A Love That Lasts Beyond Borders
Notes
Transcript
During the years 605–536 B.C., the upper-class Jews were in captivity in Babylon. In the year 536 B.C., a Jewish remnant of 42,360, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua, returned to the Jewish homeland. In the Fall of that year, this remnant rebuilt the altar of the destroyed temple and kept the Feast of Tabernacles and the following Spring, they laid the foundation for a restored temple. These temple builders soon met opposition from the pagan peoples round about and they quickly became discouraged and left off temple building to follow their own selfish pursuits. Fifteen years later, in 520 B.C., under the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah, they resumed work on the temple and four years later, in 516 B.C., the temple was completed and dedicated.
During the years 516–458 B.C., the religious fervor of the remnant became cool and they became lax in both religious and moral matters. In 458 B.C. Ezra, a scribe who had prepared his heart to seek, do, and teach God’s laws, came up from Babylon to teach God’s laws to the Jewish remnant in Judah and Jerusalem and to carry out certain religious and moral reforms. His reformation movement was outwardly successful but it could never bring about the inward and permanent changes that were needed until the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt to keep out the corruption coming from the pagan peoples round about.
In 445 B.C., Nehemiah came up from Babylon to be the governor of the restored remnant. During his twelve years’ governorship, 445–433 B.C., he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, repopulated Jerusalem, carried out certain civil and social reforms and helped Ezra in carrying out the religious and moral reforms that he (Ezra) had begun several years earlier.
In 433 B.C., Nehemiah returned to Babylon and the reforms that he and Ezra had promoted in Jerusalem and Judah were soon forgotten and the Jewish remnant returned to their former spiritual and moral laxity and waywardness.
A short time later (we do not know the exact date), Nehemiah returned to Judah to again do a reformation work there. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he found the Jewish remnant in Jerusalem and Judah guilty of the sins denounced in the book of Malachi.
Probably it was at this time, the time of Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem, or shortly before this return, that Malachi wrote his book. If this be true, then Malachi bears the same relationship to Nehemiah that Isaiah had to Hezekiah, that Jeremiah had to Josiah, and that Haggai and Zechariah had to Zerubbabel and Joshua.
The first five verses of Malachi set the tone for the rest of the book. It is because of the LORD’s love for His own that He chastens them to bring them back to Himself so He might bless them. The warning is to remind them of what has happened before and to not repeat the same sins. There is also a promise for them to look forward to the coming of the Messiah.
1. Declared Love, Unmerited Favor, vs. 1-2.
1. Declared Love, Unmerited Favor, vs. 1-2.
An Oracle. The prophetic books, the Hebrew word from which “Oracle” is translated introduces messages of a threatening nature 27 times. Here is one of those times. As the message begins it sets a tone for the entire message, which is one that gives it a sense of foreboding concern.
the word of the LORD identifies the message as a revelation from God carrying His full authority. The emphasis is that this word is from the one who made covenant with His people Israel at Sinai.
to Israel -- Not Israel and Judah; the LORD emphasizes this is for all the people, descendants of Jacob/Israel with whom He chose to covenant. This discourse concerns problems within this covenant relationship. The LORD is the faithful, loyal, covenant-keeping God so if there are any problems in the relationship, they are only because of Israel’s unfaithfulness.
through (“by the hand of”) Malachi -- “My messenger” in contrast to the priests who were supposed to be God’s messengers, Mal 2:7
“For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
The burden will come, not from the priests, but from the one chosen by God himself. Malachi is the means God uses to bring His oracle but he begins with a reaffirmation of God’s sovereign love for Israel.
“I have loved you” -- a declaration by the LORD. This is a claim of God’s unrequited love for His people Israel; it is not a general statement of God’s love for all people. The Hebrew word translated “love” is in the perfect tense, signifying a completed action with continued ramifications.
“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Relationship preceded requirements, God’s love for Israel came before the giving of the Law, which gave instructions for how Israel could maintain a relationship with God. God demonstrated grace to the Israelite generation under the guidance of Moses before the demands of the covenant.
“How...?” -- questioning the statement. It was a short-sighted statement that revealed a distrust of God, a lack of faith in His word and God’s faithfulness to His covenant. They were not only failing to love Him, but acting in hostility toward Him. After all it has been about 100 years since the return from exile, yet where was the promised kingdom and the blessings that have been promised? The “Times of the Gentiles” were still in effect and they found themselves dominated by other countries as well as experiencing hard times economically.
The LORD’s covenant with Israel made very clear that the misfortunes they were experiencing were the result—not the cause—of their disobedience. Therefore the nation as a whole needed to repent from the sin of unbelief and to fall in love with the LORD with all that they are.
The LORD responds to their question by pointing them back to their own history, demonstrating His statement’s truthfulness in the divergent paths of Esau and Jacob.
2. Destined Contrast, Covenant Assurance, vs. 3-4.
2. Destined Contrast, Covenant Assurance, vs. 3-4.
This is the God who rescued Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians and ruled over her and raised her for more than 1,000 years on the basis of His covenant with her. She was the object of His love before they were even a nation.
He chose freely to love Jacob and his descendants (which included these who questioned Him) to gain the promise. This was contrary to the practice of the blessing of the firstborn son. Yet the LORD chose to bless Jacob, even while still in his mother Rebekah’s womb. He was made heir of the promise, Rom. 9:10-13
And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;
for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,
it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
The Hebrew terms for “loved” and “hated” are not referring to God’s emotions but to God’s choice of one over another for a covenant relationship. To hate someone meant to reject him and to disclaim any loving relationship with him, Ps 139:21
Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
These two words by themselves do not indicate the eternal destinations of Jacob and Esau; these verbs refer to God’s activity in history toward each of the two nations which descended form the two brothers.
Because the verbs are in the perfect tense, they express not only God’s past relationship with Israel and Edom, but also His historical, present dealings with these people groups in Malachi’s day.
God’s claim is vindicated here in consideration of what Israel would have experienced if she had not been chosen by the LORD to be a part of a covenant relationship with Him.
Israel and Edom both received God’s judgment at the hands of the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C., Jer. 27:2-8
thus says the Lord to me—“Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck,
and send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
“Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters,
“I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight.
“Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him.
“All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant.
“It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand.
Israel had repeatedly received God’s promise to restore Israel because of His covenant promises, Deut 4:29-31
“But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.
“When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.
“For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
Edom, on the other hand, received no such promise, Rather, the LORD condemned Edom to complete destruction, never to be restored again, Ezekiel 35:1-9
Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying,
“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it
and say to it, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, And I will stretch out My hand against you And make you a desolation and a waste.
“I will lay waste your cities And you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
“Because you have had everlasting enmity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of the punishment of the end,
therefore as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.
“I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation and I will cut off from it the one who passes through and returns.
“I will fill its mountains with its slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain by the sword will fall.
“I will make you an everlasting desolation and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Edom’s arrogance will not stand against the LORD’s promise that anything they attempt to build, He will tear down.
An Arab tribe, the Nabateans occupied Edom in the fifth century B.C., forcing the Edomites westward into a desert area which became known as Idumea. The fourth century B.C. saw the Nabateans take over Idumea also.
Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi God Substantiates His Love for His People through His Rejection (Malachi 1:3–5)
Tensions would continue between the people of Jacob/Israel and the people of Esau/Edom. In 37 BC Herod the Great, an Idumean, began to rule the nation of Israel as a client-ruler of the Roman Empire (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 12.8). The Romans appointed Herod over the land because they recognized the ancestral relationship between Idumea and Israel but did not understand the situation fully. The story of Jacob and Esau is played out in miniature in the interaction between Jesus and Herod. No wonder Herod, the Roman appointee, was worried when he heard of the One “born king of the Jews” (
Edom being called the “wicked territory” (literally “border of wickedness”) contrasts with “the holy (set apart) land” described in Zech 2:12
“The Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
Israel’s borders were also the borders of blessing. It is Israel whom God loved and chose to set apart for covenant blessings. This emphasis on God’s choice of the descendants of Jacob by Malachi is meant to comfort and reassure the people of God. Edom was not chosen by God, she will not experience covenant blessings and she will not rise again, because the LORD is indignant toward them forever.
3. Demonstrated Victory, Eternal Hope, v. 5.
3. Demonstrated Victory, Eternal Hope, v. 5.
As God sovereignly deals with Edom, Israel will observe this. Their attention to God’s activity will bring them a better understanding not only of God’s love for her, but also His greatness over all the earth—beyond the border of Israel.
They now can look back and see that they remain but Edom? Idumea? God said he would destroy them in His wrath.
Their hope is in the God who makes and keeps His covenant promises; what He promises, He will perform because of His love for His people.
Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi Conclusion: Christ as the Pinnacle Display of God’s Sovereign Love
Reading about the suffering and destruction of God’s people, you may ask, “How do I know God loves me?” The answer to this question now, as in Malachi’s day, is found in a historical and historic event, the cross of Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Exalting Jesus in Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi Conclusion: Christ as the Pinnacle Display of God’s Sovereign Love
Election, then, is a biblical expression of God’s love for us in Christ. Election is meant to humble us, remove boasting, remove entitlement, remove pride, and eradicate self-reliance.
God’s love is unconditional. The nation of Israel did nothing to deserve election or salvation from slavery, and, in the same way, you did nothing to deserve His love. Even when we stray, He runs to meet us, just as the loving father did in the parable of the Prodigal Son (
