Malachi 3:13 - Meaning and Application

Among the Jews at this time, there were people of very different character, though they shared the same outward privileges. That is always how it is in the world and in the church, as Jeremiah’s figs showed, some very good and some very bad. Some plainly showed themselves to be children of God, and others as clearly showed themselves to be children of the devil. There are tares and wheat in the same field, and chaff and grain on the same threshing floor. Here we see both kinds.

First, we see the angry notice God takes of the bold, blasphemous talk of sinners in Zion, and his just anger against it. There was likely a group among them joined against true religion, men who set themselves up as clever and used their wit to mock and tear down godliness. In doing so, they strengthened one another in evil. The Lord brings an accusation against them for treasonous words spoken against the King of kings: “Your words have been bold against me,” says the Lord. They spoke against God by criticizing him and contradicting him, just as their fathers had done in the wilderness (Psalm 78:19). They opposed what he said and what he planned, as if they had been hired to argue against him and his cause.

Their words against God were bold, because they came from pride, arrogance, and contempt for him. They spoke loudly, as if they did not care who heard. They were not ashamed of their words, and they wanted to spread their ungodly ideas and infect others with them. They spoke with confidence, as people determined to stand by what they said and afraid of no one. They spoke with insolence and disdain, acting as if they did not need to live under God’s rule. They made themselves strong, ready to fight against the Almighty (Job 15:25).

Their answer to the charge was to deny it. They said, “What have we said against you?” They either denied the words outright, or they claimed they had not meant them against God. At the least, they made the matter seem small: “What have we said so much against you, that all this attention is needed?” They could not deny that they had spoken against God, but they treated it as a light matter and were surprised anyone would notice. “Words,” they seem to say, “are only wind. Others have said more and done worse. If we are not as good as we should be, we are not as bad as people say.”

That is common among sinners who have not been convicted and humbled. They deny or soften the sins they are rightly accused of, and they insist on defending themselves against the rebukes of Scripture and their own consciences. But that defense will not help them.

The Lord then gives the very words they had spoken. God keeps track of what people say, just as he keeps track of what they do, and he will make that clear to them. We quickly forget our own words, and if they were wrong, we are ready to deny them. But God can say, “You said this.” They had spoken as a settled judgment. They said there was nothing to gain from serving God, even though his service does require labor and often brings sorrow. “It is useless to serve God,” they said, or, “The one who serves God is wasting his effort. He works for nothing. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and done what he told us to do?” The Chaldee paraphrase brings out the same thought by asking what wealth they had gained, which suggests they served God only for money, and so not for God at all.

They also complained, “We have walked mournfully, with black clothes and great sorrow, before the Lord of hosts. We have humbled ourselves at the proper times, and still we are no better off.” This may also be their excuse for refusing to trust God to bless them when they brought the tithes (Malachi 3:10). As if to say, “We have tried him in other matters, and we lost by it.” This was a very unfair and unreasonable attack on God’s service, and several things prove it wrong. They acted as if they had truly served God and kept his ordinances, when in fact they had only kept the outside form. They were strangers to the heart of true worship, so they had reason to say it was useless. God himself says that worship is empty when the heart is far from him, even if the mouth draws near (Matthew 15:9). But that fault is not God’s. He rewards those who seek him with sincerity and care, and the fault lies with those who seek him carelessly.

They also made much of their mourning before God, while God had actually required them to serve him with gladness and to walk cheerfully before him. By their own man-made rules, they turned God’s service into a burden and then complained that it was hard. The yoke of Christ is easy. It is the yoke of antichrist that is heavy.

Then they complained that religion brought them no gain. They were still poor and troubled, and behind in the world. This is an old kind of unbelief. Job 21:14 and 21:15 raise the same complaint: “What benefit do we have if we pray to him?” Elihu also charged Job with something like this in Job 34:9. People who oppose religion are only repeating old objections that have already been answered and rejected. This may also point to the errors of the Sadducees, a Jewish group in the later days of the nation, who denied a future life. Then they could say, “It is useless to serve God,” which does have some force if this life is all there is. But if we only have hope in Christ for this life, we are the most miserable of all people (1 Corinthians 15:19). Those who say religion is useless or unpleasant do great wrong to God’s honor. That is not true. Wisdom’s ways are pleasant, and wisdom’s gain is better than fine gold.

Second, they claimed that sin was the path to success, because they had seen the wicked prosper and those who challenged God escape punishment (Malachi 3:15). The outward success of sinners in their sin has often weakened the faithful in their obedience (Psalm 73:13), and it has also encouraged the wicked in their evil. Those who do evil tempt God by presuming on his patience. They, as it were, test whether he can and will punish them as his word says. In effect, they challenge him to do his worst by provoking him as far as they can. Yet those who tempt God in this way are often rescued from the trouble they deserved and even lifted into prosperity they were not worthy of.

They are not only raised up once. Even when we thought their time had come to fall, and they were in trouble, they were delivered and set up again. Providence seemed to smile on them in a strange way.

Yet this does not prove that proud people are truly happy. They may be rescued and raised up for a while, but it will become clear that God opposes them. Their pride is only a sign that their fall is near. So it is foolish to call them happy and to bless those the Lord hates. Wait a little, and you will see those who do evil set up as targets for God’s judgment, and those who test God handed over to torment. Judge things as they will soon appear, when the sentence on these proud sinners, which follows in Malachi 4:1, is carried out fully.

Here we also see the kind notice God takes of the godly conversations of the saints in Zion. He rewards them graciously. Even in that corrupt and godless age, when serious devotion was so weak and even despised, some still kept their integrity and zeal for God. Let us see how they set themselves apart, and what their character was. It was the opposite of those who spoke so boldly against God.

They feared the Lord. That is the beginning of wisdom and the root of all true religion. They honored God’s greatness, submitted to his authority, and lived with a healthy fear of his anger in all they thought and said. They humbled themselves before God and never spoke proud words against him. In every age there has been a remnant, though sometimes only a very small one, who feared the Lord.

They thought about his name. They carefully considered, and often meditated on, what God has revealed about himself in his Word and through his providence, meaning his wise care and rule over all things. This reflection was sweet to them and shaped their lives. They thought on his name, and they kept God’s honor before them as their highest goal in all they did. Those who know God’s name should often think about it and dwell on it. It is a rich and wonderful subject, and frequent thoughts of it help us commune with God and stir up devout feelings toward him.

They spoke often to one another about the God they feared, and about the name they thought on so much. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, and a good person brings out good things from a good treasure. Those who feared the Lord kept company with one another, as friends and companions. They spoke kindly and warmly to one another, to preserve and strengthen mutual love, so that it would not grow cold when sin was spreading everywhere. They spoke wisely and in ways that helped one another, to increase faith and holiness. They spoke the language of those who fear the Lord and think on his name, the language of Canaan.

When godlessness had become so bold that it trampled on everything sacred, those who feared the Lord spoke often to one another. Then, when sin was loud and shameless, God’s people took courage and stirred themselves up against the hypocrite (Job 17:8). The worse others become, the better we should be. When vice is daring, virtue should not hide.

Then, when religion was mocked and twisted, its friends did all they could to defend its good name and keep it respected. People had said that God’s ways were gloomy, unpleasant, lonely, and sad. So those who feared God showed the opposite by their joy in loving fellowship and conversation, and in this way they put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Then, when deceivers were busy trying to fool people and fill careless souls with prejudice against religion, those who feared God worked hard to protect themselves and one another from that poison. They did this through mutual teaching, urging, and encouragement, and by strengthening one another’s hands. Bad company corrupts good minds and habits, but good conversation strengthens them.

God also honored them, and he intended further honor and favor for them. Those who spoke boldly against God surely looked down on those who feared him. They mocked them and tried to shame them. But this should not trouble them when God approves of them.

He noticed their godly talk and was gladly present in their conversations. The Lord listened and heard, and he was pleased with it. In Jeremiah 8:6, God says that he listened and heard what wicked people said, and what they said was not right. Here he listened and heard what good people said, because they spoke rightly. The gracious God notices every gracious word that comes from his people. They do not need people to hear and praise them. They should not seek human applause or try to draw attention to themselves. It should be enough that, even if the conversation is private, God sees and hears in secret, and he will reward openly. When the two disciples on the road to Emmaus were talking about Christ, he listened, heard, joined them, and became a third companion (Luke 24:15).

He also kept a record of it. A book of remembrance was written before him. This does not mean that God, who is eternal, needs a book to remind him. It is a human way of speaking, showing that their godly thoughts and actions are remembered as carefully and fully as if they were written in a book, as if a journal were kept of all their conversations. Great kings had books of remembrance written and read before them, listing the services done for them, when they were done, and by whom, as in Esther 2:23. In the same way, God remembers the service of his people so that, when he reviews it, he may say, “Well done,” and welcome them into the joy of their Lord. God has a book for the sighs and tears of his mourners (Psalm 56:8), and much more for the prayers and pleadings of his people. No good word was ever spoken of God, or for God, from an honest heart, without being recorded, so that it might be rewarded in the resurrection of the just and never lose its reward.

He also promises them a share in his glory in the future (Malachi 3:17): “They shall be mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “in the day when I make up my jewels.” When God completely cuts off the Jewish church and nation for their unbelief, the remnant among them who believed his word, waited for the consolation of Israel, and welcomed Christ when he came, would be received into the Christian church and become God’s special people. God would take care of them so they would not perish with those who did not believe, but would be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger against that nation. They shall be my segullah, my special treasure, the word used in Exodus 19:5, in the day when I do what I have said and planned to do, as some read it.

These faithful people will receive all the glorious privileges of God’s Israel. Those privileges will belong to them and center in them. They will be his special treasure when the rest are rejected, vessels of mercy and honor when the rest are made vessels of wrath and dishonor, vessels in whom he takes no pleasure. This can be applied to all God’s faithful people, and to the clear difference he will make between them and others on the great day.

The saints are God’s jewels. He values them highly, and they are dear to him. He makes them beautiful with the beauty he puts on them, and he is pleased to boast in them. They are like a royal crown in his hand (Isaiah 62:3). He regards them as his own property, his chosen treasure, laid up in his cabinet, the furniture of his private room (Psalms 135:4). In comparison with them, the rest of the world is only debris.

There is a day coming when God will gather up his jewels. They will be picked up out of the dirt where they are now scattered, and brought together from every place where they now live. He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones, who are his jewels, from the four winds of heaven (Matthew 24:31). He will gather his jewels into his jewel-house, as grain is gathered from many fields into the barn. Then all the saints will be brought together to Christ, and only saints, made complete and perfect. God’s jewels will then be fully set in place, like stones in a crown or stars in a constellation.

Those who now own God as theirs, he will then own as his. He will publicly confess them before angels and people: “They shall be mine.” Their holiness will then be completed, and so they will belong to him fully and completely, with no leftover claim from the world or the flesh. Their relationship to God will be openly recognized, along with his ownership of them. He will separate them from those who are not his, and give them their share with his people. To them it will be said, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” At times they have doubted whether they truly belonged to God, but then that question will be settled forever. God himself will say to them, “You are mine.” What the world now mocks them for, namely their belonging to God, will then be their glory, and God himself will glory in it.

He also promises them a present share in his grace: “I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.” God had promised to claim them as his own and take them to be with him. Yet they might be discouraged, thinking they had offended him and that he could rightly reject them and cast them off. To that he says, “I will spare them. I will not deal with them as they deserve.” Some understand this as, “I will rejoice over them,” as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride (Isaiah 62:5; Zephaniah 3:17). But the word usually means to spare with pity and compassion, like a father who feels for his children (Psalms 103:13).

It is our duty to serve God with a child’s heart. We must be his sons by new birth, sharing in a new life from God. We must agree to the covenant of adoption, and receive the spirit that makes us cry to him as Father. And we must also be his servants. God does not want his children raised in laziness. They must serve him, and they must do it from love, with cheerfulness and delight, as people serving their own true good. That is serving as a son serves with his father (Philippians 2:22).

If we serve God with a child’s heart, he will spare us with a father’s tenderness and compassion. Even God’s children who serve him still need sparing mercy, the mercy that keeps us from being consumed, the mercy that keeps us out of hell. Nehemiah, after doing much good, still knew that no one on earth is perfectly righteous, no one who always does good and never sins, and that every sin deserves God’s wrath. So he prayed, “Lord, spare me according to the greatness of your mercy” (Nehemiah 13:22). God, as a Father, will show his children that mercy. He will not be harsh in counting what we do wrong, but will make the best of us and our weak efforts. He will lessen the troubles his children go through, and save them from the ruin they deserve. A father keeps sparing his son and does it gladly, because the boy is his own. In the same way, God will spare humble sinners who repent and ask for mercy, as a man spares his son who serves him, even though we serve him so little, and even though we often do him much wrong.

Then they will be clearly set apart from the children of this world (Malachi 3:18). “Then you will return and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not, but treat his service with contempt.” You who now speak against God as if he makes no difference between good and bad, and therefore say, “It is useless to serve him” (Malachi 3:14), will then be shown your mistake. And you who try to speak for God, but do not know how to explain why it seems that the righteous and the wicked have the same lot, will then see the matter clearly, to your lasting satisfaction. Then you will return, meaning you will change your mind and come to the right understanding of it.

This first pointed to the clear difference God’s providence made between believing Jews and those who stayed in unbelief, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the Jewish church, and the nation. But it will have its full fulfillment at the second coming of Jesus Christ, on that great day of judgment when the difference between the righteous and the wicked will be plain enough. All people are either righteous or wicked, either those who serve God or those who do not. This is the dividing line that will last forever and decide their eternal state. All are going either to heaven or to hell.

In this world, it is often hard to tell the righteous from the wicked. They are mixed together, like good fish and bad fish in the same net. The righteous are often so weak, and the wicked so disguised, that we are often mistaken about both. Many whom we think serve God, if their hearts are not right with him, will be found not to be his servants. On the other hand, many who are truly his faithful servants, because they did not follow with us, may not have seemed to serve him in our eyes. What made this especially hard here was that providence seemed to make no difference between the righteous and the wicked. You could not identify wicked people by God’s anger against them, because they often prospered in the world. Nor could you identify righteous people by his favor, because they were caught up with others in the same public trouble. No one can tell love or hatred simply by what lies before him (Ecclesiastes 9:1).

At the judgment seat of Christ, at the last judgment, it will be easy to tell the righteous from the wicked. By then, each person’s true character will be fully shown, and every disguise will be gone. Some people’s sins are obvious now, so you can already tell they are wicked. Others are not so clear, because their sins show up later. But on that great day, it will be plain who was righteous and who was wicked.

Each person’s state will also be fully settled forever. The righteous will be perfectly happy, and the wicked will be perfectly miserable, with no mixture of good or relief. When the righteous stand on Christ’s right hand and are invited to receive a blessing, and the wicked stand on his left hand and are told to go away with a curse, the difference between them will be clear. So we should think carefully about which group we will belong to. As for other people, we should not judge anything before the proper time.