CHAPTER 1
Here it is – the last book of the Old Testament. It’s time for prophet Malachi! As it happens, that’s probably not the guy’s
name, but just a pseudonym meaning, “My messenger.” He is likely a prophet living somewhere around the time that
Nehemiah helped rebuild the Temple.
He’s maybe a little earlier or a little later – or overlapping with
Nehemiah – but it’s around there somewhere.
These Minor Prophets are really blurring together and they
all say roughly similar things. So it’s
hard to see anything too original here.
You can see the influence of the Nehemiah era, though. God says he loves the Hebrew, but isn’t
feeling the appropriate return. He
deserves some respect and fear – yes, fear.
God specifically says, “And if I am a master, where is the fear due to
me?” Sometimes the Bible reminds you
how different people’s notions of religion were back then.
CHAPTER 2
In this chapter, God (through Malachi) turns his attention
to the priest. He isn’t happy. The priests don’t walk in the path of Levi
anymore. That Levi – now there was a
Hebrew for God! “Reliable instruction
was in his mouth. No perversity was
found upon his lips. He walked with me
in integrity and uprightness and turned many away from evil.” Levi?
He was one of the elder brothers of Judah that Jacob passed over when
giving out his blessings. In Chapter 34
of Genesis, Levi and Simeon massacred a town full of men. Levi himself wasn’t a great guy – but his
descendents included Moses and the guys who sided with Moses in the golden calf
incident in Exodus.
God then compares the relationship between himself and the
Hebrew to a husband and wife. The
Hebrew might think they’ve divorced him, but God disagrees, “For I hate
divorce.” You’ll not get out of this
relationship.
CHAPTER 3
God is coming, so everyone should behave. Quit it with sorcery and adultering and
defrauding your laborers. (Once again,
a message of economic justice slips into a prophet’s words).
There is a really nice line midway though this. God says: “Return to me, that I may return
to you.” In many ways, that’s the big
message of this period of Jewish history.
That’s why the Temple will be rebuilt.
What it means for God to return to his people is rather old
fashioned, though. If you return to him,
he’ll make sure their crops are full and not hurt by locusts. Huh.
That’s a very old-fashioned notion of a god as a nature god. That’s the sort of deity the Native
Americans prayed to.
Then God turns to a new topic. Throughout Malachi, God’s words are staged like a
conversation. God seemingly quotes what
the Jews are saying/thinking of him, and then responds. Well, here in the last chapter of the last
book of the Old Testament, God takes on the main moral question against him: if
he is good and powerful, then how come the bad, sinful people often prosper in
this world.
This was the question of Job and Habakkuk. Now it comes up again in Malachi. God answers this question he just asked
himself by telling people to just wait.
Wait, and when he is ready he’ll strike and sort everything out. (Why must he wait? He doesn’t make that
clear). None of the answers to this
question are really satisfying, but Job had the best answer. It at least acknowledged that there is no
great answer.
Last verse of the Old Testament says of God: “He will turn
the heart of fathers to their sons and the heart of sons to their fathers, lest
I come and strike the land with utter destruction.” That’s an interesting final note to go out on. On the one hand, you lead with a positive
image – people all coming together to be as one. But, as often is the case in the Old Testament, you can’t get too
cheery. So God finished up on a note of
menace. Based on all I’ve read, that’s
probably appropriate.
I should note this isn’t how the
Jewish Bible ends. They organize the
chapters differently. It ends with
Chronicles II. Here is it’s last verse:
“`Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me
all the kingdoms of the earth. He ahs
also charged me to built him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. All among you, therefore, who belong to his
people, may their God be with them; let them go up.’” It’s a much cheerier note, but the irony is the hero/talker is
Cyrus, who isn’t even a believer in God.
CONCLUING THOUGHTS
It isn’t bad. It’s
nothing great and much of it is things we’ve already heard, but I had an easier
time following along. Maybe the fact
that it ends the Old Testament helped me pay attention. The Minor Prophets really dragged as they
went along, and little in the back half stood out. This was one of the better moments in the back half of the Minor
Prophets, but that is frankly a low hurdle to clear.
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