For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Malachi 1:1-5

1 A prophecy: the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

2 ‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord.

‘But you ask, “How have you loved us?”

‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.’

4 Edom may say, ‘Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.’

But this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, “Great is the Lord – even beyond the borders of Israel!”

A. Find Out:

1. What were Israel questioning? v.2a,b
2. To whom did the Lord refer? v.2c
3. What had the Lord done for ‘Esau’? v.3
4. Yet what did Esau say? v.4a
5. But what did the Lord say? v.4b
6. What will be Israel’s response when they see it? v.5

B. Think:

1. How does the Lord go about showing Israel He loved them?
2. How do we see Divine Election being proved?

C. Comment:

  This is God’s word through Malachi to Israel (v.1). The word starts out at a very foundational level, about what they feel about God’s relationship with them. In the post-exile period, they questioned (foolishly) whether God really loved them. In the back of their minds perhaps was the thought that God had destroyed them and now it was chance that some of them had come back to Jerusalem.

  Hold on, says the Lord, think about Jacob and Esau. Did I not choose Jacob over Esau. Look at what I did to Esau and compare that with what I did with you. Esau (who became the nation of Edom) has been judged and demolished and, unlike you, I will not let them rebuild.

  The Lord wants them to see the comparison with what has happened to them and what has happened to Edom. Edom has been completely destroyed; they, Israel, have been pulled down and rebuilt. The fact of their continuation is a sign of God’s love for Israel.

  Within all this we are reminded of God’s sovereign choice of Israel over Edom (see also Rom 9:10-13). We suggest God’s choice is determined by what He knows He can do with a person’s potential. The outcome is clear: Jacob (Israel), although a twister to start with, was malleable and was changed by God. Esau despised his birthright and thereafter became a godless nation. Did God make Edom like that? No, it was their choice, revealing His choice and actions were perfect.

D. Application:

1. God chooses by sovereign foreknowledge.
2. God’s love is always there for whoever will come to Him.

Passage: Malachi 1:6-14

6 ‘A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?’ says the Lord Almighty.

‘It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

‘But you ask, “How have we shown contempt for your name?”

7 ‘By offering defiled food on my altar.

‘But you ask, “How have we defiled you?”

‘By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?’ says the Lord Almighty.

9 ‘Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?’– says the Lord Almighty.

10 ‘Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,’ says the Lord Almighty.

12 ‘But you profane it by saying, “The Lord’s table is defiled,” and, “Its food is contemptible.” 13 And you say, “What a burden!” and you sniff at it contemptuously,’ says the Lord Almighty.

‘When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and my name is to be feared among the nations.

A. Find Out:    

1. What illustrations does the Lord give to show up who? v.6
2. How does the Lord say they have done that? v.7,8,13
3. Who does the Lord compare and what does He tell them to do? v.8c,9
4. What does the Lord wish they would do instead? v.10
5. What does He say about the rest of the world? v.11
6. Who is to be cursed and why? v.14

B. Think:

1. What attitude did the priests and people obviously have?
2. How do they reveal that attitude?
3. Why is that such an insult?

C. Comment:

  Attitude always comes out in actions. The first complaint the Lord had against this people, was that they questioned His love for them (v.1-5). Because they had a questioning heart it has led them on to a casual, flippant, even contemptuous operation of the sacrificial system. They have re-instigated the sacrificial system as the Law of Moses required but their hearts are not in it. They are not sincere, so the Lord pulls them up on their attitude, first of all. He points out that there is an absence of honour and respect (v.6). God is the King, the Lord Almighty (v.14) and He is worthy of honour and praise (Rev 4:11), but they just pay Him lip service.

  How did they do that? They did it by bringing sacrifices that were the cast-offs of the flock. The Law prescribed that the offering was to be one without blemish (Lev 1:3,10). It was to prefigure the perfect, sinless Son of God (although they didn’t know that) and was to be a sign of their totally contrite heart, coming in an attitude of humility and reverence to Almighty God. They have a feeling that God has given up on His world and they treat Him casually. They don’t know it but, before many centuries are out, He will come to His earth and His name and His glory will be known throughout the earth (v.11) in the following centuries.

D. Application:

1. If you worship God, worship Him wholeheartedly
2. If you have to repent, do it wholeheartedly.