Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Situation
After God declares his love for Judah in the opening verse of this prophecy, the rest of the book flows neatly. First, Judah rejects his assertion of love (chapters 1-3), as evidenced in the sins of the priests (chapters 1-2) and then in the sins of the people (chapters 2-3). And then God demonstrates his love for them despite their rejection (chapter 4). That is, of course, the point of the prophecy, and it’s the primary application for us when we find ourselves in spiritual decline.
When God asserts his love, he is immediately challenged: “How have you loved us?” (Mal 1.2). Given the long history of God’s relationship with Israel, those words come as a shock. But as we’ve noted, the recent history since the return from Babylon has given Judah what they think is a basis for complaint. And as we’ve noted further, the proper response when you don’t understand what your friend is doing is to start by defaulting to trust.
They don’t do that. They demand that God defend himself.
Perhaps surprisingly, he does.
His defense is simply to call to mind his long relationship with them. He focuses on his ancient choice of Jacob over his older twin brother, Esau.
It’s often observed that if you had known these two boys, you’d definitely have preferred Esau. He’s an outdoorsman, and good at it. He doesn’t hold a grudge (Ge 33.1-9). He is what we might call a Good Old Boy. Jacob, on the other hand, is a cheat; he’ll lie and steal if it’s to his advantage.
God has no reason to prefer the scoundrel. But he reveals himself to him as he’s fleeing from the wrath of his cheated brother (Ge 28.10-15), and then again as he’s leaving his father-in-law Laban after a sharp disagreement (Ge 32.24-29), and he makes it clear that his covenant with Abraham, and then with Isaac, is now bestowed on Jacob.
We learn later that God made this choice before the boys were even born (Ro 9.10-13), and thus not on the basis of anything they had done to deserve (or not deserve) it.
That’s grace.
What does it look like when God gives a people what they deserve? The rains don’t come; the crops don’t grow; the buildings fall apart; the wild animals make themselves at home in what had once been a civilization (Mal 1.3-5).
God sends destruction to Edom, the land of Esau’s descendants. Interestingly, during the Babylonian invasion the Edomites had avoided the kind of devastation that came to Jerusalem and the surrounding territory of Judah. (There were reasons that Nebuchadnezzar was particularly angry at the Jews.) But here God promises that destruction is coming to Edom too.
Malachi alludes to an earlier prophecy from Jeremiah, given before the exile to Judah:
I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; And I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant (Jer 9.11).
But here he applies it to Edom (Mal 1.3). And he keeps that promise: shortly after this prophecy, Nabatean Arabs invaded and possessed Edom, and the Edomites migrated around the Dead Sea to southern Judah (the Negev), where they were eventually called Idumeans. The Herods were part of this tribe, which was destroyed by Rome during the Jewish Wars of the first century AD.
The end was not pretty.
God chose Jacob, and even after the exile Judah was benefiting greatly from that choice and the love that accompanied it.
A historical footnote:
7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, 8 And from Jerusalem, and from
—well, lookee here!—
Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him (Mk 3.7-8).
Descendants of Esau, the rejected one, come to Jesus, and he receives them.
As he does all who come.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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