Pay attention to this please: The Purifier was not coming to pamper or flatter these Priests. Rather, His mission was to refine them and make them a better vessel that could be used by God so they would stop embarrassing God here and there.
“In my covenant I promised them life and well-being, and this is what I gave them, so that they might respect me. In those days they did respect and fear me. 6 They taught what was right, not what was wrong. They lived in harmony with me; they not only did what was right themselves, but they also helped many others to stop doing evil. 7 It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty. Mal 2:5-7 Good News Translation.
But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!
And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in my sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. Romans 5:8-9 (The Passion Translation).
Prophet Malachi noticed the level of decadence, immorality, and corruption among religious leaders and of course the people of Israel. Both the Priests and the people were cheating God by not honouring Him with their offerings; neither were they ready to follow the instructions in God’s Word.
So, consider today’s message as a continuation of the four sermons produced from the answers Zechariah gave to the Israelites through their delegates. We have dealt with two already in the previous chapter 7.
If you claim to be fasting and praying and you are very good in being bitter towards your fellow human beings, perverting justice, keeping malice, planning on how to harm one another, engaging in all forms of immorality, oppressing the widows, orphans and even foreigners living among you, then your fasting and prayer are mere exercises and are definitely in vain.
Again, this represents the purging of the land from possible contamination they got while in captivity. It’s like pressing a reset button to format the people back to their original identity before their exile experience.
“You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit. 7Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you. You will rebuild the Temple, and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, ‘Beautiful, beautiful!’”
“Return to me, and I will return to you. Do not be like your ancestors. Long ago the prophets gave them my message, telling them not to live evil, sinful lives any longer. But they would not listen to me or obey me. Your ancestors and those prophets are no longer alive.”
Around 538 B.C. it was Cyrus, the King of Persia that issued a decree which allowed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity (Remember Isaiah already prophesied about this more than 100 years before Cyrus was born) Read Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1-end. Two years later (536 BC), they began the rebuilding of the temple, which was led by Zerubbabel. Two years into the construction work (around 534 BC), the work stopped and was neglected for about fourteen years.