Malachi 1:1-4

Series: Bible Studies

April 12, 2022
Harvey Smith

Discussion on Malachi chapter 1, verses 1-4 centering on the burden and the importance of the message of the word of the Lord and the enduring Love of the Lord.

Episode Notes

1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

The Task of the Messenger. 

  • A witness for the Lord is a burden because of love.  
  • The truth of the Lord and his holiness is a heavy weight 
  • Responsible to deliver to the world.  
  • They were no different than their predecessors
  • Had to confront the sins of the people
  • Inform of the pending judgement of God.
  • Plea for repentance from a stiff-necked people. 

2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

  • God tells the descendants of Israel (Jacob), I have loved you from before you were formed. Even as the Lord told the prophet Jeremiah that he knew him before he formed him and he called him before he came out of his mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5), so he called the nation of Israel before they were. He tells Israel, I have loved you.  
  • Yet Israel questions God on how he has shown his love.  
  • They cannot see how the Lord has protected them from far worse things than what they have experienced.  
  • He has chosen to love them and therefore even shielded them from his wrath.  
  • I have given you favor over Esau.
  • Jacob and Esau were brothers
  • You are my favored child.

3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

This love is an election or a choice of who to favor. (Genesis 25:23).  The mountains referred to here are the land of Edom.  The Edomites are the descendants of Esau. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Edom in 586 B.C. (Jeremiah 25:9,21).  Later in 550-400 the Nabataeans drove the Edomites out from their territory. Their lands were laid to waste and left desolate so that only the beasts occupied them.  This was not the fate of Israel, even when they were overtaken, there were a remnant left in the land. 

4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.

The wickedness of Edom

·        Genesis 26:34 – Strange marriage

·        Genesis 27:41- Sought to murder Jacob

·        Obadiah 10-14 – Distress towards Israel

o  Stood by and let enemies’ attack

o  Let enemies overtake Israel

o  Rejoiced in Israel’s sufferings and shame

o  Took from their brothers in time of need

o  Aided the enemy of Israel

Because of these sins, God destroyed Edom to never be restored again. (Obadiah 15-19).  These are the same sins that Israel is doing, yet God is mercifully reaching out to them, pleading for them to repent through his prophet Malachi and his burden. 

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