Malachi 3:6-18

Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes

6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.

9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.

10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty.

12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

Israel Speaks Arrogantly Against God

13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’

14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty?

15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”

The Faithful Remnant

16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.

17 “On the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.

18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

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Malachi 3:6-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO MALACHI 3

This chapter begins with a prophecy of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ; and of the coming of Christ, and the effects and consequences of it, with respect both to the righteous and the wicked; and it contains accusations and charges of sin against the Jews, intermixed with exhortations to repentance. John the Baptist is promised to be sent, and is described by his office as a messenger, and by his work, to prepare the way of the Lord; and the Messiah is prophesied of, who is described by his characters; with respect to himself, the Lord and Messenger of the covenant; with respect to the truly godly among the Jews, as the object of their desire and delight; whose coming is spoken of as a certain thing, and which would be sudden; and the place is mentioned he should come into, Mal 3:1 and this his coming is represented as terrible to the wicked, and as trying and purifying to the righteous, expressed by the various similes of a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap; and the end answered by it, their offering a righteous offering to the Lord, Mal 3:2-4 but with respect to the wicked, he declares he should be a swift witness against them, whose characters are particularly given, and this assured from his immutability; the consequence of which to the saints is good, being their security from destruction, Mal 3:5,6 and next a charge is commenced against the wicked Jews, as that in general they had for a long time revolted from the Lord, and were guilty of sins of omission and commission, and are therefore exhorted to return to the Lord, with a promise that he will return to them, and yet they refuse, Mal 3:7 and, in particular, that they were guilty of sacrilege, and so accounted, even the whole nation, in withholding tithes and sacrifices, which they are exhorted to bring in; to which they are encouraged with promises of blessings of prosperity and protection, Mal 3:8-12 and that they had spoken impudent and blasphemous words against the Lord; which, though excepted to, is proved by producing their own words, Mal 3:13-15 and by the contrary behaviour of those that feared the Lord, who were taken notice of by him, and were dear unto him, Mal 3:16,17 wherefore it is suggested, that the time would come when there would be a manifest difference made between the one and the other, Mal 3:18.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 38

1. S Numbers 23:19; S Hebrews 7:21; James 1:17
2. S Job 34:15; S Hosea 11:9
3. S Exodus 32:8; S Jeremiah 7:26; Acts 7:51
4. S Isaiah 44:22; S Ezekiel 18:32
5. S Zechariah 1:3; James 4:8
6. S Malachi 1:2
7. S Zechariah 5:3
8. S Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21; S Nehemiah 13:10-12; Luke 18:12
9. S Deuteronomy 11:26; Deuteronomy 28:15-68; S Zechariah 5:3
10. S Exodus 22:29
11. S Nehemiah 13:12
12. S 2 Kings 7:2
13. Isaiah 44:3
14. S Leviticus 25:21; S Joel 2:14; 2 Corinthians 9:8-11
15. S Joel 2:24
16. S Exodus 10:15; S Deuteronomy 28:39
17. S Exodus 23:26
18. S Deuteronomy 28:3-12; Isaiah 61:9
19. S Isaiah 62:4; S Ezekiel 20:6
20. S 2 Chronicles 31:10
21. Malachi 2:17
22. S Malachi 1:2
23. Psalms 73:13; S Isaiah 57:10
24. Psalms 100:2; John 12:26; Romans 12:11
25. S Joshua 22:5; S Isaiah 1:14
26. Isaiah 58:3
27. S Psalms 119:21
28. Psalms 14:1; Psalms 36:1-2; Jeremiah 7:10
29. S Job 21:7
30. S Psalms 34:15
31. S Exodus 32:32; S Psalms 56:8; S Psalms 87:6; S Luke 10:20
32. S Deuteronomy 28:58; S Deuteronomy 31:12; Psalms 33:18; S Proverbs 1:7; Revelation 11:18
33. Isaiah 43:21
34. S Exodus 8:22; S Deuteronomy 7:6; S Romans 8:14; S Titus 2:14
35. Nehemiah 13:22; Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 26:20; Luke 15:1-32
36. Romans 8:32
37. S Genesis 18:25
38. Deuteronomy 32:4; Mt 25:32-33,41