Overview of the Book of Malachi

The overview of the week for this Sunday is the final book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi.

Malachi's name means my messenger, so it's debated whether this is actually his name or he's just God's messenger and we don't know his name.

Most people believe, most evangelicals believe, though, his name is Malachi. Either way, he wrote in the 5th century

BC, and the theme of his writing is formalism rebuked, formalism rebuked.

So Malachi wrote to correct kind of the lax religious and social behavior of the

Israelites, in particular the priests. Not long after the Jews returned from Babylon and reinstituted their worship in the temple, their commitment to the

Lord once again began to wane. We read in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2,

And now, O priest, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart to give glory to my name, says the

Lord of hosts, I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.

So, chapter 3, the Lord accuses the nation of Judah of robbing him.

He says this in verse 8, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.

But you say, In what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. So this is a very serious message from the prophet, and it's also a fitting message.

It's fitting that the book of Malachi ends the Old Testament scriptures, since it leaves the

Jews with this responsibility to watch for the coming messenger. And that messenger, of course, was

John the Baptist. Chapter 3, verse 1, speaks of John the Baptist, who would come as the forerunner of Christ.

So some 400 years later, at his first advent, that was John the Baptist's ministry, followed by Jesus.

And then chapter 4 speaks of the coming of Elijah, who Malachi says will come during the tribulation and the end times before Christ's second advent.

The book ends with these words, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the

Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.