seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Malachi 1:1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.[a]
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.”
But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’
6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.
“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.
“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
7 “By offering defiled food on my altar.
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
9 “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.
10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.
12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ 13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.
“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
a. Malachi 1:1 Malachi means my messenger.
This is from bible-studys.org.
This is an explanation from God of why He did not destroy Judah and Jerusalem, as He had Edom. They both had sinned. They both fell into the hands of an angry God. They both deserved to be done completely away with. Edom was destroyed, and not remembered. God chose to forgive Jacob's family, and restore them.
While Genesis mentions no divine hatred toward Esau, Obadiah’s prophecy over 1,000 years later, Oba. 1:21 indicated that the Lord’s hatred was against Esau’s idolatrous descendants. In the same way, the Lord’s love for Jacob refers to his descendants who were His sovereignly elected people through whom the world’s Redeemer would come.
Nor does the love/hate language signify a comparative love in which He loved Jacob more and Esau less. Rather, the context here speaks of love as “choosing for intimate fellowship” and hate as “not choosing for intimate fellowship” in the realm of redemption.
Affirming the unconditional love of the Lord did not absolve guilt, thus Malachi delivered an opening indictment against the priests and the nation’s spiritual leaders. Pointing out how they were showing contempt for God’s sacrifices, His glory and His Law.
The priests had the audacity to offer God what their governor, as a form of taxation, would never have accepted from them. They were more fearful of the governor’s rejection than of God’s. This would have been during the time that Nehemiah was back in Persia when he would have relinquished the office for some time.
The animals for sacrifice were a type and shadow of the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. They were to be without spot of any kind. They were to be perfect in their body, as Jesus was perfect in His body. They offered these lame and blind, because they were cheaper than an animal without blemish.
God would not accept this type of offering. They would not dare offer something like this to an earthly ruler. How sad they would offer this to God.
The exacting requirements of the sacrifices wearied the priest. They did not literally say the Lord’s Table (the place of offerings) is contemptible, but they virtually said so by refusing to lead the people to reverence and to offer the Lord their best, thus their attitude and actions were profaning the altar and insulting to the lord, so He rejected their offerings.
We see from this, that they did have animals that were not damaged, that they could have offered. They gave the cast-aways to God. These were some they would have thrown away anyway. They thought so little of God, they would do this. God spoke curses to those who did not keep His commandments. They have brought the curse upon themselves.
Instead of the unblemished male animal, which was considered more valuable and which he had vowed to voluntarily give, the offeror suddenly substituted a blemished female.
They have chosen not to obey God. They have chosen to sin greatly before God. They have become so casual about their worship, they have forgotten His ordinances. The heathen are in awe of such a God. They have more fear and respect for God, than His own people do. God will not allow His people to defame Him. He is Holy. He is Righteous. He is Almighty. He is our All in All.
This is from the easy English site.
Here, the people did not agree that God loved them. But God says that he loved Jacob. In other words, he chose to love Jacob. Jacob’s children started the 12 tribes (or large families) that became Israel. So ‘I chose to love Jacob’ means ‘I chose to love Israel’. The LORD had changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Genesis 32:28).
But God chose not to love Esau. Actually, the Hebrew Bible says, ‘I hated Esau’. But many Bible students agree with our translation. It means that God chose Jacob for his plan, but he did not choose Esau. God’s plan was to send Jesus to save us from the punishment for our evil deeds. God chose Jacob because later Jesus would be born into the family of Jacob (that is, Israel). That is a plan that can help everyone, ‘even outside the country called Israel’, verse 5.
This verse helps to give us a date for Malachi. It tells us that the LORD destroyed Edom. That means that the LORD allowed an enemy to defeat Edom. Edom is the name of the country where the family of Esau lived. An enemy called the Nabataeans probably destroyed Edom about 500 B.C. The people from Edom moved to the desert south of Jerusalem. This was before Malachi wrote his book.
Some Jews thought that God could only work in their own land. But when they will see him work in Edom, they will say, ‘The LORD is great, even outside the country called Israel!’
God would not accept the unclean things that the priests offered. Therefore, they should pray for him to be gracious. ‘Gracious’ means ‘kinder than you need to be’. Many Bible students think that Malachi was using irony here. Irony is when you say the opposite of what you really mean. It is something that poets do in order to emphasise their message. Really, Malachi thought that the priest should offer good gifts to God. Malachi did not want them to continue to offer bad gifts while they prayed such prayers.
The priests thought that all their religion was a nuisance to them. They hated it, or ‘blew down their noses’ at it. The English way to say this is ‘turned up their noses’ at it. The priests did this when they offered animals that were not perfect. The animal may have had an injury. Maybe a wild animal hurt or killed it. Exodus 22:31 says that the people should not even eat such an animal. To offer it to God insulted God. Or maybe the animals could not walk; or they had diseases. Leviticus 22:20-25 says that the people must not offer these animals to God.
OK.... first of all.... I don't think God hated Esau. He had to choose one of the twins to be the line that Jesus [God's Son] would use to enter earth with the antidote to death. He chose Jacob and even changed Jacob's name to Israel. It wasn't an "I love you, I hate you" kind of thing.... it's a "I only need one of you for the conception.... the other will be the exclamation". Consider this.... God will take the descendants of Esau into Heaven. God will adopt descendants of Esau.... even tho Esau sold his birthright to Jacob. Esau didn't care to be the father of the "other nations". Esau was hungry and he ate.... Esau was a real "I want it all.... I want it all.... and I want it now" kind of guy IMHO. Esau was so much like so many who are walking around now.
Jacob's descendants.... now they knew better. All the way through the Old Testament.... God has been telling them the rules.... and they continued to try to tweek the rules to make life easier. Consider the two fake temples the descendants of Jacob [Israel] built to make the trek to Temple quicker so they could keep productivity up. The descendants of Jacob [Israel] in Judah had the benefit of having the real Temple so close.... but the priests were turning into spoiled whiny babies..... they didn't like hauling all that expensive meat up on the alter.... I bet more than once one of those priests said "such a waste... this meat would haul in top dollar while I haul it up here and send all money up in smoke."
This isn't about loving one son and hating another. This is about two brothers representing three groups of humans that inhabit the earth today. There are the descendants of Jacob[Israel], the Christians, and the non-believers. See... they had to be twins.... and only one of them could be the great great whatever grandfather of Jesus the Messiah.... and the other would be the great great whatever grandfather of all the others.
This isn't about the blemished animals.... it's about the yearning of the priests. These priests only cared about doing as little heavy lifting for the least expense..... they cared about the building.... the budget.... the free housing.... the paycheck.... they weren't worshiping.... they were working.... and they weren't even doing the job right while they were working. They were yearning for the shiny baubles.... and gold coins.... rather than God.
I say that Esau's line would be "the exclamation".... I mean Esau's line would be a "look what God can do!" with a huge exclamation point at the end.
