We begin our study of the last chapter of the Hebrew Bible. After a long span of nearly 4,000 years, from Adam’s failure, representing all humanity, to the failure of the Gentile nations at the Tower of Babel, including the failure of national Israel, we arrive at the prophecy of the greatest act in the history of the universe, past, present, and future: God Himself coming down to this earth to save humanity.
In Malachi chapter 3, we find prophecies that speak of both the Messiah’s Comings, the First and the Second. While modern Judaism largely dismisses the First Coming, the prophets of God in the Tanach clearly and consistently proclaim it. Here, Malachi presents these two Comings in a particularly powerful way. He tells us that the First Coming would be announced by a messenger, just as the Second Coming will be announced by Elijah.
It tells us how the Messiah would arrive suddenly; pitom in Hebrew, catching many by surprise because they either did not read the prophecies in the Scriptures or read them through a different lens, leading to false beliefs about what to expect from the Messiah. But Malachi goes even further; he reveals who the Messiah truly is, unveiling His very nature.
While Micah tells us that the Messiah comes from eternity, Malachi emphasizes His divine nature. The Messiah is not merely an individual sent to save us; He is God Himself, coming down to save the world. This is how Malachi so powerfully traces the messianic trail from the Torah to the last chapter of the Holy Scriptures to reveal who the Messiah of Israel is.
In doing so, the prophet also gives us a remarkably accurate picture of the conditions of his time and of the first century. He goes even further, painting a prophetic portrait of the Jewish people in the Diaspora over the past 2,000 years. In this, he stands alongside Moses, together describing the severe suffering of the Jewish people under persecution and antisemitism.
Against this painful backdrop, Malachi then describes the Second Coming, using words of extraordinary power and weight. Malachi 3 is rich in meaning and insight.
One thing we learn from the first verse of chapter 3, as taught by Malachi, is that the Messiah comes twice. When we posted a listing on Facebook a few weeks ago about the Messiah coming twice, we faced strong opposition from rabbis and well-educated Jewish people, especially from Israel, who strongly denied the two comings, even though it is written throughout the prophets of Israel and Malachi himself makes a strong case for it.
Malachi 3:1 describes the Lord coming suddenly to His Temple. But which Temple is that? The prophecy fits best with the Second Temple, which stood in Malachi’s day. Scripture gives no explicit prophecy of the Messiah entering a future Third Temple, especially in a sudden or unexpected way.
When the Messiah returns at His Second Coming, He will come to the Mount of Olives and, according to Zechariah and Matthew 25, will judge the nations. There is no mention of Him entering a Third Temple at that time, and it is very possible that such a structure would already have been destroyed.
Nor can this prophecy refer to a Fourth Temple, because by then the Messiah’s appearance would not be sudden or surprising at all. Therefore, the sudden coming Malachi describes points most clearly to the Messiah’s First Coming, when He entered the Second Temple quietly, unexpectedly, and unrecognized by many, as we see in the Gospels.
Malachi also highlights something else that is powerful: Still speaking of the Messiah, the Lord says in this same verse that He is “the One whom you desire” or, as it can also be rendered, “the One in whom you delight.” Some read this as irony, even sarcasm, asking how Israel could possibly delight in someone they despise and reject. Yet this statement may point to a deeper truth.
Could it be that beneath rejection and misunderstanding lies a far greater reality, that their true desire is for the very One they sadly despise? Because He alone can save Israel and satisfy the human heart’s deepest longing.
But there is another question the nation has asked; it is found in 3:7: “How shall we return? This is an important question, since we proclaim Yeshua as the Messiah. The question God is about to answer in Malachi is how to find the way to the Messiah of Israel.
Let us consider the first part of God’s answer; it is a mighty one. In the next verse, He asks another question: “Will a man rob God? The word rob draws our attention. Malachi does not use the usual verb for stealing. He is not saying, “You picked My pocket.” So, how can anyone rob the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and all the gold in the world?
The word rob used here is striking because it is very rare in Scripture. The Hebrew verb קָבַע (qāvaʿ) is related to words meaning a helmet, a cup, or something that covers from above. This gives us an important clue to its meaning. What Malachi seems to be saying is this: they did not steal from God materially; they covered Him, concealed Him, obscured Him. They placed a veil over Him, hiding who He truly is.
Does this not sound familiar? Is this not the tragic contribution of man-made religion, especially within Christianity and Judaism, when it strays from the pure message of Scripture? When God’s Word is added to, taken from, or altered, God Himself becomes hidden. When God is veiled, the Messiah becomes unrecognizable.
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