The Chapters – Quick Access
Basics
BOOK: Malachi
Description: Challenges and Warnings
Author: Malachi (which means ‘my messenger’)
Date written: Somewhere about 433BC (probably the last of the minor prophets)
Chapters: 4
Brief Synopsis
- Malachi addresses the doubts of the people of God’s love (1:2-5), and the faithlessness of both priests and people and also replies to their charge that God is unjust, because he has failed to come in judgment and exalt his people.
- Malachi answers with an announcement and a warning. The Lord they seek will come “like a refiner’s fire” and He will come to judge but He will judge his people first.
- Malachi reassures and warns his readers that “that great and dreadful day of the LORD, is coming”
The name ‘Malachi’ seems to mean ‘my messenger’ or ‘the messenger of the Lord’. No identification is given of him, nor a date of his prophesying although he does refer to the temple [1:10] and sacrifices being offered [1:7,8] so he is likely to have been around in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.
There are distinct links to these other books at this time; the various sins he cries out against are also similar to those pointed out in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, as we’ll see below, and this book helps give an even clearer picture of the spiritual malaise that had settled on the returned exiles remnant within decades of their return. Such was the ongoing folly of Israel.
Their naivety is revealed in a number of questions they ask defensively [1:2, 1:6, 2:14, 2:17, 3:7, 3:8,3:13). A Contents list focuses on the sins the Lord highlights through Malachi together with warning to both the priesthood and the people to repent:
Contents
- PART 1: Rebukes for their Sins (1): 1:1-2:17
- 1:1-5 Denial of being loved by God
- 1:6-14 Showing contempt for God by bringing damaged offerings
- 2:1-7 The priests dishonoring the Lord
- 2:8-10 Leading the people astray by poor teaching
- 2:11-12 The people marrying foreign women
- 2:13-17 Being unfaithful to God
- PART 2: An Aside: Warning to Repent & Return: 3:1-7
- 3:1-7 A Refining-Messenger Judgment to come upon them
- PART 3: Rebukes for their Sins (2): 3:8-15
- 3:8-12 Robbing God of His tithes
- 3:13-15 Speaking arrogantly of God
- PART 4: A Conclusion – The Day of Judgment: 3:16-4:6
- 3:16-18 A Righteous Remnant revealed
- 4:1-6 The Coming Day of the Lord
In many ways it is a simple and straight forward book that confronts the returned exiles who have become sloppy in their attitude towards God and gives warnings of the Lord coming to bring change.
Concluding Comments
- Malachi is a short and simple book.
- Much of it is taken up with imaginary questions and answers between the Lord and His people as He faces them with their shortcomings.
- In the light of the fact that this comes to the restored people who have returned after the Exile, it is tragic that still sin reveals itself so obviously in the so-called people of God. From beginning to end, the Old Testament reveals the Fall of mankind and its ongoing effects. To bring change to this, something very different must happen. There are little glimmers here in this book that the Lord is yet going to come and bring that change.
- These will be the last words from heaven for some four hundred years before the new Elijah appears (John the Baptist) and starts to prepare the way to receive the coming Son who ushers in the new kingdom. The old covenant, a material kingdom, may appear to have failed because sin still causes the downfall of God’s people, but God has been revealed through it throughout. The new spiritual kingdom will come and will spread throughout the earth, transforming people as it goes. We’ll just have to wait a little over four hundred years!