from the long-standing issue of Israel once again blessing those who do evil. This, again, happened earlier in the scripture. Remember the Golden Calf? Tower of Babel? Those stories are found in Exodus and Genesis, respectfully. Back from the very beginning there was an issue with calling evil good, and this is coming from the priestly class. This is a cry of injustice, where the wicked succeed and the good perish. But there is a remedy for it…