Old Testament

Malachi

Malachi speaks to a community back in the land, with a rebuilt temple, whose zeal has cooled into doubt, careless worship and broken promises. In a series of disputes, God makes a statement, the people object, and God answers: He has loved them, the priests despise His name, husbands break faith with their wives, and the Lord they seek will suddenly come to His temple to refine and judge. It belongs in the Bible because it closes the prophets, in the order of English Bibles, by pointing back to the law of Moses and forward to Elijah, the forerunner the New Testament identifies with John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus.

Author: Malachi, whose name means 'my messenger' (1:1). Most take it as the prophet's name, though some think it is a title drawn from 3:1, and the ancient Greek translation renders it as 'his messenger'.
Audience: The people of Judah in the Persian period, and especially the priests who served at the altar (1:6; 2:1). They were offering blemished animals, withholding tithes and marrying women who worshiped other gods.
When: After the temple was rebuilt in 515 BC, since sacrifices are being offered and a governor rules (1:8). Most place it in the mid-400s BC, near the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, whose books deal with the same problems.
Where: Jerusalem and Judah, a small province of the Persian Empire. The temple stands, but there is no king, and the promised glory seems slow in coming.
Genre: Malachi is prophecy in the form of disputations: God's statement, the people's 'How?' or 'In what way?', and God's answer. There are usually counted six such disputes, followed by a closing word about Moses and Elijah. The prose is plain and pointed, with images of a refiner's fire, launderer's soap and a sun with healing in its wings. Read it as a conversation in which God answers a weary people's objections, and notice how often the word covenant appears.

Shape of the book

Loved by God, Dishonored by Priests · ch 1God answers doubts about His love by pointing to Jacob and Esau, then charges the priests with offering blind, lame and sick animals He would never accept.
Broken Covenants · ch 2The priests have corrupted the covenant of Levi, the people break faith by marrying idolaters and divorcing the wives of their youth, and they ask where the God of justice is.
The Lord Comes to His Temple · ch 3A messenger will prepare the way, the Lord will come to refine and judge, the people are called to return with full tithes, and a scroll of remembrance is written for those who fear Him.
The Day, Moses and Elijah · ch 4The day burns like a furnace for the arrogant, the sun of righteousness rises for those who fear God, and the people are told to remember the law of Moses and look for Elijah.

Themes

I Have Loved You. The book's first words from God are 'I have loved you' (). Everything that follows, the rebukes included, comes from a God who chose Jacob and has kept His covenant, and who does not change, so Jacob's descendants have not been destroyed ().
Honoring God in Worship. A son honors his father and a servant his master, but the priests despise God's name by offering what they would not dare give their governor (). God would rather the temple doors were shut (), and He declares that His name will be great among the nations (, 14).
Faithfulness in Covenant. The word covenant runs through the book: the covenant with Levi (), the covenant of the fathers (), marriage as a covenant () and the messenger of the covenant (). Breaking faith with God and breaking faith with a spouse are treated as one sin.
The God of Justice Is Coming. To people asking 'Where is the God of justice?' (), God answers that the Lord they seek will come suddenly to His temple. His coming will refine like fire and judge sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers and those who oppress workers, widows, orphans and foreigners ().
The Righteous and the Wicked Distinguished. Some said serving God was futile because the arrogant prosper (). God records the names of those who fear Him in a scroll of remembrance, calls them His treasured possession, and promises a day when the difference between the righteous and the wicked will be seen (; ).

Where Christ is

Malachi's promises of a messenger who prepares the way and of the Lord who comes to His temple are applied in the Gospels to John the Baptist and Jesus. The promised Elijah is identified with John, who came in Elijah's spirit and power, so the Lord for whom he prepared the way is Jesus. Paul uses Malachi's words about Jacob and Esau to show that God's saving purpose rests on His choice.

The Messenger Who Prepares the Way. Fulfillment. God will send His messenger to prepare the way before Him, and then the Lord will come to His temple (). Jesus says this was written about John the Baptist, and Mark opens his Gospel with it. In Malachi the way is prepared before the LORD; in the Gospels it is prepared before Jesus. (; ; ; )
Elijah Before the Great Day. Fulfillment. God will send Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children (). The angel says John will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, and Jesus says John is the Elijah who was to come. John denied being Elijah in person, which most explain as the difference between a literal return and a ministry in Elijah's spirit. (; ; ; ; )
The Refiner's Fire. Fulfillment and future hope. The Lord's coming will be like a refiner's fire, purifying the sons of Levi (). John the Baptist warns that the coming one will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire and clear His threshing floor, and Hebrews presents Christ as the one through whom God's people offer acceptable worship. (; ; )
Jacob Loved. Application. God's love for Jacob over Esau () is quoted by Paul to show that God's purpose of election stands on His call, not on works or birth. Readers differ on whether Paul speaks chiefly of individuals or of nations and their roles; most agree that 'hated' here is covenant language for not chosen. (; ; )
The Sun of Righteousness. Echo. For those who fear God's name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings (). Zechariah's song at John's birth praises God for the Sunrise from on high who will visit His people to shine on those in darkness. (; )

Voices

Augustine. In The City of God he expected that, before the final judgment, the Jews would come to believe in Christ through the ministry of Elijah, reading of a coming of Elijah before Christ's return. More from Augustine at CCEL ↗

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Mark the pattern of each dispute: God's claim, the people's 'How?' and God's reply (1:2, 6-7; 2:14, 17; 3:7-8, 13). The people's objections show what they really believed.
Read Nehemiah 13 alongside Malachi. Neglected tithes, polluted offerings, corrupt priests and marriages to idolaters appear in both.
Note that chapter 4 in English Bibles is 3:19-24 in the Hebrew Bible, which has only three chapters.
Remember that the order of books differs. In English Bibles Malachi ends the Old Testament with the promise of Elijah, and the next page is Matthew. In the Hebrew Bible the prophets end with Malachi, but the whole collection ends with Chronicles.

Key terms

My messenger מַלְאָכִי (mal'akhi) — The prophet's name and the phrase of 3:1. The same word is used of the priest as the LORD's messenger (2:7), and the forerunner is later named as Elijah (4:5).
Covenant בְּרִית (berit) — A binding relationship with promises and obligations. Malachi speaks of covenants with Levi, with the fathers, in marriage, and of the messenger of the covenant.
Break faith בָּגַד (bagad) — To act treacherously toward a partner. Used five times in 2:10-16 for betraying God, one another and the wife of one's youth.
Treasured possession סְגֻלָּה (segullah) — A king's private treasure, the word God used for Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19:5). In 3:17 it describes those who fear the LORD.
Tithe מַעֲשֵׂר (ma'aser) — A tenth of produce and livestock given to support the Levites, the temple and the poor (Numbers 18:21-24; Deuteronomy 14:28-29). Withholding it is called robbing God (3:8).

Easy to misread

Treating 3:10 as a guarantee that giving money will make an individual rich. The challenge was addressed to a covenant community withholding what the law required for the temple, the Levites and the poor, and God promised to open the windows of heaven and rebuke the devourer of their crops (3:10-12). Christians differ on whether the tithe still binds believers, with some keeping it as a guide and many taking the New Testament's call to generous, cheerful giving (2 Corinthians 9:6-7) as the standard.
Using 2:16 to condemn people who have been divorced, especially those abandoned. The passage confronts men who broke faith by discarding the wives of their youth, and God's anger falls on that treachery. Translations differ on the exact wording of 2:16, but all show God siding with the wronged partner.
Reading 'Esau I have hated' (1:3) as a personal emotion of spite. It is covenant language for not choosing, as when Leah is said to be unloved compared with Rachel (Genesis 29:30-31), and it explains God's dealings with Edom and Israel.
Concluding that because Jesus said John was Elijah and John said he was not, Scripture contradicts itself. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), fulfilling the role without being Elijah returned in person.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video