Lesson 6 – Malachi Chapter 2
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THE BOOK OF MALACHI
Lesson 6, Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Malachai gets even more focused, and the accusations against
the Levite Priesthood more sharply severe, than in chapter 1. There is a fine
line between teaching and preaching; and I suspect that due to the nature of
the material in Malachai, we’ll wind up exploring both sides of that fine line
today. But, one other thing emerges as well: in Malachai’s day, God was
destroying any hope of a middle ground that the Priesthood and the people
always seemed to gravitate toward. A person either stood 100% with
Yehoveh, His Prophets, and His Torah, or He saw it as unfaithfulness and
rebellion. This radical stance is, and has always been, at the core of the
biblical teachings. That means that despite the sometimes painful, offensive
nature of God’s truth versus the contrived religious doctrines, Believers are
given no choice but to be all-in for the truth. So, I’ll say upfront that what will
be said today is going to strike some as too frank. So be it.

We’ll read all of chapter 2 shortly, but I want to begin by presenting a couple
of verses to give you the tone of it.

CJB
Malachi 2:1-2 "Now, cohanim, this command is for you.
2
If you
won't listen, if you won't pay attention to honoring my name," says
Yehoveh-Tzva'ot, "then I will send the curse on you; I will turn your
blessings into curses. Yes, I will curse them, because you pay no
attention.

Then a few verses later:

CJB
Malachi 2:8 But you turned away from the path, you caused many
to fail in the Torah, you corrupted the covenant of Levi," says
Yehoveh-Tzva'ot.

The problem is that the Priesthood refused to listen to God. How were they to
go about listening to Him? First, through the Torah, and second, through the
Prophets God sent with divine messages to the Priests. What did the
Priesthood do with the Torah? They substituted their own doctrines and failed

Lesson 6 – Malachi Chapter 2
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to teach the real Torah to the people. What did they do with those messages
from the Prophets? Either they killed the Prophet, or they ignored the
message, or they denied that what God told them was actually the case. The
result was (according to Yehoveh) that the Priesthood, who was given the
responsibility to follow the Torah especially as it pertained to the Levite
religious leadership, and to teach the Torah to the Israelite people, failed to do
so. They corrupted the Torah; they edited it; they instilled manmade doctrines
to either replace Scripture or to so twist its meaning as to have had virtually
the same effect.

This matters to us not just because we find this problem repeatedly in our
Bibles, but also because we face the same issue in our day, just as we did
yesterday and will tomorrow. The formation of the Constantinian Church of the
4
th
century did more than to corrupt the Torah: the leaders abolished it.
Emperor Constantine’s Bishops unashamedly denounced and renounced the
biblical Hebrew faith, and created a new faith for gentiles only.

In the biblical era, right through Yeshua’s time, those Jews who (like Yeshua)
challenged the religious establishment of the Priesthood and the Synagogue
concerning the faith institutions that ruled over the Jewish people, were called
blasphemers and heretics. It should surprise no one that once the
Constantinian Church was born, all who sought to belong to it but challenged
some of the institution’s premises and doctrines were also called blasphemers
and heretics. It got so bad that by the era of the Inquisition, challenging the
Church didn’t just bring one a bad reputation, acquiring the label of heretic
meant the death sentence. The Inquisition was not just one; it was ongoing
and several and took place not over decades but centuries. The era of the
Christian Inquisition spanned from the late 12
th
century to the 19
th
century,
with the main period of activity concentrated between the 12
th
and 15
th

centuries. It involved various named inquisitions, including the Medieval
Inquisition (1184-14
th
century), the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834), and the
Roman Inquisition (1542-18
th
century). In other words, from the 1100’s A.D.
through much of the 1800’s A.D., Christendom was very determined to root
out Jews who Believed in Yeshua but did not want to become gentiles, and to
punish or execute anyone in the Church who dared to challenge any Church
doctrine. The Pilgrims who came to America were but one of countless

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thousands who were persecuted by the Church as heretics and blasphemers
and had to escape to save their lives.

Let me make me this historic reality and living truth highly personal for you.
Because of the Church’s stance, what does this make you? Are you a heretic
according to Christendom? If not, why not? Just as we’re told by Yeshua and
the Apostles that a true Believer is to be a pariah to the world… Believers as
non-conformers to the world systems… how are we to view a manmade faith
created in the mold of the Greco-Roman world that is meant for gentiles only,
and was immediately commanded by a Roman Emperor to be the designated
State Religion for the Roman Empire, of which there can be no greater
representative of the world at that time than it?

I have been accused for many years of being a heretic for what I teach, which
is God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation as being a thoroughly Hebrew
document laying out a thoroughly Hebrew faith. I used to try to defend myself
until I came to a stark realization: my accusers are indeed right. I am a
heretic! I am a heretic to Christendom, but not to God or to His Word. It was a
most terrible and depressing discovery. I was raised in the Church. I was
saved in the Church. And I can see the good it has done. But, now I can also
see just how off path and counter to God’s Word it actually was from its birth,
with its only real fundamental truth as teaching that Yeshua of Nazareth is
Lord and Savior. I have learned that just as we cannot be conformed to both
God and the world (because they are, by nature, diametrically opposed),
neither can we be conformed to both God and a faith institution that corrupts
His Word, which denies the faith that Yeshua taught and practiced, and denies
the Torah, which God gave to Moses and Yeshua said would be in force and
applies to His followers until the current Heavens and Earth physically pass
away only to be replaced by the new.

I know many of you wrestle with this. Many run from it, and only some
towards it. It is hard. It is our nature to want there to be a middle ground… a
common ground… a comfortable place between Christendom and the Hebrew
faith (the faith explicitly laid out for us in the Bible), so that we can all be at
peace. Yeshua had a firm answer to those who seek, and adopt, that peaceful
and more comfortable middle ground:

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CJB
Revelation 3:15-16
15
"I know what you are doing: you are neither
cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other!
16
So,
because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out
of my mouth!

None of what I have described is new. It has happened not for centuries but for
millennia. The results are always predictable and the same. So, Malachai is both
a warning and a history lesson that is timeless; the warning is to not repeat the
past. The message is that there is no spiritual Switzerland. You must choose to
whom you will be a heretic because depending on which side you elect to stand
with and give your allegiance to, the other side will always brand you as one.

Open your Bibles to Malachai chapter 2.

READ MALACHAI CHAPTER 2 all

At the end of chapter 1, there was a brief moment when Malachai included the
culpability of the common folks of Israel, even though most of God’s ire is
towards the Priests. There is always a dual responsibility of the religious leaders
and those whom they lead to obey God and follow in His ways. What we see in
the more ancient times is that the leaders had, proportionately, a very high
responsibility to know, teach and live out truth, compared to the common people
because they had no choice but to rely on their leaders and teachers for what
God’s Word said. As time passed, and the Synagogue system arose a century
or so before Yeshua’s birth, a brand-new religious system administered by lay
leaders and taught by itinerate teachers who, somehow, had obtained one
book or another of the Holy Scriptures from which it was read verbatim to the
congregations, then the proportionality of responsibility grew for the common
folks. Today, that proportionality (while still leaning more towards leadership)
now puts greater responsibility and accountability than in any prior time in
history on the individual Believer because God’s Word is so easily and cheaply
available to all.

So, after that brief moment of making sure that the common Israelites
understood that they, too, carried responsibility for their beliefs, thoughts, and

Lesson 6 – Malachi Chapter 2
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actions, it now returns in verse 1 as unambiguously directed to ward the
Priesthood. Verse 2 begins with the word “if”… which though a very small word,
is one of the most impactful in the Bible. “If” automatically implies making a
choice, and an outcome depending on that choice. The opening words in Hebrew
are im-lo (which, most literally translated, is “if not”). Thus, “if” in this case
leads to an announcement or warning of the punishments for making the wrong
choice. What action, specifically, does the “if” apply to? It is whether the
Priesthood will do what they already know they are to do… or they won’t. They
are to honor and glorify and uphold God’s name. “Name” (shem in Hebrew)
refers to sum total of all that a person is: their character, their reputation, their
doctrine, their essential nature. This means, the teaching of the Priests must be
to correctly characterize Yehoveh. That only happens when the Torah is
presented to the people as given, and not watered down or distorted with human
doctrines. Every new humanly devised doctrine about God only leads to
distortion, because all that can be known about God is contained in Holy
Scriptures. The mere fact that God offers us choices, followed up with an “if”,
means that that choice can bring either His mercy or His wrath. Therefore, for
anyone to teach that God’s essence is love and only love (which is generally the
teaching of the 21
st
century Church) is in conflict with the biblical and Hebrew
meaning of “if”.

If the Priests won’t harken, or listen, to God’s rebuke then there will be serious
consequences. The Hebrew word that is translated as harken or listen is shema,
which means to hear and to do. That is, it is like a soldier receiving an order to
do thus and so. It is much less about receiving the order than carrying out the
order. Thus, inherent in the word shema is for the Priests to accept God’s
rebuke, change and apply it in their actions. It is not about changing some fuzzy
notions of what right or wrong is, but rather they are to change substantively
from not teaching the truth to actively teaching the truth. They are to give up
adding to, subtracting from, or substituting their own doctrines and rules for
God’s. I suppose I could once again pause and make application for us, but
goodness, is this not transparent enough? If you are not seeking the truth, or
you are not teaching the truth taken directly from the Scriptures, then you can
expect God’s wrath. Yet, even that is only half the equation. The other necessary
part is to do whatever we learn from the Scriptures, as opposed to only knowing
it.

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The punishment for this disobedience of not showing honor and not glorifying
His name by not teaching His truth, is that God will send the curse upon the
person or persons or institution (in this case, the Priesthood) who is doing it.
We read about the “if” or better “if not”, im-lo, so now this is the “then”. It is
not “a” curse but rather “the” curse (hamme-era). The reason it is “the” curse,
and not “a” curse is that the Law of Moses has specific curses… particular
maledictions…not just any curse taken from a bag of curses… each tied to the
breaking of specific laws. That is, neither is the nature of the trespass nor its
proper punishment subjective. It is all directly connected to the Covenant of
Moses… the covenant that Israel has with God, which lists laws along with their
corresponding punishments for breaking them. There is even a nuance to that,
which we’ll get to regarding the Priesthood. So, this is all about God’s covenant-
based relationship with Israel. In the Torah we read:

CJB
Deuteronomy 28:15 "But if you refuse to pay attention to what
Yehoveh your God says, and do not observe and obey all his mitzvot and
regulations which I am giving you today, then all the following curses
will be yours in abundance:

Turning the promised blessings into curses is a basic premise of the Law.
Blessings that come from obedience can be turned into curses for disobedience.
When the final few words of verse 1 says: “yes, I will curse them” it means He
will curse the blessings. Seems simple enough, but there is a complex
understanding of how this works just beneath the surface. Biblically speaking,
as concerns the Priests, it is that blessings (here) refer to the priests’ material
recompense for serving the people of Israel by means of the several tasks God
assigned to the Priesthood to do on Israel’s behalf. They are given housing,
food, and even some money for their service, and this comes from the various
offerings and portions of the altar sacrifices that the people bring to the priests
at the Temple. So, the curse, then, has much to do with things like insufficient
rain, pestilence, poor harvests, lack of fertility of the flocks and herds, and
disease among both the people and the domestic animals. That is, if the people
are suffering because the Priesthood has been lax in their duties, then the people
have little to offer, so, the Priesthood also receives little. The underlying
assumption is that had the Priests taught the truth, judged fairly, and performed

Lesson 6 – Malachi Chapter 2
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their tasks properly, then the people would have had a constant abundance from
which to lavish the priests with offerings to the Temple. So, here we see this
proportionality and relationship between the leadership and the led, played out
in one aspect… how the blessings and curses of one group greatly affects the
other.

At this point there was no forgone conclusion of punishment. Malachai’s
prophecy was not that it was too late for the Priesthood to repent … so the
onslaught of consequences is yet to be set in stone. Rather, it is that if they do
not accept God’s reproach and change their ways, then all these bad things (the
curses) will happen to them. This prophecy laid out the very real possibility of
the punishment being avoided. Yet, a moment comes when the opportunity to
repent and change is terminated by God… it is too late. The Priests and the
people of Israel were warned before Babylon, didn’t heed it, and so the Temple
was destroyed and the Priesthood and the people sent off into exile. I don’t know
when that moment was that God’s offer of forgiveness was revoked. It certainly
had to be before Nebuchadnezzar’s army approached Jerusalem. So, leaders of
our faith… yes, especially us… pay attention. Failure to teach the people God’s
Word and not our opinions, and to serve the people faithfully instead of when
we feel like it, and to judge the people properly and not according to our
personal ideas and preferences about mercy and compassion, will indeed cause
them to stumble and fall, but the same will come back upon us in an even
greater measure. A biblical principle is that after the many warnings we have
already received, there is no way to know exactly when God ends the
opportunity to repent, and the catastrophe becomes assured. This ought to be
a sufficiently terrorizing thought for us all, leaders and congregation, to do some
deep soul searching, but even more importantly, to take appropriate action.

Vs. 3 is:
CJB
Malachi 2:3 I will reject your seed; I will throw dung in your
faces, the dung from your festival offerings; and you will be carted off
with it.

Here the nature of “the curses” that will be sent against the Priesthood for their
laxities and failures to protect God’s honor and glory, if they don’t repent, are
laid out. For some reason the CJB leaves out the first word of this verse, which
is hinneh. This word of exclamation that is usually translated as indeed or

Lesson 6 – Malachi Chapter 2
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behold is necessary to reveal the strong level of emotion behind the following
words. These are severe things being said, and they are intended to cause
alarm.

What is this “seed” that is being rejected? Two possibilities are present, but I
think only one has any real credibility. The first is that it is talking about grain
seeds such that God will not allow abundant harvests. A large number of
commentators believe this is the case. The second is that it is talking about
human seed… offspring. In this case the offspring of the Priests. This must be
the right choice. The idea is that should God have to act against the Priesthood,
it will also involve the rejection of these Priests’ offspring, meaning that they
too are rebuked.

The words that come next, “I will throw dung in your faces”, is an expression
and is not literal. It means that God will spiritually desecrate the priests. It is
directly akin to another but different expression of desecration found in Ezekiel:

CJB
Ezekiel 6:5 I will lay the corpses of the people of Isra'el in front of
their idols and scatter your bones all around your altars.

That is, the presence of death or the presence of filth (dung) makes those
objects and places and people unfit for sacred rituals. The result is that the
Priests cannot fulfill their duties and thus they are publicly humiliated as they
become unclean at the hand of God. The mention of the festival offerings is
speaking specifically about the 3 chag…pilgrimage… feasts in which all Hebrew
males are ordered to come to Jerusalem to sacrifice and observe those holy days
(the feasts of Matza, Shavuot, and Sukkot). This is when the most people will
be witness to the priests’ public humiliation. It would be like God waiting for a
Pastor to lead a Christmas or Easter celebration and there they are humiliated
so that the effect of it is all the greater.

The mention of the priests being “carted off with it” continues the idiomatic use
of “dung”. That is, dung is carted off outside the city and thrown into a garbage
pit. And, the priests, too, are envisioned as assuming the value and status of
“dung” for their failures and lack of faithfulness to their duties, and so there is

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nothing left to do with them but to, figuratively, be thrown into that same
garbage pit alongside the dung.

What all this ultimately amounts to from a spiritual level is that the priests will
be removed from the presence of God, because nothing unclean can be allowed
into His presence. This brings us to an important moment that has to do with
the near unanimous Christian view that is best expressed in a quote from
Charles L. Feinberg in his short commentary on the Book of Malachai.

“The implication is that there will be obedience or the Levitical covenant
could scarcely remain in force. By their giving heed to the declaration
of judgment, God could continue His covenant, which He made with Levi
in the beginning.”

In other words, if the Levites didn’t repent, then the covenant with Levi becomes
abolished. This “covenant with Levi” is but an allusion to that part of the Law of
Moses that applied specifically to the Priesthood and the Levites. Of course, if
that part of the Law of Moses is abolished, then so is it all because the remainder
is dependent upon the Priesthood doing their duties. I am glad Mr. Feinberg at
least uses the term “the implication” to admit that nothing in these passages
overtly mentions any such thing, and nowhere in the Bible do we find his
conclusion of abolishment of the covenant. For a member of Christendom, it is
“implied” and by consensus must be so, because this represents the second
most fundamental pillar of this gentile faith. So, that there can be no ambiguity
in what I’m saying, it is that this conclusion of his is dead wrong, just as that
2
nd
most foundational pillar of Christendom is wrong.

A covenant is not dissolved by disobedience to its terms. Rather, covenants (like
the Covenant of Moses) lay out terms and obligations for each party, and
punishments for violations of its terms. Just like in civil law, when to break a
law does not lead to that law or the law code it is part of being terminated,
rather it merely activates the particular punishment for that particular offense.
And, so it does here in Malachai with God accusing the Priests of law violations,
and then pronouncing ONLY the appropriate punishments… NOT the termination
of the covenant itself.

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Verse 4 continues with:

CJB
Malachi 2:4 Then you will know that I sent you this command to
affirm my covenant with Levi," says Yehoveh -Tzva'ot.

This verse, depending on how you translate it, is why Christendom says that
God abolished the Law of Moses. Look at how this is translated in the KJV.

KJV
Malachi 2:4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment
unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

The sense of the KJV is that if the Priesthood obeys and repents, then the
covenant stays intact. Of course, suggesting that if not, then the covenant is no
longer intact. The YLT version puts it this way:

YLT
Malachi 2:4 And ye have known that I have sent unto you this
charge, For My covenant being with Levi, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

There is no whiff of the covenant itself being in jeopardy in this translation that
is the most word—for-word literal of all the translations. While the CJB makes
this statement stronger concerning the ongoing nature of the covenant than it
ought to be (turning it into an affirmation), nonetheless the result is the same.
The covenant is not in jeopardy; only the status of the priests who are party to
the covenant are in danger. What is being contemplated is nothing less than a
rehabilitation of the Levite Priesthood, which is based on the so-called covenant
of Levi. That is, God is going to enforce the terms of the covenant by turning to
activating the curses contained within it because the Priesthood has so severely
failed in their duties. By punishing the Priests, even going so far as to sideline
them entirely, is intended to bring about compliance to the covenant in the
future. Again, just like in a civil law system, the punishments for law breaking
are to apply justice to the offender, and hopefully that offender or others that
see what has happened to him will be deterred from committing infractions. This
strengthens the covenant in the sense that it is better functioning as intended.
In Malachai’s day, the covenant was NOT functioning as it should because the
Priesthood was not functioning as it should.

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Moving on to verse 5:

CJB
Malachi 2:5 "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I
gave him these things. It was also one of fear, and he feared me; he
was in awe of my name.

The opening word is beriti. Berith means covenant, changing the form slightly
to beriti makes is my covenant. From the ancient Hebrew perspective, there
were two kinds of covenants, but both kinds established a reciprocal relationship
between the covenanting parties. One kind brings certain obligations; the other
kind establishes a commitment. Both kinds are conditional. The Abrahamic
Covenant was the commitment kind, while the Covenant of Moses was the
obligatory kind. In the Abrahamic Covenant, God committed to Abraham that
he would be the first of a great and new nation, that he would have a land of
his own, and that all the families of the world would be blessed by what God
would bring about through Abraham. In the Mosa ic Covenant, God laid down a
series of obligations on Israel towards Him and among themselves as one
another’s neighbors, in exchange for Yehoveh being their God and Israel being
His one and only people. Yet, Abraham’s covenant was on the condition of
Abraham separating from his father and most of his family, and then journeying
to where God would take him, as well as Yehoveh being Abraham’s only god.
Moses’s covenant was on the condition of all the people of Israel accepting its
terms (which they did, and it is recorded in the Torah).

Nowhere in the Torah do we find the establishment of a separate covenant called
the Covenant of Levi. So, in this verse since we’re essentially speaking of a
covenant within a covenant (the covenant with Levi is part and parcel with the
covenant of Moses), then it helps us to grasp this better when we remember
that Yehoveh elected and set-apart the tribe of Levi from all other Israelite
tribes. So much so that Levi was no longer to be considered (on any earthly
basis) as remaining as part of Israel. The covenant of Levi, then, is to be
understood as a subset of the Covenant of Moses, and that subset applies nearly
exclusively to the Levites. Not the easiest concept to grasp, but there it is.

So, when it says “My covenant with him”, the “him” is the tribe of Levi,
particularly the Priesthood. This covenant is said to be one of “life and peace”.

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In Hebrew that is chayim and shalom. Together these terms express
wholeness, prosperity, good health, a purposeful existence, protection, a long
and full life-span, and nothing but good prospects. And, each one of these
definitions is based on God’s definitions of chayim and shalom, as opposed to
the wants and desires of the pagan or godless. Further, Yehoveh says “I gave
him these things”. That is, God is the source of true life and peace… it is available
from nowhere else.

And yet, this covenant was also dependent on the fear of the Priests. Mora
means fear in the sense of awe and reverence. Here’s the thing: if someone
approaches God in sincere awe and reverence, then the last thing that sincere
person would do would be to give to Him offerings and sacrifices that were
known to be cheap or defective. So, at first, Levi responded as they should: with
fear and awe. But, now, they are corrupted and claim fear and awe but their
actions prove the opposite.

Once again, I must point out that Christendom has taken this truth and twisted
it. Our claim of sincere awe and reverence in God is no longer thought to be in
need of tangible proof. What we actually do, is separated from what we claim.
Nowhere in the Bible are claiming and actions de-linked. Rather, in more modern
times, our actions become suspicious if they appear to be following any written
laws and commands. The rationale for this is that since we are saved by Grace,
then we now have this private relationship with the Holy Spirt who tells us what
is right and wrong for us, and each individually. Thus, no one is allowed to judge
us by what we do. In fact, to even attempt to obey God’s laws and commands
is tantamount to trying to earn our salvation.

I cannot say that either the Levites or the Israelite people thought in such a way
(in fact, I’m confident they didn’t), but the point is God tells us how to
demonstrate sincerity and authentic worship of Him, and it is by DOING what
He has commanded in His Word. Not subjectively, but objectively. This is what
Yehoveh was demanding of the Priests. They were to scrupulously follow that
part of the Law of Moses that was designed specifically to address their duties,
and they were to teach the Torah to the people of Israel so that they knew their
duties and obligations before God.

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Verse 6 continues with:

CJB
Malachi 2:6 The true Torah was in his mouth, and no dishonesty was
found on his lips; he walked with me in peace and uprightness and
turned many away from sin.

What a difference a translation can make. The CJB has it correct. The adjective
“true” modifies the word “Torah”. So, this is “true Torah” meaning it is possible
to teach a false Torah. And what else is that but false doctrines? It is interesting
how other translations treat this verse.

KJV
Malachi 2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not
found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn
many away from iniquity.

This issue is quite simple. While in a number of the most widely distributed
English Bible translations we will find the opening words “the law of truth”, that
is not what the Hebrew says. It says torat emet…. literally, “true Torah”. Most
English translations opt to change the word Torah to law, which is incorrect.
Thus, something called “a Law of Truth” emerges as a doctrine, as though God
had created a new law concerning truth. True Torah is the proper sense. Next,
the phrase “In his mouth” is referring to Levi’s mouth meaning what comes out
it. The thought is that what comes out of the mouth reveals what is buried deep
within us, but is not hidden from God.

Saying that “iniquity was not found on his lips” refers to the speech, itself… the
words. That is, they were not deviating from God’s written word nor
encouraging people to follow manmade doctrines. To “walk with me in peace”
means to follow God. Biblically, to “walk” with God describes a close relationship
with Him, and theologically it also means to be obedient to God in the sense of
a covenant relationship. All this was Levi’s former, and intended, state.

The attributes of Levi’s former state continue with them following God in
shalom, meaning to have peace with God. Peace with God manifests itself in
the sense of a right fellowship. Levi also walked with God in misor. I think using
the word “equity” to translate misor is weak. It actually comes closer to the

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English meaning of “fairness” and is not far away from being synonymous with
tzedek, meaning righteousness. In fact, we occasionally find those two words
misor and tzedek used together in the Old Testament to speak of the highly
valued virtue of being fair in one’s dealings with fellow humans, while also being
righteous before God. And, as the final stanza of this verse says, the result of
the Priests behaving in such a faithful way led to turning the people away from
lies and deceit. In fact, this was the job of the Priesthood to produce just such
an outcome.

Bringing this into modern times, the jobs, and therefore the common goal, of
Pastors, Rabbis and Bible Teachers ought to be to produce sound, faithful biblical
truth to present to their audience in order to turn sinners away from what comes
naturally to us all: sin. So, while part of the Priests’ jobs was to properly observe
and perform the rituals required by the Torah, the other part was to impart
God’s will and Word to the people. This is something they can’t do if they don’t
know it. And they can’t know it if they don’t seek God’s Word. Many years ago,
I was startled to learn that in most Christian seminaries of almost every
denomination, the Bible was nearly an afterthought. This is not new. A close and
dear departed friend of mine was a well-known Pastor, Teacher and radio
personality. He went to seminary in the early 1940’s. He informed me that the
total amount of Bible taught was one semester of Old Testament survey to go
with one semester of New Testament survey. It is still generally that way today.
Any further knowledge of God’s Word for Pastors (and only a relative few ever
pursue this additional knowledge) takes place in Theological Schools for
advanced degrees. How can we expect a typical ly trained Pastor to properly
teach God’s Word when the amount of Bible knowledge he has is less than what
a lay person will receive at a good Bible college? His tool box for preaching
contains only doctrines and apologetics for his denomination’s beliefs.

The priests of Malachai’s era weren’t something much different from the 2 or 3
previous generations of priests that returned from Babylon. What they knew of
the Torah was what they had learned from those recent generations, and so
more and more it became a matter of doctrine and tradition over Scripture. Yet,
they didn’t realize it. The same thing has happened not over a few generations,
but over centuries in Christendom. Those in the modern era who aren’t
accurately preaching what the Bible teaches, honestly think what they are

Lesson 6 – Malachi Chapter 2
15 / 15
saying is the truth. And yet, when confronted with the facts of God’s written
Word that say otherwise, just like the priests in our Malachai episode they
usually react in firm denial. Let us pray that we are, or become, moldable and
teachable enough to humble ourselves and respond to God’s true Word with
submissiveness and not denial. We’ll continue in chapter 2 next time.