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Malachi
Book type: Prophets (Minor)
Author: Malachi.
No. of chapters: 4
Key character(s): God, Malachi.
Brief description: Malachi – A challenge to glorify God & magnify His name.
Theological outline:
01) Honour God: do not doubt his love (1:1-5)
02) Honour God: do not profane his worship (1:6-2:9)
03) Honour God: do not be unfaithful in marriage covenants (2:10-16)
04) Honour God: do not doubt his justice (2:17-3:5)
05) Honour God: do not withhold the tithe & he will bless you (3:6-12)
06) Honouring God is worth it: do not think God will treat everyone the same (3:13-4:3)
07) Honour God: obey him & wait expectantly (4:4-6)

Malachi means “messenger” or “My messenger” &/or “My angel” in Hebrew.

The book of Malachi is a reminder of how God’s people allowed the worldly thinking of their day instead of their reverence for God to determine their behaviour.

Theological conclusions.
The book of Malachi challenges the people of God to take a fresh look at the way they are thinking about God & at the underlying motives behind their religious activity by emphasizing 4 doctrines:
01) God is a great king who loves his people & deserves their respect & honour.
02) The people of God demonstrate true reverence for God in worship & in marriage relationships.
03) Spiritual leaders have a responsibility to instruct the people of God in God’s ways.
04) God will one day send “the messenger of the covenant” (Malachi 3:1) to judge those who do not honour him & bless those who magnify his name.

Contemporary teaching.
The book of Malachi touches on issues which are significant to our own situation in the church today. Malachi asks us:
01) To take a careful look at our concept of God & evaluate if we truly reverence Him as king in our lives.
02) To honour God with the best that we have to give in worship & in giving our tithes.
03) To confess where we have failed to magnify his name & return to him in humility.
04) To be faithful to God & our spouses in our marriage relationships.
05) To be assured that God sees when we honour him & serve him & will richly bless us.
[Source: NIV Disciple’s Study Bible]

Key Verse(s):
Malachi 1:6 (ANIV)
“A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due to me? If I am a master, where is the respect due to me?” says the Lord Almighty…

Malachi 3:6-7 (ANIV)
“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

Malachi 4:1-3 (ANIV)
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the Lord Almighty.