Malachi 1:1-2:16

What’s Happening?

God’s people are stuck in a vicious cycle. A prolonged season of national distress makes the people of Israel doubt that God still loves them. They don’t see the point in obeying God anymore. So God disciplines them for their disobedience. God’s people interpret this as a further lack of love, which makes them even less inclined to see the point in obedience. 

But through Malachi, God argues that he has never stopped loving his people. Skeptical, his people ask for proof that God still loves them (Malachi 1:2). So God retells the story of Israel’s founding. All those years ago God, in love, chose their forefather Jacob over his brother Esau. Since that day he has protected the descendants of Jacob. And he has thwarted every attempt of Esau’s dynasty to build an empire that would overthrow Israel (Malachi 1:3-4). God’s protective love has been consistent throughout his history with his people. God still loves and will continue to love and provide for Israel (Malachi 1:5). 

But the priests of Israel don’t trust that God will provide for their nation. So they have started 

offering their local governors their best animals as gifts and offering God their diseased and maimed animals as sacrifices (Malachi 1:6-9, 13-14). Worse, their sacrifices are teaching the rest of Israel that politicians are worth more honor than God (Malachi 2:7-8). God’s first priests were chosen precisely because they trusted and honored God while the rest of Israel didn’t (Malachi 2:4-6, Numbers 25:10-13). This current generation of priests must rediscover the honor and trust of their ancestors or else be forever cursed (Malachi 2:1-4, 9). 

Similarly, the men of Israel don’t trust God to provide for their families, so they have started marrying into families that sacrifice to foreign gods (Malachi 2:10-11). Looking for ways to hedge their bets when it looked like God was not providing, many even divorced their wives to marry into idolatrous families in hopes of securing provision from those deities (Malachi 2:14b, 16). This is why God says he will no longer accept their sacrifices (Malachi 2:13-14a). Malachi warns that the faithfulness of Israel’s men to their wives is a symbol of their faithfulness to God. And if they refuse to be faithful to their brides, God will annul his loving relationship with them (Malachi 2:12). 

Even though their current circumstances seem like evidence that God doesn’t love them, it’s not true. God’s people need to remain faithful and trust God once again (Malachi 2:16b). 

Where is the Gospel?

Four hundred years after Malachi wrote his prophecy, not much changed. God’s people were impoverished and occupied by the Roman Empire. Priests, skeptical of God’s love, looked for provision and power through Roman politics and dishonored God by their man-made rules and hypocritical sacrifices (Matthew 12:34, 21:12-13). Even the men of Israel were just as unfaithful to their wives as they were in Malachi’s day (Matthew 19:1-11). 

But God showed his love to his skeptical, dishonoring, and faithless people by sending his son Jesus (1 John 4:9; Romans 5:10). Unlike the dishonorable priests, God gave his people a perfect sacrifice in Jesus (Romans 8:3). And God accepted that sacrifice to forgive his people’s many sins and pardon the arguments God made against them (Romans 8:1, 14-16). 

While our circumstances may rarely be what we desire, we never need to doubt God’s love for us. God has protected us from our own attempts to dishonor him—he died for us! Nothing can separate us from his love. No famine, pandemic, war, or amount of skepticism can erase the loving sacrifice of Jesus’ cross (Romans 8:38-39). 

Jesus is a faithful spouse even when we are not. Like Israel’s men, we should hear the good news of God’s love and trust that he will be faithful to provide everything we need. He is devoted to us and willing to sacrifice everything for us. So refuse all other loves and accept his unconditional affection for you, the bride he has chosen.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who loves his people. And may you see Jesus as our loving spouse who sacrifices himself for us.