Introduction:
The name “Malachi” means “my messenger.” Because the term occurs in Malachi 1:1 and also in 3:1, and since the term was often used as an adjective to identify both prophets and priests as messengers of the Lord in the Old Testament (see Malachi 2:7; Haggai 1:13), and also because there is no one else named “Malachi” anywhere else in scripture, many scholars have concluded that “Malachi” is not a proper name, but merely the title that tradition has otherwise given to the author of this book. This view is supported by looking to the Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the Old Testament), which translates the author’s name in 1:1 as “his messenger” rather than as a proper noun. However, the fact that every other Old Testament book that has a person’s name as its title features an historical person, it is most likely that Malachi was the author’s name.
The setting in history for this book is approximately a century after the return of the exiles to the Holy Land. Malachi’s message was aimed at the people who had reestablished themselves in Jerusalem. By this time, the temple had been rebuilt, but Israelite society was not functioning the way it was supposed to be, if you recall the history embodied in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. When the Israelites first returned from exile, they arrived with great expectations.
They were filled with hope — they expected the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah to be fulfilled, with the coming of the Messiah, who would finally rescue the people and rule over a unified nation of Israel, bringing justice and peace not just for the Jews but for the entire world.
However, those things weren’t happening. The reality wasn’t a whole lot different than before the exile. The post-exilic society is full of the same kind of idolatry, poverty, and injustice that the ancestors of the current residents had practiced. Malachi’s prophecy painted a picture of just how off-kilter everything was.
The book of Malachi can be divided into six short episodes. Each section begins with God making a statement or claim about the Israelites. The people respond by disagreeing or disputing what God says. God then replies with a detailed response that settles the issue, putting the Israelites in their place. The first three episodes find God exposing some aspects of Israel’s corruption or sin. The second three episodes go deeper, with God exposing and then confronting the Israelite’s sin. The overall conclusion we see is that the time spent in exile really didn’t change things at all. There is no difference between the society that had been dragged off to Babylon and the people who lived in Jerusalem in Malachi’s time. Hearts were still hard. Self-centeredness and greed were still rampant. Oppression and injustice were everywhere. Israel 2.0 was the same as the old model.
