Malachi: I will send my messenger

About the book

The book opens: "This is the burden of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi" (Malachi 1:1). Malachi means ‘my messenger’, the same word as ‘My messenger’ in 3:1, so whether it is the prophet's name or a title has long been discussed. The ancient Greek Old Testament rendered 1:1 ‘by the hand of his messenger’. The church has mostly received Malachi as the prophet's name, since the other books of the Twelve name their prophets in their headings; scholars are divided between the two.

The temple stands again and sacrifices are offered (Malachi 1:7), and a Persian governor rules (Malachi 1:8). The wrongs Malachi rebukes, the Levites left without their portions and marriages to foreign women, are the ones Nehemiah faced (Nehemiah 13:10, 13:23). So the church and many scholars place Malachi near Nehemiah's time, about 460–430 BC. The map under the Jesus tab sets him at the close of the era of return and rebuilding (c. 539–430 BC).

In our Bibles Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. The Hebrew Bible arranges the same books differently and usually ends with Chronicles, on Cyrus's word to the exiles, "may he go up" (2 Chronicles 36:23; see 2 Chronicles). From Malachi to John the Baptist some four centuries pass with no new prophetic book in the Bible as Protestants receive it; Josephus, too, says the sacred books were written by prophets down to the time of Artaxerxes Josephus, Against Apion. Books such as 1 and 2 Maccabees, which the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches of the East receive as Scripture, tell of those years.

How it unfolds

Key passages

Each dispute takes the same shape. God speaks, "I have loved you," and the people answer back, "How have You loved us?" (Malachi 1:2); then God replies. To those who ask, "Where is the God of justice?" (Malachi 2:17) he gives this promise:

Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple — the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight — see, He is coming

Malachi 3:1

Their hope is God's constancy: "Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed" (Malachi 3:6). He calls, "Return to Me, and I will return to you" (Malachi 3:7), and charges them with robbing him in tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8-10). How Christians today should take these words is discussed in Must Christians tithe?

The book ends with a promise:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

Malachi 4:5-6

Matthew Henry calls these verses "a solemn conclusion, not only of this prophecy, but of the Old Testament" Matthew Henry.

The book and Christ

The New Testament reads Malachi's messenger as John the Baptist. Jesus said of John, "This is the one about whom it is written" (Matthew 11:10), quoting Malachi 3:1, and "he is the Elijah who was to come" (Matthew 11:14). Mark opens his Gospel with Malachi 3:1 joined to Isaiah 40:3 (Mark 1:2-4). The angel told Zechariah that John would go before the Lord "in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children" (Luke 1:17). John Wesley comments: "Though the spirit of prophecy cease for four hundred years, yet at the expiring of those years, you shall have one sent, as great as Elijah" Wesley.

After the messenger comes the Lord himself, the Messenger of the covenant, to his temple, and the church has read this Lord as Christ. The infant Jesus was brought into that temple by his parents (Luke 2:22), and in our Bibles the Old Testament's last promise begins to be kept a few pages later, in Matthew.

Reading it

Four chapters make one sitting. From Malachi 1, follow each round: God's word, the people's retort, God's answer. The last chapter of Nehemiah (see Nehemiah) gives the background. Then turn the page to John the Baptist in Matthew 3, and go on to Matthew.

Practice