Christian Churches of God No. 021L

Commentary on Malachi

(Edition 1.0 20141108-20141108 )

This text of Malachi is the last text of the OT Canon. Its style also throws light on the finishing of the book of Zechariah.

Christian Churches of God PO Box 369, WODEN ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA

E-mail: [email protected]

(Copyright © 2014 Wade Cox)

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Commentary on Malachi

Introduction The Sedum Olam Rabbah makes the point that Matthew 23:35 states that Zechariah was killed they were contemporaneous in their deaths. between the temple and the altar. He was Then they compiled the Old Testament Canon untimely killed by the priests, stopping his from the time of this death in 323 BCE. The work. books were listed and published and sent out by 321 BCE. Matthew 23:33-36 [33] You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are Malachi is one of the six undated of the twelve you to escape being sentenced to hell? [34] so called Minor Prophets. His book shows that therefore I send you prophets and wise men and the Temple worship with its sacrifices was scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and fully restored but the ceremonial formalism and some you will scourge in your synagogues and the hypocrisy which culminated in the days of persecute from town to town, [35] that upon you our Lord’s ministry was seen actively at work may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of at the time of Malachi. No sooner were the Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah, whom you restraining influences of Ezra and Nehemiah murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. removed than the corruption began and war went on apace as evidenced by Malachi 1:7-8 Christ is talking to the priests and this is a very and 3:8 etc. significant point. It shows that Zechariah was killed in an untimely manner. Zechariah 1:7 Bullinger is in error here. When Ezra died, it shows that it was Zechari'ah the son of was not a matter of Malachi then watching the Berechi'ah, son of Iddo, the prophet. (See deterioration; Ezra was dying when the Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 4.5.4 for deterioration was in effect and Malachi was explanation, also Bullinger’s footnotes.) This is making observation before Ezra died because mentioned as it gives rise to a problem in the Canon was closed and Malachi’s work, if it Malachi and Zechariah. was not written before the death of Ezra, would not have been included and accepted as one of We have one Zechariah killed allegedly 800 the Twelve Prophets. It was understood to be years previously. Zechariah the Prophet was the last prophecy from Malachi and Ezra until killed 400 years previously and then 34 years John the Baptist. There were some prophets after this a third Zechariah, the son of Baruch operating in the church but none of them which is a very serious problem. Remember received direction from the Lord in relation to also that Isaiah was sawn in half by these any other matter for recording. There were people. These people have no respect for God’s prophets in the Temple who knew that Christ prophets. ‘These people’ are whoever is in was going to be born and knew the very day charge of the religious or church system in the that he was going to be presented at the Temple mainstream of the society. The church that we and were waiting to see him presented by see and we respect is not the mainstream Joseph and Mariam before the High Priest and church and these papists are supported by the the Temple Priesthood. One had had his life Jesuits who murder at will. spared so that he could be present to witness the Messiah as God gave him permission. So In the last chapters of Zechariah there is a prophecy did not stop but the written slight change in style and what is assumed is testaments of the Bible did. that Malachi took over duties and began to write and to finish off the last few chapters of The style of the last few chapters of Zechariah Zechariah’s work and then closed the Canon is the same style as Malachi and differs from with his book, which then became the last book the former chapters and it is thought that of the Canon written. It was on the death of Malachi finished the book for Zechariah, when Alexander the Great which was concurrent at Zechariah was killed between the Temple and 323 BCE. Ezra the scribe died at the same time. the altar. Zechariah was a major prophet and Commentary on Malachi Page 3 his work is of major importance, yet the priests that no evil? Present that to your governor; thought nothing of killing him, as they thought will he be pleased with you or show you favor? nothing of killing Isaiah. They were frightened says the LORD of hosts. [9] And now entreat of Samuel and also of Elijah but they would the favor of God, that he may be gracious to kill them “at the drop of the hat.” us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of One of the problems we have is that Bullinger’s hosts. [10] Oh, that there were one among you chronology is wrong. We are looking at 323 who would shut the doors, that you might not BCE as the death of Ezra and the birth of the kindle fire upon my altar in vain! I have no Messiah is in ca. 6 BCE, a period of about 317 pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I years. They are saying that this restoration in will not accept an offering from your hand. the year of Artaxerxes was 400 years and that is not correct. Bullinger’s chronology is not This is where the Church of God got to by the correct and we need to be aware of that fact. end of the Armstrongite period. Nobody would The time sequence and the rule of the kings are do anything for nothing. This is one of the much better understood now than at the time reasons that CCG does not have a paid Bullinger was writing. In the last 130 years we ministry, because this text in Malachi shows have grown in knowledge immensely. For where it had got to and what Christ was instance, he places Ezra’s last date as 1 Nisan condemning and the system that was rotten and 403 BCE, when the Temple was rebuilt in 419 nobody worked for the love of God. It was a BCE and Nehemiah was sent back in the 7th business. God scattered them as He scattered week of years which is 49 years after 419. Ezra the Temple. He sent them Christ when he was died in 323 BCE, not 403. So these dates that over 30 years of age. He became Priest at the you will find in the Companion Bible are Jubilee of 27 CE and from 28 CE he began his wrong. mission and the church was started. It continued on for 40 Jubilees and is in the final Malachi Chapter 1 [RSV] phase of the last jubilee now, the 120th Jubilee. [1] The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Mal'achi. [2] "I have loved you," says In 1987 Joseph Tkatch stated throughout his the LORD. But you say, "How hast thou loved tour through USA, and around the world, that us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the we were at Revelation chapter 11, verses 1 and LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob [3] but I have 2, and that God had commenced the measuring hated Esau; I have laid waste his hill country of the Temple of God. 1987 was the beginning and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." of the last 40 years of this Jubilee and the [4] If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will beginning of parole or judgment until 2027. It rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, was the third year of the sacred calendar. "They may build, but I will tear down, till they are called the wicked country, the people with This first chapter of Malachi carries through in whom the LORD is angry for ever." [5] Your prophecy from 27 CE, through Christ’s death, own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Pentecost, the 40 years to the destruction of the "Great is the LORD, beyond the border of Temple in Jerusalem and its complete Israel!" [6] "A son honors his father, and a dispersion which began from 70 CE. The servant his master. If then I am a father, where church came into the same problem in the last is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my 40 years and that began ‘this generation,’ the fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, term that Christ uses in the Gospel saying that who despise my name. You say, `How have we ‘this generation’ will not pass away until the despised thy name?' [7] By offering polluted Messiah comes and destroys the nations of the food upon my altar. And you say, `How have earth and brings them into captivity under the we polluted it?' By thinking that the LORD's vials of the wrath of God. “This generation” table may be despised. [8] When you offer referred to by Christ began in 1987. blind animals in sacrifice, is that no evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is [11] For from the rising of the sun to its setting Page 4 Commentary on Malachi my name is great among the nations, and in the dung of your offerings, and I will put you every place incense is offered to my name, and out of my presence. a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. [12] But This text is directed at the priesthood and the you profane it when you say that the LORD's fact that their feasts have been so totally table is polluted, and the food for it may be corrupted. Armstrong and the Church of God despised. [13] `What a weariness this is,' you introduced the Hillel Calendar which came out say, and you sniff at me, says the LORD of as the Jewish calendar in 358 CE. It did not hosts. You bring what has been taken by exist until then but the postponements were violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring introduced by deceit from the fall of the as your offering! Shall I accept that from your Temple. So not only was Judah prophesied here hand? says the LORD. [14] Cursed be the in Malachi to corrupt the feasts and to make cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, them contemptible but also the Church of God and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is in the last days under Armstrong became an blemished; for I am a great King, says the apostate system using the same corrupt LORD of hosts, and my name is feared among calendar as Judah had done. The end of the the nations. Sardis system under Herbert Armstrong was the most corrupt ever to hold office in the The whole development of the church and the Church of God. The theology was corrupt, the Pharisees, the development of the Sadducees in calendar was corrupt, the administration was the Temple system and their collapse occurred corrupt and the brethren were rendered to the with the Messiah. After the death of Christ the hooves. Sadducees and the factions in the Temple began to increase and become more and more Note that verse 3 in the KJV reads: corrupt. In the same way the church became [3] Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and more and more corrupt. The act of stopping the spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of full Passover/Unleavened bread continuing for your solemn feasts; and one shall take you the full seven day period from 1965 is away with it. indicative of this. By 1967 it was no where kept by the Church of God. This was part of the We see that one of the feasts will remove these problem of taking away of the sacrifices and priests. In the first instance it was the feast of the proper worship of God. It follows on from the Passover in 30 CE that took the priesthood what happened at the time of Christ and what away on Christ’s death. He had already happened after the death of Ezra through to ordained the 70 and the authority had been Christ where it became worse and then the 40 passed from the priesthood to the church. When years for repentance allocated from the death of the Holy Spirit came at that Pentecost of 30 CE Christ to 70 CE gave the entire priesthood their in power and strength, the entire structure of judgment at the end of the Temple Period. the priesthood of Israel or Judah was removed and destroyed over the forty years. The measurement is now concerned with the Churches of God and their priesthood has been [4] So shall you know that I have sent this judged now. command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the LORD of hosts. [5] My Malachi Chapter 2 covenant with him was a covenant of life and [1] "And now, O priests, this command is for peace, and I gave them to him, that he might you. [2] If you will not listen, if you will not lay fear; and he feared me, he stood in awe of my it to heart to give glory to my name, says the name. [6] True instruction was in his mouth, LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I with me in peace and uprightness, and he have already cursed them, because you do not turned many from iniquity. [7] For the lips of a lay it to heart. [3] Behold, I will rebuke your priest should guard knowledge, and men offspring, and spread dung upon your faces, should seek instruction from his mouth, for he Commentary on Malachi Page 5 is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. those who make offerings at the Temple.

This is the responsibility of the priesthood and [13] And this again you do. You cover the right up to the closing of the Old Testament LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and Canon Malachi was saying that this is their groaning because he no longer regards the responsibility. The texts tell us that it was offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. passed to the church by the Messiah. We are [14] You ask, "Why does he not?" Because the the messengers of the Lord of Hosts. They LORD was witness to the covenant between don’t get it. We have been given the you and the wife of your youth, to whom you responsibility in the last days for taking the have been faithless, though she is your mysteries of God and explaining the coming of companion and your wife by covenant. [15] the Messiah and the witnesses and dealing with Has not the one God made and sustained for us those problems. The priesthood, both of the the spirit of life? And what does he desire? church and the Temple, departed out of the Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, way. and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. [16] "For I hate divorce, says the LORD [8] But you have turned aside from the way; the God of Israel, and covering one's garment you have caused many to stumble by your with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of heed to yourselves and do not be faithless." Levi, says the LORD of hosts, [17] You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied That antinomianism is the biggest single him?" By saying, "Every one who does evil is problem in the Christian religion in the 21st good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights century. The whole of the Christian structure is in them." Or by asking, "Where is the God of antinomian and they have stumbled at the law. justice?" The Jews themselves have perverted the law with the Talmud. In other words, why has God not dealt with these things? Chapter two is directly concerned [9] and so I make you despised and abased with the priesthood, the assemblies, the conduct before all the people, inasmuch as you have not of the priesthood and the people, their attitudes, kept my ways but have shown partiality in your their respect of persons and their failure in their instruction." [10] Have we not all one father? families. That can be seen in our society now as Has not one God created us? Why then are we to how the social structure is simply being faithless to one another, profaning the destroyed. covenant of our fathers? [11] Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed Malachi Chapter 3 in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has [1] "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he the way before me, and the Lord whom you loves, and has married the daughter of a seek will suddenly come to his temple; the foreign god. messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD If we don’t believe that the churches in the 21st of hosts [2] But who can endure the day of his century are married to a strange god and are in coming, and who can stand when he appears? fact the daughters of a strange god then we haven’t got our eyes open. This is quoted in Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2 and Luke 1:76 and 7:27. Bullinger claims that it [12] May the LORD cut off from the tents of was not directed to our generation; it was to the Jacob, for the man who does this, any to Lord’s generation in his day. ‘My messenger’ witness or answer, or to bring an offering to is literally seen as John the Baptist. the LORD of hosts! Matthew 11:10 So everybody who does will be cut off, even This is he of whom it is written, `Behold, I send Page 6 Commentary on Malachi my messenger before thy face, who shall and Aaron down to Christ. The authority of the prepare thy way before thee.' Scriptures is established in the priesthood through Moses and Aaron, Abraham, Isaac and This is Christ speaking from verse 7: Jacob down to Christ and that is the sequence [7] As they went away, Jesus began to speak to of the establishment of the law. the crowds concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed [7] From the days of your fathers you have shaken by the wind? [8] Why then did you go turned aside from my statutes and have not out? To see a man clothed in soft raiment? kept them. Return to me, and I will return to Behold, those who wear soft raiment are in you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, kings' houses. [9] Why then did you go out? To `How shall we return?' [8] Will man rob God? see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a Yet you are robbing me. But you say, `How are prophet. we robbing thee?' In your tithes and offerings. [9] You are cursed with a curse, for you are So Christ said that it was John the Baptist that robbing me; the whole nation of you. was this messenger sent to prepare the way for [10] Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, the Lord. There is however another prophet and that there may be food in my house; and voice sent for that purpose in the last days and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of he is not from the Tribe of Levi but is from the hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven composite of the last days of Ephraim and Dan for you and pour down for you an overflowing as foretold by Jeremiah (Jer. 4:15) (see the blessing. [11] I will rebuke the devourer for paper Warning of the Last Days (No. 044)). you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your Then we will see the Witnesses, one of whom soil; and your vine in the field shall not fail to is Elijah as foretold. bear, says the LORD of hosts. [12] Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a Continuing from Malachi 3:2: land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. [13] [2b] … "For he is like a refiner's fire and like "Your words have been stout against me, says fullers' soap; [3] he will sit as a refiner and the LORD. Yet you say, `How have we spoken purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of against thee?' [14] You have said, `It is vain to Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till serve God. What is the good of our keeping his they present right offerings to the LORD. [4] charge or of walking as in mourning before the Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will LORD of hosts? [15] Henceforth we deem the be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old arrogant blessed; evildoers not only prosper and as in former years. [5] "Then I will draw but when they put God to the test they escape.'" near to you for judgment; I will be a swift [16] Then those who feared the LORD spoke witness against the sorcerers, against the with one another; the LORD heeded and heard adulterers, against those who swear falsely, them, and a book of remembrance was written against those who oppress the hireling in his before him of those who feared the LORD and wages, the widow and the orphan, against thought on his name. [17] "They shall be those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. [6] "For possession on the day when I act, and I will I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O spare them as a man spares his son who serves sons of Jacob, are not consumed. him. [18] Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between So the whole purpose of the Lord is maintained one who serves God and one who does not and Jacob is not consumed because there is a serve him. purpose conceived by God which established Jacob as the seed and as the source of the law and the prophecy. That is also contained in the references in the Koran, in the Surah: “Those who set the ranks” which deals with the prophecy of the establishment through Moses Commentary on Malachi Page 7

This is clear in chapter 3. People are not for the Messiah and they will stand before the turning to God. The tithe is not properly god of the whole world. delivered. The system of tithing is wrong and has been rejected. The [2] But for you who fear my name the sun of Church of God did away with the law in righteousness shall rise, with healing in its 1995 after CCG was established. Joseph wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves Tkatch Snr. gave a sermon doing away from the stall. [3] And you shall tread down with the law for which he was killed 40 the wicked, for they will be ashes under the weeks to the hour, adjusted for the time soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says differential from where he gave the the LORD of hosts. [4] “Remember the law of sermon and where he died. my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Other people have tried to get members to the [5] "Behold, I will send you Eli'jah the prophet church by saying the law is corrupt and done before the great and terrible day of the LORD away. It has been decided to do away with the comes. [6] And he will turn the hearts of requirement to tithe in order to get more people fathers to their children and the hearts of but that does not work. children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse." These whole sequences of the failure to obey the laws of God are resulting in people leaving The sequence is in two parts. It’s the law of the Churches of God in significant numbers. Moses which was given at Horeb for all Israel People either want to be part of the body of with the statutes and judgments that are to be Christ doing the work of God or they do not. If kept. Then Elijah will be sent to reinforce those they don’t they need to leave. statutes and judgments before the great and terrible day of the Lord. In the end there will be two people, Enoch and Elijah, working at the Temple. We will be From verse 5 Bullinger notes: Elijah the assisting by baptizing those who do repent in prophet. Called thus, only here, and in the last days. The work will then go to Christ 2Chonicles 21:12. Elsewhere, always "Elijah who will build up the church right throughout the Tishbite", to indicate his own person; but the nations. here "Elijah the prophet "because had Israel received Messiah, John the Baptist would have Verse 17 in the KJV says: And they shall be been reckoned as Elijah (see notes on Mat. mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day 17:9-13, Mk. 9:11-13): and, at His last supper, when I make up my jewels; and I will spare the wine, representing His blood, would have them, as a man spareth his own son that been (as it will yet be) reckoned as "the blood serveth him. of the (New) Covenant", as foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-13; 10:15-17; These jewels are a peculiar treasure, an 12:24). acquired property, i.e. one’s own. So the end result of the work of God will be a church of This day of the Lord as we all know is the final people who will be a peculiar treasure to God, days which we are waiting on and that day of specifically the sons of God. the Lord has notes on Isaiah 2:12,17; 13:6f. The Lord is referred to as Jehovah which is Malachi Chapter 4 Christ acting as the High Priest in the Temple [1] "For behold, the day comes, burning like of God. an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes Malachi is a prophetic work that goes forward shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so to the coming of Messiah and tells us that it will leave them neither root nor branch. specifically the name of the prophet that is being sent in the last days. It finished the Old This is the last days being spoken of. This is Testament Covenant showing what is to happen when the two witnesses are sent in preparation Page 8 Commentary on Malachi and showing the two elements of the covenant the First or the Second Resurrection. We work which are: the law and the statutes and that as though we qualify for the First but if we Elijah will come as the messenger of the come to the Second, then that is the judgment covenant and the law and that that will be of God. We must do what we can. established in the last days. The sign of the return to God is tithing and What will happen is that most of these church return to the whole system; tithing properly and groups will be destroyed and there will be a keeping the laws of God. Many do not want to reaction amongst the people in Israel and their understand the Old Testament or its foolishness in their behaviour will be stamped relationship to the Gospels, the so-called “New out. We will once again be prepared and Covenant” of Christ, which is merely a brought into a proper nation and a proper group reiteration of the covenant he gave Moses at under those who are fortunate enough to be in Sinai. Christ was the elohim, the Angel of the the First Resurrection of the dead. Presence, that gave the covenant to Moses and we must never forget that. This is what we are working for and this is  what we hope to achieve. We will be in either