Scofield Reference Bible Notes/Malachi

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by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield
Malachi
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3916675Scofield Reference Bible Notes — MalachiCyrus Ingerson Scofield

Book Introduction - Malachi[edit]


Read first chapter of Malachi
MALACHI "my messenger," the last of the prophets to the restored remnant after the 70 years' captivity, probably prophesied in the time of confusion during Nehemiah's absence (Nehemiah 13:6). The burden of his message is, the love of Jehovah, the sins of the priests and of the people, and the day of the Lord. Malachi, like Zechariah, sees both advents and predicts two forerunners (Malachi 3:1; 4:5-6). As a whole, Malachi gives the moral judgement of God on the remnant restored by his grace under Ezra and Nehemiah. He had established his house among them, but their worship was formal and insincere.
The book is in four natural divisions:

  • The love of God for Israel, 1:1-5
  • The sins of the priests rebuked1:6-2:9
  • The sins of the people rebuked2:10-3:18
  • The day of the Lord4:1-6

CHAPTER 1[edit]

Verse 4[edit]

Edom
i.e. Esau's descendants. See Genesis 25:30.

Verse 6[edit]

if then I be a father
Cf. (See Scofield "Isaiah 63:16"). The relationship here is national, not personal Jeremiah 3:18,19 here, apparently, the Jews were calling Jehovah, "Father," but yielding Him no filial obedience. See ; John 8:37-39; Romans 9:1-8.

Verse 10[edit]

Who is there
Or, I would that one among you would shut the doors of the temple that no more vain fire should kindle on mine altar. Cf. Isaiah 1:11-15.

Verse 11[edit]

For from the raising i.e. So it would have been had Israel been true. Isaiah 45:5,6. So it shall be despite Israel's failure.

CHAPTER 2[edit]


Verse 2[edit]

curse
Cf. Deuteronomy 28:3-14 and Deuteronomy 28:15-35. Israel's distinctive blessings should turn to curses.

Verse 10[edit]

Have we not all one
Cf. Acts 17:24-29. In both instances the reference is to creation, not the new birth.

Verse 15[edit]

spirit
Summary of the O.T. doctrine of the Holy Spirit:


CHAPTER 3[edit]


Verse 1[edit]

Lord
The f.c. of Malachi 3:1 is quoted of John the Baptist ; Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27 but the second clause, "the Lord whom ye see," etc., is nowhere quoted in the N.T. The reason is obvious: in everything save the fact of Christ's first advent, the latter clause awaits fulfilment Habakkuk 2:20. Malachi 3:2-5 speak of judgment, not of grace. Malachi, in common with other O.T. prophets, saw both advents of Messiah blended in one horizon, but did not see the separating interval described in Mt. 13. consequent upon the rejection of the King Matthew 13:16,17. Still less was the Church-age in his vision ; Ephesians 3:3-6; Colossians 1:25-27. "My messenger" Malachi 3:1 is John the Baptist; the "messenger of the covenant" is Christ in both of His advents, but with especial reference to the events which are to follow His return.

Verse 16[edit]

they remnant, Romans 9:25-29, (See Scofield "Jeremiah 15:21")
feared (See Scofield "Psalms 19:9").

Verse 18[edit]

God
Summary of the O.T. revelation of Deity: God is revealed in the O.T. (1) through His names, as follows: \tr \th1 Class \th2 English Form\th3 Hebrew Equivalent \tr \tc1 Primary \tc2 God \tc3 El, Elah, or Elohim (Genesis 1:1) \tr \tc1 \tc2 LORD \tc3 Jehovah (Genesis 2:4) \tr \tc1 \tc2 Lord \tc3 Adon or Adonai (Genesis 15:2) \tr \tc1 Compound (with El = God) \tc2 Almighty God \tc3 El Shaddai (Genesis 17:1) \tr \tc1 \tc2 Most High, or most high God \tc3 El Elyon (Genesis 14:18) \tr \tc1 \tc2 everlasting God \tc3 El Olam (Genesis 21:33) \tr \tc1 Compound (with Jehovah = Lord) \tc2 LORD God \tc3 Jehovah Elohim (Genesis 2:4)\tr \tc1 \tc2 Lord GOD \tc3 Adonai Jehovah (Genesis 15:2) \tr \tc1 \tc2 LORD of hosts \tc3 Jehovah Sabaoth (1 Samuel 1:3)
The trinity is suggested by the three times repeated groups of threes. This is not an arbitrary arrangement, but inheres in the O.T. itself.
This revelation of God by His name is invariably made in connection with some particular need of His people, and there can be no need of man to which these names do not answer as showing that man's true resource is in God. Even human failure and sin but evoke new and fuller revelations of the divine fulness.


The revelation of Deity in the N.T. so illuminates that of the O.T. that the latter is seen to be, from Genesis to Malachi, the foreshadowing of the coming incarnation of God in Jesus the Christ. In promise, covenant, type, and prophecy the O.T. points forward to Him.

  • (4) The revelation of God to man is one of authority and redemption. He requires righteousness from man, but saves the unrighteous through sacrifice; and in His redemptive dealings with man all the divine persons and attributes are brought into manifestation. The O.T. reveals the justice of God equally with His mercy, but never in opposition to His mercy. The flood, e.g., was an unspeakable mercy to unborn generations. From Genesis to Malachi He is revealed as the seeking God who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and who heaps up before the sinner every possible motive to persuade to faith and obedience.
  • (5) In the experience of the O.T. men of faith their God inspires reverence but never slavish fear; and they exhaust the resources of language to express their love and adoration in view of His loving-kindness and tender mercy. This adoring love of His saints is the triumphant answer to those who pretend to find the O.T. revelation of God cruel and repellent. It is in harmony, not contrast, with the N.T. revelation of God in Christ.
  • (6) Those passages which attribute to God bodily parts and human emotions (e.g. Exodus 33:11,20; Deuteronomy 29:20; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Genesis 6:6,7; Jeremiah 15:6) are metaphorical and mean that in the infinite being of God exists that which answers to these things--eyes, a hand, feet, etc.; and the jealousy and anger attributed to Him are the emotions of perfect Love in view of the havoc of sin.
  • (7) In the O.T. revelation there is a true sense in which, wholly apart from sin or infirmity, God is like His creature man Genesis 1:27 and the supreme and perfect revelation of God, toward which the O.T. points, is a revelation in and through a perfect Man.


CHAPTER 4[edit]


Verse 2[edit]

fear See note, Psalms 19:9 (See Scofield "Psalms 19:9").
Sun of righteousness (See Scofield "Genesis 1:16").

Verse 6[edit]

SCOFIELD REFERENCE NOTES (Old Scofield 1917 Edition)
From Malachi to Matthew
The close of the Old Testament canon left Israel in two great divisions. The mass of the nation were dispersed throughout the Persian Empire, more as colonists than captives. A remnant, chiefly of the tribe of Judah, with Zerubbabel, a prince of the Davidic family, and the survivors of the priests and Levites, had returned to the land under the permissive decrees of Cyrus and his successors
(See Scofield "Daniel 5:31") See Scofield "Daniel 9:25" and had established again the temple worship. Upon this remnant the interest of the student of Scripture centres; and this interest concerns both their political and religious history.
I. Politically, the fortunes of the Palestinian Jews followed, with one exception--the Maccabean revolt--the history of the Gentile world-empires foretold by Daniel (Dan. 2., 7.)

  • (1) The Persian rule continued about one hundred years after the close of the O.T. canon, and seems to have been mild and tolerant, allowing the high priest, along with his religious functions, a measure of civil power, but under the overlordship of the governors of Syria. The sources of the history of the Jewish remnant during the Persian period were purely legendary when Josephus wrote. During this period the rival worship of Samaria John 4:19,20 was established.


Palestine suffered much from the constant wars between Persia and Egypt, lying as it did "between the anvil and the hammer."

  • (2) In 333 B.C. Syria fell under the power of the third of the world-empires, the Graeco-Macedonian of Alexander. That conqueror, as Josephus related, was induced to treat the Jews with much favour; but, upon the breaking up of his empire, Judaea again fell between the hammer and anvil of Syria and Egypt, falling first under the power of Syria, but later under Egypt as ruled by the Ptolemaic kings. During this period (B.C. 320-198) great numbers of Jews were established in Egypt, and the Septuagint translation of the O.T. was made (B.C. 285).
  • (3) In B.C. 198 Judaea was conquered by Antiochus the Great, and annexed to Syria. At this time the division of the land into the five provinces familiar to readers of the Gospels, Galilee, Samaria, Judaea (often collectively called Judaea), Trachonitis and Peraea, was made. The Jews at first were permitted to live under their own laws under the high priest and a council. About B.C. 180 the land became the dowry of Cleopatra, a Syrian princess married to Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, but on the death of Cleopatra was reclaimed by Antiochus Epiphanes (the "little horn" of (See Scofield "Daniel 8:9") after a bloody battle. In 170 B.C., Antiochus, after repeated interferences with the temple and priesthood, plundered Jerusalem, profaned the temple, and enslaved great numbers of the inhabitants. December 25, B.C. 168, Antiochus offered a sow upon the great altar, and erected an altar to Jupiter. This is the "desolation" of Daniel 8:13 type of the final "abomination of desolation" of Matthew 24:15. The temple worship was forbidden, and the people compelled to eat swine's flesh.
  • (4) The excesses of Antiochus provoked the revolt of the Maccabees, one of the most heroic pages of history. Mattathias, the first of the Maccabees, a priest of great sanctity and energy of character, began the revolt. He did little more than to gather a band of godly and determined Jews pledged to free the nation and restore the ancient worship, and was succeeded by his son Judas, known in history as Maccabaeus, from the Hebrew word for hammer. He was assisted by four brothers of whom Simon is best known.


In B.C. 165 Judas regained possession of Jerusalem, purified and rededicated the temple, an event celebrated in the Jewish Feast of the Dedication. The struggle with Antiochus and his successor continued. Judas was slain in battle, his brother Jonathan succeeding. In him the civil and priestly authority were united (B.C. 143). Under Jonathan, his brother Simon, and his nephew John Hyrcanus, the Hasmonean line of priest-rulers was established, under sufferance of other powers. They possessed none of the Maccabean virtues.

  • (5) A civil war followed, which was terminated by the Roman conquest of Judaea and Jerusalem by Pompey (B.C. 63), who left Hyrcanus, the last of the Hasmoneans, a nominal sovereignty, Antipater, an Idumean, wielding the actual power. B.C. 47 Antipater was made procurator of Judaea by Julius Caesar, and appointed his son, Herod, governor of Galilee. After the murder of Caesar disorder ensued in Judaea, and Herod fled to Rome. There he was appointed (B.C. 40) king of the Jews, and returning, he conciliated the people by his marriage (B.C. 38) with Mariamne, the beautiful grand- daughter of Hyrcanus, and appointed her brother, the Maccabean Aristobulus III., high priest. Herod was king when Jesus Christ was born.


II. The religious history of the Jews during the long period from Malachi (B.C. 397) to Christ followed, as to outer ceremonial, the high-priestly office, and the temple worship, the course of the troublous political history, and is of scant interest.
Of greater moment are the efforts and means by which the real faith of Israel was kept alive and nurtured.

  • (1) The tendency to idolatry seems to have been destroyed by the Jews' experience and observation of it during the captivity. Deprived of temple and priest, and of the possibility of continuing a ceremonial worship, the Jewish people were thrown back upon that which was fundamental in their faith, the revelation of God as One, the Creator, to be conceived of as having made man in His own image, and therefore as having such analogies to the nature and life of man as to be comprehensible by man, while remaining the Eternal Spirit, God. This conception of God, enforced by the mighty ministries of the pre-exilic and exilic prophets, finally prevailed over all idolatrous conceptions, and this ministry was continued amongst the returned remnant by Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The high ethics of the older prophets, their stern rebuke of mere formalism, and their glowing prophecies of the ultimate restoration of Israel in national and religious supremacy under Messiah, were all repeated by the three prophets of the restoration.


The problem was to keep alive this exalted ideal in the midst of outward persecutions and sordid and disgraceful divisions within.

  • (2) The organic means to this end was the synagogue, an institution which formed no part of the biblical order of the national life. Its origin is obscure. Probably, during the captivity, the Jews, deprived of the temple and its rites, met on the Sabbath day for prayer. This would give opportunity for the reading of the Scriptures. Such meetings would require some order of procedure, and some authority for the restraint of disorder. The synagogue doubtless grew out of the necessities of the situation in which the Jews were placed, but it served the purpose of maintaining familiarity with the inspired writings, and upon these the spiritual life of the true Israel (See Scofield "Romans 9:6") was nourished.
  • (3) But during this period, also, was created that mass of tradition, comment and interpretation, known as Mishna, Gemara (forming the Talmud), Halachoth, Midrashim and Kabbala, so superposed upon the Law that obedience was transferred from the Law itself to the traditional interpretation.
  • (4) During this period also rose the two great sects know to the Gospel narratives as Pharisees and Sadducees. (See Scofield "Matthew 3:7") notes 2,3 The Herodians were a party rather than a sect.


Amongst such a people, governed, under the suzerainty of Rome, by an Idumean usurper, rent by bitter and unspiritual religious controversies, and maintaining an elaborate ritual, appeared Jesus, the Son and Christ of God.

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