God's Love For Israel - Malachi 1:1-5
INTRODUCTION:
Last Sunday we finished up the book of Revelation. I gave you some homework to complete this week in anticipation of the book we will start this morning. I told you that you were to read through the book of Malachi, the book that we will be in for the next several weeks.
By way of introduction I want to share a little bit about this book that we are about to begin going through. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament not only in order, but also historically it was most likely the last written before the 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Malachi was a contemporary with Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah, the governor of Judah who returned from exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In the book of Nehemiah, chapter 13 we learn that after Nehemiah had been in Jerusalem and after the walls had been rebuilt that he returned to Babylon for a time, but then returned again to Jerusalem. It was during this time that Nehemiah was gone from Jerusalem that Malachi began ministering as a prophet in Jerusalem and began calling the people to repentance. This would be the late 5th century B.C. sometime between 433-424 B.C. Many of the reforms that took place in Jerusalem when Nehemiah returned were the very things that Malachi speaks about in his book. Malachi is written in what is called disputation form, this means that Malachi begins each section with a statement or command, this is followed by a question by the people, which is then followed by a counterpoint by the prophet to prove his first statement or command. Malachi has six of these sections in his book. Let’s pray and then we will get into the first section in book of Malachi this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to the book of Malachi 1:1-5 our passage of Scripture for this morning. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Malachi 1:1-5,
“The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. ‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have You loved us?’ ‘Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.’ Though Edom says, ‘We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins’; thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.’ Your eyes will see this and you will say, ‘The Lord be magnified beyond the border of Israel!’” (Malachi 1:1–5, NASB95)[1]
MALACHI’S INTRODUCTION (Malachi 1:1)
Malachi opens this book as the oracle of the word of the LORD. This is an interesting phrase that opens a few of the other prophetic books. This word translated “oracle” is a word that means burden or something to be lifted up. The King James Version translates this opening phrase as the burden of the word of the LORD. What does this mean? Often when a prophet opens a book or a section in this way it means that the prophet has a rebuke from the Lord to the people or a message of judgment for the people to whom the prophet is sent. That is certainly the case with this book written by this prophet to the people of Israel. The first return from exile for the people of Israel was about 100 years before Malachi began to minister in Jerusalem, the temple had been rebuilt, the sacrificial system was in place again, the walls of the city were rebuilt, people had rebuilt their homes. They had returned with excitement and zeal, but over the years they became complacent in their spiritual walk, the promises that the Messiah was coming to deliver them and bring about abundant blessing was not happening, they were still in bondage to Persia and ruled by governors, as a nation they were feeble and weak, their crops were not doing well. They thought they could just maintain the covenant with the God of Israel by formal ritual alone, but God wanted their hearts, He wanted them completely devoted to Him as He was completely devoted to them. So, Malachi has a burden of the word of the LORD to deliver to the people of Israel. After returning from exile the nation is no longer spoken of as two nations, but one again and living in Jerusalem are not only those from the tribe of Judah, but some from the northern tribes as well.
We know next to nothing about Malachi, he is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. His name means “my messenger.” Some even believe that this is not a name, but a title and the author is anonymous, but I believe it is the author’s name just like all the other prophetic books named for the author. Let’s begin to look at this message that Malachi has for the people of Israel living in Jerusalem.
A STATEMENT OF TRUTH (Malachi 1:2a)
This message is a message from the LORD to the people of Israel, and throughout this book the covenant name of God is used, in your Bible it is written as LORD in all capital letters, this is God’s covenant name with Israel, in Hebrew it is Yahweh and describes God as the self-existent One, the “I AM WHO I AM” the name given to Moses when God called him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and Moses had said, “They (the Israelites) may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God replied that Moses was to tell the people that “I AM” has sent me to you. The people of Israel would recognize this name as God’s covenant name with them, the name He had chosen to be known by them.
Malachi first statement of truth is: “’I have loved you,’ says the Lord.” (Malachi 1:2a, NASB95)[2] This is not a general statement of God’s love for all people like we find in John 3:16. Here this is the covenant God of Israel speaking, the One Who had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One Who made a covenant with the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. The God of Israel had called her into existence and for one thousand years the LORD had ruled over her as her God and great King and had raised her like a father to His children on the basis of His covenant with her. Israel was the object of the LORD’S love.
This is not the first time that the LORD has expressed His love for Israel. Listen to these words of love written by the pen of Moses in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:6–8, NASB95)[3] Even when the people were rebelling against the LORD and worshiping other gods, even then He declared His love for them as He sent His prophets to call them to repentance and warn them of coming judgment if they continued in their rebellion against Him. Hosea declared in Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.” (Hosea 11:1, NASB95)[4] and the LORD’S tender words in Jeremiah 31:3, “The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.’” (Jeremiah 31:3, NASB95)[5] The LORD loved Israel in that He sovereignly and graciously elected her to be His own possession. Love was the very heart of the covenant relationship that the LORD had with Israel. Israel in acknowledging God’s love for them, should have responded by loving Him and obeying His commands. What Israel’s response should have been in response to the LORD’S love is given to us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, ““Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, NASB95)[6]
THE TRUTH QUESTIONED (Malachi 1:2b)
Instead of acknowledging the LORD’S love for them, the people of Israel ask, “How have You loved us?” (Malachi 1:2b, NASB95)[7] By questioning God’s claim of love for them, the Israelites were revealing a distrust for the LORD, a lack of faith in His Word. This was not only a distrust in Malachi’s statement, but also a distrust in the LORD’S faithfulness to His covenant. Because Israel failed to believe the Word of God, this resulted in Israel failing to love God and instead even to be hostile toward Him.
Israel was looking at their circumstances and possibly thought that their complaint was valid. About 100 years had passed since the people had returned from exile, possibly many of these were the second generation from the exile. The kingdom that the prophets had predicted had still not come, the people instead continued to be dominated by foreign governors, economically times were tough and because crops had not done well, food was expensive and not always available. If they had looked at the covenant in Deuteronomy they would have known that the hardships they were experiencing were the result of their disobedience, not the cause of it. We will see near the end of Malachi that there is a righteous remnant in Jerusalem, but as a nation the people need to repent from the sin of unbelief and fall in love with the LORD again and love Him with all their heart, soul, and might.
THE PROOF OF GOD’S CLAIM (Malachi 1:2c-5)
The LORD replies to Israel through Malachi and gives proof of His claim that He loves Israel. God uses two facts to prove His love. First, His love was expressed to Israel in God’s free choice, His election of Jacob and his descendants, even those who were questioning His love for them in Malachi’s day. The LORD chose Jacob to inherit the promise given to Abraham, even though this was contrary to the custom of the day which said that the oldest son or the firstborn son should receive the blessing. Remember Esau, later named Edom which later became the name of the nation fathered by Esau, he was the firstborn of the twins that Rebekah bore to Isaac. Our Scripture reading this morning from Romans 9 says that even before they were born, before they could do anything good or bad, God freely elected Jacob, later named Israel as the heir.
The Hebrew words for loved and hated used by Malachi and then quoted by Paul in Romans 9 do not refer to God’s emotions but of His free choice of the one over the other for a covenant relationship. To hate someone in this sense is to reject him and deny any loving association with him. These words by themselves do not in any way indicate the eternal destinations of either of these two individuals or their descendants. Like each of us, their eternal destination is based on faith in Christ, believing that His death paid the price for sin, that He was buried and on the third day rose from the dead. This is a choice that each person must make by faith.
The verbs “loved” and “hated” refer to God’s acts in history to both Israel and Edom the two nations which descended from Jacob and Esau. Both of these verbs are in the perfect tense which means they not only refer to God’s past relationship with these nations, but also His historical and present relationship and dealings with them, present referring to Malachi’s day. This leads us to the second proof which justifies the LORD’S claim of love for Israel. The people of Israel needed to consider what it would be like for them if they had not been elected to a covenant relationship with the LORD, like Edom had experienced. In the sixth century both Israel and Edom were judged by God through the Babylonians. Over and over the prophets promised that Israel would be restored by the LORD, but He condemned Edom to complete destruction, never to be restored to their land, never to rebuild. Jeremiah 49:7-22 and Ezekiel 35:1-15 are prophecies against Edom that declare their complete destruction forever.
Here in Malachi the LORD describes how He has laid waste the hill country of Edom through the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and how it is now left to the jackals of the desert to pass onto their descendants. Even if Edom should declare that they will rebuild, the LORD of hosts will tear down, and this is exactly what happened, they tried to rebuild after they were destroyed by Babylon, but in the fifth century the Nabateans, an Arabian tribe invaded and drove the Edomites out of their land. They never occupied it again. God declares that men will call the land of Edom the wicked territory in contrast to Israel which is the holy land, the land set apart (that is what holy means) to receive the covenant blessings. The people of Edom will be known as those whom God is angry with forever in comparison to Israel whom the LORD loves and desires to pour His blessing on.
Israel will witness God’s sovereignty as He deals with Edom in wrath and with everlasting destruction, this will give Israel a better understanding of God’s love for them in electing them to receive His covenant blessing. They will recognize God’s sovereignty beyond the border of Israel and will magnify Him, in other words they will recognize that the LORD’S greatness, that His sovereignty reaches beyond the border of Israel into the whole earth.
CONCLUSION:
In this passage of Scripture, we see the LORD’S great love for the nation of Israel, this is the basis upon which the rest of the book of Malachi is built on. Because the LORD loves you, Malachi says to Israel, He is calling you to respond in love towards Him, and we will see that Israel was not responding to His great love with love, but instead with disobedience. Malachi will rebuke them for their sin and call them to repentance. One day they will repent and respond to God’s love and receive all the blessings promised to them.
God loves us as well, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NASB95)[8] God loves us so much that He gave up His Son, so that we could have life. Paul in Romans 5:8 speaks of God demonstration of His love for us, Paul writes, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NASB95)[9] Just as God chose Israel to be the heir to the covenant, God also chose you and me to be a part of His family. Listen to these words of love from Ephesians 1:3-14, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:3–14, NASB95)[10] God in His infinite wisdom chose you to receive all the spiritual blessings in Christ. Do not be like the Israel, respond to God’s love for you by loving Him with all your heart, soul and might and by living your life according to His Word in everything you do, make His Word a part of every part of your life, teach it to your children and your children’s children. Talk of God’s Word when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up and God will be magnified beyond the border of your home.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[7]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[8]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[9]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[10]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995