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The Lord who rules over all says, ‘I will send my messenger. He will prepare my way for me. Then suddenly the Lord you are looking for will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant will come. He is the one you long for.’ 2 But who can live through the day when he comes? Who will be left standing when he appears? He will be like a fire that makes things pure. He will be like soap that makes things clean. 3 He will act like one who makes silver pure. And he will purify the Levites, just as gold and silver are purified with fire. Then these men will bring proper offerings to the Lord. 4 And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to him. It will be as it was in days and years gone by.
5 ‘So I will come and put you on trial. I will be quick to bring charges against all of you,’ says the Lord who rules over all. ‘I will bring charges against you sinful people who do not have any respect for me. That includes those who practise evil magic. It includes those who commit adultery and those who tell lies in court. It includes those who cheat workers out of their pay. It includes those who treat widows badly. It also includes those who mistreat children whose fathers have died. And it includes those who take away the rights of outsiders in the courts.
6 ‘I am the Lord. I do not change. That is why I have not destroyed you members of Jacob's family. 7 You have turned away from my rules. You have not obeyed them. You have lived that way ever since the days of your people of long ago. Return to me. Then I will return to you,’ says the Lord who rules over all.
‘But you ask, “How can we return?”
8 ‘Will a mere human being dare to steal from God? But you rob me!
‘You ask, “How are we robbing you?”
‘By holding back your offerings. You also steal from me when you do not bring me a tenth of everything you produce. 9 So you are under my curse. In fact, your whole nation is under my curse. That is because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the entire tenth to the storerooms in my temple. Then there will be plenty of food. Test me this way,’ says the Lord. ‘Then you will see that I will throw open the windows of heaven. I will pour out so many blessings that you will not have enough room to store them. 11 I will keep pests from eating up your crops. And your grapes will not drop from the vines before they are ripe,’ says the Lord. 12 ‘Then all the nations will call you blessed. Your land will be delightful,’ says the Lord who rules over all.
13 ‘You have spoken with pride against me,’ says the Lord.
‘But you ask, “What have we spoken against you?”
14 ‘You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What do we gain by obeying his laws? And what do we get by pretending to be sad in front of the Lord? 15 But now we call proud people blessed. Things go well with those who do what is evil. And God doesn't even punish those who test him.” ’
1:6–3:15 God accused his people of many things in his questions and replies. He accused them of not honouring him or respecting him. They showed this by not living according to the ways God had taught them. God had explained his ways for living in the Law of Moses. The people had promised to follow God's ways. They made this promise in the Mount Sinai covenant. Many of the laws in that covenant were about how to worship God. They were also about how to treat others. But the people offered sacrifices they shouldn't have offered. They didn't give back to God a tenth of everything they had. Many men were married to women who worshipped false gods. Many men divorced their wives. The people treated needy people badly. The priest didn't teach the people God's ways for living. Stories recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah showed the people doing these things. These things went against what God wanted his people to do. The people's questions and replies showed that they didn't understand who God is or what he desires. God explained that he was their Father, their Master and their Creator. The people belonged to him. They were to be faithful to one another like he was faithful to them. God does what is right and fair and brings judgement against those who do evil. God is the Lord who rules over all. He can provide everything that people need. God longed to bless his people with so much that they couldn't store it all. God would do this if his people lived faithful to the Mount Sinai covenant. This doesn't mean that God's people had control over blessings from God. It doesn't mean that they would be blessed for giving money to God or the temple. That way of thinking is called the prosperity gospel and it isn't true. What was true was that God's people needed to be faithful to the Mount Sinai covenant. This would allow the covenant blessings to come to God's people. But God's people didn't believe these things about God. They didn't trust him to provide the food and drink they needed. They didn't trust that he punished people who did evil. They asked questions about God being fair. These were like the questions asked in Psalm 73 and like the questions asked by Job. The people didn't believe that God desired to bless them. They didn't believe that obeying God faithfully was better than doing what they wanted. It seemed to them that obeying God was hard work. It was hard and didn't result in anything good for them. For hundreds of years God's people had refused to believe in him and trust him. Jews in Malachi's time had lived through the time of God's judgement. But most were no more faithful to God than their people of long ago had been. God felt worn out by this.
16 Those who had respect for the Lord talked with one another. And the Lord heard them. A list of people and what they did was written in a book in front of him. It included the names of those who respected the Lord and honoured him.
17 ‘The day is coming when I will judge,’ says the Lord who rules over all. ‘On that day they will be my special treasure. I will spare them just as a father loves and spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once again you will see the difference between godly people and sinful people. And you will see the difference between those who serve me and those who do not.