Malachi 2:17–3:5

2:17 Here and in 3:13–14, Malachi begins his prophecy not with a direct statement from God to his people but by expressing God’s weariness and disgust toward his people’s speech about him. Although texts in Job and the Psalms are refreshingly open about the problem of delayed judgment, no other doubts about divine justice are as forceful as those voiced here. The community is not just suspicious about the nature or timing of God’s judgment; it is blasphemously insisting God is actively pleased with those who fearlessly oppress others and violate his commands (cf. the longer description of these sins in v. 5). The normal categories of good and evil have been inverted, with God supposedly on the wrong side. Although it is easy to imagine jealous glances toward those who ignored God and seemed much happier for it (whether inside or outside the Judahite community) amid the difficulties of rebuilding the postexilic community, it is still shocking to hear this complaint from God’s own people.

3:1 The Lord announces the sending of his messenger to prepare his way. The phrase “Behold, I send” recalls other royal pronouncements of sending messengers, human or otherwise, to execute justice (Ex. 8:21; Isa. 6:8; Jer. 43:10; Joel 2:19). Three times the verse emphasizes the immediacy of this action, twice with “Behold!” and once with “suddenly.” The question “Where is the God of justice?” (Mal. 2:17) is already being answered—but not without irony. The repetition of “delight” from 2:17 is sarcastic, as the people in 2:17 were certainly not delighting in the Lord. Their cynicism is sarcastically described as “delighting in” and “seeking after” the Lord—who, because of his people’s unbelief, is coming quickly.

The messenger’s purpose is to prepare the Lord’s way as he personally draws near for judgment (3:5). The exact form of this preparation is described in verses 2–4 and strongly echoes Exodus 23:20 and Isaiah 40:3. Although the context is different from these earlier passages—the former speaks of God’s angelic guidance as the people enter the Promised Land; the latter of his approach to escort his people back to the land after exile—all three concern God’s ultimate goal of being directly present with his people, with all the blessed effects this implies.

In the first sentence of Malachi 3:1, the Lord and his messenger are easy to distinguish. Through the end of verse 4, however, it becomes more difficult to discern the identity or number of those being described. The word ʼadon, translated as “the Lord” in the second sentence of verse 1, could possibly refer to a human master (the same word is used in both senses in 1:6). Additionally, it is possible that “my messenger” is distinguished from “the messenger of the covenant.” As a result, it is possible that there are three distinct “messengers” at work in this verse: “my messenger,” the “lord” as an authority figure, and “the messenger of the covenant.”

Four considerations bring the passage into focus. First, ʼadon with the definite article always refers to the Lord elsewhere, so it makes best sense to understand it thus here; further, only the Lord can come to “his” temple. Second, the “messenger of the covenant” is probably the same as “my messenger”—if two different servants are intended, it would be odd to designate them with the same term (malʼak). Third, the messenger and the Lord are to be distinguished. In the world of the OT, although a royal messenger speaks in the name and authority of the king, he is always distinct from him. Fourth, since God does not speak in the first person until 3:5, and no new actor is introduced in verses 2–4, it is best to understand verses 2–4 as the work of the messenger of the covenant.

Against this interpretation is the use of divine terms to describe the messenger’s appearance and work. Taken out of context, the question of verse 2 could easily be attributed to the Lord himself. Who else could spiritually refine God’s people but their God? However, significant ambiguous overlap between the Lord and his messenger occurs often in the OT (cf. Gen. 16:7–13; Ex. 23:20). The messenger’s work is so closely identified with God’s that they are described in virtually synonymous ways. This is probably why this messenger is described with the unique phrase “messenger of the covenant”: he comes to repair the covenant relationship.

3:2–4 The implicit answer to the question beginning verse 2 is “No one.” On his own, no one is able to withstand the day of this messenger’s appearing. The prophets very frequently describe God’s swift-approaching theophany to judge evil in terms of burning fire (out of many examples, cf. Isa. 5:24; 9:17–18; 66:15–16), symbolizing his intensity, inner purity, and consuming passion to obliterate evil. Far from delighting in evildoers (Mal. 2:17), the Lord implies that those complaining about the absence of divine justice will not necessarily benefit when God acts through his messenger.

But this is a refining and cleansing fire, not a wholly destructive one (3:2b); refining judgment is a common prophetic theme (Isa. 1:25; 48:10; Jer. 9:7; Dan. 11:35; 12:10; Zech. 13:9). The second sentence of the verse provides a note of hope amid coming judgment, for without this refining, God’s people could not stand in his judgment (cf. Mal. 3:5). Part of the messenger’s work is to cleanse God’s people spiritually.

The messenger “sits” (v. 3) as the refining continues for some time before it is complete. Strikingly, the object of this purification is the Levites (v. 3), even though it appears that all the people are complaining (2:17) and that the apparently successful rebels are spread throughout the people (3:5). God’s judgment and execution of justice begins with his own servants in his house (which explains the reference to the temple in v. 1). Only after the priests are cleansed (the verb translated “purify” in verse 3 often refers to ritual cleanness in Leviticus—e.g., 12:4, 6–8) will sacrificial worship again be pleasing to God. Strikingly, these offerings are then offered “in righteousness”—by implication, Judah’s sloppy worship is one of the injustices complained about in Malachi 2:17. Thus the first injustice God addresses is the unworthy worship of him. Only after the restoration of fitting worship does God proceed more directly to his people’s complaint. In 1:6–14, pure worship is related to the ever-spreading worship of God; here it is linked to execution of justice.

3:5 Once his own people have been refined, the Lord executes justice on those rebelling against him (2:17)—not from a distance but by personally drawing near. The Lord’s acting as a witness represents the whole process of justice; his “swift” witness resolves the complaint beginning the passage. No longer will the people ask where the God of justice is, as he judges crimes ranging from false worship to sexual sin to oppression of the poor.