Malachi spoke to people who had come home from exile and rebuilt the temple, and then grown tired. Priests offered blind and lame animals. Men divorced the wives of their youth. People asked whether serving God was worth it. His book is a series of arguments: God says something, the people ask how, and God answers.
It ends with a promise. God will send his messenger to prepare the way, and the Lord will suddenly come to his temple like a refiner's fire. For those who fear his name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. Then Scripture goes quiet until John the Baptist.
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But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.
Name means
My messenger
Home
Jerusalem, after the return
Role
Prophet to Judah after the temple was rebuilt
Read in
Malachi's story
The refiner's fire
Beginning
I have loved you
God opens with love, and the people ask: how have you loved us?
Low point
Blind and lame offerings
Priests offer God what they would never give their governor.
Turning point
The wife of your youth
God says he hates divorce and treachery against a covenant partner.
Turning point
The refiner's fire
A messenger will prepare the way, and the Lord will come to refine.
Ending
The sun of righteousness
Elijah will come before the day of the LORD, to turn hearts.
Starts as a messenger to tired people. Ends as the last voice before the silence.
Where Malachi lived and went
Only places Scripture records. Softer, dotted pins are traditional or uncertain sites. Tap a pin for the passage.
HomeMinistryKey momentTraditional or uncertainPinch or use + to zoom. Tap a cluster to spread it out.
Malachi appears only in connection with Jerusalem.
How Malachi is wired
Why there's no type here
Scripture gives us only his message, and his name may even be a title, so a type would be guesswork.
Strengths & struggles
What's good in Malachi
Direct about half-hearted worship (). Names God's unchanging love ().
Where Malachi struggles
Scripture records nothing of his failings.
What Malachi wanted most
Honest, wholehearted worship from priests and people ().
Malachi promised a messenger and a Lord coming to his temple. The Gospels open with both.
Mark's Gospel begins by quoting about the messenger, and then introduces John the Baptist (). Jesus said John was the Elijah who was to come (). Then the Lord himself came to his temple ().
Questions to sit with
1
Malachi's people asked whether serving God was worth it. When have you asked the same?
2
What does it mean to you that God opens with I have loved you?
Study Malachi with your group
Ready-to-lead group studies with discussion questions and a leader's note are on the way.
