Minor Prophets

Malachi
THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL RISE
The very last of the twelve Minor Prophets is
Malachi, who delivered his message about one
hundred years after Haggai and Zechariah, the
two prophets before him. You will recall that both
Haggai and Zechariah delivered God’s message to
the people of Judah, who had recently returned
from a seventy-year exile in Babylon. The people
had been tasked with rebuilding God’s temple but
had met with opposition and become discouraged.
They soon stopped working and
succumbed to selfishness and
sin. Haggai and Zechariah both
delivered messages of reproof,
encouragement, and hope, and
as a result, the new temple was
completed.
One hundred years later the
people had again fallen into sin,
and this time God raised up Malachi to confront them
with their sins, call them to return to Him, and warn
them of the coming day of the LORD.
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a
furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be
chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,
so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
But for you who fear my name, the sun of
righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and
you will go forth and skip about like calves from the
stall….” (Malachi 4:1- 2)
After God spoke His message through Malachi,
there were four hundred years of silence -- four
God’s Love
Never Fails
hundred years without one word from God. And then
came John the Baptist, who preached repentance and
preparing the way for LORD. Although He was silent
for four hundred years, God was still working behind
the scenes for the good of His people. Even when
His people fail Him, God’s love is stronger than our
failure. His love never fails.
In reading Malachi’s prophecy, I found it interesting
that the sins of God’s people
today are not so different than
the sins of the people in his day,
four hundred years before Christ.
The attitudes and actions of the
Jewish people way back then
are an ancient picture of many
Christian attitudes and actions
today.
In his commentary, The Minor Prophets, James
Montgomery Boice points out that Jewish religiosity
in Malachi’s day perfectly pictures modern Christian
attitudes that attempt to “bring God down to
earth and measure Him by the yardstick of human
morality.” Seven times in Malachi, God confronts the
people with a statement of what He has done for
them and seven times their response is an arrogant
“How?” They show no honor or respect for God. Here
are God’s seven statements and the responses by the
people.
(1:2) “I have loved you” -- “How have you loved us?”
(1:6) “You, O priests, have despised my name” --
“How have we despised Your name?” (1:7) “You are
presenting defiled food upon my altar” -- “How have
we defiled You?” (2:17) “You have wearied the LORD
with your words” -- “How have we wearied Him?” (3:7)
“Return to me and I will return to you” -- “How shall
we return?”
(3:8) “You are robbing me…in tithes and offerings”
-- “How have we robbed You?”
(3:13) “Your words have been arrogant against me”
-- “What have we spoken against You?”
It’s easy for us to look at this list and say that none
of these things apply to us, but that is arrogance on
our part. Stop and think for a minute. Have you never
questioned God’s love by complaining that you want
or need more than He has given you? Have you ever
coveted more in the way of material things, or have
you compared yourself to someone who has a more
important position in the church? If so, you have
doubted God’s love for you.
The priests despised God’s name by offering
imperfect sacrifices of lame and sick animals they
would surely never offer to a secular leader. Have you
ever despised God’s name by giving Him only what
is leftover instead of what you know would be your
best? This can apply to both your material wealth and
your time and energy.
The people of Malachi’s day wearied God by calling
good evil and questioning His justice. Have you ever
done that? Have you ever looked upon God’s views
in the Bible as being outdated? Do you do things
your own way just because everyone else does? Has
your church veered away from following practices
that are plainly Biblical? Have you ever questioned
why God allows “natural disasters” or other painful
occurrences? Have you ever wearied God with
arrogant words in trying to twist His words to suit your
own situation or point of view? Have you robbed Him
of tithes and offerings? Are you ever so arrogant that
you think you do not need to take stock of your life
and turn around and follow God completely instead
of putting yourself first?
If you can see yourself in any of these sins of the
Jewish people, then God is calling you to return to
Him. He is calling us, from the pages of His Word and
the Book of Malachi to face up to our individual and
collective sins and return to Him. But the greatest
thing is that He also calls us to the same hope to
which He called His people in Malachi’s day, “For you
who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and
skip about like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4:2)
This is the promise He made to the people of Judah,
and four hundred years later Jesus Christ, the sun
of righteousness, was born. He was the only person
on earth who ever lived a perfectly righteous life.
He endured the cross for our sins, but He rose again
from the dead. And the promise for us is that He is
coming again! The Day of the Lord is coming. It will be
a day of judgment for those who do not honor God,
but a day of salvation and joy and glory for those
who love and obey Him. That is our hope as we live
in this fallen world. God may call us to difficult times
and tasks, He may hold us strictly accountable to His
Word and discipline us when we go astray, but He
always keeps His promises and His love never fails.
May our love for Him prove unfailing as well.
28 INTRODUCTION TO MINOR PROPHETS DISCIPLERS BIBLE STUDIES 29