The Return · Not dated
Chapter 21
My Messenger
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Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared Yahweh and who honored his name.
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The Lord says he loved Jacob but hated Esau, and speaks of ruining the land of Edom, the nation that came from Esau, and being angry with it forever (Malachi 1:2–5). The chapter speaks of men breaking faith with the wives they married when young, and of divorce (Malachi 2:13–16). It also tells of a coming day, burning like a furnace, that will burn up the proud and the wicked, who become ashes under the feet of those who fear the Lord (Malachi 4:1–3).
This is the Lord’s message to , brought by .
“I have loved you,” says the Lord.Yet you say, “How have you loved us?”“Wasn’t ’s brother?” says the Lord.“Yet I loved Jacob,but Esau I hated.I left his mountains in ruinsand gave the land he inherited to the jackals of the wilderness.”
is the nation that came from Esau.
Edom says, “We have been beaten down,but we will come back and rebuild the ruins.”But the Lord of Armies says, “They will build, but I will knock it down.People will call them ‘the Wicked Land,’the people the Lord is angry with forever.”Your own eyes will see it, and you will say,“The Lord is great, even beyond the border of Israel!”
Next the Lord of Armies speaks to his .
“A son honors his father,and a servant his master.If I am a father, then where is my honor?If I am a master, where is the respect I am due?”says the Lord of Armies to you priests who despise my name.“You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’You offer bread on my .You say, ‘How have we made you unclean?’By saying, ‘The Lord’s table is not worth respecting.’When you bring a blind animal to sacrifice, isn’t that evil?When you bring lame and sick animals, isn’t that evil?Go on, give it to your governor!Will he be pleased with you? Will he welcome you?”says the Lord of Armies.
“Now, please, ask God for his favor,so that he may be kind to us.With this, will he accept any of you?” says the Lord of Armies.“If only one of you would shut the doors,so that you would not light fires on my altar for nothing!I take no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of Armies,“and I will not take an offering from you.
“From where the sun comes up to where it goes down,my name is great among the nations.In every place will be offered to my name,and a pure offering,because my name is great among the nations,” says the Lord of Armies.“But you dishonor it when you say,‘The Lord’s table is unclean,and the food from it is not worth respecting.’You also say, ‘Look, how tiresome it is!’And you turn up your noses at it,” says the Lord of Armies.“You bring animals taken by force, and lame and sick ones,and that is the offering you bring.Should I accept this from you?” says the Lord.
“But the one who deceives is cursed:he has a male animal in his flockand makes a vow, but sacrifices something flawed to the Lord,because I am a great King,” says the Lord of Armies,“and my name is held in awe among the nations.”
The Lord of Armies speaks to the priests again.
“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.If you won’t listen,and won’t take it to heart and give glory to my name,” says the Lord of Armies,“then I will send the curse on you,and I will curse your blessings.I have cursed them already,because you do not take it to heart.Look, I will rebuke your offspring.I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your feasts,and you will be taken away with it.You will know that I sent you this commandment,so that my may be with ,” says the Lord of Armies.
The priests came from Levi’s family.
“My covenant with him was life and peace,and I gave them to him so that he would show me deep respect.And he did. He stood in awe of my name.He spoke the true law,and nothing he said was wrong.He walked with me in peace and did what was right,and turned many away from sin.A priest’s words should keep knowledge safe,and people should learn the law from what he says,since he is the messenger of the Lord of Armies.But you have turned away from the path.You have made many stumble in the law.You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Armies.“That is why I have also made you despised and wicked in the eyes of all the people,because you have not kept my waysbut have played favorites in the law.”
Then come these questions.
Don’t we all have one father?Hasn’t one God created us?Why do we betray one another,each man his brother,and dishonor the covenant of our ancestors? has been unfaithful.In Israel and in a hateful thing has been done,because Judah has dishonored the holiness of the Lord, which he loves,and has married the daughter of a foreign god.The Lord will cut off the man who does this,the one who wakes and the one who answers,from the tents of Jacob,and the one who brings an offering to the Lord of Armies.
“You also do this:you cover the Lord’s altar with tears,with weeping and with sighing,because he doesn’t look on the offering anymoreor gladly take it from your hand.Yet you ask, ‘Why?’Because the Lord has been witnessbetween you and the wife you married when you were young.You have betrayed her,though she is your companion, the wife you made a covenant with.Didn’t he make you one,though he had what was left of the Spirit?Why one? He was looking for godly children.So guard your spirit,and let no one be unfaithful to the wife he married when he was young.”
“The one who hates and divorces,” says the Lord, the God of Israel,“covers his clothes with violence!” says the Lord of Armies.“So watch over your spirit, and don’t be unfaithful.”
The Lord’s word goes on.
You have made the Lord weary with your words.Yet you say, “How have we made him weary?”By saying, “Everyone who does wrong is good in the Lord’s sight,and he delights in them,”or when you ask, “Where is the God of justice?”
“Look, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me!The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple.Look, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says the Lord of Armies.“But who can endure the day of his coming?And who will stand when he appears?He is like a refiner’s fireand like the soap people use to wash clothes.He will sit like someone who refines silver and makes it pure.He will make Levi’s descendants pure,refining them like gold and silver,and they will bring the Lord offerings in righteousness.
“Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be welcome to the Lord,as it was in the old days, in years long past.I will come near to you to judge.I will be a swift witness against those who cast spells,against those who commit ,against those who lie under oath,against those who cheat hired workers out of their wagesand oppress the widow and the orphan,who deny the foreigner justice,and who do not fear me,” says the Lord of Armies.
The Lord of Armies calls his people back.
“I, the Lord, do not change.So you, children of Jacob, have not come to an end.Since your ancestors’ timeyou have turned away from my rules and not kept them.Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies.“But you say, ‘How should we return?’
“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me!But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’In and offerings.The curse is on you,because you rob me, all of you, the whole nation.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse,so that there will be food in my house.Test me now in this,” says the Lord of Armies,“and see if I won’t open the windows of heaven for youand pour out a blessing for you, more than you have room for.For your sake I will rebuke the devourer,and it will not destroy the crops in your fields.Your vine in the field will not lose its fruit before its time,”says the Lord of Armies.“All nations will call you blessed,because you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.
Then the Lord speaks of what the people have said against him.
“Your words against me have been harsh,” says the Lord.“But you say, ‘What have we said against you?’You have said, ‘There’s no point in serving God,’and, ‘What good has it done us to keep his instructionsand walk around in mourning in the presence of the Lord of Armies?Now we call the proud happy.Yes, those who do wicked things get ahead.Yes, they test God, and they escape.’”
Then those who feared the Lord spoke together, and the Lord listened and heard. A book of memory was written in his presence for the ones who feared the Lord and who honored his name.
“They will belong to me,” says the Lord of Armies,“my own possession, in the day that I make.I will spare them,as a man spares his own son who serves him.Then once again you will be able to tell who is righteous and who is wicked,who serves God and who does not.”
Then the Lord of Armies speaks of a day that is coming.
“Look, the day comes, burning like a furnace,when all the proud and all who do wicked things will be dry stubble.The day that comes will burn them up,” says the Lord of Armies,“so that it leaves them neither root nor branch.But you who fear my name:for you the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in its wings.You will go out and leap like calves from the stall.You will trample down the wicked,because in the day that I makethey will be ashes under the soles of your feet,” says the Lord of Armies.
“Remember the law of my servant,which I commanded him on for all Israel,the laws and the rules.Look, I will send you the prophetbefore the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the childrenand the hearts of the children to their fathers,lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”