Malachi 3:14

Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? He notices the complaint of the Jews, that it is of no profit to serve Yahweh, for that the ungodly-proud are happy; and declares he will soon bring the day when it shall be known that He puts an everlasting distinction between the godly and the ungodly. YOUR WORDS HAVE BEEN STOUT - Hebrew [chaazquw], 'hard:' so "the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (Jude 1:15). (Henderson.) YET YE SAY, WHAT HAVE WE SPOKEN SO MUCH AGAINST THEE? The Hebrew [ nidbarnuw (H1696)] expresses at once their assiduity and habit of speaking God (Vatablus). The Niphal form of the verb implies that these things were said, not directly...

He then gives the reason why he said, that their words grew strong against God, that is, that they daringly and furiously spoke evil of God; and the reason was, because they _said, that God was worshipped in vain_. They thought that they worshipped God perfectly; and this was their false principle; for hypocrites ever lay claim to complete holiness, and cannot bear to confess their own evils; even when their conscience goads them, they deceive themselves with vain flatteries, and always endeavor to draw over them some veil that their disgrace may not appear before men. Hence hypocrites seek to deceive themselves, God, angels, and men; and when they are inflated with the confidence that they worship God purely, rightly, and without any defect, and that they are without any blame, they will betray the virulence which lies within, whenever God does not help them as they wish, whenever he su...

13-18 Among the Jews at this time, some plainly discovered themselves to be children of the wicked one. The yoke of Christ is easy. But those who work wickedness, tempt God by presumptuous sins. Judge of things as they will appear when the doom of these proud sinners comes to be executed. Those that feared the Lord, spake kindly, for preserving and promoting mutual love, when sin thus abounded. They spake one to another, in the language of those that fear the Lord, and think on his name. As evil communications corrupt good minds and manners, so good communications confirm them. A book of remembrance was written before God. He will take care that his children perish not with those that believe not. They shall be vessels of mercy and honour, when the rest are made vessels of wrath and dishonour. The saints are God's jewels; they are dear to him. He will preserve them as his jewels, when t...

Verse Malachi 3:14. _YE HAVE SAID, IT IS VAIN TO SERVE GOD_] They strove to destroy the Divine worship; they asserted that it was _vanity_; that, if they performed acts of worship, they should be nothing the better; and if they abstained, they should be nothing the worse. This was their teaching to the people. _WALKED MOURNFULLY_] Even _repentance_ they have declared to be useless. This was a high pitch of ungodliness; but see what follows; behold the general _conclusions_ of these reprobates-...

YE HAVE SAID, IT IS VAIN TO SERVE THE GOD - o “as receiving no gain or reward for their service. This is the judgment of the world, whereby worldlings think pious, just, sincere, strict men, vain, i. e., especially when they see them impoverished, despised, oppressed, afflicted, because they know not the true goods of virtue and eternal glory, but measure all things by sight, sense and taste. Truly, if the righteous had not hope of another and better life, in vain would they afflict themselves, and bear the afflictions of others. For, as the Apostle says 1 Corinthians 15:19. ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.’ But now, hoping for another blessed and eternal life for the slight tribulations of this, we are the happiest of all men.” And we have walked mour

EXPOSITION MALACHI 3:1 BEHOLD, I WILL SEND (_I send_) MY MESSENGER. God answers that he is coming to show himself the God of judgment and justice. Are they ready to meet him and to bear his sentence? Who this "messenger" is is disputed. That no angel or heavenly visitant is meant is clear from historical considerations, as no such event took place immediately before the Lord came to his temple. Nor can Malachi himself be intended, as his message was delivered nearly four, hundred years before Messiah came. The announcement is doubtless founded upon Isaiah 40:3, and refers to the same person as the older prophet mentions, who is generally allowed to be John the Baptist, the herald of Christ's advent ...

YE HAVE SAID, IT [IS] VAIN TO SERVE GOD,.... This they said in their hearts, if not with their lips, that it was a vain thing for a man to serve God; he got nothing by it; he had no reward for it; it fared no better with him than the wicked; nay, the wicked fared better than he; and therefore who would be a worshipper of God? see Job 21:15. Abarbinel understands this also with respect to God, who is worshipped; to whom worship, say these men, is no ways profitable, nor does he regard it; see Job 35:7 and therefore it is in vain to serve him, since neither he, nor we, are the better for it: AND WHAT PROFIT [IS IT] THAT WE HAVE KEPT HIS ORDINANCE; or "his observation" n; that is, have observed that which he commanded to be observed; this respects not any single and particular ordinance, but

Malachi 3:1. _Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:_ The name Malachi means «my messenger.» The reference here is, of course, to John the Baptist, who was to prepare the way of the Lord. Malachi 3:1. _And the lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,_ Now, the temple at Jerusalem is utterly destroyed, so how can the Jews still think the Lord, whom they profess to seek, will suddenly come to his temple? He must have come there already, so we know he did, for there is not one stone of the temple left standing upon another: «The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,» Malachi 3:1. Even the messenger of the covenant,

REBUKE FOR DEFRAUDING THE LORD CHAPTER 3:7-15 Another rebuke is administered. They were alway a stiff-necked people, never obedient to His ordinances. His gracious call to return unto Him, and the promise that He will return unto them is answered by “Wherein shall we return?” They had robbed God of what was His right. The tithes and offerings which He demanded in the law covenant had been withheld. On account of it the blessing was lacking and curse was upon the nation. Then follows a command to bring all the tithes into the storehouse, the challenge to prove Him, the assurance of abundant blessing. It is strange that even those who have a good knowledge of truth, the dispensations and the heavenly position of a Christian, should fall back upon this verse and claim that it is binding and should be practiced among believers. For a system like Seventh Day Adventism, a system which has per...

MALACHI 3:13 TO MALACHI 4:3. THE FINAL TRIUMPH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. The prophet here returns to the complaint of those who thought that religion did not pay (with Malachi 3:14; cf. Malachi 2:17). They had kept God's charge, faithfully observing their religious duties, and even wearing the sackcloth and ashes which marked humiliation and penance. Yet it is the arrogant and lax members of the community (_cf._ Psalms 119:21; Psalms 119:51, etc.) that do well; they challen