Malachi - God's Messenger to His Rebellious Children


  1. A Look at the Book
    1. Author: Malachi = "My Messenger"
    2. Date: estimated dates vary, but most place Malachi in the mid 5th century B.C. -- @ 425-475 B.C.
    3. Contemporaries: none
    4. Style: a series of charges by God against Israel, followed by Israel's "inquiry of innocence," rebutted by God's proof.
      1. 1:2 -- 'How have You loved us?'
      2. 1:6-8 -- 'How have we despised Your name?'
      3. 2:13-14 -- 'Why won't you accept our worship?'
      4. 2:17 -- 'How have our words wearied You?'
      5. 3:7 -- 'How should we return?'
      6. 3:8 -- 'How have we robbed You?'
      7. 3:13-15 -- 'What have we spoken against you?'
    5. Theme: three-fold in the three divine messages of the book:
      1. REMEMBER (1:1-5) -- God's love for His people
      2. REPENT ( 1:6 - 2:17) -- God's rebuke for spiritual indifference
      3. RETURN (3:1 - 4:6) -- God's hope in the renewing of His promise to send the Messiah


  2. Key Passages
    1. 1:2 -- "I have loved you"
    2. 1:2b - 5 -- "I have hated Esau" (fulfilment of Obadiah vv 1-9)
    3. 2:16 -- 'The Lord hates divorce.'
    4. 3:1 -- "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he will prepare the way for Me." (cf Isa 40:3-5; Hosea 3:3-4)
    5. 3:6 -- "I am the Lord, and I change not." (Hebrews 13:8)
    6. 3:7 -- "Return to Me, and I shall return to you." (James 4:8)
    7. 3:8 -- "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me!"
    8. 4:5 -- "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."
      1. John 1:21
      2. Matthew 11:13-14
      3. Matthew 17:9-13


  3. Are we guilty of the same sins as Israel?
    1. 1:6 - failure to honor and reverence God = do we take God lightly or take his name in vain? Exodus 20:7
    2. 1:6-8 - corruption of the priests & sacrifices = as priests (1 Pet 2) in the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16)
    3. 1:13 - is worship a weariness to us? (Psalm 122:1)
    4. 2:1-2 - failure to take God's word to heart (Ps 119:11; 1 Pet 3:15)
    5. 2:11 - marriages to pagan nations
      1. Defiling the church by making her equal to denominationalism
      2. Unequally yoking ourselves to unbelievers
    6. 2:14-16 - divorcing the wife of one's youth (Proverbs 5:17-18)
    7. 2:17 - delighting in wickedness (Amos 5:14)
    8. 3:8 - will we rob God in our giving and offerings?