Malachi 3: War

• v.1-4 The Messenger of the Covenant will come
• v.5 He will judge his people
• v.6,7 The Lord calls them to return to Him
• v.8-12 They are to return by stopping robbing God of His tithes
• v.13-15 They had also spoken arrogantly against the Lord
• v.16-18 A Righteous Remnant is distinguished from the wicked

PART 2: An Aside: Warning to Repent & Return: 3:1-7

v.1-4 The Refining Messenger of the Covenant will come

v.1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. 

v.2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 

v.3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 

v.4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. 

[Notes: There are two messengers in v.1 considered first to be John the Baptist and then Jesus. Jesus came to restore the covenant relationship between God and His people after John had prepared them by calling for their repentance. The work of salvation brings new life, a purified life, a life where self is put to death and the individual restored to the Lord by the work of Christ on the cross.]

v.5 He will judge his people

v.5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty. 

[Notes: The nation need to realize they are under the eye of the Judge who will deal with all those who are blatantly abusing the Law.]

v.6,7 The Lord calls them to return to Him

v.6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 

v.7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 

[Notes: The Lord may have been merciful to wayward Israel down through the centuries but [implied] they should have learned from the Exile and so should now repent of all these things the prophet is putting before them.]

PART 3: Rebukes for their Sins (2): 3:8-15

v.8-12 They are to return by stopping robbing God of His tithes

v.8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 

v.9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 

v.10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 

v.11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 

v.12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty. 

[Notes: The follow-on is a denunciation of further sins they have been committing, this time in respect of the Law of Tithing which they have clearly been ignoring. Tithing is an act of faith so he calls them to exercise faith by reinstating tithing and watch the blessing that will follow.]

v.13-15 They had also spoken arrogantly against the Lord

v.13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ 

v.14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? 

v.15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’” 

[Notes: Even more, they had said it was pointless serving God because wrong doers get away with it, so why shouldn’t the rest of them?]

PART 4: A Conclusion – The Day of Judgment: 3:16-4:6

v.16-18 A Righteous Remnant is distinguished from the wicked

v.16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. 

v.17 “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 

v.18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

[Notes: The faithful remnant had been noted by the Lord so they will be rewarded on the Day of the Lord.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: