Malachi

1Chapter
1This is a message from the Lord to Israel. God used Malachi to tell this message to the people.

God Loves Israel

2The Lord said, “I love you people.” But you said, “What shows you love us?” The Lord said, “Esau was Jacob’s brother, but I chose Jacob. 3And I did not accept Esau. I destroyed his hill country. His country was destroyed, and now only wild dogs live there.”
4The people of Edom might say, “We were destroyed, but we will go back and rebuild our cities.” But the Lord All-Powerful says, “If they rebuild their cities, I will destroy them again.” That is why people say Edom is an evil country—a nation the Lord hates forever.
5You people saw these things, and you said, “The Lord is great, even outside of Israel!”

The People Don’t Respect God

6The Lord All-Powerful said, “Children honor their fathers. Servants honor their masters. I am your Father, so why don’t you honor me? I am your master, so why don’t you respect me? You priests don’t respect my name. “But you say, ‘What have we done that shows we don’t respect your name?’
7“You bring unclean bread to my altar. “But you ask, ‘What makes that bread unclean?’ “It is unclean because you show no respect for the altar of the Lord. 8You bring blind animals as sacrifices, and that is wrong. You bring sick and crippled animals for sacrifices, and that is wrong. Try giving those sick animals as a gift to your governor. Would he accept those sick animals? No, he would not accept them.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
9“Now try asking God to be good to you. But he will not listen to you, and it is all your fault.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
10“I wish one of you would close the Temple doors to stop the lighting of useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you. I will not accept your gifts.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
11“People all around the world respect my name. All around the world they bring good gifts to me and burn good incense as a gift to me, because my name is important to all of them.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
12“But you people show that you don’t respect my name. You say that the Lord’s altar is unclean. And you don’t like the food from that altar. 13You smell the food and refuse to eat it. You say it is bad. Then you bring sick, crippled, and hurt animals to me. You try to give sick animals to me as sacrifices, but I will not accept them.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. 14“Some people have good, male animals that they could give as sacrifices, but don’t. Some people bring good animals and promise to give those healthy animals to me. But then they secretly exchange those good animals and give me sick animals instead. Bad things will happen to those people. I am the Great King and people all around the world respect me!” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
2Chapter

Rules for Priests

1“Priests, this rule is for you. 2Listen to me! Pay attention to what I say. Show honor to my name. If you don’t respect my name, bad things will happen to you. You will say blessings, but they will become curses. I will make bad things happen because you don’t show respect for my name.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
3“Look, I will punish your descendants. During the festivals, you priests offer sacrifices to me. You take the dung and inside parts from the dead animals and throw them away. But I will smear the dung on your faces, and you will be thrown away with it! 4Then you will learn why I am giving you this command. I am telling you these things so that my agreement with Levi will continue.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
5The Lord said, “I made that agreement with Levi. I promised to give him life and peace—and I gave him those things. Levi respected me and showed honor to my name. 6He taught the true teachings and didn’t teach lies. Levi was honest, and he loved peace. He followed me and saved many people from being punished for the evil things they did. 7A priest should know God’s teachings. People should be able to go to a priest and learn God’s teachings. A priest should be the Lord’s messenger to the people.
8“But you priests stopped following me! You used the teachings to make people do wrong. You ruined the agreement with Levi.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. 9“You don’t live the way I told you. You have not accepted my teachings. So I will cause people to hate you and think you are worth nothing.”

Judah Was Not True to God

10We all have the same father. The same God made every one of us. So why do people cheat one another? They show that they don’t respect the agreement. They don’t respect the agreement that our ancestors made with God. 11The people of Judah cheated other people. People in Jerusalem and Israel did terrible things. God loves the Temple, but the people in Judah didn’t respect the Lord’s holy Temple. The people of Judah began to worship a foreign goddess. 12The Lord will remove them from Judah’s family. They might bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful—but it will not help. 13You can cry and cover the Lord’s altar with tears, but the Lord will not accept your gifts. He will not be pleased with the things you bring to him.
14You ask, “Why are our gifts not accepted?” It is because the Lord saw the evil things you did—he is a witness against you. He saw you cheat on your wife. You have been married to her since you were young. She was your girlfriend. Then you made your vows to each other—and she became your wife. 15God wants husbands and wives to become one body and one spirit. Why? So that they would have holy children and protect that spiritual unity. Don’t cheat on your wife. She has been your wife from the time you were young.
16The Lord, the God of Israel, says, “I hate divorce, and I hate the cruel things that men do. So protect your spiritual unity. Don’t cheat on your wife.”

The Special Time of Judgment

17You have taught wrong things, and it makes the Lord very sad. People were doing evil things, but you said that this pleased the Lord and that he accepted those things. And you taught that God does not punish people for the evil they do.
3Chapter
1The Lord All-Powerful says, “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are looking for will come to his temple. Yes, the messenger you are waiting for, the one who will tell about my agreement, is really coming!
2“No one can prepare for that time or stand against him when he comes. He will be like a burning fire. He will be like the strong soap people use to make things clean. 3He will make the Levites clean. He will make them pure, like silver is made pure with fire! He will make them pure like gold and silver. Then they will bring gifts to the Lord, and they will do things the right way. 4Then the Lord will accept the gifts from Judah and Jerusalem. It will be as it was in the past—as the time long ago. 5Then I will bring you to justice. I will be an expert witness and testify about the evil things people do. I will speak out against those who do evil magic or commit adultery. I will speak out against those who make false promises and cheat their workers and don’t pay them the money they promised. I will testify against those who don’t help strangers, or widows and orphans. And I will testify against those who don’t respect me.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

Stealing From God

6“I am the Lord, and I don’t change. You are Jacob’s children, and you have not been completely destroyed. 7But you never obeyed my laws. Even your ancestors stopped following me. Come back to me, and I will come back to you.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said. “You say, ‘How can we come back?’
8“People should not steal things from God, but you stole things from me. “You say, ‘What did we steal from you?’ “You should have given me one-tenth of your things. You should have given me special gifts. 9In this way your whole nation has stolen things from me, so bad things are happening to you.”
10The Lord All-Powerful says, “Try this test. Bring one-tenth of your things to me. Put them in the treasury. Bring food to my house. Test me! If you do these things, I will surely bless you. Good things will come to you like rain falling from the sky. You will have more than enough of everything. 11I will not let pests destroy your crops. All your grapevines will produce grapes.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
12“People from other nations will be good to you. You will have a wonderful country.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

The Special Time of Judgment

13The Lord says, “You said cruel things to me.” But you ask, “What did we say about you?”
14You said, “It is useless to worship God. We did what the Lord All-Powerful told us, but we didn’t gain anything. We cried like people at a funeral to show we were sorry for our sins, but it didn’t help. 15We think proud people are happy. Evil people succeed. They do evil things to test God’s patience, and God does not punish them.”
16Then the Lord’s followers spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to them. There is a book in front of him. In that book are the names of his followers. They are the people who honor the Lord’s name.
17The Lord said, “They belong to me. I will be kind to them. Parents are very kind to their children who obey them. In the same way I will be kind to my followers. 18You people will come back to me, and you will learn the difference between good and evil. You will learn the difference between someone who follows God and someone who does not.
4Chapter
1“That time of judgment is coming. It will be like a hot furnace. All the proud people will be punished. All the evil people will burn like straw. At that time they will be like a bush burning in the fire, and there will not be a branch or root left.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
2“But, for my followers, goodness will shine on you like the rising sun. And it will bring healing power like the sun’s rays. You will be free and happy, like calves freed from their stalls. 3Then you will walk on the evil people—they will be like ashes under your feet. I will make this happen at the time of judgment.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
4“Remember and obey the law of my servant Moses. I gave those laws and rules to him at Mount Horeb. They are for all the people of Israel.
5“Look, I will send Elijah the prophet to you. He will come before that great and terrible time of judgment from the Lord. 6Elijah will help the parents become close to their children, and he will help the children become close to their parents. This must happen, or I will come and completely destroy your country.”
Study
Chapter 4
CSB

God does not give us everything we want, but he does fulfill all his promises . . . leading us along the best and straightest paths to himself.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Why Do Catholics Have More Books in Their Bible?

Catholic Bibles contain about a dozen books in the Old Testament that are not found in Protestant Bibles. How did these arise, and why are they included in Catholic Bibles?

The Old Testament was written over about eleven hundred years by many authors. It was inscribed primarily in Hebrew; a few sections were penned in Aramaic. The last bits of the Hebrew Bible were finished in about 322 BC before Alexander the Great conquered the region. Wherever Alexander set up rule, Greek culture and language gained prominence.

Jewish people living under Greek rule faced pressure to conform to Hellenistic, that is, Greek, language and customs. Some stayed true to their Jewish faith; others blended Jewish and Greek ways; still others fully adopted Greek culture. Jewish spiritual leaders realized that the Jews might disappear as a distinct people group if they forgot their spiritual roots, so around 200 BC, seventy elders translated the Scriptures into Greek in order to keep them accessible to as many Jews as possible. The result was the Septuagint, named for the seventy elders. Their translation is often abbreviated as the LXX, the Roman numerals representing seventy.

Interesting things about the Septuagint include its role in the formation of the Catholic Bible:

1. The Septuagint includes translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek; the seventy included another fourteen deuterocanonical books in it. Deuterocanonical means that the books are regarded as having less authority than the other books of the Bible. These fourteen extras appear in the Catholic Bible and are called The Apocrypha.

2. The Apocrypha includes fairly straightforward history books, Wisdom literature, and books like Bel and the Dragon that blend history and fiction. The last category could be called historical fiction with a moral purpose.

3. The Apocrypha picks up the Hebrew Bible’s expectation of a coming Davidic king and heightens the expectation that Messiah would come and deliver his people.

4. While the Septuagint became canonical (authoritative) Scripture for Greek-speaking Jewish communities, it was not given that status among Jews in Israel who kept closer to their roots.

5. When the New Testament quotes from the Old Testament, sometimes it quotes directly from the Septuagint’s translation of the Hebrew Bible; at other times, New Testament authors translated directly from the Hebrew text. In a few cases, the New Testament authors quote from the Apocrypha. (Jd 14-15 refers to the Book of Enoch and the Assumption of Moses; Heb 11:35b reflects 2 Maccabees 7:1-29.)

6. Because the New Testament quotes from both the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible, the church of the third and fourth centuries (which eventually became the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches) included the Apocrypha as Old Testament Scripture. These deuterocanonical books, however, were given a lesser status than the Hebrew Old Testament books.

7. The Jewish community, objecting to how Christians mined for messianic passages in the Septuagint, rejected the Apocrypha as Scripture in about AD 200.

8. The Roman Catholic Church cited two passages from the Apocrypha to support the doctrines of intercession to the saints and purgatory. The Roman Catholic Church, therefore, did not follow the Jewish decision to reject the Apocrypha; they kept it.

9. During the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, Protestants followed the Jewish community’s AD 200 decision to reject the Apocrypha, accepting only the Hebrew/Aramaic portions of the Old Testament as Scripture. Nevertheless, New Testament quotes that pulled from the Septuagint were accepted as being authoritative.

CSB

Sometimes this verse is taken as a specific promise of the appearance of Jesus Christ. The KJV reads, “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” However, the Hebrew word for “sun” (shemesh) is feminine; a literal translation would be “and healing in her wings.” In monuments from the ancient Near East, the sun is sometimes portrayed with wings. It is doubtful that this verse should be regarded as a messianic promise, in the narrow sense, although it does speak of the coming of that righteousness that marks the kingdom of God.

ESV

Just as the sun drives away darkness and clouds, bringing light and joy, so the sun of righteousness will appear to dispel gloom, oppression, and injustice. For the image of the rising sun applied to a great visitation from God, cf. Isa. 60:1–2; for the recognition that the birth of John the Baptist had ushered in this expected era, see Luke 1:78. The “righteousness” brought by this “sun” includes both judgment on evildoers and reward for those who are righteous in their deeds. Its wings are a poetic image for the rays of this sun, bringing healing to all who come under its influence. Some suggest that ancient Near Eastern depictions of a winged sun disk are reflected in the image. Malachi’s readers probably would have thought this image predicted the sudden appearance of God himself, who is elsewhere compared to the sun (Ps. 84:11; Isa. 60:19–20; cf. Ps. 27:1; Isa. 60:1; Rev. 21:23). But Christian interpreters throughout the history of the church have understood this prophecy to be fulfilled in Christ, who is “the light of the world” (John 8:12; cf. John 1:4–6).

ESV

Conclusion. These closing appeals summarize the main points of Malachi’s prophecy: Remember the law of my servant Moses (the focus of the first three disputations) and the promised sending of Elijah the prophet before the coming day of the LORD (the focus of the last three disputations). Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (cf. Exodus 19–20; Deut. 5:2). Malachi’s own thoroughgoing dependence on the Law of Moses and many allusions to Pentateuchal texts prepare the reader for the first climactic charge. In the second charge, the reason for the identification of the coming prophet as “Elijah” is less obvious. Perhaps the need for an Elijah-like ministry was suggested by a long-standing drought (Mal. 3:10; cf. 1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17). Alternatively, Malachi’s concern with the corrosive effects of marriage to an idolater (Mal. 2:10–12) may have brought to mind Ahab’s notorious interfaith marriage to Jezebel, which proved so troublesome to Elijah and so disastrous to Israel (1 Kings 16:31; 18:4, 19; 19:2). No doubt Malachi would have welcomed an Elijah-like challenge to religious compromise and complacency (1 Kings 18). It seems most likely, however, that Malachi recognized that of all the OT prophets, Elijah best fit the portrait of the messianic prophet “like Moses” predicted in Deut. 18:15 and 34:10–12. As such, Elijah stands alongside Moses in Mal. 4:4–6 as the representative of the entire OT line of prophets, much as he functions on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4 and parallels). The promise to send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome “day of the LORD” confirms the interpretation given here of Mal. 3:1–5, that the promised messenger is not Malachi himself but some future prophet. It is likely that this future prophet is identified with Elijah not because Elijah was spared from death, as if this might permit a literal return to life, but because the future messenger would have a prophetic ministry similar to that of the historical Elijah. Compare the many OT predictions of a future “David” that do not suggest David’s literal return to life (Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23–25; 37:24). The NT identifies John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophesied Elijah (Matt. 11:10–14; 17:10–13; etc.). When John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah (John 1:21, 25), it is possible either that he was denying that he was Elijah in person, or that he rejected not the ministry predicted in Malachi but misguided popular elaborations of this promise based on other notable features in the original Elijah’s ministry, especially his many miracles, which pointed more to Christ than to John (John 10:41; see note on Matt. 11:14). (For more on “the day of the LORD,” see note on Amos 5:18–20.)