Malachi 1

Malachi 1:1-5

This prophet is sent, first to convince, and then to comfort. He opens the wound, and then applies the healing helm. He expresses the Jesus, 1. For their ingratitude to God, in return for the favours he had shown them, ver. 1—5. 2. For their negligence and remissness in observing his institutions, of which the priests were particularly culpable, ver. 6—14.

1. THE burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. 2. I have loved you, faith the LORD: yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? was not Etau Jacob’s brother? faith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 3. And I hated Etau, and laid his mountains, and his heritage waste, for the dragons of the wilderness. 4. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places: thus faith 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. 5. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

This word of the Lord to Israel is called a burden: it contains sharp rebukes, and bound upon the impenitent a

load of wrath, which would sink them into the belly of hell. The charge against Israel here advanced is their ingratitude. God asserts his love to them from the days of old. I have loved you, faith the Lord; but they seemed insensible of the mercy, and unaffected with it: Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? as if the instances of his regard were so slight and so few, that they had little or no obligations to him: to convince them of their baseness, he proves, by the distinguishing favours shewn them, the love he had towards them.

1. He had preferred Jacob, though the younger brother, to Etau, and entailed upon him the covenant of promise. Was not Etau Jacob’s brother? and, as his elder, should have succeeded to the birthright; but God, who acts according to the counsel of his own will, had been pleased, to shew his sovereignty, to chuse the younger, and reject the first-born. Yet I loved Jacob; chose him when yet unborn, not only to be the father of God’s peculiar people, but personally, as an elect vessel: and I hated Etau; so far as least as to deprive him of the birthright and blessing; and, left desisture of divine grace, his profaneness fitted him as a vessel of wrath for destruction.

2. Their posterity were deeply affected by this original difference God had made between their great progenitors. I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness; as was done by the Chaldeans: and though Judea was also desolated by them, yet there was a distinguishing difference, the ruins of the one were for a while only; of the other, perpetual. For though the Edomites attempt to repair their breaches, God will disappoint their endeavours: They shall build, but I will throw down: God was against them, and who ever

hardened John Chill

hardened their hearts against him, and prospered? and they shall call them the border of wickedness; their sins shall be notorious, and read in their sufferings: the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever. God’s people provoke him, and he visits their iniquities with a rod; but his enemies provoke him, and their courage is a scorpion, and his wrath against them is for ever wrath to come. And your eyes shall see the desiccations of Adam, and the distinction made between them and Israel; and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel; he intends his own glory in their distinguishing mercies shewn them, and justly deserves and demands their pricks: not to have offered them much more than their magnitude.

6. ¶ 7. A son honoured his father, and a servant his master: “if then I be a father, where it mine honour? and if I be a master, where it my fear?” (said the LORD of hosts unto you, “O prickly, that despite my name?” and ye say, “Wherein have we despised thy name?” 7. Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, “Wherein have we polluted thee?” In that ye say, “The table of the LORD is contemptible. 8. And “if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is not evil?” and if ye offer the lame and sick, it is not evil?” offer it now unto thy governor, will he be pleaded with thee, or accept thy pardon? (said the LORD of hosts. 9. And now “I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: “will he regard your persons?” (said the LORD of hosts. 10. Who is there even among you that would shun the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. “I have no pleasure in you, (said the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 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 I am every place” incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for “my name shall be great among the heathen, (said the LORD of hosts. 12. ¶ But ye have professed it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible. 13. Ye said also, Behold, “what a weariness is it, and ye have snuffed at it, (said the LORD of hosts; and “ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hands?” (said the LORD. 14. But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his stock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for “I am a great King, (said the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

7. 6-14. The bad example of the priests being of most pernicious consequence to the people, God sends to them a severe rebuke.

8. God tells them what he might justly have expected from them. A son honoured his father, and a servant his master: at birth, all admit that this ought to be, and they are accustomed, unnatural, undisturial, and wicked, who act otherwise. If then I be a father, where it mine honour? and if I be a master, where it my fear? If reverence, respect, and fear he paid to an earthly parent or master, how much more due are they to our Father and Master in heaven? and to rob him of this his honour, how much more criminal?

9. He charges them with the insolent contempt with which they had treated him. They despised his name; paid no regard to his honour, and neglected his worship and service; and pretended it, 6, 12, by their irreverent use of it, and perverting it to serve their own pride, covetousness, and luxury, bringing the highest reproach upon it by their whole conduct; for nothing to deeply dishonours God, as the bad lives of those who call themselves his ministers. And yet with daring effrontery they deny the charge: Ye say, Wherein have we despised thee? either they were so ignorant of the divine law, as to think they had delivered it; or so abhisitious, as to imagine God could not dread them. Thus hardened sinners justly themselves in evil, and for, like the adulteress, I have done no wickedness; but God will reprove them, and set in order the things they have done.

(1.) Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; either the shew-bread, or the meat-offering which accompanied the daily sacrifice, was made of the refute of the wheat, or off-flower damaged and unfit for use: and yet ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? as if there was no harm in what they had done; and this attempt to vindicate themselves was an aggravation of their crime.

(2.) Ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible; perhaps not politely, but among themselves, they treated the divine institu-

tions with ridicule; and though it was for their interest to keep up the form of religion, they talked of it as a mere juggle, designed to keep the valget in awe: for if they had not so much, their conduct spoke aloud their sentiments. They paid no veneration to the sanctuary, or its ordinances: Ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible; as if it was no better than any other table: their own were better served than his; and the fat and the blood, which were the Lord’s portion, were in their eyes contemptible, and very little deserving so many laws concerning them.

(3.) They offered the blind and the lame, 6, 8, and the torn and the sick, 6, 13, for sacrifices to God, such as they would not have dared to have presented to their governor, because he would have effered it an affront. And is not this evil? contrary to God’s regards command, and a designed inflict. Now, They who think God will be finished with scantless, cold, negligent, hasty prayers, the labour of the lips or the book, where all the life of devotion, of faith and love is wanting, &c; but offering the blind and lame for sacrifice, and their services will be accounted but an abomination.

(4.) They were perfectly mercenaries, and served merely for hire. They would not shut a door of the temple, nor kindle a fire there, unless they were well paid: the work of the sanctuary was no delight to them; the wages was all they looked at. Now, Though God would have to live by the altar we serve, yet to have an eye to this, as the inducement to undertake the ministry, is in God’s fight most abominable, and such hirelings will be abhorred and dishonored by the great Bishop of hosts.

(5.) The service they were obliged to be employed in was a vicarious to them. They were always complaining of the hard duty, 6, 13, to be so constant in attendance on the temple, so thrift in the observance of the forms and ordinances prescribed, they thought quite tiresome, and snuffed at it; with discontent and reluctance dragging themselves to the task, and burying it over as fast as possible. Would to God these had been the only ministers of the sanctuary on whom these things were chargeable.

3. He expeditates with them on this conduct of theirs. Should I accept this at your hands? can such sacrifices and services be pleasing? No, (said God; I have no pleasure in you; neither will I accept an offering at your hands; since they had made themselves vile, and who had been by their means, with their connivance and encouragement, that such despicable sacrifices were offered; Shall I regard your persons? (said the Lord of hosts. It was impossible he should, and therefore their prayers, which the prophet ironically calls them to offer, 6, 9, must needs be unraveling and rejected. Now, If our persons are not accepted of God through the blood of atonement, all our prayers must needs be fruitless.

Some understand 6, 9, as containing a serious exhortation to the priests, who had been the chief authors of all the evil, to repent of their sins, and cry to God for mercy on the behalf of themselves and the people, and not to flatter them with vain hopes, that God accepted their perium more than others, seeing the holiness of their office aggravated their sins, and would increase their punishment.

4. Since they thus dishonoured God, he will glorify himself, rejecting them, and turning to the Gentiles, setting up his church from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same. My name, (said he, shall be great among the Gentiles; they shall render him that glory of which Israel had robbed him: and in every place incense shall be offered to my name; the incense of prayer and praise, arising from all the worshipping assemblies of true believers, who are consecrated spiritual priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ; and a pure offering, even themselves, their bodies, souls, and spirits, a living sacrifice; for my name shall be great among the heathen; it is repeated to assure them of the certainty of the event, and that when the time came that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, they might remember that the mouth of the Lord had spoken it.

5. A curse is pronounced on these careless and wicked priests, and on all others who are deceivers like them. Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his stock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing. Though they might think thus to satisfy their consciences, and the corrupt priests, indulgent casuities, flattered them it would be accepted; they were both deceivers and deceived. God is not to be thus mocked; they would put a cheat upon him, but in fact deceived themselves, and brought wrath upon their souls. He will be served with the belt, or not at all: to attempt to put him off with the refuse, is increasing our provocations; For I am a great King, (said the Lord of hosts, and therefore to be honoured according to his excellent greatness; and my name is dreadful among the heathen; the judgments he had executed upon them made it so, and their more provoking wickedness would bring down this heavier vengeance upon their heads.

4 Y CHAP.