Malachi Lesson 01

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RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

MALACHI
Lesson #01
INTRODUCTION

• ORIENTATION:
  • This prophet brought the people of Israel a renewed perspective, a reestablished hope, and a motivation to covenant faithfulness.
  • The book of Malachi holds the distinction of being God’s final word to the Old Testament believers before a 400 year period of silence when God did not speak to His people at all.
    • When God finally spoke to His people again, it was through John the Baptist in the New Testament.
    • After a study of the book of Malachi, we will be able to discern the reason for God’s 400 years of silence.
  • An understanding of the book of Malachi is important for three reasons:
    • =1= It documents the religious, social, and political problems in the time after the RETURN from the Babylonian captivity.

 

• =2=

 

It documents God’s perpetual promise of a glorious kingdom with the Messiah as King.

 

• =3=

 

It documents God’s great frustration with a people that will not listen, and for that God ceased speaking to man for almost 6 generations.
• The Jewish Significance:
  • In the Jewish tradition, with the death of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, God stopped talking directly to His people. Therefore, after these prophets, the Jews believe that God now speaks to His people in indirect ways.
• The Christian Significance:
  • The final verses of Malachi give us the transition to the New Testament by telling us what to look for next. Therefore, in Mar 1:2-4 the writer of that gospel points to John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Malachi. We will discuss this at the end of our study of Malachi.

 

• THE AUTHOR: THE MYSTERIOUS PROPHET
• Unfortunately we do not know anything about this prophet’s personal life. The message was so important that the prophet did not say anything about himself in this book.
• This book is not quoted in any of the other books of the Bible, so no one else spoke about the prophet either.
• The name, Malachi:
  • The word, Malachi, means = my messenger or angel. In the Hebrew language it is a proper noun coupled with a pronoun. Malach means = messenger, and “i” means = my.
    • Angels were God’s messengers. From that we get a double meaning for the name.
    • There are some theologians that think this is not a personal name but a title.
    • However, no other name is given to this messenger. For that the name Malachi is generally considered to be the prophet’s legitimate name. Whether it is or not is not as important as the message by this prophet.
  • Malachi uses the term, “messenger” three times in this book, and by it he refers to other messengers:
    • =1= (Mal 2:7) He refers to Levi as the messenger of the Lord.
      • Therefore, every Old Testament priest was to be God’s messenger.
        • In the New Testament, every pastor and teacher of God’s Word is to be God’s messenger. (Rev 2:1)
    • =2= (Mal 3:1) John the Baptist, the messenger of the New Testament, prophesied by Malachi.
      • Where the messenger, Malachi of the Old Testament stopped, John the Baptist of the New Testament picked up the message to carry it further.
    • =3= (Mal 3:1) “The messenger of the covenant” is Jesus Christ

• THE DATE OF THE BOOK AND HISTORICAL SETTING:
  • The fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians 720-721 BC
    • Ten of the tribes of Israel went into captivity in Babylon.
  • The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple brought the fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah to the Babylonians in 586 BC.
    • The other two tribes of Israel were taken into captivity in Babylon.
  • Cyrus’ decree is dated 536 – 538 BC.
    • This decree officially ended the Babylonian Captivity and enabled the Jews to RETURN TO Israel from Babylon. However, the Promised Land was still under the authority of the Persian Empire. (1:8)
      • As people RETURN ed from captivity they began to rebuild the temple in the book of Ezra.
  • The rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem was finished and dedicated in 516 BC
    • This reestablished the worship of Jehovah in Israel. (1:7)
    • This reestablished the priesthood to facilitate the worship of Jehovah.
  • The rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem occurred in the book of Nehemiah in 454 BC.
  • Date of Malachi’s prophecy is 433 BC

 

• THE CONDITIONS OF THAT TIME PERIOD:
• Life was difficult for the people that RETURN ed from the Babylonian Captivity to a barren land. They rebuilt the temple and had just finished rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
• The Promised Land was still under the dominion of Persia.
  • Mal 1:8 uses a term for the governor that is a Persian title.
• Harvests were poor and plagued by locust.
• The people were intermarrying with pagan peoples and divorce was common.
• The people blamed God for their misfortune and neglected their worship and giving to God which was their duty under the Mosaic Covenant of Law.
  • They forgot that during the period of Law under the covenant with Moses, God gave them conditional promises. For every promise obedience was required. A lack of obedience meant that God would curse them instead of bless them.

 

• THE THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THAT TIME:
• From the time of King David, the prophets began to preach the promise of an eternal kingdom led by a king from the lineage of David.
  • Read 2Sam 7:16
    • The people therefore began to believe that there would always be a kingdom in Israel with a king from David’s lineage and that this kingdom would be indestructible.
    • Along with this line of reasoning, they believed that Jerusalem was also indestructible along with Solomon’s temple.
• It was the prophet Jeremiah that began to prophesy the destruction of Jerusalem for the punishment of sin based on the conditional covenant that God made with Moses.
  • God told the Israelites, “If you keep my commandments, I will bless you, but if you break them, I will curse you.” The people had forgotten that God’s promises in a period of Law were conditional promises.
• Therefore, after suffering the Babylonian Captivity, and by the time of the days of Malachi, the people no longer believed in the promised eternal kingdom or the eternal dynasty of King David’s lineage. They no longer believed in the sovereign eternal promises of a faithful God.

 

• THE CONTENT AND STYLE:
• The Jewish scriptures divide the book of Malachi into 3 chapters instead of our 4 chapters.
• The majority of prophets wrote in very poetic and dramatic language with much symbolism. However, the book of Malachi is a very straight forward, exalted prose that is easy to understand. Malachi uses three parts to his style:
  • =1= God questions Israel about her spiritual condition by means of a shocking question to get their attention.
  • =2= Israel answers with a claim of innocence.
  • =3= God responds to Israel’s inadequate answer.

 

• THE THEME OF THE BOOK:
• The theme of the book is the messenger that will come from God to prepare the way for the Messiah’s coming. (3:1)
  • It is because of this obvious theme in chapter 3 that some feel the book’s name is not the prophet’s actual name but instead a title that refers to the theme.

 

• THE OUTLINE FOR THE BOOK:
• =1= The introduction (1:1)
• =2= The love and the hatred of God (1:2-5)
• =3= The sins of the priests (1:6-2:9)
• =4= A community in covenant: Social sins of the people (2:10-16)
• =5= The problem of God’s justice (2:17-3:5)
  • Prediction of the Two Messengers (3:1-6)
• =6= The religious sins of lay persons (3:6-12)
• =7=The problem of serving God (3:13-4:3)
• =8= The Day of the Lord and the Sun of Righteousness: The conclusion (4:4-6)
• THE SOURCES FOR OUR STUDY:

• Malachi, The Messenger of Rebuke and Renewal

by David M. Levy

• Thru the Bible Commentary Series: The Prophets: Malachi

by J. Vernon McGee

• The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament

by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck

• Chronology of the Old Testament

by Floyd Nolen Jones

HOMEWORK
Malachi 1:1-6b
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Preparation for Mal 1:1-6b
  • Read Mal 1:1-6b
    • In which specific ways did God demonstrate His love for Israel?

• Read Rom 9:12-14
• Read Heb 12:15-17
  • Explain God’s hatred for Esau.

Memory Verse: Mal 1:5