Malachi 1:11–14 meaning

God speaks of the future when all men will worship Him in Malachi 1:11-14.

In the previous passage, the LORD rebuked the priests for their dishonoring worship of blemished sacrifices. They offered poor quality offerings to God, offerings they would not even begin to think about offering to a human governor. God wished one of the priests would stand up and do something, even be willing to do something drastic like shut the temple gates to stop such disobedient rituals. In this section, the Lord envisions a time when He would receive honor from people in every nation.

Malachi used the first-person pronoun to remove himself from the scene and allow God to speak directly. He began by saying, From the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations (v. 11a).

The expression spanning from the rising of the sun even to its setting is a figure of speech that indicates that the Lord will be respected and honored in the entire earth (Psalm 50:1). This is in stark contrast to the priests of Judah at that time, who are dishonoring God by offering blemished sacrifices (Malachi 1:6).

To say from the rising of the sun even to its setting expresses the same sentiment as the psalmist’s expression “As far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). This predicts that at a future time God’s name will be properly honored not only in Judah but also everywhere on the earth, as God says: My name will be great among the nations.

The phrase the nations refers to all nations other than Israel. God’s intent was not to be a God who was exclusive to Israel. Rather, He chose Israel as His people and gave them the assignment to be priests for Him, to represent Him and His ways to other nations and show them that living according to a “love your neighbor” culture was superior to the pagan culture of exploitation (Exodus 19:6). God intended this from the very beginning; He promised Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

The priests of post-exilic Judah offered disobedient worship as indicated by their use of blemished animals (Malachi 1:8). Now the LORD looked ahead to the Messianic reign of Jesus Christ when His people will come from all over the earth to worship and properly honor God. They will worship Him with pure offerings: In every place, incense is going to be offered to My name and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts (v 11).

In Old Testament times, incense was an essential element of worship (Exodus 30:1-10). The high priest would enter the dimly lit tabernacle, perhaps with fear. With one hand, he would hold a censer, hot with glowing coals from the altar, and two handfuls of incense in the other hand. As he moved behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies, he would set the incense on the coals, producing a fragrant cloud over the ark of the covenant and shrouding the place in aromatic smoke to indicate reverent allegiance and dependence upon God.

In Malachi, it appears that incense will be offered to God all over the world. The use of incense is still a ritual in many Christian traditions. It generally signifies the rising of prayers to God. The book of Revelation indicates that the accumulated prayers of the saints will be represented by bowls of incense in heaven. Prayers for justice on the earth will be answered by the pouring out of the incense upon the earth which results in great judgement on evil (Revelation 5:8, 8:4, 16:1).

One day, people from every ethnic group will burn incense and prayers to Him to show their reliance upon Him. This could be literal and it could also indicate that people from all over the world will pray to God with a sincere heart. They will also bring a grain offering that is pure, which will meet the requirements of the law.

This infers that in addition to offering blemished animals, the priests of Malachi’s day were also offering grain offerings that were not pure. The point seems to be that in the future the Gentile nations will follow God’s law, and that thought should shame the current priests of God’s people who are currently profaning His law.

The fulfillment of this future prophecy that the nations will worship God in full obedience likely overlaps with a future time prophesied by Ezekiel. Ezekiel foretells an era when a new temple will be constructed and sacrificial worship will be reinstituted. The temple must be a future one as the one Ezekiel describes is nothing like anything that has ever existed; for example, Ezekiel’s temple will have the headwaters of a great river flowing out from under the threshold of the temple (Ezekiel 47:1-6).

Context indicates that God asserts He will rule on His throne from Israel during that era (Ezekiel 40:2, 43:7). This “prince” who rules will also offer burnt offerings (Ezekiel 42:1-4). This likely overlaps with biblical prophecies saying that Messiah Son of David will rule over Israel (2 Samuel 7:12-13).

Putting the prophecies from Ezekiel and 2 Samuel together, it follows that a divine messiah will rule over Israel. Zechariah 12:10 also predicts that the messiah will be divine, where the LORD says people will “look on Me whom they have pierced.” The prediction that the LORD would be pierced was fulfilled when Jesus was pierced upon the cross (John 19:34). As of this writing, Zechariah 12:10 predicts that at a future time His people (the Jews) will recognize Him.

These Old Testament claims are repeated in the New Testament. The New Testament also claims that Jesus is the Christ, God’s messiah (John 1:1, 14). Since the Messiah is both God and man, He will fulfill these prophecies when He returns to earth to reign over Israel as its king (Acts 1:11, Revelation 11:15).

Speaking for God, Malachi repeats the statement ‘for My name will be great among the nations’ to emphasize the worldwide honoring of God that will take place in the Messianic Kingdom. Then, Malachi inserted his usual phrase, says the LORD of hosts, to ensure the post-exilic community of Judah knew the divine source of his revelation.

The LORD chose the nation of Israel and established a covenant relationship with her to magnify His name among the nations (Exodus 19:4-6). He redeemed her “out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession” (Deuteronomy 4:20). But she failed to accomplish her mission in those generations because she did not honor her vows to keep the commands of the Law.

Rather than following God’s ways of loving their neighbors and nurturing children and families, they followed the way of pagan gods. The ways of paganism focused on sensual pleasure based on exploitation of others and abuse of children, even to the point of sacrificing them to idols (Leviticus 18:20-24). Thus, the Israelites broke their covenant and were exiled, consistent with the terms of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

Ezekiel describes Israel’s disregard of their covenant vows as being like a cherished and honored wife (Israel) forsaking her faithful husband (the Lord) and seeking out abusive lovers. In fact, Israel was worse than a harlot because rather than being paid, Israel paid her lovers (Ezekiel 16:32-34).

The Israel in Malachi’s day also rebelled against God by treating His name with contempt in their use of defiled animals in sacrifice (Malachi 1:8). Here God contrasts the prospect of the future nations that will worship Him with the hypocritical offerings of the post-exilic community living during Malachi’s day.

Speaking about God’s name and showing the disgraceful conduct of the priests, Malachi stated, But you are profaning it, in that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised’ (v. 12).

The context here would indicate that the table being discussed refers to the meat sacrificed on the altar that was apportioned to be allocated to the Levites. It is inferred that the priests did not want to take “leftovers” from the sacrificial offering. Rather, they wanted to have meat to cook for themselves, the way they wanted it, rather than according to the command of God.

The sons of Eli did something similar, demanding raw meat instead of waiting until the meat was sacrificed on the altar then receiving their share (1 Samuel 2:12-16). God was angry with them for despising God’s offering and demanding their own way rather than receiving God’s provision with gratitude (1 Samuel 1:17).

The term for Lord here is “Adonai.” It means “master” or “ruler.” It can refer to an earthly lord, as when the brothers of Joseph, not knowing who he was, addressed him as “my lord” (Genesis 42:10). Likewise, the term “Adonai” can refer to a divine lord, as in here. Its use in our passage underscores God’s power and sovereign rule. He emphasizes that He is the priests’ Master. Therefore, when they despised His ways there will be a consequence.

The priests were supposed to approach the altar of the LORD with fear and reverence. Instead, they treated it as worthless and thought they had the right to do so. They abused their privileged status as intercessors of the people and led them astray. In so doing, they were profaning God’s name. They were demonstrating disregard for God’s ways and instead following their own, thereby being a bad example to the people they were supposed to lead and teach (Deuteronomy 33:10).

The next verse continued the prophet’s indictment against the priests. He wrote: You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the LORD of hosts, (v. 13a).

This statement might mean that the priests got tired of eating the same thing all the time. They no longer wanted to thankfully receive their allotted portion of the sacrifice. The sense could be they are saying something like “Oh no, meatloaf again? ” It could also be that they consider it to be tiresome to serve the people and only receive their apportioned share of the offerings given by the people.

The prophet inserted the formula says the LORD of hosts to remind his audience of the source of his message. God is in control and is their boss. It seems they have forgotten they are accountable to Him. The Hebrew term translated as host means “armies.” The phrase the LORD of hosts often describes God’s power as a warrior leading His angelic army to defeat His foes (Amos 5:16, 9:5, Habakkuk 2:17).

Then, God resumed his speech and said, You bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering. Should I receive that from your hand?” says the LORD (v 13b).

The Mosaic Law prescribed the types of animals the LORD would accept from the Israelite worshipers. These animals were to be “without defect” (Leviticus 22:19). In Deuteronomy, Moses emphasized this standard when he said: “But it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 15:21).

Yet, the priests in Malachi’s day ignored the law by offering blemished animals to the LORD.

Worse yet, they apparently brought stolen animals to Him, violating the commandment that forbids stealing (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19).

We might infer here that the priests became weary of working in service to God and to His people. So they began to abuse their power. A way an animal could be taken by robbery and also be lame or sick would be to take the unblemished animals brought to sacrifice and swap them for lame or sick animals.

They could then sacrifice the lame or sick animals and resell the unblemished ones. Thus they would make a tidy profit off the sham. This could be the same or a similar swindle to that done by the Sons of Annas in the first century. It was their corruption Jesus condemned when He cleansed the temple (Matthew 21:12).

This could also explain why they did not want to eat meat from the sacrifices, because they knew some of the animals sacrificed were sick. If the priests were conducting this sort of fraud, God deems it robbery. They would be robbing the people of a proper sacrifice.

In ignoring God’s command to present an unblemished sacrifice, they are not only defiling God’s name, they are also defiling a picture of God’s future messiah. Jesus was required to be an unblemished sacrifice. The unblemished Old Testament sacrifices were foreshadowings of Jesus, the perfect Passover Lamb. Not only was Jesus sinless, also no bones of His were broken as prophesied and as required of the Passover Lamb (Numbers 9:12, Psalm 34:20, John 19:36).

Since the priests ignored the divine Law, Malachi challenged them with a question, using the first-person pronoun to speak as God’s representative. He asks the rhetorical question: Should I receive that from your hand? The expected answer is “No, God should not accept a sacrifice made in disobedience.” The prophet adds, says the LORD, to add weight and credibility to his question, making sure the priests knew it was from the LORD, their covenant partner and Suzerain/ruler God.

The prophet concluded the chapter by announcing divine judgment for those who despised the worship of the LORD in their deceit. He said, But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King,” says the LORD of hosts, “and My name is feared among the nations.” (v. 14).

A curse is a powerful decree to bestow adverse consequences upon someone who has broken a covenant. In this case, the relevant covenant would be God’s covenant/treaty with Israel, which the Israelites vowed to follow (Exodus 19:8). The term swindler refers to someone who acts deceptively for personal gain. This could apply to the priests who substituted a blemished animal for an unblemished.

It could be that this deception by the priests was also mimicked by the people. God describes as a swindler someone who has a male in his flock and vows it but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord.

A vow is an oath, a solemn promise. In this case, the promise is to sacrifice an unblemished male in his flock. But the person breaks the vow by instead sacrificing a blemished animal to the Lord. The implication is that this person is swindling God. Usually a swindler counts on not being found out in order to get away with their deception.

This further shows disrespect for God’s name—as though He does not know! God is all powerful. He is the Lord of Armies. He knows all things. He even knows the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). This disregard for God’s sovereign knowledge and abuse of His longsuffering shows another way in which God’s name is being despised (Malachi 1:6).

It was a serious matter to make a vow, as in someone who vows to sacrifice a male in his flock but instead sacrifices a blemished animal (Zechariah 5:3; Matthew 5:33). The writer of Ecclesiastes gave some advice to those who desire to make a promise: “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:5). Jesus reiterates this good advice in Matthew 5:33-37.

In Old Testament times, Israel often requested God’s help and promised to perform an act if He would respond favorably to their petitions. They would voluntarily make such a vow to show gratitude to God for providing relief or deliverance. For instance, a barren woman could make a vow, as Hannah did when she asked the LORD for a son (1 Samuel 1:9-11).

A person might also petition God for assistance to secure victory in battle, as when Jephthah vowed, asking God to deliver the sons of Ammon into his hand (Judges 11:29-33). In any case, once someone made a vow, he was to “pay it” as soon as possible, lest it became a sin (Deuteronomy 23:21-23). In Malachi, the LORD would judge the swindler who substituted a blemished animal for the perfect one he had vowed.

The LORD then gave the reason He will judge the deceiver: For I am a great King.

In Malachi 1:8, God pointed out that they would never think to offer a lame animal as tribute to a human governor. But here they are making such an offering to One much greater than a mere governor. God is a great King. Indeed, the God of Israel is superior to any earthly ruler. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the all-powerful One. The prophet then adds ‘says the LORD of hosts’ to remind his audience that he was merely speaking on God’s behalf.

Concluding this passage, God declares, My name is feared among the nations. To be feared is to order one’s behavior due to respect for the power and ability of another person because they can create consequences. If God means this in the current time then this presents a great irony; God’s name is feared among the nations while it is not being feared among the leaders of Israel.

God is the God of Israel, not of the nations. Yet the nations fear God while Israel does not. The nations would have good reason to fear God because of the great works He performed, such as when He delivered Israel from Egypt, bringing plagues on their land (Deuteronomy 4:34).

It could also be that God speaks here of a future time, using a current tense to indicate the certainty of His prediction of the day when His name will be great among the nations (v 11). In any event, in the future the nations will fear God’s name, and properly worship Him, showing respect to His name.

The idea that the nations fear and honor God when the priests dishonor Him ought to shame the priests of God in Israel to repent and begin to honor Him by obeying His covenant law. They are God’s people, and ought to fear God and know God more than the nations. Although the Israel in Malachi’s generation did not revere God, as evidenced in their blemished sacrifices, one day all the nations will offer pure worship to Him. He alone is the great King who deserves all worship and praise.