Malachi 1:4-7
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Malachi 1:4
"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.'"
The concept of verse four is found in the action of the verbs: RASHASH,
SHUB, CHARAS. RASHASH means "to defeat," and in the context refers
to the presumptuously arrogant thoughts of the Edomites after God has defeated
them, namely, "we have been defeated in principle only."
In fact and in action, they think SHUB, which means "to return again,"
"we will return, we are all-powerful and cannot be kept down."
And the truth of SHUB from God's viewpoint is that they will never believe
in Him, in His power, in His righteousness; thus He must permanently destroy
them. Their arrogance is such that they cannot learn from Divine Discipline,
they believe in their hearts that, if there is a God, they are more powerful
than He.
Consequently, God's reality, the reality of absolute truth is found in the
Qal imperfect of the verb, CHARAS, which means "to thrown down or destroy
utterly." God will decimate them, and as He does so the Edomites will
acknowledge only their own pomposity. For this reason, they will be called
"a territory of wickedness,". "a people against whom the
Lord has indignation forever."
Malachi 1:5
"You will see it with your own eyes and say, 'Great is the Lord
--even beyond the borders of Israel!"
Not only will the priests and the people of Judah see the destruction of
Edom, but they will see something else: the warning omen of Divine Discipline
to Judah herself. The "eyes" are the eyes of the Jewish religious
leaders of the future, i.e., in 30 AD. And the warning sign that they will
see refers to the gift of tongues in the year 30 AD. This sign is also mentioned
in Isaiah 28:11, which says, "Very well then, with foreign lips and
strange tongues God will speak to his people."
Gentile languages will be used to warn the Jews of coming chastisement in
30 AD. And the result of this warning sign? "They will say, 'Great
is the Lord!" So the atheistic priests in Malachi's day, and the atheistic
and apostate priests and religious leaders in 30 AD, will both come to the
same conclusion: Great is the Lord!
The narrative of the gift of tongues is found in Acts 2:1ff. Because the
Jews failed to evangelize the Gentiles, God sent the Gentiles' languages
to evangelize the Jews. And note, that the gift of tongues involved the
articulation of a legitimate foreign language that the speaker did not know,
not the speaking of gibberish that was incomprehensible.
The demonstration of this is found in Acts 2:5-11, "Now there were
staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When
they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each
one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked:
'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans (the Galileans were uneducated
and uni-lingual)? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native
language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea
and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts
of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism);
Cretans and Arabs -- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own
tongues!'"
Thus the gift of tongues had a specific purpose, which was the warning and
evangelizing of the Jews. The gift was extant from the Day of Pentecost
in 30 AD, up till the fall of Jerusalem in August of 70 AD. Indeed, all
in all the Jews, as a nation, were the recipients of Seven Signs from God.
Seven Omens To The Jews From God
1. The gift of tongues, which was prophesied in Isaiah 28:11,
and Malachi 1:5.
2. The Virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, prophesied in Isaiah 7:14:
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be
with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
3. The betrayal of our Lord by Judas Iscariot, prophesied in Zechariah 11:12,13:
"I told them, 'If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep
it.' So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, 'Throw
it to the potter' -- the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took
the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to
the potter."
4. The two deaths (spiritual and physical) of Christ on the Cross, prophesied
in Isaiah 53:9: "He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with
the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit
in his mouth." And note, that if physical death was the atoning agent,
then our Lord would have had to die at least once for each human being ever
to live, i.e., billions of times.
5. The resurrection of our Lord, prophesied in Isaiah 52:13 and 53:10: "See
my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted."
"Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and
though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring
and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand."
6. Forty years of miraculous evangelism through the gift of
tongues, recorded in the Book of Acts.
7. The prophecy of the assault of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, prophesied
by our Lord during His Incarnation, circa 29 AD, in Luke 21:20: "When
you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation
is near." And in Luke 21:20, the word "desolation" is a specific
reference to Divine Discipline from God. Luke 21:22 makes a reference to
the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem as given in Leviticus 26:27ff.
Luke 21:22 reads, "For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment
of all that has been written." Where was it written? In Leviticus 26:27-45.
[9]
Malachi 1:6
"'A son honors his father, and a servant 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, O priests, who despise my name.
But you ask, 'How have we despised your name?'"
In verse six, the prophet Malachi introduces the idea of relationship and
output or production to the unbelieving priests of his day. The two relationships
are found in the phrases "father and son," and "master and
respect," "a son regularly honors a father, a slave his lord."
Therefore, Malachi is declaring to the unsaved priests that prior to representing
God to man, they must have a relationship with God as believers, as in the
father-son analogy. Then, and only then, can they generate results or fruit
for God, as in the slave-lord analogy. And these unsaved priests have no
love for God and no respect (reverence) for God because they have no relationship
with God.
And God asks, "Where is my honor" as to a father from a son? There
is none because these priests are unbelievers and thus are not 'sons.' And
then God asks, "If I be Lord(s), where is my reverence (worship)"
as to a master from a slave? There is none because to worship these priests
would have to be believers. There exists neither 'honor' or 'worship' because
these priests "despise God's name." And the word for 'despise'
means "to do that which implies contempt; to treat contemptuously and
proudly." [10]
And Robert Thieme states that BAZA "implies thinking then doing; they
despise God in their minds before they commit despicable acts." [11]
Additionally, the verb BAZA is presented by Malachi in the Qal active participle,
which means that these priests 'constantly despise God.' They never stop
despising God.
And then the priests ask, "In what one way do we despise you?"
And the question is posed in the Qal perfect, which means that they deny
constantly despising God, and more, they impudently ask Him to name just
one past act of hatred. The arrogance of this statement is monumental. And
God answers in verse 7.
The term utilized by Malachi for the priests, , COHEN, recommends itself
to further explanation:
The Levitical Priesthood
According to Numbers 16:5 the Levitical priests were commissioned by God,
separated unto God, and were allowed to approach God. "Then he said
to Korah and all his followers: 'In the morning the Lord will show who belongs
to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The
man he chooses he will cause to come near him."
The Levitical priesthood began with the tribe of Levi and proceeded through
the sons of the family of Aaron, according to Numbers 18:1,8 and Exodus
28:1, which says, "Have Aaron you brother brought to you from among
the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar,
so they may serve me as priests." However, physical blemishes disqualified
any male descendant of Aaron, according to Leviticus 21:17-23, from which
21:17 is presented: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron: 'For the
generations to come non of your descendants who has a defect may come near
to offer the food of his God.'"
The duties of the Levitical priesthood included: the teaching of the Law,
Leviticus 10:11; offering the sacrifices, Leviticus chapter 9; maintaining
the Tabernacle and the Temple, Numbers 18:3; officiating in the Holy Place,
Exodus 30:7-10; inspecting ceremonially unclean persons, Leviticus chapters
13 and 14; they adjudicated disputes, Deuteronomy 17:8-13; they functioned
as tax collectors, Numbers 18:21,26; Hebrews 7:5.
Sustenance of the priesthood occurred through the following vehicles: prescribed
portions of the sacrificial offerings, Numbers 18:8-14; one habitual tithe
from which tithe a tenth part was assigned to the priests, Numbers 18:21-24,
cf. Lev. 27:30-33, cf. Numbers 18:26-28; along with thirteen assigned cities,
Joshua 21:13-19, which provided a special tithe every third year, Deuteronomy
14:27-29; 26:12; the redemption money for the firstborn in Israel, Leviticus
chapter 27; an assigned portion of the spoils of war, Numbers 31:25-27;
along with the shewbread, Leviticus 24:5-9.
And so that the priests would not be overworked, they were assigned assistants
who were called the Levites, II Chronicles 29:34. The Levites were selected
by God to aid in the sacrificial offerings and in the administration of
holy things, according to Numbers 3:5ff., 8:14-19. The Levites also preserved
and transmitted the written Law, Lev. 10:11; Deut. 17:18; 33:10; Nehemiah
8:9, Ezekiel 44:23. They attended the priests, Numbers 18:4; the Levites
also were responsible for assembling, dismantling, and transporting the
Tabernacle, Numbers chapter 4; 10:17,21. And they also taught the Torah
(the word) and administered justice, Deut. 33:10a.
Levitical priests served for 25 years, from age 25 to age 50, according
to Numbers 8:24,25.
Other than the family of Aaron, there were three other family lines in the
tribe of Levi (Numbers chapter 4): the kohathites, who maintained the furniture,
vessels and veil of the Tabernacle; the gershonites, who maintained the
coverings, hangings and doors of the Tabernacle; the merarites, who maintained
the supports, including the planks bars and cords, of the Tabernacle.
Initially, God had selected the entire nation of Israel to be his priests,
according to Exodus 19:5,6; however, after the nation proved to be inadequate
as priests, Exodus 32:7-10, the Levites who supported Moses in Exodus chapters
26-28 were selected as God's priests, Numbers 3:5-9.
The apparel of the high priest is cited in Exodus chapter 28. Both the priests
and the high priest, except for ceremonial events, dressed as other Jews.
At ceremonial events, however, the high priest wore white linen shorts,
a white linen coat that came to the hips, a ceremonial belt colored in correspondence
to the curtains of the Tabernacle -- white, blue, scarlet, and purple; he
also wore a turban-like cap with a golden crown, upon which was inscribed:
'holy to Jehovah.' Additionally, the high priest wore an ephod of blue,
beautifully embroidered in the colors cited above; also a breast-plate of
gold and cloth, with the urim and the thummim on the shoulders, and twelve
stones, each stone representing one of the twelve tribes; each stone was
engraved with their names and fastened with a golden clasp.
The sanctification of the high priest and the priests is found in Exodus
chapter 29. And the principal duty of the high priest was to officiate on
the Day of Atonement, according to Leviticus chapter 16. On the Day of Atonement,
the high priest, caparisoned in his ceremonial garments, 'drew near to God;'
he entered the Tabernacle (or later the Temple), and sprinkled over the
top of the mercy seat the blood of the bullock of the sin offering for himself,
Leviticus 16:6,14. After he came forth from the Holy of Holies, he again
entered and sprinkled the blood of the goat of the sin offering for the
people. Both times he emerged from the Holy of Holies after sprinkling the
blood had hamartiological (sin) ramifications: pardon for his personal sins,
and pardon for the sins of the people; and in each instance the pardon was
based solely upon the 'blood of the sin offering,' which represented Christ
on the Cross, Leviticus 16:30.
According to I Chronicles chapter 15, 16:4-6, 37-43, David rearranged the
Levitical priesthood into 24 courses (orders); he assigned 16 courses to
Eleazer, and 8 courses to Ithamar. This rearrangement was chartered because
of a population explosion in David's reign.
According to Numbers 20:28, the office of the high priest was transmitted
upon death to the oldest living son of the high priest: "Moses removed
Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar. And Aaron died there on
top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain."
And according to Numbers 25:10-13, God made a covenant with Phinehas, the
eldest son of Eleazar, which guaranteed a lasting priesthood with the Aaronic
line.
The line switched during Saul ben-Kish's reign; Eli, a descendant of Ithamar,
assumed the office of high-priest, however, he functioned only de facto
and not de jure (legally). In fact, his descendants were removed from the
priesthood because of Eli's failure to censure his sons, I Samuel 2:23-25;
3:13. Solomon restored the Aaronic line to the high-priesthood; he replaced
Abiathar, Eli's descendant, with Zadok, from the line of Eleazar, I Kings
2:26,27,35. During the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah, Seraiah was the
high-priest; he was taken prisoner and executed by Nebuzar-adan, II Kings
25:18-21. Seraiah's son, Josedech, was not allowed to function as high-priest.
Instead, he lived and died as a prisoner in Babylon, Haggai 1:1,14. Josedech's
son, Joshua, functioned as the high-priest during the ministry of Zechariah,
Zech. 3:1.
The high-priests that followed Joshua were: Joiakim, Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan
and Jaddua, who was the high-priest in the epoch of Alexander the Great.
Tradition holds that Jaddua met the advancing armies of Alexander with the
scroll of the book of Daniel, whereupon he read Alexander those passages
in Daniel referring to Alexander. Alexander was impressed and, tradition
maintains, favorably disposed toward the Jews from then on.
Jaddua's successors were: Onias I, Simon the Just; Onias II/Eleazar, and
Alcimus. The latter two, Onias II and Alcimus, were notorious for their
malfunction; indeed, Onias II was also known as Menelaus.
Then, according to I Chronicles 9:10; 24:7; Nehemiah 11:10, the high-priestly
line passed over to the Asmonaean family, the course of Joiarib. It stayed
in the Asmonean family until Herod the Great decimated the Asmoneaen family,
and his brother-in-law, Herod, executed the final Asmonean high-priest,
Aristobulus, in 35 BC.
At length, the two high priests associated with the death of our Lord were
Caiaphas and Annas. [12]
Malachi 1:7
"You placed defiled food on my altar. But you ask, 'How have we
defiled you?' 'By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible."
The phrase "defiled food" is LECHERM MEGO'AL, which is "polluted
bread," and is a specific reference to the shewbread. In other words,
the unsaved priests of Malachi's day are using leavened bread. And to God,
this is an abhorrence; why? Because the bread is analogous to the Person
of Christ in the Christology of the Tabernacle/Temple, and leaven corresponds
to sin, just as the oven in which the bread was cooked corresponds to the
Cross. So the priests, by placing leavened bread on the altar, are saying
that Christ was imperfect, and a sinner as He hung on the Cross. In other
words, the priests are saying Christ was just another man, just another
criminal who was to be crucified by the Romans. This is blasphemy!
And in verse 8 of Malachi 1, the priests are also guilty of sacrificing
blind, lame and diseased animals. The animals are flawed. And in the Christology
of the Temple the animals are analogous to the Work of Christ on the Cross;
thus the priests are stating that the Work of Christ was not efficacious,
that it did not provide salvation. Again, this is blasphemy!
And these two execrations demand the presentation of 'leaven' as it relates
to the Person of Christ, and 'redemption' as it relates to the Work of Christ.
Leaven
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament leaven is a "type of
evil teachings, evil doctrines and evil practices. It is always to be put
away and cast out as an unclean thing. The gospel is never called leaven.
Nothing good is ever compared to leaven. Nothing good is ever said about
leaven. In every place it is mentioned, leaven is defiling and is to be
put away. (See Ex. 12:15; Lev. 2:11; I Cor. 5:6; Matt. 13:33)." [13]
In Scripture, leaven denotes any substance used to induce fermentation in
either meals, dough or liquids. "For fermentation is the result of
the divine curse upon the material universe because of sin." [14] And
Genesis 19:3 is the first use of the term 'unleavened;' "But he insisted
so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared
a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate." Here, Lot
is serving unleavened bread to his angelic visitors.
And Exodus 12:8, 15-20, first utilizes the term in connection with a feast
day -- Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In these verses leaven
is presented as being totally rejected and symbolic of evil; whereas unleavened
bread is a pattern or type of Christ and symbolic of his sinless perfection.
In Matthew 13:33, leaven portrays religious apostasy during the Tribulation.
"He told them still another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like
yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it
worked all through the dough." " The woman is the apostate church,
the meal is the Word of God, the leaven is evil and apostate teachings concerning
the Word of God. In other words, the woman mixes false doctrines with true
doctrines and thus poisons those who eat it." [15]
In Matthew 16:6, leaven represents the sophistry (false arguments) of the
Sadduccees, which sophistry resulted in apostasy. "'Be careful,' Jesus
said to them. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'"
And the leaven of the Pharisees was the evil of legalism and ritualism (Mark
8:15; Luke 12:1). Note that the Sadducees refused to accept any doctrine
that could not be validated by reason, i.e., they claimed the right of private
interpretation of the Torah. This rationalistic approach resulted in the
following heresies: the denial of the resurrection and recompense in hell
for unbelievers, since the Sadducees claimed that the soul expired with
the body; the denial of angelic beings; and the acceptance of fatalism.
Mark 8:15 alludes to the leaven of Herod, which is the sin of lust for power.
"'Be careful,' Jesus warned them. 'Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees
and that of Herod.'"
While the leaven of the Corinthians refers to the sin of antinomianism (Christian
sect that held that faith ruled out the need for morality), sexual lewdness
(fornication, homosexuality, incest, etc.), and phallic apostasy, I Corinthians
5:1,2,6,7. "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little
yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that
you may be a new batch without yeast -- as you really are. For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (I Cor. 5:6,7).
In contrast to the Corinthians, the leaven of the Galatians relates to the
sin of legalism (gaining salvation through good works), and in this particular
instance designates salvation by means of circumcision, Galatians 5:9, "A
little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." [16]
Notes:
[9] Thieme, Robert. Seven Signs; originally compiled by Robert Thieme;
from notes on Malachi, 1968; altered and appended by R. E. Radic.
[10] Wilson, William. Old Testament Word Studies; page 119.
[11] Thieme, Robert. Paraphrase of Robert Thieme's words; notes on Malachi,
1968.
[12] Thieme, Robert. Levitical Offerings; pages 103-104. This categorization
was originally compiled by Robert Thieme, altered and appended by R. E.
Radic.
[13] Wilson, Walter Lewis. Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types; page 286.
[14] Wuest, Kenneth S. Mark in the Greek New Testament; page 162.
[15] Wilson, Walter Lewis. Ibid.
[16] Thieme, Robert. Ibid. First catalogued by Robert Thieme; altered and
appended by R. E. Radic.
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