Malachi 1

The Lord has had things to say to His Old Covenant people through many messengers over many centuries. We now come to the last of these, at least for some period of time, the prophet Malachi. As with others who have come before him, the Word that he brings is not his own. It is the Word of Almighty God. It can be counted on to be right and true. It is the Lord's Word to seal up the Scriptures until the coming of John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah.

With the heritage of Israel in mind, and this special closing moment of Old Covenant revelation, we are interested to see what these words, that are something of a conclusion to the Scriptures from the age of the Law, will say to the Lord's people. The Lord begins with His electing love. Throughout this book He speaks to His beloved Israel as an older child, one who has come to ignore or reject everything that his Father is saying to him. The Father says, "I have loved You." The son does not believe it, and so he questions this. The Father points to the difference between Jacob and Esau recorded in the book of Genesis by Moses so long ago. The difference between the two boys who were born essentially at the same time and of the same parents is that one was chosen by the electing love of the Father and the other was not. This is the difference of being loved by the Father because of the work of Messiah on behalf of the elect, and being hated by Almighty God because of His righteous indignation against sin and the absence of a perfect Mediator. That is why God has loved Jacob, the ancestor of Israel, but He has hated Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites. People may try to build up that realm again, but the Lord's final plans are for an "Israel" from all the nations, not for a new Edom coming down out of the heavens. There is no blessed future in being an Edomite.

The Lord has a Word against His levitical priests. They have not honored the Lord as a Father, and they have not served Him as a Master. Again there is an indignant response of challenge and unbelief: "How have we despised Your Name?" They have not followed the Word of the Lord according to the system of sacrifice that He established for them under the Law. Even according to the dictates of their consciences they should have felt that they were in the wrong, for they gave things to God that they never would have offered up to a human governor. The civil leaders over them were more real to them than the God who loved them.

The Lord indicates that it would be better to have the whole sacrificial life of the Old Covenant brought to an end than to have it continue in this way of hypocrisy and rebellion. He does not want them to have fire on His altar any more. Their ceremonies are just empty and worse than useless, and they will not be acceptable to a holy God. This settled determination signals the end of any future for the Old Covenant ways. This is not a new message, but there is a note of finality throughout Malachi that is appropriate for this occasion in the life of God's people.

That is not to suggest that God's purposes of love and grace are over. In fact, as He has spoken through His prophets for many centuries, His plans will be fulfilled and His covenant will be expanded to include the nations. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the Lord's name will be great among the nations, and there will be a pure offering to His Name in the sanctified lives of His people, blessed by the prayers of a perfect Mediator who lives forever to give the incense of acceptable intercession for us to the Father.

This certainly does not describe any future day of a renewed Old Covenant life for this Israel. They consider the ceremonies of His Law to be a weary system. They show their lack of regard for Him by their offerings of what they have stolen from others, or by their giving to God what was otherwise useless among men. They have made vows to God promising to give the best, and then they sneak in something less than that as a payment of their vows. Because of this, they deserve the curse of the covenant.

Their day will come to a close, though the Lord will not forget His everlasting love for His chosen ones. Yes, their day is coming to a close, but the glory of the Lord of hosts will never pass away. Though He would first come as One who was despised and rejected by the people of Israel, He would be the perfect sacrifice and the fulfillment of the richness of the Old Testament ceremonies. He would come as the Davidic King, and a great King over all the nations. He would come as the perfect Man, a worshiper who would pay His vow in full for our sake.

Because the Lord Jesus Christ has done this, though God's Old Covenant system has ended, the Lord's Name is feared among the nations. We do not see that completely now. We see Christ, and we see the church that He has established. We see her coming to the point of flaunting her own rebellion and disobedience to His holy will. Her apostasy, her rejection of His perfection and His Word will only mean the closing of another age one day, the age of the gospel. But the Lord will come with a great host of Jews and Gentiles who have been perfected in holiness, and with a powerful angelic host who will do His bidding, and He will be feared among the nations.