Malachi Chapter Two, Rebuking The Priests

 

Malachi 2:3 “Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts; and one will take you away with it. [4] Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of hosts.

 

God already declared that He would send a curse upon the levitical priesthood due to their negligence in being God’s mediator between Him and Israel. Now Yahweh says, “behold,” which is a typical English word used in the King James translation when our attention ought to be arrested for what is about to come. Oxford defines “behold” as, “see or observe (a thing or person, especially a remarkable or impressive one).” God will rebuke the descendants of the priesthood, and spread refuse (offal) on their faces. We know from context that God still refers here to the sacrificial offerings, such as they are, being presented at the temple. What becomes of the refuse, or offal? ”But the bull’s hide and all its flesh, with its head and legs, its entrails and offal—the whole bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire,” Leviticus 4:11, 12.

This passage may be a euphemism. At God’s rebuke the Flood waters retreated to their established dominion, never to return as they had once before, Psalm 104:7-9, HCSB. Now at God’s rebuke the treasonous priests will likewise retreat to their newly appointed domain: the dung pile. Those who break the covenant are “cut off from their people,” also a euphemism for death. These priests will be taken away with the dung spread on their face, outside the camp, to the place where the offal and waste are burned. The curse of verse 2 may well indicate premature death due to disobedience. The blessing Israel enjoyed under the covenant ratified at Sinai was entirely contingent upon obedience to the terms God gave them. Reiterated, it read: “You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them,” Leviticus 18:4, 5. Prosperity and long life, not to mention being safe from expulsion out of their land, depended on Israel’s will to obey. This judgment did not implicitly express the spiritual state of those receiving such harsh correction. This is about the potential for punishment with physical death, buried in the waste outside Jerusalem for not obeying.

 

This passage becomes more interesting when you consider that God cursed the priests, which in turn would make them an unclean or accursed thing that by necessity would need to be removed from the midst of God’s people. We learn from the sin of Achan, during the conquest of Canaan, that his greed made Israel’s army impotent against their enemies. Rather than bringing God glory, reproach was cast on it when the Jews were chased away by the greatly outnumbered men of Ai. But what does God say of Israel’s defeat and the reproach it brought upon them? “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you,” Joshua 7:13. Achan’s confession glorified God, by demonstrating His righteous judgment against sin under the Law. As per the Law, Achan and his family were stoned to death, burned, and then buried as a memorial, Joshua 7:25, 26.

 

Achan, and the priests of Malachi’s day, were being chastened, even to death. The writer of Hebrews explains that God, as our divine Father, chastens us to train us in righteousness. The chastening, even now in the church age, may be painful, but it is meant to yield spiritual growth as we submit to God’s hand, Hebrews 12:7-11. God declared through Malachi that He was both Father and Master to Israel; they were His servants and sons. As sons, the Jews were to honor the Father. As servants, they were to reverence the Master, and to be about the Master’s business.

 

Verse 4 lends clarity to verses 2 and 3. The priests will know that God has sent the commandment to them when the curse reaches them and they are taken away with the refuse. God’s rebuke is emphatic. He warns the people to behold—to pay close attention to what He is saying—so they know beyond any doubt that when this comes to pass the people will know God has done it. Malachi, bearing this burden, brought Gods’ revelation to the priesthood. “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets,” Amos 3:7. God was deeply concerned with the purity of the covenant with Levi. The curse He had sent was to purify the priesthood and ensure that the Levitical bloodline continued. Scripture traces Aaron’s descent from Levi, outlining his lineage through his father Amram and grandfather Kohath, Exodus 6:16-20. The sons of Levi in general seemed to have been chosen of God due to their zeal for His name when it came time to oppose their brethren during the incident with the golden calf, Exodus 32:28. Later, we read, “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him…Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine,” Numbers 3:6, 12. Here was see a great example of the Father drawing, and man accepting. As Christ chose His apostles, He also selected the tribe of Levi for perpetual service.