Malachi chapter 3
A messenger will appear. The whole tithe. They say it is vain to serve God.
A MESSENGER WILL APPEAR
VERSE 1. “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says the LORD of Hosts.
NAB translation. Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me. Suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
sending my messenger to prepare the way before me. The prophets foresaw the arrival of a messenger who would prepare the way for the Messiah. Read more »
there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek. This prophecy was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple as an infant. There he met ancient Simeon and Anna.
He visited the temple again at age twelve. In his adult life, he came to the temple many times.
VERSE 2. “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap;
VERSE 3. and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to the LORD offerings in righteousness.
VERSE 4. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD as in the days of old and as in ancient years.
VERSE 5. I will come near to you to judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
NIV translation. So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.
those who oppress the hireling in his wages. The Bible forbids us from defrauding poor people and immigrants of their just wages. Read more »
against those … who deprive the foreigner of justice. The Bible is clear. We believers are to welcome immigrants. The Bible commands us to love them as ourselves. Read more »
VERSE 6. “For I, the LORD, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
NASB translation. For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
I, the Lord, do not change. The LORD God does not change. There is no need for him to evolve into a better version. He does not need to be upgraded.
Jesus Christ calls himself the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. Here are the verses about this »
VERSE 7. From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
Zechariah 1:3. Therefore tell them, the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Hosts, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Hosts.
VERSE 8. Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.
ESV translation. Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
The Bible calls us to support the people who teach us in the faith. Read more »
VERSE 9. You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation.
THE WHOLE TITHE
VERSE 10. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says the LORD of Hosts, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for.
NIV translation. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.
ESV translation. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
This verse is fantastic! Would you consider memorizing it? More great verses to memorize from the Book of Malachi and from the entire Bible.
Through the prophet Malachi, the LORD God calls his people to make a full 10% tithe of their income.
This was so important that God dared them to test him about this, and see if he would not bless them for doing it.
Bring the whole tithe. This is commanded.
2 Chronicles 31:6. The children of Israel and Judah, who lived in the cities of Judah, also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated to the LORD their God, and laid them in heaps.
into the storehouse:
2 Chronicles 5:1. Thus all the work that Solomon did for the LORD’s house was finished. Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver, the gold, and all the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of God’s house.
test me now in this. This is very rare. The LORD God commands us to test what he says. We can try tithing as an experiment.
open you the windows of heaven. When we tithe, the LORD God will open the floodgates of heaven upon us.
pour you out a blessing. Tithing enjoys a degree of blessing that is unequalled elsewhere.
We can’t think of any other God-given activity that has this much of a guarantee of blessing.
Genesis 7:12. It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
there will not be room enough for. The blessings when we tithe are so great that we won’t even be able to contain them all.
Exodus 36:5. They spoke to Moses, saying, “The people have brought much more than enough for the service of the work which the LORD commanded to make.”
The Bible calls us to support the people who teach us in the faith. Read more »
VERSE 11. I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says the LORD of Hosts.
NAB translation. For your sake I will forbid the locust to destroy your crops; and the vine in the field will not be barren.
the vine in the field will not be barren. Many people don’t give generously because they are afraid of scarcity.
If they give some of their money away, they might not have enough left over.
Here, the LORD God assures his people of provision. They need not lack. He will supply abundantly. We do not need to be afraid of tithing.
VERSE 12. “All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of Hosts.
THEY SAY IT IS VAIN TO SERVE GOD
VERSE 13. “Your words have been harsh against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
VERSE 14. You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?
VERSE 15. Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’
VERSE 16. Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared the LORD and who honored his name.
The Lord listened. Our conversations are important to the LORD God.
VERSE 17. They shall be mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
1 Peter 2:9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
VERSE 18. Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
MALACHI
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.