Genesis

Malachi

LeRoy Eims

The Jews had been home from Babylon about 100 years. The captivity had cured them of their idolatry, but they were prone to neglect the house of God.

The priests had become lax and degenerate. Sacrifices were inferior to the standards prescribed by the Word of God. The people had reverted to their old practice of inter‑marrying with idolatrous neighbors. So the Jews, favored of God above all nations, discouraged by their weakness and wedded to their sins, had settled down in a lethargic state of mind to await the coming of the promised Messiah. Malachi assured them that the Messiah would come, on schedule, on time; but that it would mean judgment for such a people as they.

Malachi's message has a permanent value for us as well as an immediate value for his own time. He was an intense patriot, and accordingly his message was clear cut and severe. His primary aim was to encourage a disheartened people who were still looking for the optimistic predictions of Haggai and Zechariah to be fulfilled.

Here are four lessons of lasting value that the prophet sets forth.

One, ritual is an important element in their religion, but it is not an end in itself. Tithes and offerings are necessary but only as the sincere expression of sincere and deeply spiritual and moral life (Malachi 1:11).

Secondly, a cheap religion avails nothing. Sacrifices given grudgingly do no good and are displeasing to God. Better a temple closed, than filled with such worshippers (Malachi 1:8‑10).

Thirdly, divorce and re‑marrying with heathen idolaters thwart the purpose of God. He cannot secure to Himself a peculiar people, whose family life is sacred because it is the nursery of a "godly seed" under these circumstances (Malachi 2:11,15).

Fourth, that there is eternal discipline in the Law of God. Malachi places great emphasis on the necessity of keeping the Word of God. The priests, he says, are the keepers and expounders of the Law. At their mouths the people should seek knowledge.

With Malachi, no less than with Christ Himself, not one jot or tittle should ever pass away or become obsolete (Malachi 4:4). His last word to them was prophetic and was to find its fulfillment in John the Baptist. "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, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:5,6)

Thus closes the Old Testament. Then came the Messiah, whom the Hebrew nation had been chosen to bring forth. Just as they had rejected the prophets of God through the centuries, so running true to form, when their Messiah arrived they rejected Him. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John 1:10,11) Since that time the Jews have been scattered around the world, the tragedy and the miracle of the ages.

The prophets of God had faithfully proclaimed the Word of God to Judah and Israel; warning, reproving, teaching, exhorting and comforting the people. They told of the coming Messiah, the time of peace and His birth, his sufferings, death and resurrection.

How fitting it is that Malachi should end the Old Testament by such a clear statement of the coming of the Lord. The last ray of light will extend over four centuries and rest at last on the babe in the manger of Bethlehem. It will be fulfilled to the letter. The Word of God is sure.