Malachi 2
Failures of The Priests And The People
In this section, Malachi continued his warning to the apathetic and disobedient spiritual leaders before addressing idolatry and corruption prevalent among the general population. The priests were showing partiality in the performance of their duties, and the worship of the people was being drawn from God to worthless idols.
Listen, You Priests
Curse
Vs. 2 - I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.
Malachi announced an admonition to the priests from the Lord. If they did not pay attention to His rebuke and sincerely desire to honor Yahweh’s name, the Lord would curse them. He would cut off their blessings; troubles would plague their lives. - Thomas Constable
“Not taking it to heart” described the apathy and indifference of the priests and their failure to carry out their duties in sincere worship.
Covenant
Vs. 5 - My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.
Vs. 8 - You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Armies.
The “covenant of Levi” referred to God’s selection of this tribe to fulfill the priestly duties according to His instructions.
Numbers 3:11-12 - The Lord spoke to Moses: “See, I have taken the Levites from the Israelites in place of every firstborn Israelite from the womb. The Levites belong to me…”
Malachi described the priests’ failure to lead the people into obedient worship as a violation of this agreement.
Partiality
Vs. 9 - you are not keeping my ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.
The priests had perverted the truth by showing favoritism, and Malachi warned that everyone would suffer as a result.
As the life of a community depends upon the keeper of its water supply to guard that supply from loss or contamination, so the life of Israel depended upon its priests to preserve God’s written word and effectively to dispense it when ’men should seek’ it. - Ibid
Judah Has Been Unfaithful
Treacherous Treatment
Vs. 10 - Don’t all of us have one Father? Didn’t one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
Malachi’s audience shifted from the priests in this section to all the men of Israel who were abandoning their wives to marry women who worshiped other gods. Malachi called on the men to consider how their infidelity demonstrated disrespect for others and disregard for God’s covenant.
Idolatrous Unions
Vs. 11 (NLT) - The men of Judah have defiled the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.
Malachi addressed an issue that had been ongoing since the first group of Jews returned to Jerusalem.
Ezra had not long returned from delivering the king's edicts when some leaders presented him with a genuine threat to the post exilic Jewish community - intermarriage between Jews and pagans. - Carl R. Anderson
Ezra 9:1-2 - After these things had been done, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the surrounding peoples…Indeed, the Israelite men have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed has become mixed with the surrounding peoples.
Nehemiah 13:23 - In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
Probably the early groups returning from Babylon included more men than women, making it more difficult to find a wife. Moreover, marrying a foreign wife was not always forbidden. Joseph and Moses had foreign wives. But intermarriage with local Canaanite groups was forbidden “so that they won't teach you to do all the detestable acts they do for their gods” (Deut. 20:18). The issue was not racial but religious. God had chosen Israel to be his own possession and His holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6). - Carl R. Anderson
Vs. 16 - “If he hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord God of Israel, “he covers his garment with injustice,” says the Lord of Armies.
Through Malachi, God condemned this betrayal of the marriage covenant and called His people to the same faithfulness He had shown to them.
Worthless Weeping
Vs. 14 (NLT) - You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her…”
The wrongdoers are upset that God no longer accepts their ritual sacrifices and offerings, but they show no concern at their own unfaithfulness in breaking a marriage covenant that God himself had witnessed. By marrying idolatrous wives, they show that they have no real desire to bring their children up to know and follow God. They also show that they are unconcerned that their former wives are left to face lives of hardship. - Don Fleming
You Have Wearied The Lord
Here, the prophet initiated another “accusation - question - answer” sequence about Israel’s unfaithfulness that continues into chapter 3.
God: You have wearied the Lord - vs. 17 - You have wearied the Lord with your words.
God was exhausted by His people’s continual complaining.
Israel: How have we wearied him? - vs. 17 - Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”
The people’s response in Malachi’s reenactment was, once again, one of disbelief and denial. There seems to be a stance of arrogant resistance in all of the questions posed by the people.
God: You are calling evil good. - vs. 17 (NLT) - You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the Lord’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
The people were apparently frustrated with God’s timing and His treatment of surrounding nations. They knew very well the prophecies of peace and prosperity for their nation. They had spent their lives looking for God to reveal Himself to them in some powerful way, to step on to the scene and bring justice.
But, in reality, theirs was a day of “small things” (Zechariah 4:10). Their days were simple and unremarkable, full of waiting and wondering, longing and looking. And in the delay, they people became disillusioned. Where was God? Where was the day of glory and vindication He had promised?
Disillusionment had followed the rebuilding of the Temple because, though decade followed decade, no supernatural event marked the return of the Lord to Zion. - Baldwin
