Malachi: Answering the Questions of our faith 2 and a half Millenniums later... Participant s Guide

Transcription

1 Malachi: Answering the Questions of our faith 2 and a half Millenniums later... Participant s Guide

2 "There is a difference between believing something is beneficial and opening up your heart, mind and life to let that beneficial thing in," Geof Morin, American Bible Society 2

3 Welcome to our ESM study on Malachi. As we spend time looking through the 4 chapters that make up this last book of the Old Testament, my prayer is that you will begin to see how the message of a Prophet approximately 2500 years ago can resonate to our faith today in The words of scripture are timeless and are perfect for giving direction on how to live out our faith. For all of scripture, from the Old Testament to the New Testament is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17) My prayer is as you look into the book of Malachi, you will find God speaking to you and you will find application for your own life as well as those in your cell group and our family of faith here at OCAC. 3

4 What is in this study? Over the next 3 lessons we will cover the 4 chapters of Malachi. This study will in no way be exhaustive and cover all there is to know about Malachi but will hopefully wet your appetite to study it more in-depth for yourself. Perhaps it will be the beginning of a journey for you to study books of the bible such as Malachi that you would have never thought of studying in the past. In each lesson you will have opportunities to look deeper into the words of Malachi and understand the struggles of faith of the Israelites who lived approximately 2500 years ago. There will be questions for discussion, background information given and even a bit of work outside for those who desire to get the most out of this study. Through the S.O.A.P. (this will be explained later) reflections you do at home, you will be better prepared for each study together as well as be more equipped to apply the lessons to your own life. In addition, as each of the cell groups study the material over the next few months, we will be preaching through Malachi as well in our Sunday worship service in order to compliment what you are learning. May God bless you and your small group as we commit to having God speak through us through the Prophet Malachi. 4

5 S.O.A.P. S.O.A.P. stands for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. It is a way of getting more out of your time in God's word as you study the book of Malachi outside of your small group times. It s a method of studying and reflection that has been around for a while and works because it s straight forward. S- The S stands for Scripture- you physically write or type out the scripture (no copying and pasting) You will be amazed that what God will reveal to you just by taking the time to slow down and actually write out what you are reading! O- The O stands for observation- what do you see in the verses that you re reading. Who is the audience? Is there a repetition of words? What words stand out to you? What did you observe about the scripture that struck you. This can be a few words, a sentence or however long you desire. A- The A stands for Application- this is when God s Word becomes personal. What is God saying to me today? How can I apply what I just read and my observations to my own life today? What changes do I need to make? Is there an action that I need to take? P- And finally P stands for Prayer. Pray God s Word back to Him. If He has revealed something to you during this time in His Word, pray about it. Confess if He has revealed some sin that is in your life. Write out a prayer to God based on what you just learned and ask him to help you apply this truth in your life. 5

6 S.O.A.P. Readings 1) Malachi 1: 1-5 2) Malachi 1: ) Malachi 2: 1-9 4) Malachi 2: ) Malachi 2: 17-3:5 6) Malachi 3: ) Malachi 3: ) Malachi 4: 1-5 6

7 Background on Malachi Author The opening verse of chapter one says, A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. Thus we are presented with the notion that the words that within this book named Malachi are the words of a source named Malachi. In Hebrew, the name comes from a word meaning messenger, which points to Malachi s role as a prophet of the Lord, delivering God s message to God s people. But the bigger question that has been an issue of debate, for some more than others, is who is this Malachi figure exactly for Malachi offered no other identifying information about himself, leaving out markers typical of other prophets such as his father s name or the current leader of Israel. Some have imagined this writer to have been an angel, on account of his name. We indeed know that!"#$, Melac, in Hebrew is an Angel; but still this is an absurd supposition. It is easy to see; for the Lord at that time did not send angels to reveal his oracles, but adopted the ordinary ministry of men. Furthermore, as iod is added at the end of the word, as it was usual in proper names, we may indeed hence include that it was the name of a man. Rabbinic tradition suggests that Malachi may be another name for Ezra the scribe, although there is no supporting evidence for this identification. In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, it is logical to accept that the prophet was a man called Malachi. Most scholars would agree to the fact that indeed Malachi is a real person and moreso he is his own person and not another prophet being called by another named. All in all, he was no doubt one of the Prophets, and as it appears, the last. The prophet Malachi lived somewhere in the time frame of about B.C. He as the last of the minor prophets. His name means my angel or my messenger. Some have insisted that the name is simply a title descriptive of his character as a messenger of God, and not a proper name. There is reason, however, to conclude that Malachi was the ordinary name of the prophet. Nothing else is known about him from the Bible. Based on the time frame that he was writing about and similarities of issues in Israel, we can make an educated conclusion that Malachi was a contemporary with Nehemiah. No allusion is made to him by Ezra, and he does not mention the restoration of the temple, and hence it is inferred that he prophesied after Haggai and Zechariah, and when the temple services were still in existence. 7

8 Historical Setting Based on the content of the book, it becomes clear that Malachi delivered his message of judgment to a Judean audience familiar with worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem (2:11). The people of Judah had turned away from the true worship of the Lord, leaving themselves under judgment and in need of salvation. Whereas most of the prophets lived and prophesied in days of change and political upheaval, Malachi and his contemporaries were living in an uneventful waiting period, when God seemed to have forgotten His people enduring poverty and foreign domination in the little province of Judah. The Temple had been completed, but nothing momentous had occurred to indicate that God s presence had returned to fill it with glory, as Ezekiel had indicated would happen (Eze. 43:4). The day of miracles had passed with Elijah and Elisha. The religious duties continued to be carried on, but without enthusiasm. The people were starting to wonder, where was the God of their fathers? Did it really matter whether we served Him or not? Many were losing their faith. Malachi certainly wrote to the people of Judah (Malachi 1:1; 2:11), but the historical setting becomes clearer in Malachi 1:8. Here the prophet used the Persian word for governor, indicating a time period between BC, when the Persian Empire ruled the Promised Land. Malachi also wrote about the corruption of the temple sacrifices, meaning that he likely delivered his message many years after the Israelites rebuilt the temple in 515 BC. The absence of any reference to the rebuilding of the Temple, and the fact that worship has degenerated into routine suggest that some considerable time has passed since its rebuilding took place. Social conditions are reminiscent of the time of Ezra-Nehemiah. There is the same unwillingness to part with money for the Temple funds (Mal. 3:8; Neh. 10:32-39; 13:10); advantages was taken of the poor (Mal. 3:5; Neh. 5:1-5)) and most characteristic of all, intermarriage with non Jewish families was threatening the survival of the covenant of faith (Mal. 2:10,11; Ezr. 9:12; Neh. 13:1-3, 23). This parallel evidence has proved convincing and there is a general consensus of opinion that Malachi belongs to the same approximate period as Ezra and Nehemiah. Only when attempts are made to date Malachi more precisely do differing viewpoints arise because of the uncertainty about the date of Ezra s arrival in Jerusalem and his relationship to Nehemiah. The absence in Malachi of reference to recent legislation such as Ezra and Nehemiah suggest that Malachi preceded them in time. If Ezra came to Jerusalem in 458 BC, Malachi might belong to the previous decade. This would explain the otherwise surprising reaction to Ezra s day of repentance and fasting, before he himself had opportunity to preach the words of Malachi had already quickened the public conscience. Then there are those who believe that Ezra came after Nehemiah and therefore put Malachi a little 8

9 later around 445 BC or even after 433 BC. It is not possible to be more specific. All that being said, Malachi could have been written in any time it seems between BC. 9

10 Purpose The sum and substance of the Book is that while the Jews returned to their own country after exile, they also soon returned to their own nature, became unmindful of God s favour, and so gave themselves up to many corruptions. Over time their state was nothing better than that of their fathers before them. As the Jews had again relapsed into many vices, our Prophet severely rebukes them. He mentions some of their sins, that he might prove them of their guilt. And he addresses the priests, who had by bad examples corrupted the morals of the people, yet their office required a very different course of life; for the Lord had set them over the people to be teachers of religion and of uprightness. But rather than live up to their calling, they were the source of a great portion of the vices of the age; and hence Malachi more severely condemns them. Malachi also at the same time shows that God would remember his covenant (promise), which he had made with their fathers if they too would return to him. The message of the final Old Testament book is addressed to Israel (1:1b). Since the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. this name was used for the entirety of the covenant people. The postexilic community was viewed as being comprised of former citizens of both Israel (northern kingdom) and Judah (southern kingdom). Malachi referred to his words as the burden of the word of Yahweh. The term burden (massa ) is literally, that which is lifted up. The word often introduces a prophecy of judgment, a weighty woe against the wicked. The NASB and NIV rendering oracle perhaps is too technical. A better translation would be proclamation. Thus Malachi opens with the claim that what follows is a proclamation of the word of Yahweh (1:1a). 10

11 Lesson 1 Malachi Chapter 1: I have loved you Malachi 1 (NIV) 1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. Israel Doubts God s Love 2 I have loved you, says the Lord. But you ask, How have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob s brother? declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. 4 Edom may say, Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins. But this is what the Lord Almighty says: They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, Great is the Lord even beyond the borders of Israel! 11

12 Breaking Covenant Through Blemished Sacrifices 6 A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord Almighty. It is you priests who show contempt for my name. But you ask, How have we shown contempt for your name? 7 By offering defiled food on my altar. But you ask, How have we defiled you? By saying that the Lord s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? says the Lord Almighty. 9 Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you? says the Lord Almighty. 10 Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty. 12 But you profane it by saying, The Lord s table is defiled, and, Its food is contemptible. 13 And you say, What a burden! and you sniff at it contemptuously, says the Lord Almighty. When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands? says the Lord. 14 Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations. 12

13 What is a prophet? Malachi is one of the 12 minor prophet books of the Old Testament. THE ordinary Hebrew word for prophet is Nâbi (Heb. "%&'(), derived from the verb "'&'( which is connected by Gesenius with )&(. If this etymology is correct, the noun will designate a person, who bursts forth with spiritual utterances under the divine impulse, or simply one who pours forth words; pouring forth the declarations of God. The word prophet does not merely signify one who predicts future events; nor is the term prophecy restricted to the prediction of such events. The word Nâbi is uniformly translated in the LXX (Septuagint; an early Greek translation of the Old Testament) by *+,-ἠ./0 (prophetes). The proper sense of *+ὸ is before, in front, as opposed to behind. Hence, according to the best lexicographers, the idea of priority in time is given as secondary to that of antecedence and priority in place. This view would give to *+1 in *+1-/µ2and*+,-3./0, a local instead of a temporal signification. *+,-3./0 would, in that case, denote an authoritative speaker in the name of God; and it is applied in this sense, in the Classics, to the official expounders of the oracles, and to poets, as the prophets of the Muses The restriction, in modern usage, of the term prophet to one who predicts future events, and prophecy to the prediction of these events, has arisen from the fact that a large portion of the prophetic writings, and precisely that very portion which is most likely to impress the reader, is of this description. But these words do not admit of any such restriction in the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament. In these they admit of the sense of declaration and interpretation. Read Exodus 4:10-16 What does this passage tell you about a prophet or one who is used by God to speak? 13

14 As you read the words of Malachi 1, the Lord makes a number of statements towards towards Israel. How does Israel respond? What is the pattern in their responses? How does the Lord declare his proof of how he loves Israel? What do you think He wants Israel to understand about His love? In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too selfsufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." 14

15 Malachi s unique position as the final book of the Old Testament offers a glimpse into the hearts of Israelite men and women, members of a nation that had been specially chosen by God, descendants of Abraham, and inheritors of the rich tradition of the Jewish people. Their history told of glories like the exodus from Egypt and the faithfulness of God to King David. But they had also experienced the judgment of wandering in the desert and the shame of exile from the Promised Land. At the time of Malachi, well over a thousand years after Abraham s era, the Israelites had the advantage and weight of history on their side; they could see the shining rewards of faithfulness and the punishments associated with judgment, even to the point of being uprooted from their land. But even then, with all that perspective, the book of Malachi teaches us that they still strayed from the Lord s path. They needed God s intervention as much as ever, so this book, as a final statement of judgment in the Old Testament, anticipates God s saving work through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The people of Judah began to be exiled from the Promised Land approximately 605 BC, returning from Babylon seventy years later. By the time of Malachi, they had been back in the land for more than a hundred years and were looking for the blessings they expected to receive when they returned. Though the temple had been rebuilt, the fervour of those early returning Israelites gave way to a thorough apathy for the things of God. This led to rampant corruption among the priesthood and a spiritual lethargy among the people. Put yourself in the place of Israel? How do you think that they would have interpreted God s love in light of their history from Genesis until Malachi? Why is there a sense of scepticism to God s love? Far from responding with warmth and spontaneity to the personal love shown to them, both priests and people were apathetic in their worship of the Lord. They showed him no love but rather contempt. They defiled their worship of the Lord. 15

16 What would cause you to ever ask the question to God, How have you love me? The deeper question that lies at the Christian faith is not so much how God has loved us but rather, How much do we love God? Read Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Matthew 22:36-40 and Malachi 1:6-9. Why do you supposed the Lord is angry at Israel here in Malachi? God is almighty and all powerful, he does not need the offerings because it fills him up somehow. So what do you think is really at the issue here behind God s anger with the offerings that the priest are presenting to God? Read Malachi 1:9-14 What is the response that Lord has to the offerings that he has been given? Is he right in his anger? How do you think the Israelites responded to verse 9? As you think about the offerings that you have brought to God in your life, how would you respond to it? Would the words of God be true in any way? If so, in what way does it speak to you? 16

17 The Lord says, My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations, But clearly this is not how Israel has treated him. God therefore says he would rather they shut the temple doors and cease offerings than give him what they have been giving him. The book of Malachi was written specifically for Israel, or the followers of God. It has nothing to say about the judgement to other nations or those outside of the faith. It does not mean that God did not care about the other wayward nations but rather one of the things at the very heart of God is for his people to be in a right relationship with him. For his followers to live out the faith that they proclaim. Take Away As you go throughout this week, continue to examine the offerings that you are giving to the Lord. What things would need to change in your life so that your offerings are please to the Lord and show him that you truly do love him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength? Malachi came along at a time when the people were struggling to believe that God loved them (Malachi 1:2). The people focused on their unfortunate circumstances and refused to account for their own sinful deeds. So God pointed the finger back at them, and through Malachi, God told the people where they had fallen short of their covenant with Him. If they hoped to see changes, they needed to take responsibility for their own actions and serve God faithfully according to the promise their fathers had made to God on Mount Sinai all those years before. Malachi s prophecy is particularly relevant to the many waiting periods in human history and in the lives of individuals. He enables us to see the strains and temptations of such times, slow slide into indifference of faith that ends in cynicism because it has lost touch with the living God. But even more important is that Malachi shows the way back to a genuine, enduring faith in the God who does not change (3:6), who invites men to return to him (3:7), and never forgets those who respond to him (3:16). 17