Read Malachi 2:1-16

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“I have always loved you,” says the LORD. But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?” And the LORD replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob,” (Malachi 1:2)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

Part 118: Malachi. It is hard to believe but we have arrived at the final prophet in the Old Testament. We know very little about Malachi, as is the case of most of the minor prophets. For instance, scholars are not really sure who wrote the book attributed to Malachi, or if Malachi was the prophet’s name or a sort of alias for someone else.

Most scholars recognize that whoever wrote the book of Malachi, it was written by a prophet who was living during the time of the Persian Restoration period following the return from exile. The text seems to be consistent with the time period following the rebuilding and rededication of the second Temple, and the rebuilding of the wall. In fact, it seems that it may have been written around the time of, or shortly after, Nehemiah’s second return from Persia to Jerusalem (See the devotion on Nehemiah to refresh your memory on him).

Malachi’s prophetic book focuses on the lackadaisical religious and social behavior of the Israelites, especially the priests, in Jerusalem following the return from the exile. For instance, Malachi calls the priests out for making less than desirable sacrifices, as if performing their priestly duties is a chore or a bother for them. Evidently the priests were sacrificing any old animal rather than making sure the animal was without any blemish. In fact, they were sacrificing lame and sick animals. When you think of it, sacrificing a lame or sick animal, which will most likely die anyway, is not much of a sacrifice. If the priesthood cannot lead faithfully, how can the people they lead grow in their faith?

Another issue raised by Malachi was the issue of divorce. Malachi saw this both as a religious and a social issue. In fact, the two really could not be separated. The Israelite men were evidently divorcing their wives (of which the priests were allowing) in order to marry foreign women. Socially, divorcing one’s wife brings shame upon her and her family. Often times, divorced women were shunned by their families and left to fend for themselves in a man’s world. This, often times, led women destitute and prostitution was often the only means available for survival.

The religious end of this is that the men were then marrying women who worshipped a foreign god. Thus, they were not only being unfaithful to their Jewish wives, but they were being unfaithful to their God as well. In fact, divorcing their wives for such a ridiculous reason is not being faithful to God either.

What Malachi shows us, as God’s people, is that it is not hard for us to fall into laziness, complacency and unfaithfulness. Whether we are leaders, or we are laity, we all have the tendency to fall away and to lead others to plummet with us. The challenge for us is to remain loyal (aka faithful) to God and to Jesus Christ. In order to do that we must maintain our spiritual disciplines such as reading and studying scripture, attending worship, participating in the Sacramental life of the Church, serving, praying, giving and witnessing to others. Those things keep us in connection to, and knowledgeable of, our Lord God. May you ever grow in your love of God and your desire to seek God out through daily spiritual discipline.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Those who do not see the mandate to be socially just, and to seek out social justice, in the Bible are simply not reading the Bible.

PRAYER
Lord, make me a vessel of your love, your peace, your hope, and your justice. Amen.