Malachi 3
The Day of Judgment (3:1-5)
1 The people had asked: “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17). God says: “. . . the Lord you are seeking will come.” This “Lord” is not God the Father (spelled LORD, or Yahweh in Hebrew); rather, He is God the Son, the messenger of the covenant, the establisher of the new covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31–34 and comment). Malachi is clearly referring here to the Messiah Jesus Christ.
Malachi says that the Lord will come to his temple. Jesus came to the temple, first as an infant to be dedicated, then at least yearly for the annual festivals, and finally during the last week of His life.
Why were the people in Malachi’s day so skeptical and doubtful about God? Why did they ask, “Where is God?” One answer is that they had been told by the PROPHETS, especially by Zechariah, that the Lord was going to return to His temple (see Zechariah 1:16–17; 2:4-5,10–13). They imagined that once the postexilic temple was rebuilt, the GLORY of the Lord would again fill the temple as in former days (see Exodus 40:34–35; 1 Kings 8:10–11). Indeed, Haggai had said that the temple would be filled with an even greater glory than before (Haggai 2:9). Only the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ could be greater than the former glory (see John 1:14). And here God, through the prophet Malachi, is promising that that glory will soon come.
But, says God, something will happen before that: ”I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.” This messenger” is not the “messenger of the covenant”; rather, he is John the Baptist11 (see Matthew 11:10–11; Mark 1:2–4). God says He is going to send John to prepare the way before me—that is, before Himself, God the Son. It is God Himself, in the person of His Son, whose way is going to be prepared by John the Baptist.
2–4 Why is God going to send someone to prepare the way for His coming? Because He (Jesus the Son) is a God of justice—the same “God of justice” the people had been looking for (Malachi 2:17). That means He will vindicate the RIGHTEOUS and punish the wicked; He will execute judgment on Judah and on the world. Malachi asks: . . . who can endure the day of his coming? (verse 2). The answer:no one will be able to endure it who has not repented. That is why God, in His mercy, is going to send the “messenger” John the Baptist to urge people to repent and thereby be ready to enter the kingdom of God (see Malachi 4:5–6; Mark 1:4-5,14–15).
Malachi then goes on to say that the Lord, when He comes, will refine and purify His people (verse 3). Only those with clean hands and a pure heart will be able to come into His presence (Psalm 24:3–4); only their offerings will God accept12 (verse 4).
5 So I will come near to you for judgment. The Jews in Judah believed that when God (the Messiah) came, He would bless them and judge their enemies. Here Malachi tells them that they too will be judged for violating God’s covenant commands. Verse 5 lists many of the sins for which the Jews will be judged.
A question arises:Did Jesus come to judge or to save? At His first coming, He came to save. But at His second coming He will come to judge. Like other Old Testament prophets, Malachi was not able to distinguish between Christ’s first coming and His second coming; he combined” the two. The prophets did not identify the present “Church age,” which lies between Christ’s first and second comings. But we can be assured that Christ will come again to judge between the righteous and the wicked (verse 18), between those who will receive ETERNAL LIFE and those who will receive eternal punishment (Matthew 25:31–46).
Robbing God (3:6–18)
6–7 The Jews in Malachi’s time thought that God had abandoned them, that He had broken His covenant with them. But God tells them: “I . . . do not change. I keep my covenant. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (verse 6). Even though Israel had been unfaithful, God never abandoned His people; He always preserved a remnant so that the descendants of Jacob” would never be completely destroyed. God kept reaching out to His disobedient people. And here in verse 7, He again says: ”Return to me, and I will return to you” (see Jeremiah 29:13; Zechariah 1:3; James 4:8). To “return” to God, Israel had to repent and turn away from sin.13
8–12 The Jews, ever doubtful, asked God, “How are we to return?” (verse 7). They didn’t really believe they needed to repent. Neither do most people!
So God gave them an example of their sin:they did not bring to Him their required tithes and offerings14 (verse 8). In effect, they were robbing God. Robbery is not just stealing what is not yours; it is also withholding what rightfully belongs to another. So God placed the whole nation of Judah under a curse.15 The people may have excused themselves from giving their tithes because of hard times, but the hard times had come because of their refusal to give their tithes!
God says: Bring the whole tithe into the (temple) storehouse . . . and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven (verse 10). If we are generous toward God, He will be generous toward us-more than generous! If we put God first, He will meet all our needs (Matthew 6:33). If we obey Him, He will reward us and pour out His blessings upon us (Leviticus 26:9–10; Deuteronomy 28:12). And when He does that, the nations will call us blessed (verse 12); and we, in turn, will give all the honor to God (Matthew 5:16).
While all this is true, there is a danger one must guard against:we must not worship and obey God for the sake of rewards and blessings; we must worship and obey God for the sake of God alone. True, it’s not possible in this lifetime to worship God with totally unselfish motives, but with the HOLY SPIRIT’S help we must press on toward that goal (see Matthew 5:45; Philippians 3:12–14).
13–15 Here again we see the blindness of the Jews in Malachi’s day—their blindness to their own sin. They don’t even realize they have been saying harsh things about God (verse 13). Yet they have said: “It is futile to serve God; what good has it done us?” (verse 14). In verse 15, Malachi adds that the people have moved so far away from God’s standards that the arrogant are called blessed, evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge (oppose) God escape punishment.
Consider what has happened to these returned Jewish exiles. Eighty years earlier their parents had finished rebuilding the temple (Ezra 6:14–18). They were filled with joy and zeal. But then things began to slide. Their worship became formal; they looked merely for material blessings and stopped seeking God with all their heart. Then they began to disobey God’s commands. And here, in Malachi’s time, they were hardly aware that they were opposing God.
Christians today need to learn from the book of Malachi; they need to understand that these same things can happen to them. SATAN’s most dangerous weapon against the church is subtlety and deception; he wants us to think we are serving God when actually we are not. We become apathetic, even blind; we self-righteously say to God: ”What have we said (or done) against you?” (verse 13). In this book, Malachi has given us the answer.
16–18 However, some (a remnant) among the Jews had remained faithful; they feared the Lord16 (verse 16), and as a result, their names were written on a scroll of remembrance (see Psalm 69:28; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:20; Revelation 3:5). ”They will be mine,” says the Lord (verse 17); they will be part of my treasured possession” (see Exodus 19:5). When the faithful remnant is spared, then people’s eyes will be opened and they will see the distinction between those who truly serve God and those who do not (verse 18). Then it will be clear that in spite of difficulties in this life there is indeed great gain in serving and revering God (see Malachi 4:1–2; 1 Timothy 6:6).
