Introduction to Malachi

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/10/2016 10:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  Introduction to Malachi

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Malachi 1:1

            Message of the verses:  “1 The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.”  “1 THE vision of the words of the LORD concerning Israel by Malachi (Lamsa).”

            We want to begin looking at the last book in the OT in our SD for this evening.  The name Malachi means “My messenger 3:1 "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts.”  Now as mentioned he is the last OT prophet in our Bible and of course he is a prophet who lived after the Jews came back from Babylon.  There is no information about his ancestry for us to look at. 

            The following info comes from the John MacArthur Study Bible under the heading of “Author and Date.”  Looking solely at internal evidence, the date of the prophecy points to the late fifth century B. C. , most likely during Nehemiah’s return to Persia ca. 433-424 BC (cf. Neh. 5:14; 13:6).  Sacrifices were being made at the second temple (1:7-10; 3:8), which was finished in 516 BC (cf. Ezr. 6:13-15).  Many years had passed since then as the priests had increasingly become complacent and corrupt (1:6-2:9).  Malachi’s reference to ‘governor’ (1:8) speaks of the time of Persian dominance in Judah when Nehemiah was revisiting Persia (Neh. 13:6), while his emphasis on the law (4:4) coincides with a similar focus by Ezra and Nehemiah (cf. Ezr. 7:14, 25, 26; Neh. 8:18).  They shared other concerns as well, such as marriages to foreign wives (2:11-15; cf. Ezr. 9, 10; Neh. 13:23-27), withholding of tithes (3:8-10; cf. Neh. 13:10-14), and social injustice (3:5; cf. Neh. 5:1-13).”

            Now Warren Wiersbe, whose commentary we will follow for most of this study, especially the outlines in it has the following to say in his introduction:  While Nehemiah was back at his post in Shushan (Neh. 13:6-7), things began to fall apart in Jerusalem; and when he returned, he had to take some drastic steps to reform the nation.  It’s possible that the Prophet Malachi was called at that time to expose the sins of the people and call them back to God.

            “The conditions described in the Book of Nehemiah are the very things Malachi deals with in his book:  poor crops and a faltering economy (Mal. 3:11), intermarriage with the heathen (2:11), defilement of the priesthood (1:6ff), oppression of the poor (3:5), lack of support for the temple (vv. 8-10), and a general disdain of religion (v. 13ff).  It was a low time spiritually for Judah, and the needed to hear the Word of God.”  I suppose that as we look at our country and many other countries we could say the very same thing, “We need the Word of God.”

            Now the next prophet that Judah would have would be John the Baptist who would come around some 400 years later and some of the quotes in this book apply to John the Baptist.

            Some other interesting things found in Dr. Wiersbe’s introduction are the Key Theme: “Honoring the name of God by living godly lives.”  The Key verse is “Malachi 1:11 ‘For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place they burn incense and offer to my name pure offerings; for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the LORD of hosts.’”  

            The first theme we will look at beginning in our next SD will be “Doubting God’s Love which will cover the first five verses of chapter one.

11/10/2016 11:27 PM