Malachi 1:11

For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same,.... From east to west, which is all habitable; not so north and south, as Kimchi observes, the extremes of which are not habitable.

For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my

This verse is a very full and plain prediction or promise made on behalf of the Gentiles, that they should be a people to the Lord, and should exalt his name, and worship him in a pure way, and well-pleasing to the Lord. That when he casteth off ceremonial services and carnal ordinances, he will set up spiritual and heavenly, and all nations, from east to west, shall submit to them, and sanctify the holy and reverend name of God in them. Incense; a law term for a gospel duty; and under this type is contained the prayers and praises, nay, the whole gospel worship is that incense which shall be offered unto God, which is in the verse called a pure offering. A pure offering; both sincere, in opposition to hypocrisy, and holy, in opposition to impurity, and purged from superstition and idolatry. The sum of this verse is contained in that .

Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.Ver. 11. For from the rising of the sun, &c.] Whereas they might object, if you will not have service from us, you can have none at all; for other people walk every one in the name of his god, Micah 4:5, and the Gentiles have their vanities, and doctrines of vanities, Jeremiah 14:22; Jeremiah 10:8, wherewith they are wholly taken up. Take you no care for that, saith God here. For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles] I will provide for mine own great name, that is, for my glory (for so God’ s name is used in that sense, Exodus 9:16 Psalms 8:1). I will be no loser by your rejection; for I have other people that will more reverence me, and do me better service; so that I need not be beholden to you. I have from east to west those that will make hard shift but I shall have service done me. I can "set a sign, and send to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud," &c., "that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles," Isaiah 66:19-20. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, &c., that though sick, weakly, and unfit for travel, yet they shall come on end; and rather in litters than not at all; they shall be content to suffer any hardship for heaven, as the stone will fall down to come to its own centre, though it break itself in a hundred pieces. The Gentiles once converted shall fly as a cloud, Isaiah 60:8, that is, with greatest pernicity and swiftness; yea, they shall in such flocks come to the Church, as if a whole flight of doves, driven by some hawk or tempest, should scour into the columbary, and rush into the windows. There are those who have observed, that the name of God in all the maternal languages consisteth of four letters ( ιηεϊ, Yεος, Deus, Dieu, Gott), to intimate that he hath his people in all the four quarters of the earth, out of all countries, nations, and languages. Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." In the original the last letter of the word hear is greater than the rest, as calling for all possible heed and attention.

(11) This verse contains no verb, and, as far as the rules of grammar are concerned, its participles may be rendered either by presents or futures. If we take the words as referring to the present, we are met by the insurmountable difficulty that in no sense, at the time of Malachi, could the Lord’s Name be said to be great over all the earth, or pure sacrifices to be offered to Him in every place. Nor can we, with many commentators, suppose that heathen rites are here referred to as being offered ignorantly, through idols, to the one true God. (Comp. Pope’s universal prayer:— “Father of all, in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!”) For there is no hint given of any such meaning being intended; and, moreover, such a sentiment would be quite foreign to the Old Testament, which always represents heathen rites as being an utter abomination, and always speaks of the adhesion of the Gentiles to the worship of the true God as a thing of the future. We are compelled, therefore, to take the words as a prophetic announcement of the future rejection of Israel and calling of the Gentiles. In every place.—In contradistinction to the one place (Deuteronomy 12:5-7). (Comp. our Lord’s words to the woman of Samaria: John 4:21-24.) Incense shall be offered . . .—This is a possible rendering of the words; but this Hebrew word is not elsewhere used for “incense,” and may more naturally be rendered shall be burnt, as the passive participle of the verb used in Leviticus 1:9. Dr. Pusey’s footnote on this passage is well worth reading, as, indeed, his footnotes usually are. We prefer, therefore, to take the words thus: “an oblation shall be burnt to my name, even a pure offering.” In any case, unless we are to expect some future establishment of a universal offering of material sacrifices, we must understand both expressions in a spiritual sense, which is, in truth, the only reasonable way of interpreting such passages. (See Notes on Zechariah 2:6-13; Zechariah 3:8-10; Zechariah 6:9-15, and especially 14:16-21.) If, therefore, any Christians would claim this verse as a support for their custom of offering incense in churches, they must conform also with Zechariah 14:16-21, and go up every year to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. The word “offering,” as in the preceding verse (comp. 1 Samuel 2:17; Isaiah 1:13), denotes sacrificial gifts in general, not the flour offerings as distinguished from the flesh offerings. The word “pure” is emphatic, not as signifying the bloodless sacrifice of the Mass (Council of Trent), as distinguished from the bloody sacrifices, but as the converse of “polluted” (Malachi 1:7). The above remarks we have made in no controversial spirit, but simply in the interests of truth; and lest any should suppose us to imply that the above interpretation was originated by the Council of Trent, we refer the reader to Dr. Pusey’s Commentary, in which he shows, by quotations from SS.

Verse 11. From the rising of the sun] The total abolition of the Mosaic sacrifices, and the establishment of a spiritual worship over the whole earth, is here foretold. The incense of praise, and the pure offering of the Lamb without spot, and through him a holy, loving heart, shall be presented everywhere among the Gentiles; and the Jews and their mock offerings shall be rejected.

11. For] “I will no longer accept the local and polluted offering, for I will substitute for it a pure and universal offering.” “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” my name shall be great] The A.V. supplies shall be here and twice again in this verse (incense shall be offered; my name shall be great), and the R.V. is, though with shall be in the margin. The reference may well be to the present as foreshadowing the future; to the spiritual offering of prayer and praise already offered in their synagogues and προσευχαί by the Jews of the Dispersion, whereby proselytes were won, and the way prepared for the New Dispensation and the abolition of the Temple ritual. The view that Almighty God is here recognising the worship of the heathen world as in reality offered to Him is quite inadmissible. The whole tenor of the Old Testament emphatically contradicts it, and the teaching of the New Testament is accordant and explicit: “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God” (1 Corinthians 10:20, cited from Deuteronomy 32:17). The terms of the prophecy itself forbid such an interpretation: for Jehovah Himself expressly declares that incense and offering are offered to His name, and that His name is great. The prophecy of this verse is at once repeated and expounded by our Lord Himself. John 4:21-24. incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering] There has been difference of opinion as to the grammatical construction of this clause, but the arrangement and rendering of A.V. is retained in R.V. and has the support of many critical authorities. By “incense” and “offering” we are to understand those “spiritual sacrifices” of prayer and praise (Hebrews 13:15) and almsgiving (ib. Hebrews 13:16; Philippians 4:18) and self-dedication (Romans 12:1), which all Christians as a “holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5) are privileged to offer, and which are “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. The more enlightened among the Jews recognised such spiritual sacrifices under the typical offerings of the ceremonial law, and they were therefore in no danger of giving a material interpretation to a prophecy like this. Before the prophecy was fulfilled it had come to be a matter of popular Jewish belief and practice that incense was the symbol of prayer. (Luke 1:9-10). The Psalmist saw the same spiritual significance in “incense” and “offering” (minchah, as here, Psalms 141:2). It has been supposed that by the offering, or minchah, of this verse, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are intended. But if that be the case we have here a prophecy of the universal offering of literal incense also; for by no sound canon of interpretation can we give a material sense to one (offering) and a figurative sense to the other (incense) of two words which are thus placed by a writer in the same category.

For - The form of words does not express whether this declaration relates to the present or the future. It is a vivid present, such as is often used to describe the future. But the things spoken of show it to be future.

11. Jehovah cannot accept impure sacrifices from his own people, when less favored nations offer to him sacrifices that are pure.