Malachi 1

The Jews questioned God’s love

The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

2 “I have loved you”, says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob,

God’s judgment on Edom

3 and I have hated Esau, and laid waste his mountains and his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness”.

1:3 The behavior of Esau’s descendants toward God, and toward His people Israel, made them worthy of God’s loathing. See Amos 1:11; Oba 1.⚜

4 Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build the desolate places”, thus says the LORD of hosts: “They will build, but I will tear down; and they will be called, The Wicked Territory, and The People With Whom The LORD Will Be Angry Forever. 5 And your eyes will see it, and you will say, ‘The LORD will be exalted beyond the borders of Israel.’

The disrespectful way the Jews acted toward God

6 “A son honours his father, and a servant his master. Then, if I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is my respect? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name. “And you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

1:6 From this verse to Mal 2:9 God rebukes the priests in Israel.⚜

7 “You offer defiled food on my altar, and you say, ‘How have we defiled you?’ By saying, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’ 8 And when you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to your governor! Would he be pleased with you, or accept you favourably? says the LORD of hosts.

9 “‘And now beg God to be gracious to us’, you say. With such offerings from you will he accept you favourably? says the LORD of hosts.

The Jews unholy worship

10 “Who is there among you who will shut the temple doors so that you do not kindle fire in vain on my altar! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 11 For from the place of the rising of the sun to the place of its going down my name will be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense and a pure offering will be offered to my name; for my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

12 “But you profane it, by saying, ‘The table of the LORD is defiled, and its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’ 13 You also say, ‘See, how tiresome!’ And you sniff at it, says the LORD of hosts. And you bring what is torn, and the lame, and the sick. This is the way you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand? says the LORD.

1:12-13 God will be great among the nations of earth but His own people treated Him as if He were a nobody. To them His worship was tiresome and useless, and worthy of contempt (vs 7,8). They were not the last to think and act so.⚜

14 But cursed be the deceiver, who has a male in his flock, and vows to give it, then sacrifices a blemished one to the Lord. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nations.

1:14 Did these worshipers expect a blessing from God? God Himself pronounces a curse on them. Compare Deut 27:15-26; Gal 3:10; Heb 6:8.⚜