Malachi 2:1 - Meaning and Application

What was said in the previous chapter was aimed at the priests (Malachi 1:6): “The Lord of hosts says to you, O priests, who despise my name.” But the sins named there were sins they committed as priests who offered sacrifices. They may have thought that this gave them some excuse, since they were bringing what the people gave them. They might have blamed the people and said the fault was not really theirs.

So here the prophet goes deeper. He traces those corruptions back to their source, the priests’ failure as teachers of the people and explainers of the law and the living words of God. That teaching office still belongs to gospel ministers, pastors and teachers under the new covenant, though they do not offer sacrifices like the old priests did. For that reason, this warning should especially be heeded by them. If the priests had taught the people better, the people would have brought better offerings, so the blame returns to the priests. “And now, O priests, this command is for you” (Malachi 2:1). They should have taught the people the true knowledge of the Lord and how to worship him rightly.

This reminds us that church leaders are under God’s rule, and they answer to him. Even those who give commands are under God’s commands. In fact, God says later, “You shall know that I have sent this command for you” (Malachi 2:4). They would know this either by the Spirit working through the word to convict and reform them, or by the coming true of the warnings spoken against them. When God’s word at work in us brings about God’s own work in us, then we know he sent it to us.

Now the prophet explains what this command is that belongs to the priests. First, he recalls the covenant God made with that sacred tribe, which was both their authority for service and the honor they held. The Lord of hosts sent this command to uphold that covenant (Malachi 2:4), because his covenant is called the word he commanded (Psalm 105:8). He sent this command through the prophet now to restore that covenant, so it would not be broken by their repeated disobedience.

The sons of Levi, especially the sons of Aaron, should remember what honor God gave their family and what trust he placed in them (Malachi 2:5). “My covenant was with him of life and peace.” Along with the special covenant made with all Israel, there was also a covenant of priesthood made with one family. They were to carry out the priest’s duties, and if they did, they would enjoy the priest’s privileges. Israel was to be a special nation, a kingdom of priests, and Aaron’s house was to be a family of priests set apart for God’s service. They were to uphold God’s name among that nation, as Israel was to uphold his name among the nations, and both were to give glory to God’s name (Malachi 2:2).

God made this covenant with them as his servants. He bound them to do his work and promised to own and accept them in it. It is called a covenant of life and peace because it was meant to support true religion, which gives life and peace to people’s souls. It gives life to the spiritually dead and peace to the troubled. It is also called that because life and peace were promised to priests who faithfully and carefully did their duty. They would have peace, meaning safety from evil, and life, meaning the fullness of all good.

What is said here about the covenant of priesthood is also true of the covenant of grace made with all believers as spiritual priests. That covenant is also one of life and peace. It promises believers life and peace, lasting peace, and lasting life, all happiness in this world and the next. This covenant was first given to the whole tribe of Levi when they were set apart from the other tribes and appointed to care for the tabernacle of testimony (Numbers 1:49-50). God then said, “The Levites shall be mine” (Numbers 3:12). It was also made with Aaron when he and his sons were chosen to serve the Lord as priests (Exodus 28:1). That is why Aaron is called “the saint of the Lord” (Psalm 106:16). It was also made with Phinehas, Aaron’s descendant, on a special occasion (Numbers 25:12-13). There the covenant of priesthood is also called a covenant of peace, because through it peace was made and kept between God and Israel.

These great blessings of life and peace were given to Levi, Aaron, and Phinehas. God promised them and their descendants life and peace, and he entrusted these blessings to them for the good of Israel. They received in order to give, just as Christ himself did (Psalm 68:18).

To understand this covenant more fully, notice first the reason it was grounded on: “It was because of the fear he had of me, and because he stood in awe of my name.” The tribe of Levi showed holy fear of God when they stood boldly against the worshipers of the golden calf (Exodus 32:26). For that zeal, God gave them this blessing and called them to give themselves to him. Phinehas also showed zeal for God’s fear and justice when he killed Zimri and Cozbi to stop the plague (Psalm 106:30-31). Only those who fear God’s name can expect the benefits of the covenant of life and peace. Those who show zeal for God will surely be rewarded with the rich privileges of the Christian priesthood.

Some read this not as the reason for the covenant, but as its condition: “I gave them to him, on the condition that he should fear before me.” If God gives us life and peace, he expects us to fear before him.

Second, notice the trust given to the priests through this covenant (Malachi 2:7). They were made messengers of the Lord of hosts, messengers of that covenant of life and peace. They were not mediators, but messengers, or ambassadors, sent to speak about the terms of peace between God and Israel. The priests were God’s mouth to his people, and from them the people were to receive instruction from the living words of God. This was the office to which Levi was raised. Because he showed zeal for God and did not favor his own family above God, he would teach Jacob God’s judgments (Deuteronomy 33:9-10).

It is an honour to God’s servants that he uses them as his messengers and sends them on his errands. That is where angels got their name. Haggai was called the Lord’s messenger. Since this is their office, we should notice what is required of ministers and what is required of the people.

The duty of ministers is this: “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge.” They must not hide knowledge from the people, but hold it for them and be ready to share it. Ministers must be people of knowledge. How can they teach others the things of God if they do not know them well themselves? They must keep knowledge in their own minds, study it carefully, and remember it well. Then they can be like a good householder who brings out of his storehouse things new and old.

Their knowledge must be ready on their lips, not just stored in their heads. They should have the truth at hand, ready to give it as needed. Scripture speaks of wisdom on the lips of one who understands, and that wisdom feeds many (Proverbs 10:13, Proverbs 10:21). A minister should not only possess truth, but be able to speak it clearly and promptly.

The duty of the people is to seek the law from his mouth. They should go to the priests as God’s messengers, and not only hear the message, but ask questions about it. That helps them understand it better and keeps mistakes from spreading. We all need to know clearly what the Lord’s will is. We should want to know it and ask about it. “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

We must not only consult the written word, “the law and the testimony,” but also seek instruction from God’s messengers in the things that concern our souls. We do this with doctors and lawyers about our bodies and property. Ministers must teach even those who do not ask and do not want instruction, since they must correct those who oppose the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). But it is also the people’s duty to come and ask for guidance, not only to listen, but to inquire. “Watchman, what of the night?” If you will ask, then ask seriously (Isaiah 21:8, Isaiah 21:11, Isaiah 21:12).

People should not only seek comfort from their ministers, but also seek the law there. If we find the path of duty, we will find that it is also the path of comfort.

The text then remembers the faithfulness and zeal of many earlier priests. They are mentioned to make the present priests’ sin look worse, because they turned away from such honorable ancestors and such shining examples. They also help justify God when he withholds from the present generation the signs of his presence that he had given to those who stayed close to him.

Look at what a godly priest was like, and what good he did by God’s grace. The law of truth was in his mouth, for the people who asked the law at his mouth. Everything he said was governed by that truth. He spoke with authority, wisdom, and honesty. His words were sound and dependable, so people could trust his judgment in difficult questions. He did not twist God’s word to please people, help himself, or gain favor. He told them what the law really said, whether they liked it or not.

His life matched his teaching. God gives him this strong witness: “He walked with me in peace and equity.” He did not just talk about God, he walked with God. His inner life and his daily conduct agreed with his doctrine and profession. He lived in fellowship with God and made it his constant aim to please him. He lived like a priest chosen to walk before God (1 Samuel 2:30).

He also walked in peace. He was gentle and mild toward others. He encouraged love and did what he could to make peace. He was peaceable himself and worked as a peacemaker. At the same time, he walked in equity, meaning fairness and uprightness. He did no wrong to anyone, and he made it his duty to give everyone what was due. We must never break the rules of justice just to keep outward peace. “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable.”

Ministers, above all people, should walk with God in peace and fairness, so they can be examples to the flock. He also fulfilled the purpose of his office: “He turned many away from iniquity.” He made it his business to do good, and God blessed his work with great success. He helped rescue many souls from death, and many in heaven now bless God that they ever knew him.

Ministers must give themselves fully to the conversion of sinners. Even among those who bear the name of Israelites, there is still a need for conversion, because many must be turned away from sin. They should count it an honour and a rich reward if they can be used in that work. God alone turns people from sin by his grace, yet this faithful minister is said to have turned people, because he worked together with God as his instrument. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars (Daniel 12:3).

Only ministers who preach sound doctrine and live good lives are likely to turn people from sin, and both must agree with Scripture. As one of the rabbis observed here, when the priest is upright, many will be upright too.

Now the prophet brings a serious charge against the priests of his own time. They broke the covenant of the priesthood and went directly against both the rules and the examples set before them. Many of their sins were already named in the previous chapter, and Nehemiah 13 shows that many corruptions had entered the Jewish church at this time, including mixed marriages, bringing strangers into God’s house, and profaning the Sabbath. All of these came from the priests’ carelessness and unfaithfulness.

The charge is made in general first: they had departed from the way, from the good way God had set before them, and from the way their godly ancestors had walked before them.

It is a bad sign for a people when those who should lead them in the right way have gone out of it themselves. God says, “You have not kept my ways,” meaning they had not stayed in them, and they had not done their part to keep others in them either (Malachi 2:9). They also betrayed the trust given to them. They “corrupted the covenant of Levi,” that is, they twisted the covenant made with Levi, the priestly tribe, and turned their office into a way to feed themselves and make themselves important instead of honoring God and helping souls.

This was a serious misuse of their calling. They made their work serve selfish and worldly goals, when it should have ruled over those desires. In doing so, they lost the good that covenant was meant to give them. We should not expect God to do his part of the covenant if we do not take seriously our own part.

Another way they betrayed their trust was by being partial in the law (Malachi 2:9). Sometimes they picked and chose which duties they would obey, doing only what suited them. That is the habit of hypocrites, while a person with a sincere heart respects all of God’s commands. More likely, this refers to the law they taught the people. They showed favoritism, accepted persons, and twisted the law to please some and oppose others.

They would excuse some sins in one person and condemn the same sins in another, depending on their own likes, dislikes, or advantage. But God is not partial when he gives his law, and he will not be partial when he judges its breaking. If ministers show favoritism in teaching or discipline, they dishonor God greatly. See (1 Timothy 5:21).

They also did great harm to people’s souls, which they should have been helping to save. God says, “You have caused many to stumble at the law.” That means they not only led people to break the law, but also made people distrust the law itself. Their evil lives gave others a prejudice against God’s word, as if it favored sin instead of opposing it.

Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s corrupt sons, made the Lord’s sacrifices hated by their wicked behavior (1 Samuel 2:17). In the same way, many people are turned against God’s law, Christ’s gospel, and Christ himself because of the sinful lives of those who claim to follow religion. Their bad example makes people say the whole thing is a joke. This is a real scandal, a true stumbling block, and woe to the one through whom it comes.

When the priests were rebuked by God’s word and by his providence, they would not listen, meaning they would not pay attention or take it to heart. They were not ashamed of their sin, and they were not moved by the signs of God’s displeasure. Hearing does us no good unless we let the truth sink in and change us. They were called to take these things to heart so that they would give glory to God’s name by repentance and reform.

We should take God’s matters seriously so that we may honor his name and praise him for all he has made known about himself. It is bad for anyone to rob God of his honor, but it is worse for ministers, whose calling is to uphold his name and give him the glory it deserves.

The prophet then records the judgments God had already brought on these priests for their profane treatment of holy things. First, they had lost their comfort (Malachi 2:2). God says, “I have already cursed your blessings.” They no longer had the comfort of doing good, because the blessings they gave to the people were turned into curses. God did not approve their blessing, and he turned it against them, just as he turned Balaam’s curses into blessings.

They should not expect to enjoy the favor of giving God’s blessings when they were living under his wrath. They also had no comfort in their income or benefits, because the blessings God gave them became a curse through their misuse of them. They could not rightly receive them as signs of his favor when they had ignored his warnings and rebukes.

Second, they lost their reputation (Malachi 2:9). God says, “Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people.” While they honored God, he gave them dignity and kept their standing with the people. When they walked in peace and justice, people valued and respected them. But when they left God’s ways and corrupted the covenant of Levi, they became not just ordinary, but hateful, in the eyes of the people.

This was a fitting judgment. They had dishonored God and made his table contemptible (Malachi 1:12), so God justly put dishonor on them. They had exposed themselves, and God exposed them. Sin brings shame on any people, but it is especially shameful in priests. There is hardly anything more despised than a wicked, scandalous minister.

The warning of wrath is serious, but it is still conditional (Malachi 2:2, 3). God says, “If you will not lay it to heart,” which means that if they would repent, his anger could still be turned away. But if they continued in evil, then they must hear their sentence: their sin would ruin them. They would fall under the curse of God. His wrath would come on them according to the warnings already written in his law.

Those who break God’s commands place themselves under the curses of the law. Their work and their rewards as priests would not be clean or blessed to them. God says, “I will curse your blessings,” so that they would not only fail to bless others, but even their own abundance would become harmful to them. Instead of bringing life, their plenty would become a plague.

The crops they received tithes from would bring them no comfort. God says, “I will corrupt your seed.” The grain they sowed would rot in the ground and never come up, which would lead to famine and a shortage of food. Then no grain offering would be brought to the altar, and the priests would quickly feel that loss.

This may also point to the seed of the word they preached. God threatens to withhold his blessing from the teaching they gave the people, so their work would come to nothing, just as a farmer’s work is wasted when seed rots. That fits the warning in (Jeremiah 23:32), where God says they would not help the people at all.

God also says that he and their services would be rejected. He would not be pleased with them at all, but would loathe and despise them. “I will spread dung in your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts.” He means the sacrifices offered at those feasts. Instead of enjoying the fat of their offerings, he would show his disgust by throwing the dung of them in their faces, which he does in effect when he says, “Bring no more useless offerings; your incense is an abomination to me.”

Those who depend on outward acts of religion, which they should count as nothing compared with knowing Christ, will not be accepted by God in those things. They will also be filled with shame and confusion because of their foolishness.

In the end, all of this would lead to their complete ruin. “One shall take you away with it.” They would be so covered with the dung of their sacrifices that they would be carried away with it to the dung heap, as part of it. Anyone could be used to remove them, even the common scavenger. People would call them worthless silver and treat them that way, because the Lord had rejected them.