The final prophet of the Old Testament is Malachi, whose name means "My Messenger". Some scholars believe Malachi was his proper name, while others believe it was a title. Nothing is known about this man other than that he was God's chosen messenger for a particular time in Israel's history.
This book begins about a hundred years after the exiles returned from Babylon to rebuild. It's believed that Malachi was a contemporary of Nehemiah, who was a governor of Judah. Nehemiah led the project of rebuilding the wall and he helped the people to renew their dedication to the Lord. But because he was an official of King Artaxerxes of Persia, he was called back to the king's service for a period of time, and during that time the people backslid into some of their old habits. When he returned he found some rooms of the temple had been defiled and used as a dwelling. Those in charge of paying the priests and musicians of the temple had been withholding their wages, causing these men to leave their work at the temple to go home and try to make a living at farming. Work was being done on the Sabbath. Perhaps worst of all, Nehemiah learned that many of the men had married pagan wives during his absence. This is the environment into which the prophet Malachi speaks the message of the Lord.
When we studied the book of Zechariah we found the people discouraged by the monumental task of rebuilding the temple, but by Malachi's time that task has been completed. The people are still deeply discouraged. They keep comparing what they have now with what they had before the Babylonian invasion. They keep longing for the former glory of their sovereign kingdom. They are now nothing but a small outpost belonging to the kingdom of Persia. They want the glory of Israel restored now. They want the kingdom to come now. Because things didn't fall into place the way they hoped and expected on their return to the land, they have begun to blame God and to accuse Him of not loving them anymore. Their resentment toward Him has caused them to lapse into some of the same old sins they took part in before the fall of the nation, not taking into account that it was these very sins that led to the fall of the nation. Like most of us have done at one time or another, they blame God for their troubles instead of accepting that their troubles have been the consequences of their own actions.
Our text begins, "A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. 'I have loved you,' says the Lord. But you ask, 'How have You loved us?'" (Malachi 1:1-2a) The Lord reminds the people of His covenant love for them, a love that can never be shaken. But in their self-pitying mood they ask, "How have You loved us? If You loved us, wouldn't You have already restored our glory as it was in the golden age of our kingdom? Wouldn't You have overthrown the Persians and made us sovereign over our nation again? Wouldn't You have defeated our every enemy and given us dominion over them?"
We often make the mistake of assuming what we would do if we were God. The people believe if they were God they would have handled things differently. But we have to keep in mind that God, as a loving Father, does what's best for us and not necessarily what is pleasant for us. The reason the nation is nothing but a vestige of what it once was is because the people did not remain faithful to God. Restoring their former glory too quickly would not be good for their character. When we were children, didn't we take our disobedience less seriously if our parents reinstated our privileges too soon? Didn't that make us more likely to repeat the same disobedience, considering the consequences weren't that harsh? God knows what He's doing by not bringing in His kingdom in the days following the Babylonian exile. He knows what He's doing when He allows the nation to remain subject to another empire. The current difficulties are not proof that God doesn't love them, but that He does.
The Lord now provides an example of His love for the people. He has preserved them. He has protected them. He has returned them to the land. The way God has dealt with the descendants of Jacob is a sharp contrast to how He has dealt with the descendants of Esau. "'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the Lord. 'Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.'" (Malachi 1:2b-3) Before Jacob and Esau were born, the Lord chose one and rejected the other. He was able to do this because He knew what kind of man each of them would become. God made His statement about these two before either of them had done anything good or bad, but that's because to God the future is as real as the present. He knew what kind of men Jacob and Esau would be, and He knew what kind of nations Israel and Edom would be. Therefore, God was not unrighteous when He chose one of these men over the other and one of these nations over the other.
The Edomites made themselves the enemies of Israel. They refused passage to the children of Israel on their Exodus from Egypt. They fought against King Solomon, opposed King Jehoshaphat, and rebelled against King Jehoram. Edom eagerly aided the Babylonians in destroying Jerusalem. Several Old Testament prophets predicted the judgment of Edom, for anyone who curses God's people will be cursed, according to the promise God made to Abraham. (Genesis 12:3) By Malachi's day the Edomites had been conquered by the Nabateans in around 500 BC. The Nabateans were so successful in erasing the proof that the Edomites had ever possessed the territory that for centuries the existence of the Edomites was considered legend and not fact. It was only after archaeologists found references to Edom in Egypt and Assyria that their existence was proven. The Lord is saying, "If I did not love you, Israel, would I not have done to you what I have done to Edom?"
The Lord continues, "Edom may say, 'Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.' But this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. You will see it with your own eyes and say, 'Great is the Lord---even beyond the borders of Israel!'" (Malachi 1:4-5) The prophets of the Lord had nothing good to say about Edom; instead they repeated over and over that it would be destroyed and never rebuilt. But the Lord always promised to preserve and rebuild Israel. Yes, Jerusalem has fallen several times. Yes, the temple has been destroyed twice. Yes, God has put Israel through the refiner's fire time and again. But all of this was intended as correction and not destruction. God was dealing with Israel as a man deals with his children. A father doesn't kill his children for disobedience; he corrects and instructs his children. The same is true with God. The one He loves He chastens. "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?" (Hebrews 12:7) God, however, was not dealing with Edom as His children, for Edom was never His. Just as Esau had no heart for God, neither did the nation he founded. Esau's descendants also had no heart for God's people Israel. This is why there is no nation of Edom today. But there is a nation of Israel, because God's covenant with Israel endures and His love for Israel is everlasting.
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