TEXT [Commentary]

black diamond   I.   First Disputation: Yahweh’s Love for Israel (1:2-5)

2 “I have always loved you,” says the LORD.

But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”

And the LORD replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, 3 but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.”

4 Esau’s descendants in Edom may say, “We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.”

But the LORD of Heaven’s Armies replies, “They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again. Their country will be known as ‘The Land of Wickedness,’ and their people will be called ‘The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.’ 5 When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, ‘Truly, the LORD’s greatness reaches far beyond Israel’s borders!’”

NOTES

1:2 loved. When describing the relationship between the Lord and Israel, the word “love” (’ahab [TH157, ZH170]) has covenant implications. The term may be equated with God’s choice or election of Israel as his people. The message of Malachi indicates that the other dimensions of God’s unconditional covenant love for Israel are still operative as well (e.g., his patient mercy, cf. 3:6, 17).

1:3 rejected. The word “rejected” (sane’ [TH8130, ZH8533], “to hate”) is the antonym of the verb “to love” noted above. The two terms are used as a polar word-pair in OT legal and prophetic texts (e.g., Deut 7:10; Amos 5:15). The expression describes “the hostility of a broken covenant relationship” (Andersen and Freedman 1980:525). Such is the case here as God has rejected Esau (and consequently his descendants the Edomites) because Esau despised and rejected the tokens of covenant relationship with Yahweh (cf. Gen 25:34; 26:34-35).

1:3 Esau’s inheritance. Esau was the ancestor of the Edomite nation; the “inheritance” or territory of Edom was located on the southeastern rim of the Dead Sea and extended from the Brook Zered in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south. The names Jacob and Esau are intended to call to mind the patriarchal traditions of Genesis concerning the rivalry of the twin brothers (Gen 25:23-26).

1:4 the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. This compound name for God is prominent in OT prophetic literature and is variously translated “LORD of Hosts” (NRSV) or “LORD Almighty” (NIV). The title occurs 20 times in Malachi (1:6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14; 2:2, 4, 8, 16; 3:1, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 17; 4:1, 3). The Hebrew expression (yhwh tseba’oth [TH3068/6635, ZH3378/7372]) is often understood as a construct genitive, as is the case here. More precisely the construction is one of absolute nouns in apposition, perhaps conveying a verbal force: “Yahweh creates armies” (cf. TDOT 5.515). The term for “Heaven’s armies” (tseba’oth) has military connotations and in this case refers to the angelic armies at God’s disposal. In either case, the epithet emphasizes “the invincible might behind the Lord’s commands” (Baldwin 1972:39).

1:4 The Land of Wickedness. The story of Esau is one of selfishness and contempt for the tokens of Yahweh’s covenant (cf. Gen 25:34). The nation of Edom came to personify the pride of a self-centered existence (cf. Jer 49:16). The Edomites were allies of the Babylonians in the sack of Jerusalem (cf. Ps 137:7-9; Obad vv. 10, 12). They moved into the Negev after the area was wrested from Judah by the Babylonians (cf. 2 Kgs 24:8-17). The Edomites also occupied Judean villages well into the Persian period (cf. 1 Esdr 4:50). The exact date of Edom’s collapse is still unknown, and the specific circumstances causing its demise are uncertain. By the time of Malachi’s preaching (c. 500–450 BC), the Edomite kingdom was in ruins (Mal 1:2-4). Edom apparently remained largely independent of Babylonian influence until about 550 BC or so (cf. Jer 40:11). According to scholarly consensus, a coalition of Arab tribes gradually infiltrated, overpowered, and displaced the Edomites sometime during the fifth century BC. By 312 BC, inscriptional evidence indicates the Nabatean Arabs had overrun the region of Edom, making Petra their capital city. Surviving Edomites either moved to Idumea or were absorbed by the Nabateans.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The book of Malachi is essentially a theology of Yahweh, and more specifically a catechism on the topic of covenant relationship with Yahweh. The prophet’s speeches are also dialectical in the sense that they represent a logical and systematic theological treatise. The instruction begins with the Lord’s love for Israel, then moves to the priorities of worship and social justice as the appropriate responses to God’s love, and concludes with the affirmation of Yahweh’s covenant love for the believing remnant. The first speech act is directed to the postexilic community at large and is intended to persuade the audience of Yahweh’s love for Israel. As with all of Malachi’s disputations, the three-part formula of declaration (1:2a), refutation (1:2b), and rebuttal (1:2c-5) is readily discernible.

Malachi mentions four distinct covenants pertinent to his message to postexilic Jerusalem, including (1) the covenant of Abraham (1:2); (2) the covenant of Levi (2:5, 8); (3) the covenant of marriage (2:14); and (4) the Mosaic covenant (implicit in the numerous references to the instructions and commands of God’s law—2:6, 8; 4:4). A covenant in the biblical world was a unilateral treaty or contract that established a relationship between two parties with attendant obligations and responsibilities. There are basically two types of covenants enacted in the Old Testament, the obligatory (binding one party to obey a specified set of decrees or laws) and the promissory (in which one party pledges to do something for the other, often as a reward for past obedience, and typically imposing stipulations for the ongoing maintenance of the relationship).

The promissory covenant God made with Abraham is foundational to all subsequent Old Testament covenants, joining Yahweh and Israel in an exclusive relationship (Gen 12:1-3). God’s covenant love “is an act of election which makes Israel Yahweh’s child” (Andersen and Freedman 1980:576-577). Naturally, divine election did not override Israel’s responsibility to obey the stipulations of God’s covenant(s) (cf. Gen 26:5). God’s predisposition to choose one people group to bless all the nations is one of the great mysteries of biblical theology. God’s election of Israel was certainly not because of any inherent merit in the Hebrews. Rather, it was just the opposite, as we learn from Moses’s admonition to Israel after the Exodus; God chose Israel not because they were righteous, but in spite of their stubbornness (Deut 7:7-8; 9:4-6). God’s design in choosing a small and stubborn people group as his special possession was to ensure his glory before the nations as the one who keeps his covenant promises and empowers Israel in their greatness (Deut 8:17-18; 9:5).

Malachi’s first oracle makes reference to Jacob as the heir of the Abrahamic covenant with the declaration, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob” (1:2). Yahweh’s love for and election of Israel as his “special treasure” (3:17) was his free and unconditional choice as the Sovereign of creation. By contrast, God rejected Esau (1:3) despite his privilege of primogeniture. It should be noted, however, that God’s rejection of Esau as the heir of the covenant promises was not capricious or arbitrary. The story of Esau is clearly one of selfishness and disdain for the tokens of Yahweh’s covenant (Gen 25:34; 26:34-35; 28:8-9; cf. Heb 12:16).

The goal of Yahweh’s covenant relationship with the Hebrews and the essence of Malachi’s message was reciprocity in the sense that Israel’s duty was “to reciprocate God’s love, not in the original sense of emotion, but in the form of genuine obedience and pure devotion” (TDOT 1.115). The prophet’s rhetorical refutation of the claim that Yahweh had not loved Jacob reveals the depth of the crisis of faith in postexilic Judah (1:2). Much like the audience of Malachi’s earlier contemporary, Haggai, the people were still “looking for much and finding little”—and blaming God for their plight (Hag 1:6, 9). Mallone (1981:28) has observed that faith in crisis often needs the support of external evidence, “a sure footing outside our own individual experience, an objective signpost on which we can hang our mental convictions.” Malachi offered his audience two external “proofs” of God’s enduring covenant love for Israel. The first is the word of divine revelation, God’s declaration that he still loves Israel (1:2). The second piece of supporting evidence forwarded by the prophet was more tangible if the people would only observe the current events swirling around them: God destroyed the nation of Edom (1:3-5). The event was actually an answer to the psalmist’s prayer requesting that God judge the Edomites for their part in the destruction of Jerusalem (cf. Ps 137:7). The psalmist reminds us that remembering God’s work in history is still a potent antidote for those in a crisis of faith (e.g., Ps 73:2, 16-17).