Download 9496 A STUDY OF MALACHI Speaker: Bro. John Ullman Study #1

9496
A STUDY OF MALACHI
Speaker:
Bro. John Ullman
Study #1
Reading:
Malachi 1
My dear brethren and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is our very great pleasure to have the opportunity to visit you here, once again at
Williamsville for your Study Day, having enjoyed a very pleasant time with you here just
three years ago, during which time as I recall, we gave a series of studies on 'Highlights
from the Exodus', and endeavoured to relate our own walk in the kingdom of God, to
the exodus of the children of lsrael out of Egypt into the Land of Promise. And in effect,
we're doing very much the same thing today, because we're going back on the affairs of
Israel in their day, and equating them with our own hope of Israel and our own walk in
the kingdom of God today.
Now our studies are to be upon the theme of the book of Malachi as we are well aware,
under the general theme, 'who may abide the day of His coming?' and we believe that
is the dominant theme which permeates the book of Malachi. But we would like to point
out in beginning this morning, that what we will be doing during the course of the day in
the studies before us, if God is willing, is to draw attention, to some of the major
highlights of the exhortationary aspects of the ministry of Malachi, and endeavouring to
try and see how, the message of God in every age and every generation, is applicable
to every age and every generation. Now because of that and because of the limitation
of time, some of you may feel that we're not covering the matter in the detail that you
would like; but we would just like to point out that it has been our own experience, that
to make a study of the book of Malachi, requires around a minimum of 12 to 14 bible
classes. And since we don't have that, we're going to deal with it as best we can,
touching upon each verse throughout the book and drawing from it, the highlights as we
see them and understand them, particularly in the reality for us!
May we perhaps begin with the idea firmly implanted in our minds, that the Old
Testament scriptures are as vital to us today as Christadelphians, as they ever were to
the nation of Israel in the day in which they were written. No matter what generation it
may have been, whether we go back to the days of Moses or whether we go onward to
the days of Nehemiah and Malachi. The scriptures are very powerful and they are very
living; and we know that we live in a world today where most practising so-called
Christians would have us believe, that all we really need so far as the bible is
concerned, is the New Testament. That the Old Testament is out-dated and therefore,
quite unnecessary. Some will even go so far as to say, as has been my own
experience, that all we really need to worry about are the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John, and we can dispense with all the rest of the bible, because it's all in the four
gospels. How foolish they are to speak in that way! but in that sense we would like to
begin this morning with a direct reference to the words that are found in Hebrews
chapter 4 and verse 12, where we are told emphatically, 'that the Word of God is quick
and powerful'. Now we need to remember that when those words were penned in the
epistle to the Hebrews that the New Testament scriptures as we have them today, were
really only in the course of preparation. They were really only in the course of being
compiled and so therefore, when the writer to the Hebrews (and we believe it to have
been the apostle Paul) when he says the Word of God is quick and powerful, we know
he is referring especially to the Old Testament scriptures. Now the words 'quick and
powerful' are not sufficiently accurate in relation to their meaning. What really is being
said there in Hebrews 4 and verse 12, is that the Word of God is living and energetic;
now those are the two words that will literally apply to that translation of Hebrews 4:12,
the Word of God is living and energetic.
Now that's what Malachi has got to become for us! It has got to become living and it's got to become
energetic, now by that we've got to understand that as long as the Word of God remains nothing more
than words upon a printed page, it is not living, it is simply like any other textbook that we might take up;
like mathematics or history or geography. We know it is the Word of God but as we personally are
concerned, it does not become a living Word, as long as we leave it merely on the printed page. The writer
to the Hebrews is telling us, that the Old Testament scriptures become living when they are transferred out
of that written page into our intellect, and when they become a part of us; when we study them for the
lessons to be gained therefrom. And although today we may no longer be under the Law of Moses, and
we may no longer live in the Mosaic dispensation, it does not alter the fact, that every page, every verse,
every word of the Word of God, whether of the Old Testament or the New, is there for our learning and
admonition, as Paul says in another place, for our learning and our admonition. And so the Word of God,
(and today we concentrate upon the book of Malachi), it becomes living when we absorb the words that
God has left on record there and when we take them into our intellect; and will become to some degree
our understanding of them. Our understanding at times may not be very great, and some of us have more
ability to absorb these things than others; we appreciate that, we understand that, but nevertheless as bro.
Roberts said, in his original introduction of the daily bible reading companion, 'it is only insomuch as day
by day we absorb the things of God into our intellect that we are going to be changed into the likeness of
the Lord Jesus Christ'. And so the Word of Malachi has got to become for us living and it will become
living when we absorb these words out of the written page, and we take them into our intellect, and we
chew on them in the mental process, and we absorb the lessons that are there for us today, and they
become real in our lives! It will then become energetic when the principles of divine wisdom that we learn
from Old Testament scriptures as well as New Testament scriptures, become the outworking of our way of
life. When we manifest a way of life, when we morally manifest the truth, then the Word of God becomes
energetic. So the Word of God according to Hebrews 4 and verse 12 is, both living and energetic when it
becomes active for the transformation of men and women into a character that is pleasing to God, and
that will be fitted for an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Even though that transformation be ever so
imperfect, and even though we will never attain to the perfection of the divine character as seen in the
Lord Jesus Christ, yet nevertheless, we can become the Word made flesh, as He was, not to perfection,
but you know whenever we absorb things out of the Word of God, and we learn things that direct us onto
the right path toward the kingdom, and we morally practice the things that we have accepted intellectually,
and before which we bow with all humility before God; whenever we do godly things for godly reasons, we
are the Word made flesh! and so therefore, we should take great courage from that and we should take
great comfort from that!
So then, upon that basis we find that the word of Malachi is as living and as energetic to us today, as it
ever was, in the dramatic circumstances in which this book was first written. So then, upon that basis a
brief word about the author; who was Malachi? The answer is we do not know; there are many authorities
who would have us believe that Malachi is a pseudonym, that is was anonymously written, some even
suggest that it was written by Nehemiah. We don't believe that at all! and we believe that upon the
principle of consistency of scripture. We do not believe that Malachi is an anonymous name, because as
his name signifies 'my messenger' (we're going to see something of the importance of that as we go
along); 'my messenger' and of course, the One who is speaking is Yahweh the God of Israel, the Mighty
One of heaven. He says of this man, He is 'my messenger', and you know, that throughout this prophecy
we have no less than 5 different messengers of God revealed to us in the book of Malachi. There are 5
messengers to be found here (we'll tell you a little bit more about that, God willing, as we go along). But
nevertheless, because of the name meaning, 'my messenger' an attempt is sometimes made to say, 'well,
there was no real Malachi at all; that that's just simply a pseudonym or an anonymous name for the writer.
Now we answer that by asking the question, where do we have any other prophet in the history of
scripture that ever wrote anonymously? Was Isaiah anonymous? Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, David in the
Psalms and so forth? we can go through Hosea, Joel, Amos all of them, Daniel; was Daniel an
anonymous man? We believe all of them to be very real men, very true and faithful servants of the God of
Israel. And so therefore, undoubtedly, there was a man by the name of Malachi; and so when it comes to
significance in the names of the prophets, every one of God's prophets have a name of some significance
in relation to his ministry! So why for any reason whatever, should Malachi be in anyway, any different?
We don't believe that he should be different in any way at all, and so when we come to this book, we find
that it's a book of messages from a variety of messengers.
Malachi as we have said, signifies 'my messenger', and 5 messengers are set forth in this book, 5
different messengers. In chapter 1 and verse 1 we have Malachi himself. In chapter 2 and verse 7 we
have the priests of Israel, the priests which should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at His
mouth' (the people of Israel should) 'for he is the messenger of Yahweh of armies'. The third messenger is
depicted in chapter 3 and verse 1 who was John the Baptist, the fourth messenger is depicted also in
chapter 3 and verse 1, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And the fifth messenger is Elijah who is yet
to come again, and he is depicted in chapter 4 as we well know the context of that chapter.
Now the period of the writing of the book of Malachi is of the utmost interest, and it is of the utmost
importance to our general understanding of the significance of the times in which he wrote. We believe
that Malachi wrote at a period of history between Nehemiah chapter 12 and Nehemiah chapter 13; you will
recall that Nehemiah had returned to the court of Persia at the end of 12 years, having served that time as
governor of Judaea, (we learn that from Nehemiah chapter 5 and verse 14, 'he returned to the court in the
32nd year of Artaxerxes and he then, ultimately went back again to Jerusalem. Now something brought
him back, he had been to Jerusalem for that period of time of 12 years, he had achieved his work there in
rehabilitating the people, reinvigorating them with a zeal for the truth, getting them on fire once again with
the things that really counted, in their service to God; and at the end of the agreed time he returned to the
court of the king of Persia. And so far as Nehemiah was concerned, they could see his work was
completed. But something brought him back, and there was a gap between Nehemiah 12 (the end of that
chapter) and the beginning of the final chapter, so there was a gap there and something brought
Nehemiah back! and we believe, the only thing that could have brought Nehemiah back was the call of
Malachi. That after Nehemiah had left Jerusalem and had returned to the court of the king, that very
quickly the truth began to deteriorate, that very quickly the enemies who Nehemiah had opposed and
subdued, came to the forefront once again and reasserted themselves. And they corrupted not only
themselves, they corrupted the people, and so therefore, the work which Nehemiah had accomplished
began to go down the drain! and all was looking very, very bad. So that we have the warning of Malachi in
chapter 3 and verse 1, 'Behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me: and
the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple'. Now the word 'Lord' there is not the divine
name, it is simply the word 'adon' and it simply means a lord or a ruler; it's not speaking of Yahweh
Himself because it is not the divine name in that passage. 'The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come
to his temple' and I believe, that had a primary fulfillment in the second coming of Nehemiah. And we
know it typifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the ultimate fulfillment of that, but Nehemiah was a type
of Christ and so therefore, Malachi set that warning before the people. If you do not restore your ways, to
that which Nehemiah had established in Jerusalem, if you do not get back to the faithful attitude that you
should exhibit, then what's going to happen is this; the Lord who ye seek (and that's ironically said
because they weren't seeking Him at all, any more than Israel today is seeking the Lord Jesus Christ; they
don't want Him, so there's an element of irony in that) 'The Lord who ye seek shall suddenly come to his
temple'. And that's exactly what Nehemiah did, so in that 13th chapter we find, that when Nehemiah
came back to Jerusalem, he went to the temple, he cleaned out the temple, he cleaned out the apostates
and he restored the nation to a proper form of worship before God, exactly as will be done by the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And so we have here, a man of great courage in the personage of 'my messenger'; he was Yahweh's
messenger to this nation, to warn them of the circumstances under which they were living, which was
really an undermining of that which had been rehabilitated by Nehemiah. And so Malachi was a man who
would have stood up vigourously, and vigourously attack the religious authorities in his day, and we find in
this book that he attacks the apathy of the people, but he would have done that, of course, after
Nehemiah's departure and after Eliashib who was the high priest and had very quickly seized control after
Nehemiah left and reasserted his authority, which of course, originally Nehemiah had had to oppose. But
the time was coming when Nehemiah would come back, but in the meantime we find that Malachi takes
this stand in this very difficult period of time when the truth was deteriorating very, very rapidly and when
there was a need for a voice to emerge and stand up, faithfully and courageously before the people, that
they might learn once again, and have set before them, the principles of divine truth, that they might be
restored to God's way!
And do you know, there are many interesting parallels between Nehemiah and between Malachi, very
many similarities indeed. For example, we find a question of marriage to alien wives mentioned in Malachi
2 and verse 11 and it is also, of course, dealt with by Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 23. We have the
question of the withholding of the tithes from the Levites which Malachi condemns in chapter 3 and verse
8, and Nehemiah does likewise in chapter 13 and verse 10. We have the question of the neglect and the
dishonour associated with temple services which Malachi condemns in chapter 1 verses 12 and 13, and
Nehemiah deals with in chapter 13 in verses 4,5 and 11. And fourthly we have the repudiation and the
casting off of the legitimate wives of the men of Israel, casting off their wives and taking others in Malachi
chapter 2 and verses 15 and 16 and Nehemiah deals with that very eloquently and very clearly in chapter
13 and verses 23 and 27. You might wonder why I bothered to mention all the verses, there's a special
reason for that, because all those passages in Malachi, we mentioned chapter 2 and verse 11, chapter 3
verse 8, back to chapter 1 verses 12 and 13, chapter 2 verses 15 and 16; every one of those matters that
Malachi had to challenge the people upon, are dealt with in Nehemiah in chapter 13. Because every verse
we've quoted to you in parallel from the book of Nehemiah comes from chapter 13, in other words, after
he comes back, after he returns to Jerusalem, he finds the circumstances exactly as those set forth for us
in the book of Malachi; and so here we have this very remarkable parallel between these two books!
And it is in the book of Malachi that we learn that temple worship had been restored, but yet ceremonial
formalism and a kind of almost unbelievable hypocrisy really invalidated the worship of Israel, because
God will not be worshipped half-heartedly, He will not be worshipped as men who like to worship Him,
such as we find with the example of Cain. Cain was quite happy to be a worshipper of God, but only on his
own terms. And so in the days of Malachi he draws attention to the fact, that true religious zeal had waned
from the hearts of the people; and personal holiness within individuals had degenerated to a point where it
was no longer consider necessary for an Israelite to manifest a godly way of life! And so this is what we
have in the book of Malachi, and you'll notice that throughout every verse virtually, of the book of Malachi,
there is some kind of a reference to 'the wide spread apathy' that was sapping all morality and spirituality
out of that people. They were immersed in an attitude of apathy, and you know, when it comes to men like
Eliashib that high priest, nothing would suit him more than apathy among the people, to get his own ends
and to gain his own way! We know that there are religious groups in the world about us, who are apostate
in their beliefs, and they have very largely membership of people who are very apathetic toward their
religion. It is not at all uncommon in religions of the world today, to find that people will generally, if they
are religious or consider themselves religious, they may go and visit their church perhaps twice a year, or
perhaps as they would call, a couple of important feast days. And you see, people like that are very easy
to manage; they're not studying, they're not absorbing their minds in the things of the Word of God.
They're not really interested in the Word of God, so the church that is of that caliber of that nature, is very
happy to have apathetic people because they're easily managed. They don't cause trouble! they don't go
around querying the priests and asking them, 'why do you say that? and why do you do that? and why is
this done in the church? and why is that done in the church when the bible says, thus and thus and thus?
They don't have problems like that , and so after Nehemiah left the city, those problems began to
disappear as apathy took over!
And so the people of Israel had grown worldly, and they had grown very careless in spiritual matters. And
you know, b&s, carelessness is something which eventually leads to outright apostacy! Carelessness in
handling the things of God is something that results from a lack of really deep love for the truth. And you
remember the Lord's controversy with the ecclesia at Ephesus in the first of the letters to the seven
ecclesias? 'Thou hast left thy first love', there was apathy in the ecclesia at Ephesus, there was a degree
of carelessness in handling the Word of God and the things of God; and eventually that ecclesia became
totally and utterly apostate. And the Lord's warning that 'I will spue thee out of my mouth' which was a
general warning as far as the ecclesias were concerned, came to pass! And the ecclesias in Asia
eventually evolved into the Roman Catholic church apostate system. And that was due basically to
carelessness and apathy, and when those things are apparent within any ecclesial generation no matter
when it is, there will be a lack of real reverence for the things of God. There will be a lack of love for the
things of God, and we all know, b&s, that the things that we love, we will care for, and to care for
something is the very opposite of being careless! And so that was the problem and that was the situation
here.
And we find, of course, that the forthright message of Malachi, is strongly conservative in every aspect of
what he has to write. Because, what he does is to take his people back to some of the basic elements of
their Law which was the foundation upon which the nation was established. He takes them back to the
past, he takes them back to a proper understanding of God, with particular reference (and I'm going to
have to let you look these up in the main, to the writings in Deuteronomy) The writings of Deuteronomy are
referred to again and again throughout the book of Malachi. So what he's saying is 'get back to your
original foundations! never mind about the apathy, cast off apathy and carelessness and indifference and
worship God in the spirit of truth'. And so throughout the book of Malachi we find these sort of things
constantly reiterated; there is a God in Israel, He has got a love for Israel despite of what you might think
to the contrary, He was their Father, He was also their Master as revealed in the Law, He is a holy God
and therefore, He expects holiness in his people. His ancient ideals and the instructions that He'd given for
the behaviour of the priesthood are set forth again and again. And there are references to the day of
judgment when all will be called into account. And there are also references to the hope of Israel
revealing, of course, that as a nation they will eventually be established in their kingdom at the
manifestation of the One like unto Moses. And that is what they should have had in mind in casting off the
apathy into which they had become engulfed, hence in casting off the carelessness which was dominating
their attitude toward religious worship; had they had a vision of the future, had they had a vision of the
coming of their Messiah and being fired with a zeal and an enthusiasm for that, then of course, things
would have been very, very different indeed!
You know, one of the most powerful and impressive features of Malachi's writing, is that he was not
prepared to adapt the principles of the truth, to the particular circumstances in which he found himself; he
was not prepared to say, 'well, look, Nehemiah is gone, and I realize that things are now different and we
have a more general attitude toward the things of the truth, and we can afford perhaps to take certain
liberties that Nehemiah would not allow, and we can afford to have a more relaxed attitude, because after
all, it is nice to be relaxed about things in life and things in general'! Well, he was not prepared to do that,
and we find in every verse of this book, that to Malachi, the truth was the truth! The truth was the truth in
the days of Moses to Malachi, the truth was the truth as Nehemiah had brought it forth and re-established
it in the nation. And the same was still the truth in the times of Malachi. And the message that permeates
every verse of his book is, that the truth is something that is unalterable! and that principles of the truth
cannot be bent, and they cannot be interpreted to suit the requirements of the moment, whatever they
might be!
And so when we come to look at the book overall, we find that there are really 5 basic messages in this
book.
First of all, they are reminded that they have become an unholy nation, and that is in chapter 1.
Secondly, they are reminded that they now have a faithless priesthood. That is emphasized in chapter 2
and verses 1 to 10.
Thirdly, they, therefore, by obvious progression of degeneration have become a godless people and that is
found in chapter 2 and verses 11 to 16.
Fourthly, they also have become a nation of robbers upon whom the judgment of God will come, and that
is found in chapter 2 verse 17 through to chapter 3 verse 15. And when they are termed a nation of
robbers, the one whom they have robbed is God Himself, (they're not going around robbing each other, so
much as robbing God).
Fifth, and finally, in part 5 or the 5th message, is in chapter 3 verse 16 through to the end chapter 4 verse
6, to the effect that a faithful remnant will be vindicated.
Now in addition to that, when we look at the five-fold division of the book of Malachi, we find that he
charges them with a three-fold guilt. First of all, there was the guilt of ignorance, in other words, they had
forgotten things that they really should have been thoroughly acquainted with, that is in chapter 1 verse 6.
And there we pause to ask ourselves a question, How was it that this generation to whom Malachi spoke,
were now in a state of ignorance? There can only be one answer to that, and that is that they had omitted
the instructions of the Law which required that parents pass on the teaching of the truth from generation to
generation. And so therefore, there had been a certain laxity in the generation that had gone before; and
they had not been brought up and educated in the things of the truth.
The second sin with which they are charged is the sin of indifference, in chapter 1 and verse 13. In other
words, the Word of God did not fire them, they were not filled with a zeal for the things of God and the
things of the truth. That's what we meant earlier when we......
The third great sin with which they are charged is found in chapter 3 and verse 8, the sin of self-seeking.
Now in other words, they were seeking their own interests before the interests of God; there are, of
course, certain interests as far as ourselves are concerned, for which we are responsible. Imagine if we
had a father in a Christadelphian family who had merely to say to his wife and children, 'well, I haven't got
the time to go and work and earn money and provide for the family, I've got to study the bible at least 18
hours a day, and I need 6 hours sleep so I've got no time for anything else'. We're not talking about that,
that is foolish. God gives every man a responsibility and the responsibility is to provide for the needs of his
family; but those needs go far more than material needs. Dominant amongst them is the spiritual
education of his family, the spiritual education of himself must come first; because how can any father or
husband in the truth educate his family if he is ignorant of the truth himself? And so therefore, what these
people were doing was taking that to absolute extremes, and they were seeking their own self-interest but
they were not seeking the interests of God! They were not following the ways of God, they were so
dominated by the affairs of this life, that as far as that was concerned, that really had become their life,
and the things of God were a very indifferent aspect of their daily living and hence the carelessness,
hence the growth of apathy, and hence the growth of indifference.
And so when we open the book of Malachi, we find it begins with the words 'I have loved you'. It is very
interesting the way the book of Malachi begins; it begins very abruptly, there is no formal introduction
beyond the words 'The burden of the Word of Yahweh, to Israel by Malachi'. That's the total introduction,
just one sentence and a very few words. And the message of the book proper, begins with the words, 'I
have loved you' and while we see that and we can appreciate that, and the fact that God had a love for
Israel, and God would do anything and everything to draw that nation to Him again, upon the proper terms
and the proper basis. That although that book begins with the words 'I have loved you', you'll find that the
last words in the book are a curse, at the very end of the book of Malachi. So we are to be impressed with
the fact that God offers to extend His love to His people, that they should soberly understand that rejection
of His love will end for them in a curse! God did not want that to happen, and therefore, He caused to be
raised up a prophet by the name of Malachi, that he might direct God's people back in, to the way of the
truth!
And so with all those things in mind, is it any wonder, that we find the theme of the book in chapter 3 and
verse 2, 'Who may abide the day of His coming?' And the whole purpose of that theme, b&s, is as relevant
today as it ever was in the day that it was written. We need to ask ourselves, virtually every day of our
lives, 'who may abide the day of His coming? in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ourselves in
asking that question must be preparing ourselves that we may abide, or be able to stand, in the day of His
coming; to stand before Him acceptably and that is the theme that permeates the book of Malachi, 'who
may abide the day of His coming?' And can you see how that very theme in itself, taken directly from
Malachi's own words here in chapter 3 and verse 2, the very theme itself conjures up so much about the
truth! who may abide the day of His coming?. It starts with today, not tomorrow or next week or next
month, it starts with right now; who may abide the day of His coming? the answer to the question is, the
one who is prepared, the one who's developed his spiritual mind to the point that they are in affinity with
God and with His Son. It means the person who has developed their lives along special lines as designed
by God in His Word, that they might be prepared in heart and mind, in their attitude of separation from the
world and dedication to God, that they might be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
therefore, the very theme of Malachi, WHO MAY ABIDE THE DAY OF HIS COMING, is a theme which
relates to preparation. It relates to a life dedicated to the God of Israel, that we might know Him and Jesus
Christ whom He hath sent, as the Lord reminds us in John 17 and verse 3, 'that our lives might be
dedicated wholly to the hope of Israel' that in that way we might bear in mind, the theme of Malachi, and
endeavour to see that we might abide the day of His coming, each one of us! And we'll abide the day of
His coming if our attitude today is set clearly toward a life of dedication to the God whom we worship; not
merely in the printed page by that the Word of God as we began this morning, might become living and
energetic within us. And to those who are called to the truth by the great mercy of God, if the resolve within
them becomes living and energetic, they will abide the day of His coming! And that is the wonderful
theme, and those are some of the thoughts that are conjured up in relation to that theme.
And so here we find the Word opens up in the book of Malachi, in this way, with this very, very brief
introduction, 'the burden of the Word of Yahweh'. The word 'burden' is a word which means 'oracle', it
doesn't mean something heavy although it does mean 'a bearing or a carrying' and so in that sense we
have the fact that Malachi was appointed to bear or carry this message to the nation of Israel. That it's
common usage would indicate 'oracle' and that's how it's translated in Rotherham's version of the bible
and in numerous others as well. So we have the oracle, we know what an oracle is, it's a written word;
their oracle we have here, 'of the Word of Yahweh' which reminds us that what we are about to read or
what we're about to consider is not Malachi's word. It is not the word of an indignant, faithful man of God
who suddenly saw all his people becoming engulfed in apathy and indifference, and a careless attitude
toward God which would result in their ruination, and therefore decides that it's about time, that someone
stood up and said something and therefore, it might as well be him. It's not that at all, of course, obviously,
Malachi responded as a man of faith and courage; believe me, in the times in which Malachi wrote, and
the times in which he stood up and addressed his people with these words, it would have taken great
courage to do so. Most of the prophets that we have in our Old Testament bible, were under similar
circumstances. They were raised up in very difficult times, when there was great opposition to the
teaching of Moses, when there was great opposition to the single mindedness of the truth, with either
apostate kings or apostate priests or some other form of apostate leadership within the nation, and all of
those prophets whether it be Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, whichever one it might have been, they
had to have enormous courage, and therefore, they were fired with an incredible faith and a zeal for the
things of God.
Although Malachi had all those qualities, it is emphasized to us that the messenger was merely the one
who carried the message of God. And the Word of Yahweh is living and energetic, and eventually it will
obtain its purpose, whether men co-operate with Him or whether they don't! And we notice that it says 'the
burden or the oracle of the Word of Yahweh to Israel by Malachi'. And the word 'by' in Rotherham's
translation is rendered 'by the hand of' which again emphasizes that Malachi was merely the servant of
God to convey this message. And it was to Israel! We find the word 'Israel' here, not used in relation to the
10 tribes, as is common earlier in scripture; we know that the word 'Israel' very often was used for the 10
tribes, whereas Judah was used for the kingdom in the south, the kingdom of Judah. This word was
directed to the entire remnant of the covenant people who had returned to that Land, under Ezra and
Nehemiah.
And so the opening words of the book really are in verse 2, 'I HAVE LOVED YOU' and you know, that with
those opening words, the prophet really lays down a thesis which is a foundation, which he proceeds to
press repeatedly throughout his book, presenting an unanswerable argument; and after all, although there
are things recorded in the book Malachi which would have been very hard for those people to take, and
may I suggest there are things in the book of Malachi, that we ourselves have to humble ourselves before
God, before even we will submit to them! Yet the purpose of it all was, to show God's love for His people!
and to me that's a very wonderful thing, so that even when God rebukes us, even when He chastens us,
even when He addresses to us, sizzling words of condemnation, it's not simply that He might sit back and
enjoy His own perfection, and watch us squirm, under the imperfections of our own nature and what it
produces; not by any means at all! That is done because God loves us, after all why do you chastise your
own children or those of you who have children that have reached adulthood? Why, in the course of the
upbringing of my 4 children, to the stage of adulthood, why is it that I would chastise my children,
sometimes very, very severely? I would hate to give you some of the descriptions of some of the events
that have taken place in our home over the years. Sometimes there is severe chastening, why? because I
love my children. If I didn't love my children I wouldn't care what they did; if they wanted to go astray from
the truth, if they wanted to go in a way that was immoral in the eyes of God, if they wanted to take upon
themselves an attitude of turning their backs on God or the things of the truth, if they were not prepared to
honour their mother and father; and I didn't really care about my children, I wouldn't worry what they did!
I'd say to them, 'go, do as you like, I don't care!' But I chastised my children as you all have who have had
children in the case of bringing them up or have brought them up, we chastise our children because we
love them. We show our love by that way and our children learn that!
You know, there's nothing more wonderful than a family, as I'm concerned personally in my experiences
as a father, to heavily chastise a child for a wrong doing that has been pointed out to it first; I've never
chastised any of my children without first of all, sitting them down and telling them what they'd done wrong,
pointing out to them that they'd had every opportunity been given to them by me to rectify their wrong
doing, and have failed to listen to me on that particular occasion, and pointing out to them, that the
treatment they were about to receive, was just and honourable and fully deserved! and then when the
chastisement is being administered, to find the child come along to you and climb up onto your knee, put
their arms around your neck ................ (tape turned) If we didn't love our children, if we didn't care for our
children, we wouldn't do that! We wouldn't bother about them, so when we find these words in Malachi,
that were contrary to nature to what these people were doing, it was because of that reason. It was
because of that very reason, and so God says to them, 'I HAVE LOVED YOU', and He has given proof
after proof after proof throughout the whole history of that nation!
Look, they can go right back to the days when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, and there is
the evidence, the calling in Abraham that this might be the development of a nation; and God is showing
proof after proof of that. And there's no reason for them to doubt that in any way whatever. But then we
find that what they say is, 'yet ye say, wherein hast Thou loved us?' It's almost unbelievable and yet that
was the case; they questioned God, they said, 'well, if you've loved us, where is the proof of your love?'
which means they haven't remembered the things of old. They haven't remembered the way that God had
showed His love to them; just like a forgetful child, 'wherein hast Thou loved us' and that is almost like a
sulking, chastised child, like a child saying, 'my father doesn't love me anymore!', as though there was
some kind of proof to that effect.
And so the problem was that they had insufficient depth of spiritual understanding, and therefore, they
failed to recognize that all their present troubles, all their problems were entirely of their own making; so
therefore, this query on the part of the people, almost unbelievable, 'yet ye say' says Malachi, 'wherein
hast Thou loved us?' The query represents the inward thoughts of the nation at that time; that was their
true state of heart. They could not recognize the love of God, and b&s, if we ever reach a stage like that,
then we are in a great deal of trouble, and we need to return very, very quickly and very humbly and in all
submission, to the God whom we claim to worship! When we forget about the love of God, when we look
at our lives in the truth, and especially when we're under trial, especially when we're under trial and when
things are difficult in life, we may be moved to say, 'well, why isn't God doing something to help us?' That's
almost the same as saying, 'wherein hast Thou loved us?' and ignoring the fact that if God allows trial to
come upon us, it is invariably because it is the chastening of the Lord and because He loves us! and we
need that particular chastening, but these people were unable to recognize that!
And so the question is asked here, 'Wast not Esau Jacob's brother?' and the whole purpose of his
question is to remind Israel that Jacob was treated differently to Esau, and in actual fact it becomes a
classic case for Malachi to quote, because you will recall that Esau was the elder. If either of those two
should have got any special privileges from God, by the laws of nature, it would have been Esau, but God
chose Jacob; He didn't chose Esau (mind you, we know by his character that Esau didn't turn out to be
that kind of a man, in any event) so God says, 'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' and He goes on to say, 'I
loved Jacob'. And that is a reference, b&s, to the principle of divine selection, and that's something that we
don't want to forget, because everyone of us who have been baptised into Christ, have been divinely
selected, for a part in the purpose of God, and if that will not teach us humble submission to God, then I
don't know of anything else that will. What a blessed people we are, the principle is there of divine
selection! You might say, 'well, why does God select this man and doesn't select that man?' The answer is
that it is God's prerogative! who are we to question the great Uncreate, the One Eternal Spirit, who doeth
all things and created all things for His glory? He knows in whom He made be glorified and in whom He
would not be glorified; He knows what is the right choice and what is the wrong choice, that is why He
chose Jacob and not Esau. God knows what He's doing, in other words, and what we need to remember
is that wonderful principle, and that word 'selection' incidentally, or 'election' is one that occurs again and
again in New Testament writings, reminding us that we have been 'picked or gathered out' as the New
Testament word means, we have been picked or gathered out by the grace of God out of the darkness of
Gentileism and brought to a knowledge and an understanding of His truth, that we might glorify His name,
and that He might eventually bring us to eternal redemption and bring us to a state of inheritance in His
kingdom!
Now that should teach us the principle of humble submission to God whatever it might be. And so God
says here, 'I have loved Jacob, yet I hated Esau'. The word 'hate' here is rather a strong expression, it is
really a Hebraism, in other words, a Hebrew expression. You know, every language even in English, in
different parts of the world, in Australia we have certain expressions which are, we would say,
Australianisms, which if I were to use them here, you wouldn't understand what I meant; we've also had
some difficulty over the past 25 years in coming to grips with some of the Americanisms or Canadianisms,
that are used in this part of the world. But in every language there are certain kinds of terminologies that
are used; and you know, the Hebrew language which is probably the most poetic and the most expressive
of all languages that the world have ever known, there are certain Hebraisms, and one of the aspects of
Hebraism is to express an extreme by mentioning another extreme. So the idea of saying, I hated Esau is
not so much to emphasize hatred in so far as Esau is concerned, but rather to emphasize the extent of the
love that God had for Jacob. And that is what that means as a Hebraism, and so God reminds them, that
as far as Edom was concerned, their heritage was laid waste; they were treated to the judgments of God,
which incidentally they so richly deserved.
God says in verse 3 of that first chapter, 'I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness. Whereas Edom said, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places;
thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, They shall build, but I will throw down', and so the Edomites who were
traditional, long standing enemies of Israel, do you know, that throughout the whole history of that nation
of Israel, from the days of Jacob on, the greatest consistent enemies that Israel ever had were the
Edomites. The Edomites had a kind of inbuilt, inherent hatred for the Jewish nation; and they were always
enemies, always. And so when they decided that they would try and return and they would build their
desolate places, God says 'it will not be so'. And you know, there's something very interesting about this
verse also, where God said here, that they said that they would build the desolate places but 'thus saith
Yahweh Sabaoth, they shall build but I will throw down'. You see there, in that name and that title, the
name of Yahweh and the title Sabaoth, that is what is known as 'the militant title of the Deity'; whenever
God wants to represent Himself in a belligerent manner against His enemies or in a militant manner, that
is the title that is used. Yahweh Sabaoth and it means 'HE WHO WILL BE ARMIES' and therefore, it
represents God going forth manifested in that way! so His angelic beings, of course, in the days of which
Malachi wrote.
And do you know, that term, that title together with the name, the phrase Yahweh Sabaoth, occurs no less
than 24 times in the book of Malachi. 24 times, that title is used, and it's used to remind us, that Israel will
one day know the fire of His judgment together with the love rekindled! It is to remind us that the time is
coming when chapter 3 and verse 1, 'the Lord whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple' in the
personage of the Lord Jesus Christ, though when that time comes, when that time comes the whole earth
will know the outpouring of divine judgment, before peace is established upon the earth. So let us
remember that the God with whom we have to deal, is a God of judgment! and that does not necessarily
mean a God of condemnatory judgment, but at the judgment seat of Christ, He will judge some as being
worthy of the kingdom, and He will judge some as being unworthy of the kingdom. So far as the apostate
nations of the world are concerned, they will always see the judgments of God; and so God says, 'that the
time is coming' in verse 5, 'when your eyes shall see and ye shall say, Yahweh will be magnified from the
border of Israel'. So there, at the beginning of the book, despite the matters that have to be taken up with
them, their long term destiny is emphasized; 'your eyes shall see', the eyes of the Israelites shall see the
fulfillment of the truth of the prophet's words. And you'll see, God is saying really in effect, you will see in
the proof of all the things that God is going to do in the future, you will see the proof of God's love for His
people Israel. And isn't that true? in the judgments that are going to come upon the nations at the return of
Christ; or where the judgments are going to be severe and the nations are going to be humbled at the
severity of God's judgment, out of it what is going to happen?
Peace among all nations of the earth, the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, 'in thee shall all peoples
of the earth be blessed'; certainly, but what of Israel? Out of all that we're going to see, the regathering of
the nation of Israel, the regathering of the 12 tribes, their enlightenment, their education, their
re-settlement in the Land promised to their fathers, with Jesus Christ as their King and Messiah, and the
12 apostles sitting on each a throne, judging over the 12 tribes of Israel. 'Your eyes shall see' and then,
notice in verse 5, 'ye shall say, Yahweh will be magnified from the border of Israel', and when it says here
'we shall say', it's quite different from what we just read, isn't it? 'Yet ye say' in verse 2, 'wherein hast Thou
loved us?', they will find out in that day depicted here in verse 5, 'your eye shall see and ye shall say', and
that reminds us of the words of the other prophets, which tell us the time is coming when Israel will have a
new heart! When their heart of stone will be replaced with a heart of flesh and they will become an
enlightened people, a new heart will be formed in Israel, and they will acknowledge the power of Yahweh
Sabaoth, HE WHO WILL BE ARMIES! They will, once and for all, destroy the principles of anti-Semitism
throughout the world; they will, once and for all, destroy the power of the Gentiles to dominate the people
of Israel, the Jewish nation. And so they will see, and they will be moved to say that 'God will be magnified
from the border of Israel', in actual fact, in some versions that is rendered, 'as beyond the borders of
Israel'.
Now the Jews of Malachi's day never ever looked for that; but God is saying that in future generations,
that's what's going to happen! and that time is going to come, and so God says, 'despite this generation,
that's what you're going to see as a nation. But here's a question, b&s, of the Jews to whom Malachi
addressed his message, of that generation who had turned their backs upon the love of the kindest of the
sacrifice of Nehemiah, who had given himself fully and totally to restore that people to divine worship, and
to rekindle their zeal for the love of God and for the truth; of these people to whom Malachi speaks that
have now become engulfed in apathy and indifference, and a careless attitude towards their God, how
many of them will be there to see God glorified beyond the borders of Israel? How many of them will be
there to see those things, and to be resurrected to glory and an eternal inheritance in the kingdom? And
the answer is, not very many of them! but there will be some, and we find them in verse 16 of chapter 3.
'Then them that feared Yahweh spake often one to another and Yahweh hearkened, and heard it, and a
book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared Yahweh and that thought upon His
name'. We're going to come to that verse, God willing, a little bit later on, but nevertheless, there was a
faithful remnant there, it wasn't as though everyone turned against Nehemiah, and everyone turned
against Malachi; there were brethren and sisters there who loved the truth, and who clung to what they
believed, and nobody was going to take it from them. Nobody was going to rob them of the day of
Messiah's war even though it may be many generations away; their faith was sound, their faith was
secure, so Malachi tells us, 'that those that feared Yahweh spake often one to another'.
That's one of the most well known, probably the most well known verse among Christadelphians from the
book of Malachi. 'Then they that feared Yahweh spake often one to another; and Yahweh hearkened and
heard'. Have you ever asked yourself a question, why was it that they spake one to another? why didn't
they go out and speak to everybody else? The answer is, the others didn't want to hear them, and so
therefore, there had developed a class within Israel at this time, in the days of Malachi, there had
developed a class of people in Israel who's only companionship was with one another! because they were
despised by the rest of the nation. It says here, 'they that feared God spake often one to another' and they
spoke to one another because they were of one mind. They had one purpose, they had one love, they had
one faith that united them; and those were the ones who hearkened unto the words of Malachi, and so in
this way, b&s, we have had our first introduction to the book of Malachi.
We have endeavoured this morning, in our first session, to try and paint something of a picture of the
background of the book. Some of the great issues that confronted the prophet Malachi, and the times in
which he lived, that Nehemiah having returned to the court of the king of Persia, that Malachi seeing an
urgent need for that great leadership to be brought back into that nation, and hence he gives them a
warning in chapter 3, 'the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple' and it took the return of
Nehemiah to rectify the rules in that nation and among that people. But in the meantime, there remained a
people who were faithful to the things of God and who feared or reverenced the God of Israel and who
spoke of Him, one to another and in every generation, b&s, the thing that we need to bear in mind, and
that we must always remember, that as it says here, Yahweh hearkened and heard it, He will never close
His ear, He will never turn away from those whom He has called to His truth, who remain stedfast and
faithful in their service and dedication to Him; and He will bring them through all the trials of life, and
ultimately bring them into the kingdom itself!