Malachi 2:10-3:5

The third speech

The third speech is actually very short, not as short as the first but short enough that we’ll try and get the fourth speech into tonight’s lesson too.

Last time we talked about the priests and their failures in leadership. They did not guard the gates so to speak with respect to the sacrifices offered in the temple. Here we step back and look at all of Judah/Israel. This starts with a plea.

Malachi 2:10 ESV

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

In contrast to Malachi 1:2’s statement about the physical connection “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Here we point to the spiritual connection we should share as the created of God. Is there not ONE Has not ONE created us. This doesn’t mean that Malachi is expanding out to encompass all humanity because we’re still talking about the people who are part of the “covenant of our fathers” here. We as followers of Christ also claim that God is our father, it is not by our creation this is so, it is not because God has formed us into a nation and made a covenant with us like he did with Abraham, it is because we have been adopted by God to be grafted into the promises given to Abraham.

Back to this point in verse 10 though. There should be unity under one father, one creator God and it should motivate us to do His will and hold each other accountable to stay in the will of God correcting each other when we stray.

So we start the next verse with the accusation we ended on in verse 10 with some more detail behind the problem.

Malachi 2:11 ESV

Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Abomination = profaned sanctuary = marrying the daughter of a foreign god. I’m going to pull in a contemporary or close to contemporary source to get us a picture of the problem happening.

Ezra 9:1–2 ESV

After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”

In the sense we’re talking about here these people, the Israelites are children of God, then the women of foreign lands are the daughters of a foreign god. This is something the people are warned not to do many times, they cannot inherit for ten generations if they do this. It does not generally go well for your faith if you marry someone outside the faith. It’s something we shouldn’t do but I know there are many that have and we thank God that He has looked out for us and brought all things to good for those who love Him are called to His name.

Now once they’ve done this they’re basically cut off from the family (10 generations) and shouldn’t be a close part of the community much less the ones who are offering the sacrifices.

Malachi 2:12 ESV

May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!

With this in mind lets go to the other half of this, you get this feeling you’re watching a spat play right out in the text… And another thing you do!… it just piles on

Malachi 2:13–15a (ESV)

And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring.

So the first part is a violation of the covenant with God by marrying these foreign women… But NOW that they’re married they’re not told to find “Jesus and get divorced” to make up a phrase, that would be an abomination! It’s crazy. God’s expectation is faithfulness in marriage even if you married the person He explicitly told you NOT to marry! Why? Because God is involved in marriage. What is God’s desire for marriage in general? Godly offspring. What’s the best chance for Godly offspring to arise? Fidelity in the marriage of the parents, and their devotion to the Lord. There is not an order to those things because they are not mutually exclusive.

Now we finish this speech with a command that covers both parts in a sense.

Malachi 2:15b–16 (ESV)

So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

Do not divorce yourself from the Lord by leaving the covenant to chase after a spouse of different faith, and don’t be unfaithful once you have married even if it was to someone you shouldn’t have been married to. In no case in the bible is divorce ever a good, it some cases it is necessary but that necessity is brought about because of sin, not righteousness. There is this strange phrase about covering the garment with violence it’s phrased differently in a lot of translations but I think what the text is getting at is brought out by a similar phrase in Psalm 73:6 “Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.” speaking of the arrogand and wicked who seemed to prosper. It’s a status to wear violence or that word could be injustice, wrongdoing, etc. and for the Hebrew word of the day that word is Hamas.

Now the fourth speech begins with verse 17. Assertion - Rebuttal - Response which I mentioned in the first week as a rhetorical device used here but I haven’t continued to point them out each time.

Malachi 2:17 ESV

You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

First an unrighteous people are percieving that they’re righteous and deserving of the blessings they think they’re owed in the covenant. Then they impugne the righteousness of God by asking where his justice is? The presumption is that they have correctly discerned between good and bad and are able to judge rightly, and having done so haven’t had their expectations met by God. This is not a new question or behavior by the people but it is a tiring one to keep coming up.

What about this justice though? God will answer that but let’s let him give a full response here.

Malachi 3:1 ESV

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

Oh? God will send the mesenger - to prepare the way then the LORD will come. The messenger of the covenant will come. What does that sound like to you?

Without skipping too far ahead I think we are talking about two different people here. The first is John the Baptist and the second is Jesus the Messiah who is the LORD.

Later on in this book Elijah is mentioned as the one who will come before Malachi 4:5 ““Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” The new testament takes this prophecy and identifies John the Baptist as this Elijah (type) in Matt 17:10-13

Matthew 17:10–13 ESV

And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

So we’re getting an early glimpse on the messianic prophecy here but our topic is justice so lets keep reading....

Malachi 3:2 ESV

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.

This might not be pleasent, for justice isn’t a place to grant awards but punish wrongs, who has done no wrong among us?

Malachi 3:3–4 ESV

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

Now, we’ve understood this as a compressed time with the first and second coming of Jesus. Again… the old law requiring sacrifice to cover sin isn’t re-instated here the offerings praising the Lord will again be accepted and be pleasing like they used to be.

Malachi 3:5 ESV

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Now this question of judgment is answers. God will ultimately judge all.