NOTES for Mal 1:11

There are two versions of a Russian saying: “Here you are, poor wretch (that is, beggar): take what is no use to us,” and “Here You are, God...” Both versions speak of the same thing: the widespread reluctance of seemingly devout people to sacrifice anything truly valuable to God, for alms given to a beggar are also a gift to God. The Bible bears witness that this tradition of “piety” has existed for many centuries.

Yet the genuineness of faith is tested not only by the steadfastness of martyrs, but much more often by the little things of everyday life. Our spontaneous reaction to them reveals our true condition more reliably than our response to momentous events, for which many people try to prepare well in advance, long before they draw near. But, as another saying puts it, it is not the sea that drowns us, but a puddle...

The prophet Malachi lived in the middle of the 5th century BC and belonged to the last generation of writing prophets. History has not preserved for us any details about the life and personality of the prophet; perhaps even his name is a pseudonym reflecting his ministry. In translation it means "messenger, herald".

The prophet lived in a difficult time: after the enthusiasm of the first years of the return from Babylon, the people of God sank more and more into an abyss of indifference. Neither faith, nor worship of God, nor even national dignity — nothing interested people except their own well-being. Deprived of political independence and spared from historical cataclysms, the people were gradually forgetting their high calling. All this found vivid reflection in the sermons of the prophet Malachi. With particular bitterness he speaks of the neglect of the Temple, of the veneration of God and the fulfillment of His law: it is not excluded that he himself belonged to the ranks of the clergy.

From the very first words of the book of the prophet Malachi we are plunged into the heavy atmosphere of those years. The people are dissatisfied with their situation, and the hearts and minds of the people are burdened with grumbling. Where is the greatness of the chosen people? Where is the power that the promised Messiah was supposed to spread over all nations? Instead of all this, there is no longer even a governor of the Persian king in Jerusalem, and Judea as an insignificant province is subordinated to the governor of Samaria, populated by apostates. There is no greatness, no prosperity, no authority among neighbors; all the hopes for renewal that nourished the Jews returning from captivity have turned to dust. Instead, they are doomed to hard labor in order to somehow secure their livelihood. The culture of the pagan nations begins to seem to the Jews the pinnacle of well-being, and the severe faith of the fathers looks like some kind of relic against its background. "How have You shown love to us?" — they ask God a cruel and unjust question.

We ourselves partly become witnesses to how this grumbling is born. Yes, say Malachi's contemporaries, we have a certain, rather illusory, freedom, but the desired prosperity did not come by itself, at a wave of the Almighty's hand. Living in freedom turned out to be hard, in any case — no easier than in captivity. And the love that God showed in the liberation of the people from captivity and in the restoration of Jerusalem begins to seem like empty words. Real life is difficult, joyless, and very far from majesty; the bitter realization of this gradually permeates the literature of the Israelite sages emerging in this era.

A little earlier than the book of the prophet Malachi appears the book of Jonah, vividly demonstrating the incommensurability of God's truth and human ideas of justice. A few decades later, the books of Job and Ecclesiastes are born, where a desperate hope will only miraculously sparkle through unremitting sorrow. But in the majority of souls the agonizing question "Where is Your love and truth?", with which the hearts of the prophet Habakkuk and the author of the book of Job rush to God, is replaced by a terrible and lifeless lamentation: "Is this really love?".

Through the prophet Malachi, God answers this and says that the whole matter lies in how the chosen people relate to Him. God's love is manifested in the very fact of election, in the fact that it is to this people that the Almighty granted His law. The prophet cites the question of the Jews "how have You shown love to us?" and answers it with God's counter-question: "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?". God's love is in no way earned by Israel, and nevertheless, He keeps faithfulness to His chosen one — this is where Malachi sees the manifestation of love. "You only have I called of all the nations," God said through the prophet Amos; God's love is manifested not in beneficence, but in Love itself. It is hard for people to accept this, because such an attitude demands reciprocal love. And if on the part of the people there is cold indifference, then even salvation and freedom themselves will not be sufficient manifestations of love for them; the indifferent need something more tangible, even if momentary.

Malachi intrudes into what no one wants to talk about; with surprising directness he conveys devastating words of denunciation. Israel is dissatisfied with the "quality" of the Creator's love, but Israel itself treats Him with blatant neglect. "If I am a father, then where is the honor due to Me? and if I am a Lord, then where is the reverence before Me?", says the Lord. The attitude towards God in this era can be expressed by the Russian proverb "Here, God, take what is worthless to us": only the very worst is offered in sacrifice to God, since one has to offer something anyway. "Offer it to your prince; will he be pleased with you?", the Lord asks the priests of Israel.

This means the problem is not that God does not love His people enough. On the contrary, it is Israel that has forgotten how to love and honor God, and therefore does not notice the Creator's love. And, since the truth of the Lord endures forever, as the psalmist says (Ps 117:2), neglect of God becomes a source of a curse for people. The Lord measures the careless worship of the Jews not against their contemporary pagans, who revere idols, but against the coming Kingdom, where all nations will glorify the name of God. For to Israel, unlike the pagans, God has revealed His name and His truth.