Malachi

Heading. Malachi acknowledges his role as a prophetic intermediary and explicitly identifies his book as the word of the LORD. In keeping with this, nearly half of the remaining 54 verses of this concise and profound book are punctuated with “says the LORD of hosts,” “says the LORD,” etc. (On the phrase “LORD of hosts,” see chart.) Similar to the headings found in Zech. 9:1 and 12:1 (cf. Hab. 1:1), Mal. 1:1 identifies the contents of this work as an oracle or a “burden,” with implications of urgent responsibility and even dread (Jer. 23:33–40; see note on Hab. 1:1). While Malachi directs his message to the postexilic remnant state of Judah, in Mal. 1:1 the prophet boldly confers on this people the ancient comprehensive designation of “Israel,” thereby identifying them as accountable for all the covenant obligations and as heirs of all the covenant promises of God.

Malachi begins with a reference to the long-standing tension between Israel and Edom, the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau who despised his birthright and held the promises of God in contempt (Gn 25:29-34). Moses admonished the Israelites, “Do not despise an Edomite” (Dt 23:7) because Esau was the brother of Jacob. But the Edomites continued to believe the Israelites had taken the land of Canaan by deception. They cooperated with the Assyrian invasion of Judah, and when the Judeans were taken into exile, they claimed the land for themselves. For these reasons, they came under the Lord’s judgment (see notes on Ezk 35:1-15; 36:1-15). When the Judean exiles returned to the region of Jerusalem the Edomites further opposed them. In this situation Malachi heard the Lord saying, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau” (vv. 2-3).

The word “hate” in the Bible does not always carry the same sense of antipathy and disgust associated with the English expression; it can mean simply to favor someone else with special privilege or devotion. In that sense, the Lord’s “hatred” of Esau was only the other side of his loyalty to his covenant with Israel. Paul quoted vv. 2-3 with that meaning in Rm 9:13 as an illustration of the Lord’s mercy and compassion on whomever he chooses to bestow them (Rm 9:15). Nevertheless, in the circumstances of the Jews’ return from exile, the hostility of the Edomites seems to have reached another level, provoking Malachi to call them “the people the LORD has cursed forever” (1:4).

First Disputation: Does God Make a Distinction between the Good and the Arrogantly Wicked? God’s Elective Love Vindicated in His Judgment. Malachi exposes and answers the doubts of his contemporaries who question God’s love because of their political, economic, and spiritual destitution.

In a classic text, which Paul quotes in Rom. 9:13, Malachi appeals to God’s elective and unconditional love of Jacob and corresponding hatred of Esau. In this context loved refers to choice rather than affection, and hated refers to rejection rather than animosity (which was explicitly prohibited against Edomites, Esau’s descendants, in Deut. 23:7). For a similar use of these terms, see Prov. 29:24; Luke 14:26; 16:13. Although Jacob and Esau were brothers, Jacob experienced God’s sovereign favor by which he was granted a privileged role in redemptive history as a bearer of the messianic promise, while Esau experienced God’s rejection in terms of this same role. Malachi’s concern, however, is primarily with the nations of Israel and Edom, of which Jacob and Esau were the representatives and progenitors. To Malachi’s contemporaries, it must have seemed that the prophet had committed a terrible blunder by citing the contrasting national fates of Israel and Edom as proof of Israel’s favored status. If God had chosen Jacob/Israel over Esau/Edom, why did he allow his people to suffer the total devastation of their country in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and 70 years of Babylonian captivity, while Edom remained intact and seemed only to benefit from Israel’s loss? Malachi makes his point, however, by alluding to Jer. 9:11. Two centuries earlier Jeremiah announced the Lord’s impending judgment against Judah: “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.” By applying this same threat to Edom, Malachi makes clear that, like Judah, Edom would not escape God’s judgment. It is likely that this judgment came through the agency of Nabatean Arabs, who gradually forced the Edomites from their homeland between 550 and 400 B.C., causing them to resettle in an area later called Idumea. Being semi-nomadic, the Nabateans allowed the cities of Edom to go to ruin while their herds overgrazed and destroyed previously arable land. Whereas Judah was graciously restored after her punishment, reflecting the Lord’s love for his people, Edom’s judgment was to be permanent and irreversible (Mal. 1:4). There would continue to be individual Edomites (implied by 1:4; cf. Mark 3:8), but they had forfeited their national identity.

beyond the border of Israel. A chastened Israel will acknowledge the Lord’s universal sovereignty. This universal perspective, sometimes misunderstood as if it implied God’s acceptance of the religions of other nations, is a subtheme to which the prophet returns in vv. 11, 14, and 3:12.

Surprisingly, Malachi refers to the presentation of incense and pure offerings in many places, even among the nations, rather than exclusively in the temple in Jerusalem as Deuteronomy 12 requires (cf. Mal. 3:3–4; 4:4). A key to this controversial verse is to recognize that from the rising of the sun to its setting is standard predictive language regarding a future age of great blessing (e.g., Ps. 50:1; 113:3). Isaiah 45:6 and 59:19 include with this phrase a reference to the ultimate engrafting of the nations, suggesting that a similar meaning is implied in Malachi. This finds further definition in such texts as Isa. 19:19–25 and 66:1–21, where the nations will be made to be “Levites” and will offer acceptable offerings on approved altars to the true God. For the engrafting of converted Gentiles into Israel, cf. Ruth 1:16–17; Est. 8:17; Psalm 87; Isa. 56:6–8; Zech. 2:11; 8:23.