Malachi

What This Book Is

The final book of the Old Testament, arguing with a community that has grown cynical, and closing with the promise of a messenger and a sunrise.

Overview

Malachi is written in a distinctive form. God makes a statement, the people answer back with a question, and God responds. It reads like an argument transcript, and the questions are cynical: how have you loved us, how have we despised your name, how have we wearied you.

The complaints are specific and unflattering. The priests are offering blind and lame animals, which they would not dare present to the governor, so the sacrifices have become a formality with the cheapest possible inputs. Men are breaking faith with the wives of their youth, and God says he hates divorce in that context. People are withholding what belongs to God. And underneath it all is the assumption that serving God is not worth it, that the arrogant are the ones who prosper.

God's answers are patient and pointed. He will send his messenger to prepare the way. He will come to his temple like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap, and refining is what a silversmith does to purify, not destroy.

A striking detail near the end: those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and God listened, and a book of remembrance was written. Even in a discouraged period, God notices the ordinary conversations of people trying to be faithful.

The closing lines promise the sun of righteousness rising with healing in its wings, and the coming of Elijah to turn the hearts of parents and children to each other.

Then the Old Testament stops, and nothing follows for roughly four hundred years.

Structure

• Chapter 1: ContemptBlind and lame offerings, and a question about whether God loves them.
• Chapter 2: Broken faithPriests who mislead, and covenants broken at home.
• Chapter 3:1-15: The messengerA refiner is coming, and a charge of robbing God.
• Chapters 3:16 to 4:6: The remnantA book of remembrance, a rising sun, and the promise of Elijah.

Themes

Why It Matters

Malachi is about what happens when faith becomes routine, which is a more common danger than dramatic rebellion. Its picture of God listening in on the conversations of ordinary faithful people is one of the quiet comforts of Scripture. And its final promise, of a messenger preparing the way, is where the New Testament picks up: all four Gospels introduce John the Baptist using language from this book.

How to Read It

• Notice the argumentative structure. The people's questions are the honest part.
• Read 1:6-14 and ask what you offer God that you would not offer someone you were trying to impress.
• Read 3:16-18, and notice what God does with ordinary faithful conversation.
• Read the last two verses, then read the opening of Mark's Gospel.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• Malachi means my messenger, and some have suggested it is a title rather than a personal name.
• The book is built on six disputes, each with a divine statement and a sceptical question in reply.
• All four Gospels apply Malachi's messenger prophecy to John the Baptist.

Where to Start Reading