Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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THE BOOK OF MALACHI
Lesson 10, Chapter 3 Continued

We began Malachai chapter 3 last time, and it has proved necessary to unpack
this nearly word for word, referring to the Hebrew texts, because the tendency
of English Bible versions is not to translate, but more to interpret. That is, to
translate means to convert the Hebrew words to their equivalent in a different
language. To interpret means to take the words from a certain predetermined
viewpoint and comment on their meanings in that context. It is to make a
stylistic effort of representation on the work of the original author. As a result
of our search for truth, as best as we can obtain it, we only were able to cover
2 verses in our last lesson: chapter 2:17 and chapter 3:1.

Looking to translation, and leaving the interpretation to others, matters a
great deal when it comes to choosing which Bibles to study, and it means we
have to be cautious so as not to perpetuate doctrines that are often most
questionable. As we have looked at the opening of chapter 3, we recognize it
as a prophecy concerning an undefined future time. To come to the point
quickly, the first matter we are faced with is, to which advent of Messiah is
this verse referring? That is, it is widely accepted that the early part of
Malachai chapter 3 prophecy is speaking about Israel’s Messiah. Yet, that word
is not used. And, further, if we determine that, indeed, this is speaking about
the Messiah, then is it speaking of His first advent, or His later return based on
current Christian understanding? The issue is this solution was not in the
minds or beliefs of Hebrews in the 5
th
century B.C.

The reality is that although most English versions do everything but add the
word “messiah” in these verses, they make their interpretive words imply it so
strongly that it is usually assumed it must be Messiah. But, when we look at
the opening verses in Hebrew, not a hint of such a thing exists. Rather, the
subject is always Yehoveh… The Father. It is His presence that is being
discussed, and it most literally says so. So, am I saying that it cannot be
referring to Yeshua? No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that to properly study
the Bible, we must begin by taking the words for what they say, and not what
we think we’d like them to say, or for what they might have eventually
revealed. We should not insert a conclusion for which, up to the time the

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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words were written in the chronology of the Bible, were nowhere present. By
doing this, we are not being intellectually honest, and we are also not letting
shine through what the Hebrews of those ancient eras thought … which is
critical to understanding what they meany by what they said.

To get our bearings, let’s re-read all of Malachai chapter 3.

READ MALACHAI CHAPTER 3 all

Our first challenge is to try to identify not just the number of different people
or characters that verse 1 is speaking about, but who they are. Generally
speaking, Jewish scholars see 2 characters, while gentile scholars see 3
(although that conclusion is not universal). And, indeed, the Hebrew wording is
very difficult, if not enigmatic. We just read this verse in the CJB, but I want to
do as I did in our previous lesson and show it to you in the Young’s Literal
Translation. Note: we just discussed translation versus interpretation. The YLT
does NOT attempt to interpret; or if it does, it has a very light hand. The
English versions attempt to smooth out the admittedly difficult and sometimes
awkward Hebrew, but that approach involves determining FIRST what the
entire verse means to tells us, and then making the order the words and the
tense of the verbs match their conclusions. In other words, the words we find
are predicated on interpreting more than translating, so that they lead a
reader to a conclusion they intend (some Bible versions more than others).

YLT
Malachi 3:1 Lo, I am sending My messenger, And he hath prepared
a way before Me, And suddenly come in unto his temple Doth the Lord
whom ye are seeking, Even the messenger of the covenant, Whom ye
are desiring, Lo, he is coming, said Jehovah of Hosts.

Very clearly, we see that since it is Yehoveh that is speaking, He is saying that
He is sending HIS messenger to clear a way for HIM (not somebody else).
And, just as clearly, the term “his temple” can only mean Yehoveh’s Temple
(there is no Israelite temple of somebody else). The one character that seems
ambiguous is this “messenger (or angel) of the covenant”. That was where we
left things at the end of our previous lesson.

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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A major obstacle is this: no other author of any Bible book uses the term
malak habberit (which translates to messenger, or angel, of the covenant).
This is problematic, because when we hold each book of prophecy up against
one another, we find that beginning with the chronologically first Prophet, each
successive Prophet borrows thoughts and words from the previous. Malachai,
as the final Prophet, has borrowed much from his predecessors, so many of his
words and thoughts have already been spoken and pretty well defined in a few
contexts, so we have a pretty decent understanding of their meaning. But,
with “the messenger of the covenant” we have a new thought we have yet to
encounter.

Is Malachai speaking of one covenant in particular, or of them all (as is pretty
typical)? If he is speaking of one, then logic says it would be the latest one,
and certainly the one that is causing such a vexation of the Jews in the
Province of Yehud: the new covenant of Jeremiah. On the other hand, since so
much of what is happening is God cursing Israel for violating the terms of the
Covenant of Moses, might it be that covenant? The reality is that the
“messenger of the covenant” identification is too vague to draw any
conclusion. All that said, let’s see if any, some, or all of the fulfillment of this
prophecy of Malachai has ever occurred. The Church says that it has, and I
think (to a degree) they are correct.

CJB
Matthew 11:7-10
7
As they were leaving, Yeshua began speaking
about Yochanan to the crowds: "What did you go out to the desert to
see? Reeds swaying in the breeze?
8
No? then what did you go out to
see? Someone who was well dressed? Well -dressed people live in
kings' palaces.
9
Nu, so why did you go out? To see a prophet! Yes! and
I tell you he's much more than a prophet.
10
This is the one about
whom the Tanakh says, 'See, I am sending out my messenger ahead of
you; he will prepare your way before you.'

On the surface it would be hard to deny that Malachai 3:1 is not what Yeshua
is quoting from. And, that He has identified Malachai’s “messenger sent ahead
to prepare the way” as John the Baptist. And yet, did Yeshua at any recorded
time in His ministry on earth “suddenly come into His temple”? No. That He
visited the Temple grounds like any other Jew could do certainly occurred; but

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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He didn’t enter into the Temple sanctuary as only a priest could do and that is
a critical part of this prophecy. In fact, Malachai’s prophecy seems to make the
purpose for God’s visitation to earth that of entering into His Temple in
Jerusalem. Nowhere in the New Testament is Yeshua said to enter into the
Temple sanctuary on his first or second coming. It is actually the Old
Testament Book of Ezekiel that speaks of a future divine prince entering the
Temple, with Christians believing this must be Jesus.

So, here’s what I am asking you to consider: history shows that prophetic
fulfillments happen and then happen again at a later date. Sometimes most of
the elements of a prophecy are fulfilled in its 1
st
manifestation, but they are
not fully fulfilled until a later manifestation when that same prophecy occurs
again. I think this is case here. Yeshua, as God’s agent, along with John the
Baptist and the one who cleared the and who came in the spirit of Elijah, was
the first, but incomplete, fulfillment of Malachai’s prophecy. Yet, there is
another fulfillment to come. It won’t come until the End Times and Yeshua
makes His return. If we are correct in assigning Yeshua to be that divine
prince from Ezekiel who enters the Temple and sits on His father’s throne,
then we have an answer to the central person of the second fulfillment. As for
the messenger that comes to prepare the way, that should also happen again
(although not in exactly the same way), but this time it will probably be Elijah
himself. Recall, that he never died but was translated alive into some unknown
state of existence and place. Both Jews and Christians speculate that one of
the End Times characters that appear when the Anti-Christ is in power will be
Elijah. I think this has much merit in being so; but I’m not going to conclude
that it couldn’t be someone else that is being depicted. It’s too vague.

Verse 2 of Malachai chapter 3 is:

CJB
Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day when he comes? Who can
stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire, like the
soapmaker's lye

There is a general consensus on how to translate this verse, so there is very
minor variation among the Bible versions. Essentially, this verse acts as a
rhetorical question. The question of “who can endure?” has an expected

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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response of “no one”. The “he” is clearly Yehoveh. But as we’re learning by
means of the Hebrew Bible (as well as in the New Testament), by far the best
way to characterize the divine Father and Son are as Client and Agent. The
Father is the client; the Son is His agent. Agency presents the concept of
someone who has power and authority, given to him by His superior. Generally
speaking, the agent may act on the behalf of His superior to the point that He
speaks fully for, and may bring about the will of, his superior, often without
having to consult him because their wills are so much in union. There is an
ancient Middle Eastern expression that says: When you have seen me, you
have seen my father. That is, the agent bears the full authority of the father
for the exclusive purpose of bringing about his father’s will, but never the will
of the agent should it be different than the father’s. The ideal firstborn son of
those ancient times would be so closely aligned in purpose and will to his
father, that the son has (in practical terms) no will separate or distinct from
that of his father. And not surprisingly, this is what Yeshua meant when He
said:

CJB
John 14:9 Yeshua replied to him, "Have I been with you so long
without your knowing me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

This concept of agency between father and son is also at the heart of the
parable that Yeshua taught about the wicked tenants of a man’s farmland.

CJB
Matthew 21:33-42
33
"Now listen to another parable. There was a
farmer who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for
the winepress and built a tower; then he rented it to tenants and left.
34
When harvest-time came, he sent his servants to the tenants to
collect his share of the crop.
35
But the tenants seized his servants -
this one they beat up, that one they killed, another they stoned.
36
So
he sent some other servants, more than the first group, and they did
the same to them.
37
Finally, he sent them his son, saying, 'My son
they will respect.'
38
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to
each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his
inheritance!'

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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39
So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40
Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to
those tenants?"
41
They answered him, "He will viciously destroy those
vicious men and rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give
him his share of the crop when it's due."
42
Yeshua said to them,
"Haven't you ever read in the Tanakh, 'The very rock which the
builders rejected has become the cornerstone! This has come from
Yehoveh and in our eyes it is amazing.

We are reading about the fundamental principle of agency. The landowner first
sends servants as his agents to deal with his unruly tenants, but the wicked
tenants assaulted a couple of them and killed a third. Thus, the father
determined to send the ultimate agent, his son, whom the tenants were to
recognize as bearing the authority of his father to the point that they were one
in the same. They do recognize it, but kill the son anyway, which is
symbolically the same as killing the father. They well understood that old
Proverb that “if you’ve seen the son, you’ve seen the father”.

Back to Malachai. It is not unreasonable to consider the possibility from our
vantage point in history, that when Yehoveh is mentioned as coming to the
Temple, that He could be represented in the spirit of agency by His Son,
Yeshua. On the other hand, that is hardly necessary; it is only rigid Christian…
doctrines that have made it so. God has been said to enter the Temple on a
few occasions. Even so, when He does appear in a theophany, He manifests
Himself by means of another agent called The Glory. Quite mysterious. Enough
so, that we shouldn’t assume an unbendable position on how, exactly, this
looks and works. The Jews were certain that God would come to them; but, in
what form? What might it look like? When He came in the form of Yeshua,
they didn’t recognize Him as such. Let’s pray we don’t fall into the same trap
because Church doctrines demand that we adopt their answers for things that
the Bible offers no concrete answers.

The “day” when He (God) comes is just a shortened form of the Day of
Yehoveh. The day of judgment. A terrible day. Malachai is likened to a refiner’s
fire. Naturally, the refiner and soap maker are metaphors. The Hebrew word
mesarep is meant to give us some illustration of both the purpose and the

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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method of purification by the refiner’s fire that God will use to judge the world,
including His own people. In fact, the purification as it is used here, is all about
Israel; there’s no real thought of including pagans in it. Israel has a large
“dross” of wickedness among them. But, for purification to occur, the refiner
has to completely melt down the precious metal so that the dross can be
identified and separated from what is pure. All goes into the furnace, but only
the pure metal survives. Isaiah explains what the smelting furnace of God is in
reality and not metaphor.

CJB
Isaiah 48:10 "Look, I have refined you, but not [as severely] as
silver; [rather] I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

So, unlike how silver is refined (under literally a super heating process using
fire), Israel’s equivalent will be affliction. Adversity. Tribulation. Hard times.
Personal discomfort and danger. This is speaking of a communal affliction.
That is, all of Israel will go through it as a nation of people. This will include all
Believers.

CJB
Matthew 24:1-13 As Yeshua left the Temple and was going away,
his talmidim came and called his attention to its buildings.
2
But he
answered them, "You see all these? Yes! I tell you, they will be totally
destroyed- not a single stone will be left standing!"
3
When he was
sitting on the Mount of Olives, the talmidim came to him privately.
"Tell us," they said, "when will these things happen? And what will be
the sign that you are coming, and that the 'olam hazeh is ending?"
4

Yeshua replied: "Watch out! Don't let anyone fool you!
5
For many will
come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah!' and they will lead many
astray.
6
You will hear the noise of wars nearby and the news of wars
far off; see to it that you don't become frightened. Such things must
happen, but the end is yet to come.
7
For peoples will fight each other,
nations will fight each other, and there will be famines and
earthquakes in various parts of the world;
8
all this is but the
beginning of the 'birth-pains.'
9
At that time you will be arrested and
handed over to be punished and put to death, and all peoples will hate
you because of me.
10
At that time many will be trapped into betraying
and hating each other,
11
many false prophets will appear and fool

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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many people;
12
and many people's love will grow cold because of
increased distance from Torah.
13
But whoever holds out till the end
will be delivered.

This is an End Times prophecy, and it deals with what Malachai was explaining.
Terrible tribulation (affliction) for Israel and for Believers is coming. Why for
gentile Believers as well? Because we are partners in Israel’s covenants,
having been grafted into them, and thus seen by God as members of the ideal
Israel, which also goes by the name the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of
Heaven. These afflictions will not be escaped any more than when silver is
refined does some of it escape the terrible heat of the furnace. Isaiah teaches
us that this refining process that we will suffer will be through affliction, and
here Yeshua reminds His listeners about it. He ends it with a warning that
ought to frighten us: only whoever holds out till the end will be delivered. We
won’t, as God worshippers, be set aside and avoid refining, we will go through,
and our true condition will be revealed. Those who endure this refining (the
resultant purified metal) will be delivered and not destroyed. The dross, who
are the wicked and the deceived that will have been culled out of the
congregation according to God’s standard of judgment, will not be delivered
but they will be separated from the pure and destroyed. Please note: none of
this is talking about pagans. This is not God dealing with the world; it is God
dealing with those who claim Him.

Verse 3 is:

CJB
Malachai 3:3
3
He will sit, testing and purifying the silver; he will
purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold and silver, so that they
can bring offerings to Yehoveh uprightly.

The first word of this verse is, in Hebrew, weyasab. It means to crouch or
stoop or to sit. It can extend to mean live or dwell. It is meant to work with
the previous verse about refining silver. The silver smiths of the ancient times
would sit, sort of bent over their smelting fire, to watch as the metal bubbled
and the dross began to collect as a means of determining when the purification
process was nearing its best and the dross and pure metal could be separated.

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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The person doing sitting over the molten metal is God… Yehoveh Tzva’ot,
specifically.

It next says that God will purify the Priesthood (the sons of Levi) in the same
way… through afflictions. What God is rooting out is the corrupted, and the
corrupt, priests. While this no doubt includes priests that are dishonest in
some way, it also means the corrupted way they serve… especially as it comes
to sacrificial offerings. Earlier we read that sometimes the priests knowingly
offered defective sacrifices. But they also were teaching the people their
humanly devised doctrines… mixed with pagan religion… instead of teaching
them God’s Torah. In fact, in Hebraic language nuances that we won’t get into,
what is being said is that the refining is not a sudden or overnight event, but
rather will being, and go on, UNTIL the priesthood can finally start bringing
offerings to Yehoveh in the proper upright manner… which, by definition,
includes sincerity and authenticity. Remember: this happens upon “The Day of
the Lord”. It’s a further confirmation that this “day” is not meant as in a
calendar day, or a Monday or a Tuesday, or as an event; but rather it is an
era… a block of time… that Yehoveh’s judgment plays out.

At this point in Malachai, the Priesthood… that is, the religious leadership… is
what is being focused on, although they are not singled out. The general
population of Israel (the Jews of Yehud) are included. Folks, our God is a God
of patterns. His pattern is that FIRST and most strongly, He deals with the
leadership of His people. In modern times, because the religious is separated
from the civil leadership, then it is the religious or spiritual leadership that is
the target. Are you a Pastor or an Elder or a Rabbi? Are you a Bible teacher?
In fact, are you in any leadership position within ministry? Then this means
you. There is no escaping it. Are YOU teaching truth or denominational
doctrine? Are you emphasizing God’s Word or your traditions and Church or
Synagogue rules? How do we discern which is which? Over and over again,
Yehoveh says to study, learn, teach and live the Torah and all of Holy
Scripture. Yeshua taught exactly the same thing in the clearest possible words
that I’ve quoted to you hundreds of times and will not stop until it becomes a
reality in the lives of those who hear my words.

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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CJB
Matthew 5:17-20
17
"Don't think that I have come to abolish the
Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete.
18

Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so
much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah - not until
everything that must happen has happened.
19
So whoever disobeys
the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called
the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so
teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
20
For I tell you
that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah -
teachers and P'rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of
Heaven!

In Yeshua’s day, the Torah teachers and the Pharisees were the Synagogue
religious leadership. They are the exact equivalent of the Pastors, Rabbis, and
Bible Teachers of the 21
st
century. Yeshua is telling the common people
listening to Him, that it is up to them to seek out truth and that means seeking
out the truth-tellers as opposed to the institutional religious leadership that
was corrupted in their teachings. Yeshua was, Himself, a truth-teller and He
was training up a group of truth-tellers that we call His Disciples. It should not
surprise us that the corrupt institutional religious leadership called Yeshua and
His Disciples blasphemers and heretics, and attempted to eliminate them.
There is nothing new under the sun.

Back to Malachai chapter 3. Verse 4 is:

CJB
Malachi 3:4 Then the offering of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim will be
pleasing to Yehoveh, as it was in the days of old, as in years gone by.

Verses 3 and 4 are one complete thought and never should have been
separated into two. This phrasing of the combination of Yehud (NOT Judah as
we’ll always find it in our Bibles) along with Jerusalem is a way of expressing
all who were present in the Holy Land. Only in the most hazily implied way can
this be extended to the Diaspora Jews… the 95% of Jews who lived outside of
the Holy Land. Yehoveh was calling for the Jews and the Priests to return to
the earlier days when the altar sacrifices meant something, and therefore were
efficacious. Recall, that earlier in Malachai, as of that time God decided NOT to

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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accept the sacrifices that were offered. Thus, even though lots and lots of
sacrificing was continuing, they had no value and achieved no purpose. All that
has followed verse 1 thus far shows that this prophecy is of a future time to
Malachai. And, that there is no way that we can say that Messiah Yeshua
fulfilled all of this at His first advent. The Priesthood was not fully refined, nor
were the people, at that time. Even so, might we say that as we stand in
history today that the process has begun and is ongoing even if not entirely
noticeable? Yes, I think so, and it began at Yeshua’s first advent.

CJB
Acts 6:7 So the word of God continued to spread. The number of
talmidim in Yerushalayim increased rapidly, and a large crowd of
cohanim were becoming obedient to the faith.

The refining was underway. Notice in this Acts passage that the number of
Yeshua’s disciples (the common folk) in Jerusalem was increasing, and a large
number from the Priesthood were becoming obedient to the faith. Notice,
more, what it was that was the crux of what was propelling the turnaround. It
was the reinstatement of “the word of God”, which later in this verse meant
“becoming obedient to the faith”. This is usually explained as meaning
Yeshua’s teachings and becoming obedient to the new faith that He created.
That is simply not so. The “word of God” meant absolutely nothing else in that
era than what we call the contents of the Old Testament. And, “the faith”
meant the true Hebrew faith (as opposed to the Synagogue faith led by
Pharisees, who mixed-in manmade doctrines). Yeshua’s coming first and
foremost created a reform movement among the Jewish people and led many
among the religious leadership to go back to God’s Word, to teach it and to
practice it. We at Seed of Abraham Ministries Torah Class, as are many others
today, calling for the same thing.

Malachai continues in verse 5 with:

CJB
Malachi 3:5 "Then I will approach you for judgment; and I will be
quick to witness against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers; against
those who take advantage of wage -earners, widows and orphans;
against those who rob the foreigner of his rights and don't fear me,"
says Yehoveh-Tzva'ot.

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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The best way to approach verse 5, is to understand it as the answer to the
accusation raised by the scoffers in verse 2:17: “Where is the God of justice?”
Or maybe better in the overall context of Malachai, “Where is the God of
judgment?” The first word of this verse is weqarabti. The “we” is a
conjunction, and it can mean a few different things. Typically, it is translated
as “then I will” or “I will draw near”. This conjunction, however, is a very
emphatic one and leans more towards “I absolutely will” or “I surely will”.
When we look closely at the Hebrew, we see a series of words that are used to
describe a legal proceeding. Words like mishpat (justice, judgment, rendering
a verdict), and ed (witness). What’s important is that whenever something in
the Bible takes the route of a legal proceeding, then it means it is about a
covenant because the covenant is where laws and commands are laid down,
the official proceeding to make a judgment is defined, and the consequences
for the violations are enumerated.

So, in the legal procedure setting, then God is the witness and judge. He is the
eyewitness because He has personally seen those who are violating His
covenants and knows how these violations came about. “Where is the God of
Judgment”? While His justice might seem to those Jews to be delayed, that is
not the case. And it is certainly not the case that the chosen people will no
longer stand before the great judge to answer for their lives. He will appear
on the Day of Yehoveh. And during that block of time will begin to render His
verdict as He states His case. We get a list of those He will witness against,
based upon their particular sins. Sorcerers who practice witchcraft. Adulterers
who divorce their Hebrew wives and then remarry foreign, pagan women.
While this is so, adultery also applies to those Jews who mix pagan practices
with the truth faith, or include some measure of calling upon gods other than
Yehoveh. Perjurers; those who lie in court and show partiality. They cause the
innocent to be judged guilty, or the guilty to be let off the hook. Along with
that is the perjury of using God’s name in a guarantee of making a vow, and
then not following through with it. Next is the sin of those who take unfair
advantage of Hebrew society’s most vulnerable. They either underpay, cheat,
or hold back a laborer’s wages. Widows and orphans are to be treated with
kindness and charity, not bullied and be left to starve or have nothing to keep
them warm. After that is the treatment of non-Israelites… non-Jews who live

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
13 / 14
among the Jewish community. They rob them of their rights, exploit them, and
treat them with disdain as if they don’t matter. Note: these are NOT enemy
foreigners. They are NOT societal disruptors. They just live among the
Hebrews but, it was awfully easy to tell if someone was a Jew or not. The
Hebrew word used is ger. A ger occupies a position sort of in the middle
between a natural born Jew (an ezrah) and a foreigner who might be there
but has no intent to be assimilated into the Jewish society and culture (a
nokri). A nokri was an outsider. A ger was a gentile who at one time was an
outsider, but is no longer.


And finally, this was an indictment against those who don’t fear God. Earlier
they were identified as the wicked or evil-doers. Again: NOT foreigners. Not
nokri. But rather these were the ezrah and perhaps (to a degree) the ger.
Israelites. Jews and those who wanted to be an integral part of Jewish society,
and this always began with allegiance to the God of Israel. To not fear God,
means to not show Him proper awe and reverence. They don’t obey Him. They
show no sincere allegiance to Him. These are the corrupt and the corrupted.
They thumb their noses at the Law of Moses and in return expect blessings.

We have been studying the 4
th
burden (or oracle). It ends with verse 5. What
we have, here, is that those Jews who were part of the returned community of
Jews from Babylon (now probably the 3
rd
generation of the first returnees),
who were living in the Persian province of Yehud, thought themselves as the
righteous merely because they were part of the restoration community. Each
thought that the lack they constantly suffered, and the continuing domination
of the Persians they lived under, was the fault of someone else… to the point
that some even felt that they were being righteous, but Yehoveh was not.

There was a mindset that perhaps God’s covenant with Moses had been
rescinded… at least in part. The wicked were thriving, but they, “the
righteous”, were not. Even more, the new covenant of Jeremiah seems to
promise deliverance. The community would achieve prosperity. This had not
happened so what else was the new covenant than a failed prophecy? And,
where was God when they needed Him the most? It’s not that they stopped
believing that Yehoveh existed or was their God. It was that their behavior and

Lesson 10 – Malachi Chapter 3 Continued
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lifestyle were in crisis. What they forgot was that God’s justice always begins
with His own. The Torah couldn’t be more explicit about this. Just because one
was part of God’s chosen people didn’t buy them an exemption. Nothing about
this changed after Yeshua came and went.

CJB
1 Peter 4:17 For the time has come for the judgment to begin. It
begins with the household of God; and if it starts with us, what will
the outcome be for those who are disobeying God's Good News?

All throughout my life in the Church, I heard that it was the outsiders… the
pagans… the unsaved… that had the most to fear. It was they that God was
going to direct His wrath at. But, those who were part of the believing
community could be held safe, no matter our behavior or deeds or lack of
fruit. A simple prayer and declaration solved it all. Just existing as one who at
one time or another asked Jesus into their heart was enough. Now, we are
part of privileged few who get a universal exemption from trials, tribulation,
and from God’s judgment. None of this is biblical. None of this is the truth.

We all are expected to meet a God-defined standard. That standard is set
down in the Law of Moses. Where we are fortunate, is that should we stumble
and disobey God, we can repent and call on the name of Yeshua provided we
are sincere. We can have our sins atoned for. This does not mean that we
won’t suffer God’s discipline; but it does mean we won’t be destroyed and
perish for all eternity.

We’ll stop here for today, and take up the 5
th
burden next time.