Malachi 1:9-11To: Malachi Main MenuTo: Grace Notes Home Page The animal sacrifices upon the altar [17] represented the efficacious Work of Christ on the Cross, essentially the Redemptive Work of Christ. Thus, the doctrine of Redemption should now be disclosed. RedemptionRedemption is "the ransom or deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's violated holiness and righteousness." In law, redemption is "the repurchase of the right to reenter upon an estate on performance of the terms or conditions on which it was conveyed; the right of redeeming and re-entering into possession." Thus, put simply, redemption is the saving work of Christ on the Cross. The Greek term for redemption is compounded from the preposition anti and the substantive lutron, antilutron, which is defined as 'a ransom,' or 'the substitution of money for a slaver or prisoner.' Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." And our Lord Jesus Christ was and remains the only adequate Redeemer by reason of the virgin birth, according to Matthew 1:23, I Timothy 3:16, and Hebrews 1:3; and by reason of the impeccability (sinless perfection) of His humanity, according to Isaiah 53:9, John 8:46, 19:4, II Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, 7:26-28. In other words, our Lord was the only one 'good enough' and 'wealthy enough' to pay the ransom; He was the only member of the human race to be without sin. According to Luke 22:42, Christ, by His own choice, elected to redeem mankind on the Cross. "'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.'" Thus, our Lord, by His own choice, subordinated Himself to the Plan of God the Father, Romans 5:19 and Philippians 2:8, the latter of which reads, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross!" In the Old Testament, the blood of the animal sacrifices symbolized the future redemptive work of Christ on the Cross, according to Job 19:25-26, and Hebrews 9:22: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." The Blood of Christ, then, is the spiritual death of our Lord on the Cross; and this spiritual death or blood is the ransom money or purchase price of Redemption. I Peter 1:18,19, tell us that the "silver and gold" by which the ransom was paid was the Blood of Christ: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed form the empty way of life handed down to you from you forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." And according to Psalm 34:22, it is the soul of the believer that is redeemed by the Blood of Christ: "The Lord redeems his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned." And according to Galatians 3:13, the Blood of Christ removes the curse (the damning judgment) of the Mosaic Law: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'" (Deut. 21:23) Thus, Christ is the Mediator, the middle-man, the go-between, between mankind and God. He, Christ, provides the ransom, according to I Timothy 1:5,6, and Hebrews 9:14,15: "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance -- now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant." Finally, then, Redemption provides the following privileges: the forgiveness of sins, the foundation for justification, the foundation for sanctification, the foundation for eternal heirship of believers, the foundation for Christ's victory over the evil wiles and powers of Satan, the foundation for the resurrection of the body of the believer for all eternity. References: Isa. 44:22; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15; Romans 3:24; Eph. 5:25-27; Heb. 2:14,15; Col. 2:14; Romans 8:23; and Eph. 4:30. [18] Malachi 1:8 "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?' says the Lord Almighty." Malachi uses the term hHAP,, pachah, now Pasha, for "governor." And the term refers to "a satrap, governor, deputy, viceroy (of a province), an officer under the ancient Chaldean and Persian monarchs. Used also of the governor of Judea under the Persians." [19] Here, then, God confronts the unsaved priests of Malachi's day with a caustic call: "Try offering such sacrifices (diseased and lame animals) to your Pasha (the Persian governor of Judea)!" Would the Pasha accept them? No! Of course not! And the word used for "accept" is xWAnA, nasa', and means "to lift up," and the "expression arises from an Eastern custom of prostrating themselves in making a request, which being granted, the prince orders the suppliant to rise, i.e. to lift up his face." [20] However, if the Eastern prince was not pleased with the request or the suppliant, he cut off the suppliants ears. This, naturally, diminished improper petitions and inferior gifts. In effect, then, God is stating that the priests would not dare to make such shoddy sacrifices even to their human rulers, yet to Him, to the God of the Universe, the One who sets up and tears down human rules, they offer substandard sacrifices. Since they have rejected Christ, they do not care. And why were the priests substituting imperfect animals for healthy, blemish free animals? To make money. The priests were reserving the healthy animals for sale to the local butchers, and using the diseased, worthless animals on the altar. "Covetousness was the root-sin that was leading them daily farther astray. The priests would not so much as shut the temple doors save for wages, or kindle the altar-fire except for gain. True love for Himself was lacking, and their holy office hand been prostituted to a mere worldly profession, and use as a means of enrichment." [21] Malachi 1:9"'Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?' -- says the Lord Almighty."In essence, verses nine and ten present the priests with a challenge: either believe in Christ, verse 9, or shut the temple doors for good, verse 10. And in presenting this challenge, Malachi, as he quotes God Himself, uses the most beautiful irony, which adds much greater force to the words than appears on the surface. And irony in the Scriptures is heavy with contempt. The irony is carried in the juxtaposition of two different correlations: 1) "pray that God...says God; and 2) "will lift up his face...and accept you (let you lift up your face to him)." The word for "pray" is CHALAH, and means 'to touch the face,' or 'to smooth the countenance.' To touch the face of God implies a very intimate relationship, and thus means 'believe in God.' And the one who says this to the priests is God. The threat is unmistakable, yet the gracious love and patience are overwhelming. And if they will believe, then God will graciously lift up his face to them, i.e., look benignly upon them, and will allow them to lift up their faces, i.e., rise in His presence; or He will look with favor upon them once more. And how is this possible? Only through the Person and Work of the Christ, whose Blood paid for their sins. So they have been perverting the teaching analogies of the sacrifices of the very Person to whom they are indebted. Moreover, verse nine presents two different Hebrew words for "God:" El, and Yahweh. And this provides a reasonable occasion to examine the names of God in Scripture. The Non-Lyrical Names of God In ScriptureElohim is god, as the Sovereign Creator; God in relation to his creatures. El is God in His Omnipotence, with special emphasis on His power to fulfill His desired ends. Eloah is God the HAJAH, the Living One, with emphasis on His deserving both worship and awe. Adonai is God as Lord of the earth, the king, the ruler. This term does not include His Holy People, except generally, and thus differentiates it from Yahweh. Yahweh is God as the Eternal God, the God "who is, and was, and is to come." This term identifies the Living God in covenant relation to His Holy People. Shaddai is God as God of all blessings, the "many-breasted God," in the sense of providing all the various types of blessings and gifts to His creatures, with special emphasis on His unlimited assets. [22] Malachi 1:10"'Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and I will accept no offering from your hands."In verse 10 Malachi presents the negative aspect of the Lord's challenge to the priests: if you will not believe in Christ, then close the doors of the Temple; for the Temple is meaningless if Christ and His efficacious sacrifice are not taught to the people. In other words, if there is no reality to the rituals, then the rituals are pointless. The Hebrew term translated "pleasure" is CHAPHETS, and the implication of the word is that "pleasure" or "delight" is found, or not found in certain persons. Immediately, then, the question arises: What attribute in mankind "pleases" God? The answer is located in two other Hebrew words in verse 10: RATSAH, rendered "accept" in verse 10. RATSAH means "to be well pleased, and is applied to the Divine regard for the offerer who comes before God in the appointed way. He must be sheltered by atonement, and must thus have the germ at least of a Divine life working in him if he would be regarded by God with pleasure." [23] In other words, to be 'acceptable' to God, the individual must be a believer in Christ. In this manner, and this manner alone, does the individual obtain the Perfect Righteousness of God. And God's Perfect Righteousness in mankind is that attribute which gives "pleasure" to God. [cf. Leviticus 1:4] Finally, the third link in the nexus of Hebrew words in verse 10 is MINCHAH, which is the term for "offering." The MINCHAH offering depicted the Old Testament believer's relationship to God based upon the acceptability and sufficiency of the real sacrifice -- the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The burning of the flour, oil and incense represented the sacrificer's belief and salvation by means of faith in Christ. The 'meal' depicts faith in the Christ to come. In other words, the smell ("an aroma pleasing") of the rising smoke from the minchah satisfies the Holiness of God, and the "rest of the minchah offering" (cf. Leviticus 2:3) provides nourishment for the priests, and this provision indicates a relationship with God. A relationship based upon belief in Christ. So that which 'pleases' God is an impeccable offering: Christ. And the flour or meal represents Christ's perfect humanity, the oil represents God the Holy Spirit empowering Christ in his humanity, and the incense represents the acceptability of Christ as the real sacrifice. No other would do. The following verses from the book of Leviticus integrate the links of the lexical nexus: Leviticus 1:4, 2:2,3, which read, "He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him." "And take it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn it as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the Lord by fire." Malachi 1:11"My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations, " says the Lord Almighty.Here, in verse 11, the spiritual decay and apostasy of Malachi's day is compared with the magnificence of the Millennium. For according to Ezekiel chapters 40 through 47, during the Millennium the priests will present spotlessly clean offerings as memorials to the Person and Work of Christ Jesus. The Hebrew term for "my name" is SHEM and functions as a technical title for Jesus Christ as the manifest member of the Godhead; He is the preeminent, distinctive, and apparent God. And the title carries with it the idea that all 'memorial offerings' are a signal that He was, is, and will ever be, the true original sacrifice -- the only entrance into the Grace and Plan of salvation. So in the Millennium, every time that the Levitical priests offer a memorial sacrifice, the sacrifice is applied to the memory and remembrance of a Person, Christ Jesus, in the world. And this Person, Christ Jesus, as the portal to salvation, is precisely what is not being communicated by the priests in Malachi's day. GOI is the term used for "nations;" and "the plural is used especially of nations other than Israel, foreign nations." [24] And the implication is that during the Millennium even the Gentile nations will recognize and acknowledge Christ as the Lamb of God, whereas during Malachi's day those designated as God's "holy people," the Jews, deny His very existence. And the phrase "from the rising to the setting of the sun" sustains two connotations: 1) each day or twenty-four hour period; 2) a subtle reference to the rise and fall of any great nation throughout the passage of history. Specifically, in Israel's case, after this final warning from God, in this final book of the Old Testament, in the year 70 AD, God will disperse the Jews for their unbelief. The next phrase, "in every place incense and pure offerings," is very interesting; for the Hebrew term for incense is KATHAR "which properly means to turn into smoke or vapour, is used of the burning of the memorial portion of the MINCHAH, of the HOLAH, and of the fat of the ZEVACH, all of which were intended as offerings for God's good pleasure, and not for sin." [25] Here, then, is the burning of the memorial portion of the gift, bloodless and voluntary offerings. These offerings were sacrificed daily and were composed of fine flour, which was roasted and unground, oil, frankincense and salt. None of these offerings contained yeast/leaven or honey. Why? The leaven represented sin and the honey or sweetener represented merit in mankind; and neither was acceptable: there was no sin in Christ, and the merits of mankind could not provide salvation. The impeccability of the gift is portrayed in the 'fine flour;' the 'oil' in the fine flour portrays the Person of Christ indwelt and filled with the Holy Spirit; and the frankincense depicts the "satisfying effect Christ's perfect humanity had on the Father." [26] These offerings were brought to the priest by the offerer, who took his/her handful and gave it to the priest. Then the priest burnt the memorial offering on the brazen altar. And according to Leviticus 6:16-18, the balance of the offering went to the priest. Symbolically, these offerings represent Christ "offering Himself without spot or blemish, being made sin and judged for us." [27] Likewise, redemption and propitiation are depicted in the work of Christ on the Cross through these offerings. The specific offerings cited here in verse 11 of Malachi are described in Leviticus 2:4-7, which say, "If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil. If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. If your grain offering is cooked in a pan, it is to be made of fine flour and oil." Thus we see the same offering presented in three forms: oven, griddle and pan. And these will now be discussed: The Oven OfferingThe term used here is TANNUR, and is specifically "a fire oven." This type of oven enclosed the baked items within and was heated by means of a flame below. In other words, the bread was inside the oven and could not be seen. This concealment symbolized the work of Christ on the Cross from God the Father's perspective. For as Christ hung on the Cross, Golgotha was concealed in a penumbral darkness and the fire, that is the judgment, was exercised and God the Father was satisfied with the offering of Perfect Christ. The Griddle OfferingTREWIMA is the term for "pan" or "griddle," and this was a flat iron plate that was placed over a flame. And the meal was cooked or fried on top of it, and was visible to mankind. For this reason, its very visibility, this offering contained no incense because it is blasphemous to suggest that mankind needs to be propitiated or satisfied with the work and Person of Christ on the Cross. Mankind is the condemned, not Christ. This "griddle offering," then, portrayed the work of Christ on the Cross as viewed by mankind. Our Lord's sufferings up to and on the Cross brought many to salvation. These members of the human race were from Missouri, the Show Me State. They needed to see His vicissitudes and sufferings to believe on Him. It is important to note the difference in the way the "oil" was used between the 'oven offering' and the 'griddle offering.' In the 'oven offering' the "oil was mixed with the flour," and in the 'griddle offering' the "oil was poured on" the flour. Why the distinction? Because "mixing with oil" represents the Holy Spirit empowering the Incarnate Christ, and "pouring with oil" represents the anointment or appointment of Christ as the Messiah, which means 'The Anointed One.' This appointment as the Messiah is cited in Psalm 2:7, which says, "I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'" And the "crumbling" of the 'griddle offering' with the "oil poured on it" depicts Christ fulfilling his appointment by His work on the Cross. This fulfillment is brought out in Matthew 26:26, which says, "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body.'" The Pan OfferingThe term utilized for "pan" is MARCHESHETH, which is "a vessel for baking or frying." [28] This type of vessel was half open and half closed, and is used to present the Cross from both of the previous perspectives, God's and mankind's. Simply put, this is Christ hanging on the Cross, providing salvation for mankind as it was planned by God. Again, the portion burnt on the altar stands for the judgment of sins, and the portion eaten by the priest stands for faith in the work of Christ. Notes: [17] Girdlestone, Robert B. Synonyms of the Old Testament; page 193-194. In this remarkable exposition, Rev. Girdlestone discloses the following pertinent information concerning the Hebrew term for an altar, mizbeach. "According to Levitical usage, it would be the appointed place on which the blood of slain beasts was to be sprinkled and their fat burnt. In a short but interesting essay on the Jewish altar by David Mill, it is noticed that the Rabbinical writers used to regard it not only as God's table (see Mal. 1. 7), but also as a symbol of mediation; accordingly, it was regarded as a centre for mediation, peace-making, expiation, and sanctification. Whatever was burnt upon the altar was considered to be consumed by God, a guarantee that the offerer was accepted by Him." It will be seen that this explication assumes first a relationship with God, and second a relationship based upon Redemption. [18] Thieme, Robert. Levitical Offerings; page 110-111. This catego-rization of Redemption was originally compiled by Robert Thieme; altered and appended by R.E. Radic. [19] Wilson, William. Old Testament Word Studies; page 198. [20] Wilson, William. Ibid; page 4. [21] Ironside, H.A. Notes on the Minor Prophets; page 439. [22] Bullinger, E.W. The Book of Job; this compilation of the non-lyrical names if God is based upon the presentation of E.W. Bullinger; revised, altered and appended by R.E. Radic. [23] Girdlestone, Robert B. Ibid; page 139-140. [24] Wilson, William. Old Testament Word Studies; page 285. [25] Girdlestone, Robert B. Synonyms of the Old Testament; page 193. [26] Thieme, Robert. Levitical Offerings; page 33. Privately pub-lished. [27] Ibid. page 109. [28] Wilson, William. Old Testament Word Studies; page 179. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to: Grace Notes 1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 wdoud@bga.com Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/ Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/ Grace Notes is a ministry of Village Missions International. |
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