Malachi 1:1-14

Topic: Malachi is the last prophet of the Old Testament. God sent Malachi to give a message to Israel and to tell the Israeli people how much He loves them. This is the last message from God to the Israeli people. Malachi has a lot of application to our lives today. We'll see that in our lesson today. The word “Malachi” means “messenger of the Lord”. Malachi was a real person who wrote this book. It was written around 430 B.C., approx 100 years after Zechariah. Jerusalem has been rebuilt by now, and Nehemiah has been called back to battle. There is a Persian rule in Jerusalem. This prophet will issue a warning to the people of Israel.

Vs1: the word “burden” means fraught with warning and judgement; the burden of the word through Malachi to Israel from God.
Vs2: The word “Loved” should be present tense here. So God is telling the people that He loves them, and the people of Israel are responding back sarcastically – “where have you loved us?”
Vs3: “and I hated Esau”…this word “hated” in the Hebrew can mean minor displeasure up to intense hatred. Translated in English, “hated” is a venomous meaning. The context this word is used in will tell us the intensity of the hatred. The Lord says He picked Jacob over Esau, so the hatred is not an intense English meaning. God put Esau 2nd even though he was a firstborn, and God destroyed Esau's land (“dragon” here means “wild beasts”).
Vs4: Esau's descendents settled into his land, and tried to rebuild, .....