(Fill
in the blanks, where applicable)
Read:
Chapter 3: 1, 9, 10; 4: 1, 2)
Vital Statistics
PURPOSE:
To confront the people with their sins and to restore their relationship with God. To reprove the remnant for their neglect of the temple. To reprove the priests for their profaning of the temple worship. To encourage the faithful remnant with Messianic promises.
AUTHOR:
Malachi, the Prophet of The Lord’s Messengers, who was the last Old Testament prophet to minister to the restored House of Judah.
DATE WRITTEN:
About 430 B.C. Malachi’s
ministry covered a period of about 25 years (435-410 B.C.), during the
governorship of Nehemiah over the restored House of Judah.
This was the last Old Testament book to be written.
TO WHOM WRITTEN?
The Jews in Jerusalem and God’s people everywhere.
SETTING:
Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah were post-exilic prophets to Judah (the Southern Kingdom). Haggai and Zechariah rebuked the people for their failure to rebuild the temple. Malachi confronted them with their neglect of the Temple and their false and profane worship.
KEY VERSES:
“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pout you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”(3: 1, 9, 10).
KEY PEOPLE:
Malachi, the priests
KEY PLACES:
Jerusalem, the Temple
DID YOU KNOW:
God loves perfectly and completely. And his love is a love of action – giving, guiding, and guarding. He is altogether faithful, true to his promises to his chosen people. But consistently they spurn their loving God, breaking the covenant, following other gods, and living for themselves. So the relationship is shattered.
This litany of unfaithfulness is terrible and surely worthy of punishment; but woven throughout this message is hope – the possibility of forgiveness. This is beautifully expressed in 4:2 – “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”
Summary: Malachi was the last of the three prophets to minister to Judah after the Babylonian captivity. Haggai and Zechariah were sent to rebuke the people for failing to rebuild the temple. Then generations later Malachi was sent to reprove the priests and the people for their neglect, profanity, and formalism relative to the temple worship. This he did with the question and answer method (there are no less than 23 questions in this book). Malachi was the last messenger of the O.T. prophets, referring to the priests as messengers of the Lord (2:7), and pointing to the first N.T. messenger, John the Baptist (3:1a; Mk. 1:2), and also to Messiah, the Messenger of the New Covenant (3:1b).
Final Note: Between Malachi and John the Baptist come “400 silent years”.
See you next lesson in 2001 for the New Testament: J J J J J J J J J J J J