Malachi chapter 1
1:1 For burden (Hebrew masa', "burden," "load," or "thing lifted up"): See the note on Habakkuk 1:1-4
1:2-5 Yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau has caused concern to many. This expression involves the use of a
Hebrew idiom. If a father had two sons and made one heir, he was said to love the one he had made his heir and to
hate the other whom he had not made an heir. The love and hate spoken of here are not related to the emotions;
they are related to the will of God. The words challenge Israel to recognize the responsibilities inherent in its
privileged position.
Malachi chapter 2
2:4-7 The covenant referred to in this context is the "covenant of an everlasting priesthood" (Numbers 25:10-13),
given to Phinehas, and to the covenant made with Levi and his descendants, because of their faithfulness to God in
the midst of general infidelity (Exodus 32:25-29; Deuteronomy 33:8-11). Therefore, it represents a call to a genuine
priesthood.
2:10 The reference here is not to God's universal Fatherhood of all humanity, but to His unique relation to Israel.
2:11-14 Married the daughter of a strange god: The problem of intermarriage with the heathen was further
complicated by some of the men divorcing their Hebrew wives to marry heathen women. Therefore, both
intermarriage and divorce are condemned.
Malachi chapter 3
3:1 My messenger plays on the name of the prophet. It does not refer to a heavenly messenger. Neither does it
refer to a spiritual being nor to the Angel of the Lord, but to an earthly messenger of the Lord, the same one called
Elijah in 4:5, 6. This clause is quoted a number of times in the New Testament (Matthew 3:3, 11:10; Mark 1:2, 3;
Luke 1:76; 3:4; 7:26, 27; John 1:23) and is uniformly applied to John the Baptist, the only prophet besides Jesus
who was the subject of prophecy.
3:7-12 These Israelites have done what no man should presume to attempt, namely, to defraud God in tithes and
offerings. The payment of tithes and offerings was a recognition of their subjection to God and the He owned them
and all that they had. To withhold the tithe is to renounce the sovereign authority of God and to be guilty of the
same sin as Lucifer in the beginning. Pour you out a blessing: The blessings come not because God received His
due portion, but because in giving the tithe believers put themselves in the place of proper obedience and
subjection to God. Tithing was clearly commanded in the Old Testament and served as the minimum standard for
giving in the New Testament. See Matthew 6:1-4 in the Sermon on the Mount, where true spirituality exceeds the
outward demands of the Law.
Malachi chapter 4
4:1-6 The coming day is the day of the Lord (or the Great Tribulation), which is in view as the birth pangs for the
millennial kingdom. Sun of righteousness is a figurative representation of the Messiah. Moses represents the law
and Elijah represents the prophets. Both of them appeared at the transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:3). The Old
Testament ends with the promise of the coming of Elijah, which the New Testament identifies as John the Baptist
(Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23). John's own disclaimer (John 1:21) was simply a denial that he was
literally Elijah. Jesus, on the other hand, clearly stated that John the Baptist came "in the spirit and power of Elijah"
(Matthew 11:14; 17:10-13; Mark 9:11-13). Malachi's promise is quoted by the angel in Luke 1:17 as referring to the
ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Messiah. Therefore, the Old Testament ends in anticipation of
the coming of the Messiah and His prophetic forerunner, John the Baptist, who appears in the likeness of Elijah.