The Makers and Teachers of Judaism / From the Fall of Jerusalem to the Death of Herod the Great

by Charles Foster Kent

Section XCVII. CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS WITHIN THE JUDEAN COMMUNITY

[Sidenote: Mal. 1:6-9]
A son honoreth his father, and a servant feareth his master;
If then I am a father, where is mine honor?
And if I am a master, where is the one who fears me?
Saith Jehovah to you, O ye priests, who despise my name.
But ye say, 'Wherein have we despised thy name?'
Ye offer upon mine altar bread that is polluted
And ye say, 'Wherein have we polluted it?'
In that ye say, 'The table of Jehovah is contemptible.'
And that when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, 'It is no harm!'
And that when ye offer the lame and the sick, 'It is no harm!'
Present it now to thy governor; will he be pleased with it?
Or will he receive thee favorably? saith Jehovah of hosts.
And now entreat the favor of God with such an offering, that he may be
gracious to us,
Would I receive any of you favorably? saith Jehovah of hosts.

[Sidenote: Mal. 1:10, 11]
O that there were those among you who would shut the doors,
That ye might not kindle fire on mine altar in vain!
I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of hosts,
Neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
For from the rising of the sun even to its setting my name is sacred among
the nations,
And in every place they offer to my name a pure offering;
For my name is great among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts.

[Sidenote: Mal. 1:12, 14]
'The table of Jehovah is polluted, and its food is contemptible.'
Ye say also, 'Behold what a weariness is it!' and ye have scorned me;
And ye have brought the blind, the lame and the sick.
Should I accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah of hosts.
But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male,
And vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a blemished thing;
For I am a great King, and my name is feared among the nations.

[Sidenote: Mal. 2:1-4]
And now, O ye priests, this command is for you.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart,
To give glory to my name, saith Jehovah of hosts,
Then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings;
Behold, I will cut off your arm,
And will spread offal upon your faces, even the offal of your feasts,
And ye shall know that I have sent this command to you,
That my covenant with Levi may be preserved, saith Jehovah of hosts.

[Sidenote: Mal. 2:15-7]
My covenant with him was to give life and peace;
And I gave them to him that he might revere me;
And he revered me, and stood in awe of my name.
The true instruction was in his mouth,
And unrighteousness was not found in his lips;
He walked with me in peace and uprightness,
And turned many away from iniquity.
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge,
And men should seek the law at his mouth;
For he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.

[Sidenote: Mal. 2:8, 9]
But ye are turned aside out of the way;
Ye have caused many to stumble in the law;
Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,
Saith Jehovah of hosts.
Therefore have I also made you contemptible,
And base before all the people,
According as ye have not kept my ways,
And have had no respect for me in imparting the law.

[Sidenote: Mal. 2:10, 13, 14]
Have we not all one father?
Hath not one God created us?
Why do we deal faithlessly with one another,
Profaning the covenant of our fathers?
And this ye do also:
Ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears,
So that he regardeth not the offering any more,
Neither receiveth it acceptably from your hand.
Yet ye say, Why?
Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth,
Against whom thou hast dealt faithlessly,
Though she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

[Sidenote: Mal. 2:15, 16]
Therefore give heed to your spirit,
And let none deal faithlessly with the wife of his youth,
For I hate putting away,
Saith Jehovah, the God of Israel,
And him who covers his garment with violence;
Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not faithlessly.

[Sidenote: Mal. 2:17]
Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words.
Yet ye say, How have we wearied him?
In that ye say, Everyone that doeth evil
Is good in the sight of Jehovah,
And he delighteth in them;
Or where is the God of justice?

[Sidenote: Mal. 3:1-4]
Behold, I am about to send my messenger,
And he shall prepare the way before me;
And the Lord, whom ye seek,
Will suddenly come to his temple;
But who can endure the day of his coming?
And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire,
And like fullers' lyes;
And he will sit as a refiner and purifier,
And he will purify the sons of Levi,
And refine them as gold and silver;
And they shall offer offerings in righteousness.
Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to Jehovah,
As in the days of old, and as in former years.

[Sidenote: Mal. 3:5, 6]
And I will come near to you to judgment;
And I will be a swift witness
Against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers,
And against those who sware to that which is false,
And against those who oppress the hireling, the widow, and the fatherless,
Who turn aside the resident alien from his right,
And fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
For I, Jehovah, change not;
But ye have not ceased to be sons of Jacob.

[Sidenote: Mal. 3:7-9]
From the days of thy fathers ye have turned aside from my statutes, and ye
have not kept them.
Turn to me and I will turn to you, saith Jehovah.
But ye say, 'Wherein shall we turn?'
Will a man rob God? Yet ye robbed me.
But ye say, 'Wherein have we robbed thee?' In tithes and gifts.
Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye rob me.

[Sidenote: Mal. 3:10-12]
Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house,
That there may be provision in mine house; and test me thereby,
If I will not open to you the windows of heaven,
And pour you out a blessing, until there is more than enough.
I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer that he destroy not the fruit of
the ground,
Neither shall the vine fail to ripen its fruit in the field,
And all nations shall call you happy,
For ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts.

[Sidenote: Mal. 3:13-16]
Your words are hard upon me, saith Jehovah.
Ye say, 'What have we said against thee?'
Ye have said, 'It is useless to serve God,
And what gain is it to us to have kept his charge,
And that we have walked in funeral garb before him?
Even now we call the proud happy,
Yea, those who work iniquity thrive,
Yea, they tempt God and escape.'

[Sidenote Mal. 3:16-18]
Such things those who feared Jehovah spoke to one another,
And Jehovah gave heed, and heard,
And a book of remembrance was written before him,
Regarding those who feared Jehovah,
And those who keep in mind his name;
And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts,
In the day that I make up mine especial treasure.
And I will spare them,
As a man spares his son who serves him.
Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked,
Between him who serves God and him who serves him not.

[Sidenote: Mal. 4:1-3]
For behold the day is coming that shall burn like a furnace,
And all the proud and those who work iniquity shall be stubble,
And the day that is coming shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts,
So that there shall be left them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear my name there shall arise
The sun of righteousness with healing on his wings,
And ye shall go forth and leap like calves out of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked,
For they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet,
In the day in which I begin to execute, saith Jehovah of hosts.

[Sidenote: Ps. 22:1-5]
My God, why dost thou forsake me,
Far from my salvation is my groaning
By day I call, but thou answerest not,
And by night there is no respite for me.

Yet thou, O my God, art the Holy One,
Enthroned on Israel's songs of praise.
In thee our fathers trusted,
They trusted, and thou didst deliver them;
To thee they cried, and were delivered,
In thee they trusted and were not ashamed.

[Sidenote: Ps. 22:6-8]
But I am a worm and no man,
Reproached by men and despised by the people.
Whoever sees me derideth me,
They sneer as they toss the head:
"He depended upon Jehovah, let him deliver him,
Let him save him, since he delighteth in him!"

[Sidenote: Ps. 22:9-11]
Yet it was thou who took me from the womb,
Who made me safe on my mother's breast;
On thee was I cast from birth,
Thou art my God from my mother's womb.
Be not far from me, for there is distress,
Draw nigh, for there is no helper.

[Sidenote: Ps. 22:12-18]
Many bulls encompass me,
Mighty ones of Bashan beset me round,
They open their mouths at me,
Like a ravening, roaring lion.
As water I am poured out,
Yea, all my bones are out of joint,
My heart hath become like wax,
It is melted within my body,
My palate is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;
In the dust of death thou dost lay me,
For dogs circle me about,
The assembly of evil-doers enclose me;
They pierce my hands and my feet,
I can count all my bones;
They stare, they gloat over me.
They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots!

I. Date of the Book of Malachi. Malachi in the Hebrew means My Messenger, and the word was apparently taken from the opening verse of the third chapter. Like many of the writings of the post-exilic period, the book, therefore, is anonymous. Its date, however, may be determined from its contents. The reference to the desolation of the land of the Edomites suggests that it was written late in the Persian period after the Edomites had been driven out from Mount Seir by the Nabateans and had found a home on the southern borders of Judah. The priests in the Judean community had become corrupt and the temple service was neglected, indicating that they had lost the early enthusiasm which followed the rebuilding of the sanctuary. The Judean community was discouraged and a spirit of doubt and questioning prevailed in the minds of those who were faithfully striving to serve Jehovah. The prophecy is an exact picture of conditions as Nehemiah found them, so that the book of Malachi may be dated not far from 445 B.C.

II. Neglect of the Temple Service. The prophet's method is akin to that of Zechariah. Evidently the early reverence for the word of the prophet has disappeared. Instead of bare assertions, each conclusion is supported by detailed arguments. The author of Malachi is also deeply interested in the ritual and regards the preservation of its purity as essential to the religious life of the Judean community. He charges the priests with failure to observe the ceremonial laws, especially in allowing the people to bring for sacrifice animals that are blind, lame, and sick. These acts are evidence of the religious apathy that had seized even the religious leaders of the people. The prophet declares boldly that under the guise of religion the priests are robbing Jehovah. Above all they are faithless to their responsibilities as the appointed teachers of the people. In 2:5-7 he presents the clearest picture extant of the task of the priest as teacher. His duty was to instruct the people, to help them to overcome temptation, and to make very clear to them the way of duty. This ideal, the prophet declares, was realized by earlier priests, but now those who are the appointed religious guides are misleading the people.

III. The Need of a Great Moral Awakening. The evils which the prophet denounced were not confined to the priests. The old Semitic law regarding divorce was exceedingly lax. A husband could lead his wife to the door of his tent and tell her to be gone, thereby severing their marriage relation. The Deuteronomic law sought to relieve this injustice by providing that the husband must place in the hand of his wife, as she departs, a document stating the grounds on which he had divorced her. By the middle of the fifth century B.C. divorce had evidently become exceedingly common in Palestine. The prophet denounced it on the basis of its injustice and cruelty. He also maintained that marriage was a solemn covenant before Jehovah between man and wife, and that he who disregarded it dealt faithlessly and was the especial object of divine displeasure.

Traces of the old heathenism still remained in Judah, and the dependent, oppressed classes received little pity from the selfish, heartless rulers. In the face of these evils the prophet declared that Jehovah would surely send a messenger to punish and to reform priest and people. The prophecy was evidently based on a clear recognition that Jehovah was ever working to train and uplift his people, and that a period of degeneration must surely be followed by a period of reform. In the work of Nehemiah the prophet's hopes were in part fulfilled, but the larger fulfilment of the underlying principle was realized in the thorough-going reformatory work of John the Baptist and in that of the Great Teacher. In a later appendix to the prophecy of Malachi this theme is still further developed. The promise is made that another prophet, with the zeal of the great reformer Elijah, would come and prepare the way for a new and nobler era.

IV. The Lot of the Faithful. In the prophecy of Malachi is first voiced the despairing cries and doubts of those of the faithful who failed to rise above the effect of the existing social and religious evils. They are the righteous or afflicted who also speak through certain of the earlier psalms of the Psalter (e.g., 10-17, 22). It was a period when the man who did right and was faithful to the demands of the law was thereby condemned to poverty and persecution at the hands of the corrupt priests and rulers. Worse than that, their poverty and wretchedness were interpreted, According to the current belief of the day, as convincing evidence of Jehovah's displeasure because of their sins. It was a time when wickedness triumphed and innocence suffered, and when the question whether or not a righteous God ruled the universe rose persistently in the minds of the faithful. The author of Malachi recognizes and seeks to meet these doubts:

Ye have said, It is useless to serve God,
And what gain is it to us to have kept his charge,
And that we have walked in funeral garb before him?
Even now we call the proud happy,
Verily those who work iniquity thrive,
Yea, they tempt God and escape.

Here the problem is the same as that of the book of Job. To these doubts the prophet could only reply that Jehovah will keep a record of the faithful and in his good time will reward them.

V. The Problem of Suffering in the Literature of the Period. As was natural, this problem of innocent suffering was prominent in the literature of the period. It became especially insistent at this time, because it had ceased to be the problem of the community, and had become that of individuals or of a class. While the nation rested under the shadow of misfortune, a solution of the problem was found in the consciousness of national guilt and in the hope that the affliction would be but temporary. The old dogma that virtue was always rewarded and wickedness punished continued to satisfy Israel's leaders. When, however, a considerable class in the community were conscious that they had committed no crimes worthy of the bitter persecutions and calamities that overtook them, and that it was often just because of their virtue and the steadfastness with which they clung to the nobler ideals of their race that they were thus assailed, the current interpretations of evil were no longer satisfactory. When in time many of them went down to the grave crushed by affliction and the objects of the taunts and revilings of their wicked pursuers, the insufficiency of the current explanation of misfortune was tragically demonstrated. To their minds Sheol or the grave offered no solution, for, as among all early Aryan and Semitic peoples, it was thought of as the dark, passionless, joyless abode of the shades.

In most of the psalms of this period the poets who speak in behalf of the afflicted class, like the author of Malachi, expressed the hope that Jehovah would speedily come to their deliverance and signally vindicate and reward them. The heroism and fidelity that they represent can only be fully appreciated in the light of this discouraging period when evil was regnant. It was apparently at this time that the great poet, who speaks through the book of Job, presented, with the spirit and method of a modern philosopher, the lot of these innocent sufferers. He also proved for all time that misfortune is not always the evidence of guilt, and that the current doctrine of proportionate rewards and the explanations that were adduced to support it were in certain cases absolutely untenable.