MALACHI STUDY

This sounds an awful lot like the Gospel, doesn’t it? God’s people forget and falsify His justice and love, and His response is to deal severely with sin while providing ways for His people to come to Him.

Malachi (lit. my messenger) is the last of the Old Testament (OT) prophets through whom God communicated His message to His people. Jewish tradition identifies Malachi as a member of the Great Synagogue that collected and preserved the Scriptures.

Malachi writes a convicting account of the widespread faithlessness of the Jews. Writing in the late fifth century B.C., the Jews had rebuilt God’s temple but the ritual of their religious routine led to the hardening of their hearts. Malachi calls the people to repentance with respect to:

After two millennia of OT history, none of the glorious promises of the Abrahamic or Davidic covenants had been ultimately fulfilled and the long anticipated Messiah seemed nowhere in sight. Pronouncing judgement on their sin, Malachi pushes the eyes of the Jewish people towards the coming Messiah, Jesus.