Malachi, whose name means “my servant,” speaks to a people who have forgotten the love of God and whose hearts have consequently begun to grow cold in worship and obedience. The book of Malachi consists of a series of prophetic disputations in which the Lord reveals various sins that are spiritually crippling his people, such as halfhearted worship and the fear of man rather than of God. With tremendous rhetorical force, Malachi calls for heartfelt repentance and worship born of a deep and living faith, reminding Israel of the divine promise, “Return to me, and I will return to you” (Malachi 3:7 NIV).

—Stephen M. Coleman

Source: Content taken from Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Stephen M. Coleman. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. 

The book of Malachi is an oracle: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi (1:1). This was God’s warning through Malachi to tell the people to turn back to God. As the final book of the Old Testament closes, the pronouncement of God’s justice and the promise of his restoration through the coming Messiah is ringing in the ears of the Israelites. Four hundred years of silence ensues, ending with a similar message from God’s next prophet, John the Baptist, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2 NET). 

—Got Questions

Source: “Summary of the Book of Malachi,” Got Questions Ministries, accessed May 26, 2023, [https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Malachi.html]

In Luke 1:16 and 17, an angel told Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, “[John] will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children” (RSV). He identifies John the Baptist with the expected Elijah of Malachi 4. And Jesus confirms for us (in Matthew 11:10) that the first messenger of Malachi 3:1 is the same as the forerunner of Malachi 4:5 and is indeed John the Baptist.

He says concerning John, “This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee’” (Matthew 11:10 RSV). So he explicitly relates Malachi 3:1 to John the Baptist. Then in Matthew 17:12 he says that John is the Elijah to come: “‘I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:12, 13 RSV). Therefore, the fulfillment of the forerunner in Malachi 3:1 is John the Baptist. 

Now, of course, John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Messiah. He said in John 3:28, “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him” (RSV). And Jesus himself claimed to be that Messiah. For when John asked in Matthew 11:3, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (RSV)—Jesus answered, “Look at the signs and don’t take offense at me.” In other words, “I am the Messiah of which Malachi spoke. But the fulfillment of his prophecy is happening differently than you expect. The judgment and the glorious kingdom will not come immediately. I am here to give my life as a ransom this time. I will come again in the clouds with great glory. Don’t take offense at my humble coming, John. I am he. Christmas is not the whole story. But it is the beginning of the great day of the Lord.” So Jesus is the Lord who comes to his temple in Malachi 3:1. 

—John Piper

Source: By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org.

Going through the religious motions does not honor God, neither does a casual commitment to Christ without a real concern for obedience.

—Kevin DeYoung

Source: Kevin DeYoung, quoted from his article, “Glory of God: Honoring in Word and Deed.” This article originally appeared here at The Gospel Coalition.

Malachi is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. To understand this, read Malachi 3:1. Who is “my messenger”? Read John 1:23 and Luke 3:3-4. “Malachi” means “my messenger” (that is, “of the Lord”). Like John the Baptist, about whom he prophesied, Malachi was but a voice. There were 400 years of silence between the voice of Malachi and the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord” (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4).  

By the time of Malachi, a hundred years or more had passed since the Jews had returned to Jerusalem after the captivity in Babylon. Malachi is the last prophet to speak to Israel in her own land. “Israel” here refers to the entire remnant of Israel and Judah who returned after the exile. The initial enthusiasm after the return from Babylon had dissipated. Following a period of revival, described in Nehemiah 10:28-39, the people had become religiously cold and morally lax. 

The prophet Malachi came as a reformer, but he encouraged while he rebuked. He dealt with a confused and discouraged people, whose faith in God seemed to be in danger of collapse. If they had not already become hostile to Jehovah, they were in real danger of becoming thoroughly skeptical.  

—Henrietta Mears  

Source: This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

There are three ways in which this book is the word of the Lord for us today.

First, Malachi saw that at the heart of God’s people, the church, must lie a deep, radical, and overwhelming conviction that God loves them. Without this at our heart, we are lost.

Second, Malachi knew that the greatest sin of God’s people is the sin against God. We easily get confused about sin. We see that we can sin against ourselves, and harm ourselves. We see that we can sin against others, and harm them. But we find it harder to take seriously our sin against God. Yet here is the fundamental sin, the source of all sin.

Third, in Malachi’s day the people of God were in a mess. While they were not actually running away from God, and were not worshiping idols, as they had in the past, they seemed to lack the energy to serve God wholeheartedly. They tried to live in neutral territory, neither serving God too enthusiastically, not turning away from God too enthusiastically. In this they were self-deceived. They thought they were in a grey no-man’s land, where they neither needed to respond whole-heartedly to God, nor refuse him. In fact they were in a vicious circle, a terrifying whirlpool, sinking further and further to destruction. Malachi is God’s effective remedy for such a situation among the people of God.

—Peter Adam

Source: Adam, Peter. The Message of Malachi. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013.

Simply put, the doctrine of election states that God saves those whom he has, before the foundation of the world, chosen to save according to his own good pleasure. As Scripture teaches, God’s decision to elect is based not on anything in the person (e.g., some moral or spiritual quality) or anything done by the person (e.g., some quantity of good works); rather, election is based solely on God’s free and sovereign decision to redeem particular sinners for himself (Titus 3:4-5). This is a difficult truth for many to accept. Why does God elect some and not others? How is election fair? Addressing these questions, Paul writes, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:14-16 ESV). Although it is a great mystery in many respects, when studying election it is helpful to consider the intentions of the biblical authors in their discussions of election. One purpose is to instill humility in God’s people by reminding them that salvation is of and from God alone (Ephesians 2:8). Another purpose is to provide God’s people a ground for their assurance of salvation (John 10:25-30). Yet another purpose is to move God’s people to a greater love for and worship of the God who would freely set his affection upon such undeserving sinners (Ephesians 1:3-14).

—Stephen M. Coleman

Source: Content taken from Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: A 12-Week Study © 2018 by Stephen M. Coleman. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.