The tragedy exposed by Malachi did not end in his own day. It continued, and by the time we reach the first century, we see its full effect. Yeshua Himself pointed to this when He spoke about John the Baptist, the very messenger foretold in Malachi 3:1, sent to prepare the way of the Messiah. But notice what Jesus says about what had become of the prophets’ message and the spiritual climate of Israel in His day: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” Matthew 11:12-13
First, what does Jesus mean when He says that “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence”? By the time the Messenger arrived, the religious world had become so hardened and fixed in its traditions that the Kingdom itself was being resisted, distorted, and even seized by force.
As for the word violence: The Greek word used here is biazō (βιάζω), a rare word that appears only twice in the New Testament, both times with the same basic idea. In secular Greek, it was often used to refer to an army that forcibly enters a city and takes control of it. It carries a sense of domination, control, power, and even oppression (LSJ). So the question becomes: Who was trying to force their way into the kingdom of God? And what was taken by force?
This is explained when Yeshua says: “From the days of John the Baptist.” What are the days of John the Baptist? These represent the long prophetic era that began with Samuel, whom Peter calls the first in that prophetic succession (Acts 3:24), and continued for nearly a thousand years, culminating in John, the last prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures. Throughout that entire period, external forces continually sought to silence the voice of God, resist His message, and stop His kingdom from advancing. By the first century, those forces had taken a very recognizable form: the religious leadership of Israel, especially the priestly class.
This is why Yeshua says: “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” We understand that John stands as the final representative of them all. John did not come alone. Behind him stood the entire line of the prophets and the testimony of the Law. In that sense, Malachi becomes especially relevant. The corrupt priests condemned by Malachi did not disappear; they evolved into the very priestly party known in the days of Yeshua as the Sadducees.
It was primarily the Sadducees who held real power in the days of Yeshua. They controlled the Temple, dominated the high priesthood, worked closely with the Roman authorities, and presided over the Sanhedrin that condemned Yeshua. The Pharisees also wielded great influence, but these priestly leaders stood at the forefront and held true authority.
The Sadducees had drifted far from the teaching of the Torah. In fact, they taught that there was no resurrection, which is like removing the very foundation of biblical faith. And remarkably, they even revealed their confusion about marriage, the same subject found in Malachi 3.
It is in Mark 12 that they came to Jesus with a ridiculous question, not to learn but to mock the resurrection and marriage. They described seven brothers who died one after another, each marrying the same woman according to the law, and then asked: “In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be?” (Mark 12:23). Yeshua immediately answered that they were mistaken because they did not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God. They did not even realize they were speaking to the very Author of the Scriptures. After patiently correcting them, Jesus ended with a strong rebuke, “You are greatly mistaken.”
Furthermore, the prophecy against these corrupt priests in Malachi 2:3, in which the LORD says, “I am going to rebuke your seed,” seems to find striking fulfillment in history. After the destruction of the Temple, the Sadducees disappeared completely.
This does not mean the Levitical line vanished, for the genealogical line remains, and Scripture indicates that a priesthood will again function in the Millennial Kingdom. But the Sadducees, along with their corrupt system, were cut off. And it was precisely when these Sadducees rejected Yeshua that they stood on the brink of bringing upon themselves the very curse Malachi had warned about, not once but twice. So what is this curse?
The curse is mentioned in two key places in Malachi: Malachi 2:2 and Malachi 3:9, and it is directly linked to Moses’ great prophetic warning about Israel’s history, from the moment they entered the Land to the Second Coming of the Messiah.
This prophecy was given just before Israel entered the Land and was delivered twice: first in Leviticus 26, soon after the Exodus, and then again in Deuteronomy 28, about forty years later, as the nation stood on the threshold of the Promised Land. Moses’ words in these passages are a key to understanding Israel, past, present, and future. If you understand this prophecy, you will understand why antisemitism has never disappeared and why the Jewish people have endured such suffering over the last 4000 years, with only brief and rare seasons of peace.
Now, what is this curse? And what should we expect in the near future as we near the end of this first segment of Israel’s history? Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are structured the same way. Each chapter is divided into two major sections: first, the blessings if Israel obeys God’s commandments; and second, the curses if Israel turns away from His Word, as testified by the prophets, history, and the present state of Israel.
Together, these two chapters contain 147 judgments. In them, Moses describes the future dispersion of the Jewish people and their condition among the nations, a description that has been tragically fulfilled, especially over the last 2000 years. In Deuteronomy 28:37, we read: “And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations where the LORD will drive you.”
Moses says Israel would become a proverb, in Hebrew, a mashal, a parable, something puzzling and difficult to explain. And indeed, Israel is exactly that. Though the nation often provokes hostility, it remains one of history’s greatest mysteries: how can such a small people wield such enormous influence?
Consider these facts. Numerically, the Jewish people today represent only about 0.2% of the world’s population. In 2026, the Jewish population is estimated at about 18 million, out of a world population of approximately 8.3 billion. This perfectly echoes Moses’ prophecy in Deuteronomy 28:62, “Then you shall be left few in number…” And yet, despite being so few, the Jewish people are constantly on the front page of the news.
As Moses continues, Leviticus 26 places special emphasis on the ultimate consequence of the curse: the Diaspora. In that chapter alone, the word “land” (eretz) appears 22 times, underscoring the centrality of the Land of Israel to this prophecy. This is where the curse mentioned in Malachi leads us.