Malachi
is an eponym – a “name” that is based on a meaning. The word Malachi (Gr.)
means “messenger.” The oracle was written sometime between 516 BC, when the
Temple was rebuilt, and 330 BC, the end of the Persian period. The content
indicates probably written around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The author is
not known according to Lawrence Boadt.
Malachi 1 - God’s people are always challenging
God to show how He has loved them. God responds that he showed his love for
them in his favoring of Jacob over Esau (eponym for Edomites). Malachi argues
that even though Edom may seem to be building up, God will “pull down” (1:4) what
they build.
God seems
concerned here that his people are just not showing Him respect. They “pollute”
his table by offering sacrificial animals that are not perfect.
Malachi 2 – The priests fall short too. God
reminds them of the covenant he made with Levi. It was a covenant that “stood
for life and peace,” for “fear and trembling” as well (awe and respect). God
looks for the priests to walk with God “in integrity and virtue” (2:7).
But these
priests now have strayed from God’s way. They “have caused many to stumble by
[their] teaching” (2:8). They have done this by marrying “daughter[s] of an
alien god” (2:12), idolaters.
“Yahweh stands
as witness between you and the wife of your youth, the wife with whom you have
broken faith, even though she was your partner and your wife by covenant”
(2:14-15). This “ beloved wife” that the Levitical
priests have broken faith with is the “sanctuary.”
Revelation 17 – An angel speaks to John about “the
famous prostitute” who rules the Fertile Crescent area. Again, as in Daniel,
the details are both symbolic and relate directly to a context that was
historically vivid to the writer – the time of Nero’s persecution, his [Nero’s]
death and the belief that he would indeed come again to rule Rome.
The dying, departure and anticipated
return of Nero are ironically seen in light of the faith Christians had that
Jesus had died, departed and would return (see verse 8).
It is true the
scarlet beast [Rome? Nero?] “was and now is not (17:8), but this beast will not
come again as Christ came except in the way all will come again at the very end
of time; then it is true he will be raised “only to go to his destruction”
(17:8).
While there
will be other kings that “go to war against the Lamb” (17:14), the Lamb will
eventually “defeat them and they will be
defeated by his followers, the called, the chosen, the faithful” (17:14).
The waters in
the vision are “all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the
languages” (17:15) who will also eventually be victorious.
Revelation 18 – Another angel announces the demise of
Babylon. Kings of the earth who have “fornicated with her” (18:3) will mourn.
Traders who have made money from her will mourn too.
“A new voice
spoke from heaven; I heard it say, ‘Come out, my people, away from her, so that
you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear” (18:4).
Despite her great powers, the Lord God will condemn her. The kings of the earth
will weep for her destruction – the kings and traders or merchants. They too
have “fornicated” with her [Babylon/Rome].
The “captains
and seafaring men, sailors and all those who make a living from the sea” (18:17)
will also go down with “her.” They will mourn the loss of “this great city
whose lavish living has made a fortune” (18:19) for them.
The saints and
apostles, however, should celebrate.
A “powerful angel” will throw a great boulder into the sea and say,
“That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be
seen again” (18:21).
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