Chapter 1

Basically the book of Malachi has two messages: one for the individual relating him to the plan of God, and a second one which has to do with a nation, what causes a nation to rise and what causes a nation to fall, and how all of this is related to the plan of God and to the Word of God. It is very important for us to understand the application and to distinguish it from the interpretation. The interpretation, for example, deals with the nation Israel. Israel is going to decline. They will have 200 wonderful years, during which time they will have one shot of apostasy which is a warning to the next 400 years. At the same time we have in the first chapter another nation, Edom, a nation which was destroyed never to recover again. The ingredients for the destruction of one nation are mentioned in this passage; the basis for the discipline of a second nation is mentioned, and so obviously we are going to have a lot of application. But in addition to that there will be personal spiritual applications as we go along. In addition to that there will be interpretation.

The historical background for the book of Malachi

1. Under the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah the second temple was completed in 516 BC. The 5th cycle of discipline was over. During the 70 years of captivity we have the people learning Bible doctrine and the importance of Bible doctrine. Doctrine paid off in 200 years of prosperity from 516-323 BC, except for one period of time between 420 and 400 BC which was the period of time during the book of Malachi. At that time there was the decline of Bible doctrine and the fact that the nation was in danger of being destroyed right then and there. The only thing that saved the nation was the ministry of Malachi. So the basic concept of Malachi is how to keep a nation from going down. Malachi came into the picture after 100 years of prosperity based on Bible doctrine — spiritual prosperity, economic prosperity, social prosperity, national stability — and then the bottom fell out of everything. Suddenly a generation came along which was a generation with maximum negative signals at the points of God consciousness and gospel hearing, and a priesthood which was not functioning because its constituents were unbelievers and it which had nothing to feed the people.

2. Because of this apostasy which intruded itself into the prosperity period Nehemiah in 445 BC received permission from the king of Persia to go to Jerusalem and try to get things organised. He gave as an excuse the building of the walls but that wasn’t the real concept. It is true that the walls were built but the real objective of Nehemiah was to see if he could straighten things out, to govern the city. They needed a strong political ruler and Nehemiah was that kind of a person. God tapped him on the shoulder because he had enough Bible doctrine to do the job. He was not a prophet or a priest or preacher, he was simply a man with a lot of Bible doctrine and great leadership ability. Nehemiah covers this period historically; Malachi covers this period spiritually. Between the two books we get the picture.

3. After twelve years of governing Jerusalem Nehemiah returned to Babylon is 433 BC, Nehemiah 5:14. But as soon as he left all of the legalists and religionists and kooks came out of their holes. He had stopped it for twelve years, which goes to prove a point: a man can’t do it, it takes something more than a man, it takes a principle: Bible doctrine makes the difference.

4. During the absence of Nehemiah there was a spiritual decline in the land as described in Malachi. In other words, what is in Malachi is described after Nehemiah left. As long as he was there things were fine, as soon as he was gone things fell apart. So with the great leader gone and the spiritual decline God raised up a prophet, the last of the Old Testament prophets, the last prophet until John the Baptist. Between Malachi and John the Baptist there is a 400-year gap, and Jesus Christ is the last prophet of Israel. So from Malachi to the second advent Israel had three prophets: Malachi, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. (The humanity of Christ was prophet, priest and king) And then Israel went out completely. Each of the three prophets stemmed the tide through giving Bible doctrine in his day. When Jesus Christ went to the right hand of the Father there are no more prophets left, Israel has forty years and they fall apart completely. And in 70 AD the fifth cycle of discipline hits and the Jews are out until the second advent.

5. After an unknown lapse of time Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem — Nehemiah 13:6ff. And now we have a team: Nehemiah the political ruler and Malachi the spiritual ruler. This sets up exactly the same combination we studied in Zechariah. Zechariah was the spiritual leader and Zerubbabel was the political leader, 100 years before Malachi. Nehemiah’s particular ministry in Jerusalem did not all occur at the same time.

6. The last dated prophecy in Zechariah was 518 BC — Zechariah 7:1. Malachi had the same type of responsibility: the ministry of Zechariah, to bring the people back to the point of doctrine — construction of the temple; the ministry of Malachi, to bring the people back to doctrine — with the temple.

7. The spiritual declension in Malachi was to be a foretaste of what would eventually destroy Israel. From this book we are going to observe what could very easily destroy us.

Verse 1 — a title for the prophecy: “The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.” The word burden in the Hebrew is massa and massa isn’t a burden. Massa is a smatter, it is something that smashes you down. It is the strongest Hebrew word for divine judgement and it is only used toward an individual under the sin unto death, as in the case of Saul, or it is used for a nation which is about to be removed, as in the case of Assyria or Persia or Chaldea or one of the great nations which was eventually judged in Old Testament times. It is the most powerful, moving word for divine discipline. It means to get the full treatment. The word “burden” means a situation leading to the fifth cycle of discipline.

“the word of the Lord” indicates first that discipline comes from God, and yet you never have cursing without blessing. The word “burden” is a cursing word, it means maximum divine discipline. But God never curses or judges without first of all blessing. Blessing precedes cursing or, in other words, grace before judgement. No divine judgement has ever occurred without God walking the extra mile. Always, grace precedes judgement. There has never in all of human history been a divine judgement, no matter how horrible the judgement, which was not first of all preceded by a period of grace when the judgement could have been avoided, e.g. the day of Pentecost.

The Word of the Lord is the stabiliser for the individual believer, the Word of the Lord is the basis for becoming a believer or entering the plan of God, the Word of the Lord is the basis for the stability of a national entity. There is no stability with a person or a nation apart from the word of the Lord — Bible doctrine. When the Word of the Lord is absent you are clobbered by the crushing burden. Before a national life can be stabilised and before a nation can continue and go on to greater things the poison must be removed from the system. That means that not just a few leaders but everyone in every walk of life must understand, for a nation is not made up of just a few leaders, a nation is made up of many people. And it means that a maximum number of people must have in their frontal lobes principles, and that principle comes from Bible doctrine, and only Bible doctrine removes the poison from the system. And only Jesus Christ our saviour, the second person of the Trinity, can save our nation.

“to Israel” — Israel is a national entity. By this time “Israel” refers to the southern kingdom. So immediately we know that Malachi is going to deal with a nation. Now, individuals are involved so there will be things for individuals, but this is to Israel. The book is addressed to a nation, this is God’s last warning until the time of Christ, they will get no other warning. This book is to carry the Jews for 400 years between Malachi and Jesus Christ. It is to warn them that every time that they get into a national jamb they can go right back to this book, the last one in the Old Testament. It gives everything necessary to recover. We could suspect that the Maccabaeans read and knew Malachi and this had a great deal to do with the way they revolted against one of the Hellenistic monarchies — the Hellenistic monarchy of Syria.

“by Malachi” — Malachi is the human author. However, the word Malachi is not a proper name. Malachi means “my messenger.” “My” is a possessive pronoun referring to God. God’s messenger. Malachi is not this man’s name, we do not even know his name. If the people of Israel knew his name it was never recorded so that we have it today. This is simply the pseudonym which he uses. There is a reason for it: Malachi, meaning “my messenger,” emphasises the importance of doctrine, the importance of principle in national life. In other words, it is not the man it but the message which is important. Malachi says to us: “Leaders come, leaders go; preachers come, preachers go, but the individual must be stabilised. It takes doctrine to stabilise the individual, and only Bible doctrine.” He says: “If we are going to recover as a nation we must do so on the basis of principle. If we as believers are going to achieve anything we must do so by making Bible doctrine our norm and standard.”

In this particular passage we break in on the dialogue between the Lord and the priesthood. The Lord is going through an interrogation showing the people what is wrong with the country. Whenever there is something wrong with a national entity it always begins with a spiritual principle. The priests were one of two groups in Israel responsible for the dissemination of Bible doctrine. The prophets were responsible for the spoken Word of God. They were comparable to the apostles in the Church Age. The prophet was an author of scripture and the apostles were authors of the New Testament. Everyone who wrote an Old Testament book was a prophet, either by gift or by office, and everyone who wrote a New Testament book was an apostle by spiritual gift which included the office. The priests were to deal only with the written Word which they would explain verse by verse by verse. Their job was to reach the Jews throughout the kingdom in groups wherever they found them. This is comparable in the Church Age to the pastor. The pastor deals with the written Word.

Whenever there is a breakdown in a national entity it begins with a spiritual factor. In this case it began with the priests who were responsible for teaching the Word of God to the people. In 516 BC the Jews were back, the 5th cycle of discipline was over, the temple was completed. From 516 down to about 420 BC we have the prosperous environment that comes from Bible doctrine and the results of it in every facet of life. But then there was the great apostasy which lasted for approximately 20 years, and Malachi takes up the slack for part of this. The rest of it will be taken up by the response to Bible doctrine. Then this will go on until about 323 BC at which time a major apostasy will occur. But at this time there is a very serious leak in the dam and this is going to be plugged up by Malachi, along with Nehemiah.

To understand what happened to Israel we have to go back to the priests, so chapter one will deal with the priests. But it must be understood that the Levitical priesthood had a responsibility of teaching the Word of God.

Verse 2 — we begin with the perfect tense of the verb ahab. This is the basic word for mental attitude love and the Lord begins by saying this is a dialogue between Jesus Christ and the Levitical priesthood. When a nation begins to go sour it goes sour spiritually before it affects anything else. The lack of Bible doctrine among believers is affecting every phase of national life in Israel at this time.

“I have loved you” — this refers specifically to the priests who are under indictment at this time. The subject is God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have to go back and look at the character of the one who says: “I love you.” Whenever there is a declaration of love on the part of any person the declaration of love is no stronger than the person who makes it. In this case God the Son makes a declaration. The essence of God is the sum total of His character and this gives Him His capacity to love. The verb to love is a transitive verb — it has an object and it has a subject. In this case the object is God the Son who is the founder of the Jewish race and the Jewish nation and who is responsible for the protection of the Jewish nation.

When He says, “I have loved you,” He is talking about priests. These priests are responsible for the dissemination of Bible doctrine. The strength of the verb is in the subject. This is the principle of doctrine behind this phrase. God is perfect, His plan is perfect, His capacity for love is perfect; and, therefore, in the case of God’s love the object cannot deserve anything because of the perfection of the character of God. God is immutable, He cannot change His character. God is absolutely perfect in every part of His love. Let’s take, for example, omniscience. He knows in this case they are in poor shape, and yet it doesn’t depend on that. Even though these people have failed in their responsibility God knew this in eternity past. So He knows every weakness, every fallacy, every unattractive facet of the priesthood. Omnipotence: He has the power and the ability to love. Omnipresence: He is actually an observer of every failure. Immutability: He cannot change. Veracity: His love is based on truth. Love itself is a characteristic — maximum love. Eternal life: His love exists forever. Righteousness and justice, or the holiness of God: satisfied so no inconsistency exists. Sovereignty: He made the decision to love. This is perfect character loving, therefore the object of love is non-meritorious under grace.

Here we have a situation where we have unbelievers who are priests. Therefore God’s love is immediately limited because His love begins with His plan at the cross. Therefore these priests, even though Jesus Christ died for their sins, as unbelievers are exactly like Esau. That is where the indictment is going to begin in this passage. The breakdown of a nation always begins with a spiritual breakdown. A national entity, in order to reach its peak and to have prosperity in every facet of its life, must have it based on Bible doctrine. And that is what is missing because the priests who are the spiritual leaders, who are the communicators of Bible doctrine, are unbelievers. Therefore they are minus doctrine, therefore the people are minus doctrine. This is where the great apostasy began around 420 BC.

Now, God’s love for the unbeliever is the love that He provided in His Son, and a challenge to the priests is, before they can do anything they have to believe in Jesus Christ. Well, you say, how did they as unbelievers ever become priests? They were born into it. They were born in the family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi. We have a similar situation in our country today where we have many preachers who are not even believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So He says to the priests: “I have loved you.” And this is an appeal for the cross here because these people have not passed the point of propitiation and therefore they are not under God’s love yet in the maximum sense. They are not in the plan of God. One of the forty things at the point of salvation is to become the recipient of God’s eternal love. The only love that exists before then is the provision of a saviour, and the saviour Himself is speaking and is saying, “I have loved you” .And He put it in the qal stem, and he put in the perfect tense. The perfect tense means that Christ has not gone to the cross as yet. The cross is a reality in the plan of God and in the mind of God, while Jesus Christ Himself is the speaker. As the speaker He is saying: “In the future I will die for your sins but since it is a part of the plan of God and since it will occur I will die for your sins as for everyone else” .The challenge is for them to enter His plan. Being born physically as priests doesn’t qualify them to fulfil spiritual functions. They must have the second birth, they must be born again, even though they were born into the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron. Physical birth does not qualify for the dissemination of information of a spiritual nature, they must have this new birth.

“yet ye say” — here is the Levitical priesthood denying the Word of God, failing to recognise the perfect character of God, failing to recognise the plan of God. In fact there is a total rejection. The reason for this is because they are on negative volition, and negative volition toward Bible doctrine — in this case, gospel — leads to a vacuum created in the frontal lobe. And into that vacuum is drawn three things and the priests will be accused of all of these things: religion and legalism, mental attitude sins which produce self-induced misery, and an emphasis on the details of life to the exclusion of anything that speaks of the Lord.

“In what way have you loved us?” — the principle is: negative volition toward God not only eliminates any relationship with God but negative volition toward God destroys any possibility of a capacity to love God. And there is an intrusion in the mentality of the soul upon capacity. These things not only destroy capacity for love toward God but these things even destroy capacity for love toward people. Religion is the greatest enemy to any kind of true love.

Now, there must be a substitute for true love and that is where you get operation bleeding heart, there’s where you get social action, there’s where you get the social gospel, there’s where you get this phoney attitude of wanting to help people. It is a religious guilt complex that must express itself by a linkup with the old sin nature producing human good. So religion plus human good is the great enemy for true capacity for love.

If the priests at this time are generally unbelievers then this is going to affect the entire nation’s relationship with the Lord. Who is going to teach doctrine? How is the nation going to get doctrine? So it is a very serious time in Israel as we will see in chapters two and three, and the basis of the fact is no doctrine. No one is aware of the fact that no matter how bad they are they can have a relationship with God, and He provided everything for the relationship. As unbelievers the priests are ignorant of the plan of God. They have rejected the cross and therefore are totally ignorant of the plan of God, and therefore of grace; and, therefore, they have to set up a substitute. That substitute is called religion, and their religion becomes a ceremony, an empty traditionalism, and it becomes something else: it sets up a basis for operation human good, for maudlin sentimentalism, for operation bleeding heart; and actually there is a trend among the Jews always that when they get away from the plan of God they are naturals for socialism. Why? The Jews, when they have rejected the plan of God, because of a religious tradition which has been passed down for century after century after century, they have a consciousness of persecution, of tragedy, they have a desire to want to be helpful. When a Jew rejects the plan of God, as in Malachi, he either becomes very religious and very self-righteous or he becomes very desirous of doing something to help people — a sincere desire which emanates from the human good concept. This makes it a natural for someone to want to accept socialism which is simply a mass panacea-type operation.

What is the answer to this? The answer to this is to get with the plan of God. But these people, the priests, have not and Jesus Christ is going to show them that they are exactly like Esau. The greatest insult that ever hit the priesthood was to be compared to Esau; that was until Jesus hit the Pharisees with the phrase “whitewashed tombstones.” They asked: “Wherefore hast thou loved us?” Remember, the priests are on negative volition with regard to the plan of God, they have rejected the cross, they are unbelievers. And when you are on negative volition you cannot love. One of the things that characterised the Jews and one of the things that Jesus made against them was their jealousy. Jealousy is a mental attitude sin. When you go on negative volition you create a vacuum and in that vacuum is drawn mental attitude sins which produce self-induced misery. And it will be remembered that the Pharisees were very jealous of the Lord when He performed His miracles. At this particular time during Malachi’s day the Lord isn’t on the earth and so there was a breakdown among the people, there was jealousy among the priesthood, and this lead to very serious social problems and other mental attitude sin problems. And there was also then a trend to compensate, and the trend to compensate was to outdo people religiously or with human good, and the other trend is going to be in trying to sublimate. Therefore there was a tremendous amount of sublimation at this time in the land. So we are going to see on the one hand a trend toward legalism, self-righteousness, the production of human good systems, and on the other hand we are going to see among the Jews a tremendous trend toward sublimation with some so that they are just going out and raising hell. So it is religion or raise hell as the two alternatives to the plan of God, and it starts with the priesthood.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ answers their question: “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” So let us set it up as it is in Romans chapter nine. We have Abraham and Nahor. Abraham became a Jew by the cross. The first Jew became a Jew by the new birth. The Jewish nation is unique in that it was founded upon the basis of new birth, not physical birth. Abraham was born a Chaldean, he was not born a Jew. He became a Jew by accepting Jesus Christ in Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham had two sons that are in focus in the scripture. His eldest one was Ishmael and the youngest one was Isaac. Ishmael is the father of some of the Arabic groups and he was an unbeliever. Ishmael was the eldest and could very easily have been the line of Israel, but it was Isaac who accepted Christ as saviour. Abraham was born again and his son Isaac was born again. The line of Israel goes through Isaac. Why? Because Isaac was born again.

Now here is where the issue is brought into focus. We have twin sons of Isaac. The eldest twin was Esau. The difference between Esau and Jacob: Jacob is the line of Israel because eventually he accepted Jesus Christ as saviour, he was born again. Esau his brother was a Gentile, Jacob the other twin was a Jew. Esau rejected Christ, and Esau is one of the greatest illustrations of an unbeliever, he became the founder of a race called Edom. The Edomites lived relatively close to the Jews. God loved both Esau and Jacob and when Christ went to the cross He died for the sins of Esau and He died for the sins of Jacob. He died for both. But one believed and one did not; one responded to love at the point of the cross and one did not. So therefore we have an anthropopathism to express divine attitude. God is said to hate Esau — not that God can hate, but this expresses an attitude — and He is said to love Jacob. Jacob represents everything that is Israel. From this point on there are twelve sons of Jacob and these twelve become the patriarchs of the Jewish race. What is a Jew? A Jew is anyone who is born into the world physically who has the genes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, down through one of the twelve sons. This is a Jew physically. The Jewish race was founded on regeneration. From this point on the Jewish race becomes natural generation.

The worst thing that can ever happen to a Jew is to be compared to the other side of the family. Here we have twins, they are in the same family, but when you take the priests, the spiritual leaders of Israel, and put them over with Esau they get the point. They are not very happy about it. The priesthood here is being compared to Esau. They aren’t going to like that, and just so that everyone will understand He says, “Esau have I hated … “ and you are just like Esau. Here is where a country goes astray — Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine can make or break a nation. Today lack of Bible doctrine is breaking our very country.

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” — he was a twin — “saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob.” Now what does the word “yet” mean here? This is a qal active participle of the verb ahab. The qal perfect in “I have loved you” indicates that God loves the entire human race and provided the cross, but the qal active participle says, When you believe the clock starts running, as far as my love is concerned you are in the plan of God, I love you at this point with maximum amount of love and that love will never increase. That love which God has at the moment of salvation goes on forever — the qal active participle denotes linear aktionsart and so with us, as with Jacob, the moment we believe in Christ God loves us with a perfect love, His character is perfect, His love is perfect, and it can’t increase. Now we know that in the human relationship factor that it is the increase of human love — persons become more intimate there is an increase in human love — but there is no such thing as an increase of love with God, it is perfect from the start. And since it is perfect from the very start and cannot be improved it has to be put down in the qal active participle. A believer is on this side of the fence, God’s love for us is perfect. Our time is discovering love, discovering the person responding to it, sharing the happiness of it. But on this side it is a qal perfect. Why? Because this is a reality love. In principle God loves the entire human race because Christ died for the entire human race. This is an appeal to the priesthood in Malachi’s day. They are unbelievers and it is actually a gospel appeal which they would understand. They would understand clearly because they deal with the elements of the gospel every day — they deal with the animal sacrifices, they have to explain codex number two of the Mosaic law, they have to perform certain functions on the holy days such as the Passover, and so they are totally aware of the issue of the gospel. They have rejected the gospel, they have become religious, and as a religious group they have a tremendous influence on the nation just as today the National Council of Churches has a tremendous influence on this nation. It is the largest lobbying group in the country and much of administration policy and a great many decisions of the supreme court, and many things that are advocated in the Congress, were directly from the policy of the National Council of Churches. And religion, of course, becomes a very destructive factor in the nation. Now how is this going to be changed? It has to be changed by Bible doctrine. “Yet I loved Jacob” is not really a correct translation. It should be: “I keep on loving Jacob.” This is amazing, to keep on loving Jacob when Jacob was so unlovely. God’s love doesn’t change, it cannot change. Once Jacob accepted Christ as his saviour God’s love toward him simply could not change. Immutability plus love gives a stability that will never change. Jacob changed and vacillated but God’s love never changed because God’s love depends on God’s character, not on Jacob’s .This is where human relationship love breaks down. When you make your love depend upon the character of the object of your love you have had it and there will always be instability. Your love must depend upon your own character. But when you have true human love it never depends upon the object of your love. This is where you develop a relaxed mental attitude toward the human race. Your ability to love depends upon you, not upon the object of your love.

If we are going to love God we are going to have some character improvements, and that means soul improvements. These soul improvements come through Bible doctrine and when we as believers learn Bible doctrine then we respond to the qal active participle. A lot of believers are responding to the qal perfect. If you are a believer ignorant of doctrine you are still responding to the principle. In other words, you are in love with love. All members of the human race start out under the principle of love. There is the principle of love and there is the reality of love. God designed the right person for the right person and until the right person comes along if you operate under the principle of love you are fine, but there comes a time when you meet the right person and then you have to operate under the reality of love.

Jacob knew the reality of love because he passed the point of propitiation, Esau did not. The priests in Zechariah’s day: Joshua and his fellows were believers, they knew the qal active participle. But that was 516, nearly 100 years ago. One hundred years later the priesthood was made up of unbelievers. So in the past the priesthood has known the love of God because it was in the plan of God. But in Malachi’s day the principle is there with the priests but it is not a reality.

Verse 3 — Jesus Christ follows the illustration of Esau and He takes up the nation. We have two nations now in view in verses three and four: Edom, which is from Esau, and we have Israel which is Jacob. We now see what happens to a nation which is not founded upon doctrine.

“And I hated Esau” — an anthropopathism for unbelief, for the rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour. Remember that the priests in Malachi’s day are being compared to Esau. Religion is the worst thing that can happen to a nation. “Hated” here is in the qal perfect and it shows the principle of hate, not the reality of hate.

“and laid his mountains and his heritage [land] waste” — the mountains refer to the fact that the whole country of Idumaea or Edom is a high mountainous country with some beautiful plains that run through it. The king’s highway from Egypt ran through Edom and it will be recalled that when Moses wanted to go through the land the Edomites refused and Moses had to go another way. The word for laying waste here is a qal imperfect which is a reality. The reality situation is comparable to the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline to the land of Edom. “To the heritage.” In other words, God actually provided a basis for Edom to become a national entity but Edom did not appreciate this by recognising the sovereignty of God and the principles of divine institution number four, and therefore the country of Edom eventually became the country of the jackals — the word “dragon” is simply the Hebrew word for jackal.

The doctrine of the Edomite judgement

Numbers 20:18-21 — the Edomites refused permission for the Jews of the Exodus generation to go through their land. This indicates an antagonism, not simply towards the Jews whom they did not know at this time but a religious antagonism probably stirred up by Satan himself. God gave repeated commands for various people to take over Edom. Edom was assigned to the tribe of Judah for their conquest. Commands were given from time to time to fight. There were a series of fights with the Edomites — between the Jews and the Edomites — and every time the Jews were commanded to fight Edom in scripture it is because Edom had a principle of religion, false doctrine which infiltrated the land and caused a lot of trouble. And God said of you are going to have your freedom you must fight the religion and the encroachment of a religious nation. Remember that when a nation is minus doctrine they often take the religious route. So we have a series of battles. Saul defeated the Edomites,

1 Samuel 14:47, and that kept religion from getting into the land from the outside. David defeated the Edomites in 1 Kings 11:15,16 but there was one person that got away, a person by the name of Hadad. He first of all escaped to Egypt and after David died he came back and tried to stir up more trouble. Again he was defeated and then he went to Syria and from Syria he tried to put a lot of pressure on Solomon during his reign. The story of Hadad is found in 1 Kings 11:14-23.

In 875 BC the Edomites allied with the other countries along the Jordan border — Moab. Ammon, and Edom — to attack Israel simultaneously. It was an attempt to wipe out the Jews and it did not succeed, described in 2 Chronicles 20:22. This was one of the greatest attempts ever made by these nations — all were religious nations (religion persecutes) — and they concentrated their armies in a valley called Berachah. In this battle of the valley of Berachah the combined armies were decisively defeated under Jehoshaphat and driven out, and again the Jews were saved from religion from the outside. Then in the reign of Jehoram the Edomites were successful because Jehoram was different from Jehoshaphat, Jehoram was a religious type person and minus doctrine. Amaziah carried out a campaign finally to drive them out and this is found in 2 Chronicles 25:11,12. So there is a constant fighting between Edom and the Jews, so much so that in the time of Malachi, when Jesus Christ mentions the priests being like Esau, what is Jesus Christ saying when indicting the priests? He is saying that the priests are infiltrating their own land with religion, just like the Edomites, and that they are no different from Esau. The priests were doing on the inside what Edom was constantly trying to do on the outside.

When Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem the last time in 586 BC the Edomites joined him. They couldn’t do it on their own but when Nebuchadnezzar came in they joined the Chaldeans and impressed Nebuchadnezzar by the way the enjoyed slaughtering Jews. This was their time of revenge, as it were, and consequently Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed with them and the way they fought that he left portions of the southern kingdom to the Edomites who settled down in the land after the fifth cycle of discipline was administered. Jeremiah warned that the Edomites would do this and he warned the kings to destroy the Edomites before this judgement came. Many people were killed because this was not carried out. Jeremiah chapter 49 deals with this, Lamentations 4:21 looks at it. Even Amos 1:11,12 predicted that this would happen and Obadiah deals with it in chapter 8:10 ff. The Jews took a soft attitude to Edom and Edom came in for the kill twice, in 586 BC and in 70 AD when 20,000 Idumaeans, as they were called then, were let inside the gates of Jerusalem to help the Jews defend the city. As soon as they came inside they started slaughtering Jews, they started robbing right away. Throughout the Old Testament the command was always the same: wipe out the Edomites. Occasionally God says a nation must be destroyed. Why? Because if the nation is permitted to go on the human race will be destroyed — by the mad dog. By the way, no Idumaeans survived the siege of Jerusalem, the Romans came in and wiped them out to a person. The Romans did what the Jews would never do, but they did it for this reason: they said that the Idumaeans were lawless, maniacal type killers.

Verse 4 — “Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished.” This is when they’ve been defeated. This refers to their defeat by Saul. The word “impoverished” means to be defeated. The Hebrew word is rashash, which doesn’t mean to be impoverished, it means to be whipped, to be defeated. It is in the pual perfect. The pual is the passive voice of the intensive piel stem, and it is in the perfect tense which says: “We have been defeated in principle on the battlefield.” They said this many times, but notice what else they said: “but we will return” .The Edomites had the attitude: “We have been defeated but we will return.” The word for return is the Hebrew word shub, which here is a qal imperfect. The pual perfect is the principle: we have been defeated; the qal imperfect of shub — we will return — is the reality, and this is the attitude of a fighter. So if these people are going to keep on bullying, fighting, trying to bring religion in, and trying to destroy freedom, and if every time they were defeated, as they were by Saul, by David, by Jehoshaphat, and they are going to constantly rearm and come back and fight again, then eventually it is necessary to destroy the reality, and that means wipe them out. “And build the desolate places” — rebuilding their own country. Their country was a very desolate country.

This is what the unbeliever religious priest does. He is compared to Edom. He says: “All right, we have been stopped. Somebody taught some doctrine, that stopped us but we will come back again. We will find a weak spot,” etc.

Who is going to have to protect Israel? “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, They will build but I will throw them down.” The word is charas in the Hebrew, and charas is the qal imperfect for a reality — in reality I will destroy them. Eventually God will have to deal with them.

“and they shall call them the border [territory] of wickedness” — when they have reached a saturation of wickedness the Lord will destroy them.

“The people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever” — indignation forever means that the majority of the people who were in the country known as Edom, known as Idumaea, were eventually removed from the earth. The Lord did this in two ways: in 70 AD the last of them were wiped out. But something happened at about 332 BC when a mysterious group of Arab people called the Nabataeans walked into their country and started fighting with the Edomites. They fought for about a generation until the survivors of Edom had to move a little closer into the Jews. In other words, the Nabataeans took over Petra and most of the country until the Edomites were pushed into a corner from which they stilled launched their attacks on the Jews.

“indignation forever” means that generally people who were the descendants of Esau were unbelievers. They followed the pattern and as unbelievers the indignation forever means the lake of fire. The principle is, and this is what the priests would understand: You priests are going to be judged in time because you are outside of my plan [grace], and yet you should be the spiritual leaders. And if you die in this state as an unbeliever then there is nothing for you but the lake of fire.

There is something interesting here: the lake of fire is going to be filled with Levitical priests and with clergy.

From verse 5 we have the continuation of the indictment of the priesthood in the time of Malachi, showing the historical course of a priesthood that is composed of unbelievers. Remember, the prophet was the communicator of the spoken Word, the priest was the communicator of the written Word — in other words, he would interpret the scripture. But if you have unbelievers in the priesthood they cannot interpret the scriptures, all they can do is distort and that leads to religion. So Malachi at this point has something to say about the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verse 5 — the first of two warnings with regard to the 5th cycle of discipline. “And your eyes” — that is, the eyes of the priesthood. They are going to see as unbelievers — “and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified beyond [not from] the border of Israel.” The eyes are the eyes of the religious leaders who are very jealous because of Judaism, they hate to see anyone else get in on the picture and yet in 30 AD they are going to see for the first time Gentiles evangelised, Gentiles actually trying to witness to Jews in Gentile languages. This is actually a second prophetic reference to the future use of the gift of tongues. There are two such references: one is in Isaiah 28:11, and then this passage in Malachi 1:5. The two of them add up to this point: in 30 AD the Jews get the last warning of the coming of the 5th cycle of discipline. This sign or warning lasts for forty years, 40yrs of grace before God actually removes Israel. In 70 AD it is all over. So how will the Jews know when the last warning comes? The Jews have had the responsibility throughout the Old Testament of witnessing for Jesus Christ throughout the world. They were the custodians of the Word, they were responsible for its dissemination to Gentile nations. They failed totally and the failure was due to the fact that religion came into the picture. Now they are going to be warned in Gentile languages. Gentile languages will be used to convert the Jews and this, of course, is the use of the gift of tongues. This is the only use of it; this is the whole purpose of the gift of tongues. It was designed for a forty-year period to give the Jews their last warning of the coming of the 5th cycle of discipline.

Now we have the phrase here, “your eyes shall see", and they are actually going to see the last sign. The most religious group of people that the Jews will ever have, and the worst group of people, will be in 30 AD. Religion reaches its saturation point. But some 400 years before there is a fantastic warning with regard to religion. They are going to “see” the great sign of the destruction of the nation.

“ye shall say” — they will come to a conclusion. They conclude from the fact that the gift of tongues is a supernatural type of operation, people evangelise the Jews in Gentile languages. This happened for the first time on the day of Pentecost.

“The Lord will be magnified beyond the border of Israel” — this is going to be their conclusion. To understand this a little better we should review Acts chapter two where this was actually fulfilled for the first time, but not for the last time. The last time was in August of 70 AD; the first time was on the day of Pentecost in 30 AD.

Acts 2:3 — the “cloven tongues” is the warning. The gift of tongues occurred for forty years and it had one purpose only: it was designed to give the Jews their last warning before the nation broke up. Since they failed completely Gentile languages are coming to them. They will hear the gospel, not in the Jewish language but in the Gentile languages. When the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost the first thing that was accomplished was to give some of these people the gift of tongues so that they could evangelise Jews in Gentile languages. The gift of tongues was always speaking in a foreign language — not the mouthing of empty phrases — being spoken by a person who doesn’t know that language. It is used for one purpose only: so that Jews can hear the gospel in a language they now understand, in Gentile languages.

Verse 4 — “they began to speak in other tongues [languages] as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Verse 5 — “devout men” — religious men; they weren’t saved.

Verse 7 — “Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?” That is, they are uneducated, they are unilingual.

Verses 8-11, the languages that were used. “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God” — that is the gift of tongues and that is all it is. It was shut down in 70 AD when the Jews went out under the fifth cycle of discipline.

There were two prophecies. This was to be the big sign — “the Jews seek a sign.” One of these prophecies was given in Isaiah 28:11, and the other one is given here in Malachi. These people are going to see, their eyes are going to see this sign. This sign will be the warning that there is just a short time before the Jews go out.

The seven great signs that were given to the Jews as a warning that they would go out under the fifth cycle of discipline

(The fifth cycle means total national disaster, the people are removed from their geographical location into slavery. Elsewhere they are scattered throughout the earth.)

1. The prophecy of tongues — people speaking in foreign languages, evangelising them — Isaiah 28:11, and this passage.

2. The virgin birth — Isaiah 7:14.

3. The betrayal by Judas Iscariot — Zechariah 11:12,13. The religious Jews would know this because they were involved; they bribed Judas.

4. The two deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross — Isaiah 53:9 in the Hebrew. Jesus Christ would die twice. First of all the sins of the entire world would be poured out upon Him as He was hanging on the cross, and as the sins were poured out He would be judged for them. He would pay the penalty of sin which is spiritual death — separation from God. Our sins brought about spiritual death, and Christ died physically because His work, His mission, was accomplished.

5. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, mentioned as a sign in Isaiah 2:13; 53:10.

6. Forty years of miraculous, supernatural evangelism — not just tongues alone but other factors were involved. This is the book of Acts.

7. The warning of the siege of Jerusalem — Luke 21:20-24. This sign is slightly different because it was given while Jesus was on the earth. This is a prophetical sign given to keep believers out of the city during the siege of Jerusalem. All the previous six signs were given ahead of time.

Malachi 1:6 — the production indictment. We go back to the fact that the priests have failed. If those who communicate doctrine hold the line then everything is fine. To hold the line these people had to accept Christ as saviour, be born again. Before a person can represent God he must have a relationship with God. The relationship in verse 6 is called “father-son”; the production is called “master-servant.” These are the two analogies in the verse.

“a son honoureth his father” — the word for honour here is kabad, and this is a piel imperfect. Notice it doesn’t say that the son loves his father, it says that he honours his father. The word kabad is used here for a reason. First of all it has the concept of authority. The father has authority. It also indicates that the father has love for the son with that authority, even though the son is not aware of this. It also means that the father provides for every situation and that he trains and communicates. Kabad is the positive response to these things. Application: When we begin to learn doctrine we come to kabad, the place where we develop a respect. The more doctrine we learn with that respect there is love, and you can’t beat the combination of love plus respect. If you wipe out respect you don’t have love. Love doesn’t stand alone, it must have respect. The more you know about God the more you respect God and the more you develop a capacity to appreciate who and what He is. God expects — He expected it from His priesthood in Malachi’s day, he expects it from every believer priest today — love and respect, and that comes through doctrine. But you can’t even get to that point unless you have a relationship through faith in Christ.

“and a servant his master” — one must follow the other logically. First of all there must be the relationship, that is phase one. Then secondly there must be production, that is phase two. The servant-master concept is a production concept. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father during the Church Age and because of this He has to have representation on the earth. The representation is every believer. The believer is both an ambassador who represents Christ and a priest who represents himself before God. These are the two concepts of full-time Christian service.

“If I am a father, where is my honour?” — the priesthood does not honour God. They go through all sorts of ritual in the temple but they are not honouring God. Why? They are not in the plan of God, they have no relationship with God. Only a son can honour his father in this principle, and so you have to become a child of God before you can honour God.

“if I be a master” — incorrect. It should be: “if I be Lords” [plural]. We have a relationship with all three persons of the Trinity — “where is my fear [reverence or worship]” — the priesthood in Malachi’s day were unsaved and therefore they were incapable of true worship. What is the true attitude of an unbeliever toward God? It isn’t reverence. The Hebrew word is bazah, it means to despise. It is a mental attitude expressing itself. First of all you think it and then you do it. They think hatred; they express hatred — “that despise my name.” Those who are not the children of God have in their mental attitude bazah. In this case it is a qal active participle, which indicates they constantly despise Him.

“my name” — a reference to the revealed member of the Godhead who is Jesus Christ.

“And [Yet] ye [the priests] say, In what way [Wherein] have we despised thy name?” They use the qal perfect. God is not going to indict them on what they think, He is going to indict them on what they do. They think mental attitude sins — hatred. When they think it, they do it — verses 7,8.

Verse 7 — “Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar [the table of shewbread].” This is the first one. And when they offer animal sacrifices they offer blind animals, lame animals, animals that are physically imperfect. These are the two indictments.

The priests think hatred toward God instead of giving Him respect. So, what do they do? The first area is the bread, and when they put bread on the table of shewbread it is polluted bread. When they offer animals they get animals with defects and therefore do not follow the specifications of the Levitical offerings. This merely reflects what they think.

The word for polluted is a puel participle and it means leavened bread. The bread speaks of the person of Christ; the animals speak of the work of Christ. Leavened bread indicates that Christ was a sinner, so it breaks the type. And since they have not accepted Christ then the person of Christ is not an issue with them.

First of all the priests went to the altar and then they went to the table of shewbread. They had to put twelve loaves on the table and these were supposed to be unleavened bread because they represent the person of Christ as He went to the cross. He was without sin, without a sin nature. But they say, “The whole meaning of the table of shewbread is contemptible to us, so as long as we have bread on there it doesn’t make any difference what kind of bread it is. The Bible says unleavened bread, we’ll put on any kind of bread we want to.” This reflects their mental attitude.

Verse 8 — “If ye offer the blind [the animal who has lost his eyesight] for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? offer it now to the governor.” During the absence of Nehemiah the Persians sent a governor, they called him the Pasha.

“Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?” The answer is No. What he will do is cut off their ears, a Persian custom.

So these are the two illustrations. The first one is the bread representing the person of Christ. The second is the animal representing the work of Christ. In both cases they have rejected Christ and therefore they are totally careless regarding what the Bible says about this particular type of modus operandi.

Beginning in verse 9 and 10 we have some alternatives given to the priesthood: a. Verse 9, you can believe in Christ, or b. Verse 10, close down the temple — because the temple speaks of Christ. Verse 9 — the word for beseech here is a piel imperative, and the verb is chalah. Chalah in the piel means to stroke the face, it means to touch, and it means to be in a position where you can express a relationship. The piel intensifies and indicates a relationship. So this is his way of saying: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” .

“that he will be gracious unto you” — operation grace, the plan of God. Once a person receives Christ God only deals with him in grace.

“this hath been your means” — literally from the Hebrew, “from your hands comes this.” In other words, the bad situation. These priests are supposed to communicate doctrine, they are unbelievers who have gone on negative volition toward Bible doctrine. They have set up a vacuum in the mind and into that vacuum has been drawn religion and religion is destroying the country. Religion is the great enemy of nationalism.

Verse 10 — is literally: “O that there is someone among you [priests] who had the courage to shut the door [of the temple].” The purpose of the temple is to reveal Jesus Christ. What are the priests doing? The temple is open and they have ritual. Ritual without reality is meaningless. There was lots of ritual but no reality. The priests have rejected Christ as saviour and therefore their ritual is meaningless. And since they will not accept Christ as saviour they should close the door of the temple. Ritual without regeneration is religion. Religion blinds Israel and then destroys Israel.

“neither do ye kindle a fire on mine altar for nought” .Corrected translation so far: “O that there is someone among you who would shut the doors, with the result that you might not kindle a fire on mine altar for nothing” .Every time they made up the altar it was for nothing. Why? Because they offered animal sacrifices which were contrary to the specifications of the Word of God. Why did they do it? Because they were unbelievers.

Therefore God said: “I have no pleasure in you … neither will I accept the offerings at your hand.” The temple is meaningless unless people have believed in Christ. The whole system in the temple was a system of training aids, and these training aids were designed to teach Christ.

Verse 11 — “from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same.” This is a picture of three things: it can be a day, it can refer to the entire earth, and it can refer to the pattern of any nation in history. After four hundred years of long-suffering — from the time of Malachi — God will turn all religious Israel into judgement. When you have enough religion in a nation the religion is finally judged. God judges religion quicker than anything else because religion is the devil’s thinking — 1 Timothy 4:1, doctrines of demons.

“my name” — a technical word for the Lord Jesus Christ. The plan of God begins with Jesus Christ; the plan of God begins with the cross. In the middle of verse 11 we have a reference to the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The Millennial reign starts with the second advent, from which event Jesus Christ is going to reign on the earth for one thousand years. At that time, with Christ reigning on the earth, it says that “the swords will be turned into ploughshares and the spears into pruning hooks, and man will learn war no more” .So there will be no war in the Millennium. There will be no poverty in the Millennium, there will be perfect environment and that is because there will be no religion in the Millennium — Satan is bound; the demons are bound. In the perfect environment of the Millennium Israel will function again, the fifth cycle of discipline will be over for them and God will regather Israel at that time, and they will function again in the very ritual which is now being rejected in Malachi. This ritual will be performed by the Jewish priests, the Levitical priesthood in Jerusalem, cf. Ezekiel 40-47.

Why is Malachi bringing it up at this particular point? He is going to show the glory of the Millennium which is now in contrast to the decadence of his own day. These priests of Malachi’s day who are unbelievers are going to bring in the glories of the Millennium by their own activities, just as right now in the Church Age we find politicians trying to bring in the glories of the Millennium. Satan is always trying to duplicate what God can provide. God has already set up the specifications for the Millennium, so we know that they are there. Man by man’s efforts simply cannot produce perfect environment. The only perfect environment on this earth is union with Jesus Christ, positional truth, and that begins at the cross. From 516 BC down to about 420 BC the priests did their job. Now they have fallen apart because they are unbelievers. Unbelievers become theological liberals, and then they become political liberals, and then they have an impact upon the nation which destroys the nation.

How are you going to reach these people? Everything that the priests wanted is what you have in the Millennium. You see, if you are an unbeliever you can only think in terms of human improvement. Any unbeliever can think in terms of improved environment and to him this becomes the ultimate. Only a believer can think in terms of the divine viewpoint and, therefore, eternal improvement. When the priests are unbelievers, what do they emphasise? They emphasise the improved environment.

Now here is what Malachi does: he says, “You unbeliever priests advocate perfect environment, let me show you something. In the Millennium there will be perfect environment, and in the Millennium you will have believers who are priests. The Levitical priests will be born again and they will be functioning as per Ezekiel chapters 40-47. They will be functioning in the very same things you are but they will be meaningful. You cannot have perfect environment without starting a new civilisation and that means regeneration. You cannot have a perfect environment apart from the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and what He has provided apart from the cross. You must start with regeneration and you priests are unregenerate and therefore can only think in terms of improvement of environment.”

“my name great among the Gentiles; and in every place,” Here is a reference to the Millennium. “Every place” means throughout the entire world. There will be no part of the earth that will be excluded.

“incense” — incense in the ancient world had a very sweet scent. Incense in the Bible, as being connected with the priests, always refers to the sweetest, most pleasant of odours. The incense here speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and the very first thing that Malachi must do with these priests is to get them to look at the person of Christ, for without Christ they cannot function. They were born into their priesthood, the family of Aaron was the priesthood. These priests in Malachi’s day were descended from Aaron but they were only born once, and since a priest must function spiritually they have to be born again. These had not accepted Christ as saviour and therefore had become religious and were emphasising improved environment. But improved environment won’t get the job done and so how are we going to start with what they are thinking and straighten them out. You go to a period of improved environment and there is only one with which they would be totally familiar, the perfect environment of the Millennial reign of Christ. Now this perfect environment is a detail, the real secret is Christ, and when the Millennium begins all of the unbelievers are cast out — baptism of fire. Only believers begin the Millennium. It is a period of perfect environment but the secret to it is Christ. And so to the priests: “You men are burning incense to speak of the person of Christ, you have offerings speaking of the work of Christ.” In other words, Malachi is starting to evangelise the priesthood. If you are going to get religion out of the land you have to begin with regeneration. You have to be born again, you have to enter into the plan of God.

“shall be offered in my name” — Why? Because this is the millennium and Jesus Christ will be present.

“and a pure offering for my name” — here is Ezekiel chapters 40-47. Animal sacrifices will be offered and they will be offered as a memorial in the same manner in which we partake of communion as a memorial to the cross. But remember, animal sacrifices as a bona fide function will not be in operation until the fifth cycle of discipline is over, and the fifth cycle of discipline is not over until the second advent of Christ.

“shall be great among the heathen” — the heathen is simply a word for Gentiles and in the Millennium there will be many millions of born again Gentiles. This should have shocked the priesthood right there and then into realisation of the importance of salvation.

“saith the Lord of hosts” — in this case, God the Father. The fact that His name is great among the Gentiles is a reference to Gentiles in the Millennium. As we begin the Millennial civilisation we begin with born again believers only.

Verse 12 — rejection of Christ in Malachi’s day is described. “But ye have profaned it” — the word profaned is a very interesting word, Halal. In the qal stem halal means to praise, but in the piel stem halal doesn’t mean praise, it means to violate, to defile. This word halal in the piel is going to take us down to our “dung” passage, chapter 2 verse 3. Animal dung was placed outside of the camp for sanitary reasons. Dung on the face meant that the priests were outside of the camp — they had not accepted Christ as saviour.

The word profane means to defile, and from here on we are going to have the table of shewbread, the animals (Levitical offerings), and the dung of the animal sacrifices. “You have defiled it [the name of Jesus Christ].” No you have to start with what you think. They are going to say: “How have we defiled? We have put the twelve loaves on the table of shewbread, we have gone to the altar and offered animal sacrifices” .It isn’t what you do [ritual], it is what you think. What do they think? “Ye say” — i.e. they are thinking it — “The table [of shewbread] of the Lord.” The table was made of wood, speaking of the humanity of Christ; it was overlaid with gold, speaking of the deity of Christ. The construction of the table of shewbread speaks of the hypostatic union, the God-Man. The table was located in the holy place and this speaks of relationship with the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ. The bread was on the top of the table and the bread spoke of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in connection with His work on the cross. The eating of the bread, of course, later on was a picture of faith in Jesus Christ. The priest actually ate the bread and even though he ate the bread in ritual he did not personally believe in Jesus Christ. The bread was unleavened, speaking of the fact that Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature, was born without the imputation of Adam’s sin — virgin birth — and that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life on this earth, He was impeccable all the way. The eaten bread then provided nourishment and this is the provision of God in operation phase two.

“is polluted” — this was their attitude, this was their thinking. This is the puel stem and the verb means that it is meaningless.

“and the fruit thereof, even the food on it, is contemptible.” The word “polluted” is really the key to their thinking. It is a puel participle [intensive passive voice] of the verb gaal, and the concept is that they constantly had this idea of it being nothing, of it being meaningless. Going through ritual after ritual after ritual without regeneration is always going to be meaningless.

Verse 13 — the rejection of the animal sacrifices. What were they saying all of the time they were offering animal sacrifices? As unbelievers they were not occupied with Christ, as unbelievers they had no love for the Lord, and yet everything that was happening in the animal sacrifices spoke of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Ye said also” — they were thinking this while they were slaughtering animals — “Behold, what a weariness” — an idiom for I am bored. What bored them? The first sacrifice was the burnt offering, the second one was the food offering. The burnt offering, Leviticus one, refers to propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ. The meal [food] offering, Leviticus two, speaks of propitiation with emphasis on the person of Christ. The very basis for our relationship with God the Father is the fact that God the Father is satisfied with the work of God the Son. The third offering is the peace offering which is the other side of the picture, Leviticus chapter three.

These offerings are very wonderful and very meaningful to the believer. But here is a person standing here, offering the burnt offering, offering the peace offering, and he says, “It is a weariness” .In other words, he is bored. Why are they bored? Because they are unbelievers. And if they are bored obviously they cannot communicate either through the ritual or through their daily teaching.

“Ye have snuffed at it” — snuffed is naphach in the Hebrew. Naphach means to puff, to blow in derision. It was an ancient term for sneering.

“ye brought that which was torn [an animal that had been maimed], and the lame, and the sick” — this doesn’t represent the person of Jesus Christ. They were told to bring only animals without blemish.

Verse 14 — “But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing [the lame and the blind and the torn]: for I am the great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful [reverenced] among the Gentiles”.

“dreadful” — a niphel participle from the verb jare. Jare in the niphel participle means to be the object of reverence. Here are you Jews with this great heritage of the Levitical offerings and yet you deride these things, you bring all of these malformed animals which do not represent the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ. But Gentiles who do not have animals reverence my name. This tells us something about Malachi’s day. In his day there were Gentiles throughout the world who were on positive volition at the point of God consciousness and the point of gospel hearing, and they expressed positive volition by faith in Christ. They had no animal sacrifices of any kind but they reverenced the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas these Jewish priests with their great heritage from the Word of God were unbelievers and they rejected the Word, they were on negative signals at the point of God consciousness and the point of gospel hearing. In their thinking they despised these things. That is where a nation begins to go down. In the past in this country the Word of God has been respected even by unbelievers. In the pulpits of this country in the past Bible doctrine has been taught and clearly declared. And yet in the last few years there has been a decline of the proper teaching of the Word of God and today believers do not know Bible doctrine categorically and unbelievers do not see the issue. To them Christianity is just a system of morality, there is no issue in the cross. And it all begins with religion.