Malachi 3:13-15 meaning

Malachi 3:13-15 begins with God making an assertion followed by the people contesting His claim: “Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ (v 13).

The Hebrew word translated as have been arrogant is also translated as “strong,” “severe,” and “hardened.” The Hebrew word translated against Me can also be rendered “above Me.” The idea is that the people are judging God, placing themselves in a position above Him, and pronouncing judgment against Him. The prophet Malachi adds “says the LORD” to let them know that the message came directly from their covenant partner, Yahweh, who is clearly above them. He is their Ruler and King.

As in previous passages the people deny this allegation by asking What have we spoken against You? This is the last of eight denials the people made in the form of questions to the LORD:

• But you say, ‘How have You loved us?’ (Malachi 1:2)
• But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ (Malachi 1:6)
• But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ (Malachi 1:7)
• Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ (Malachi 2:14)
• Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” (Malachi 2:17)
• But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ (Malachi 3:7)
• But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ (Malachi 3:8)
• Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ (Malachi 3:13)

We can see the arc of Malachi’s prophecy in this listing:

• God loves Israel
• Although they have despised His name
• And defiled Him through violating their covenant with Him.
• God has stopped accepting their offerings. His reason is because they are also dishonoring their marriage vows.
• Yet the people continue to weary Him by claiming God is unjust, rewarding evil rather than good.
• But it is the people who are doing evil and need to repent and return to following His ways.
• One major thing they need to do is honor God’s command to offer a tenth (a tithe) of their produce to the Levites and the poor. By withholding their tithe, they have robbed God.
• And they have spoken against God, accusing Him of injustice.

In the previous passage, the LORD accused His people of robbery by withholding the tithes and offerings. Consequently, they were placed under a curse, which was according to the covenant/treaty they entered into with the LORD. After pronouncing the curse, He invited them to change their attitude and bring the tithes to His house so He might bless them abundantly. It is God’s preference to bless them.

If they obeyed, all the nations would witness Israel’s agricultural prosperity and acknowledge God as the source of her blessings (Malachi 3:8−12). In the present section, God challenged the people for speaking harshly of Him, claiming He was unfair and disinterested in human affairs. The arrogant position the people took toward God was as follows:

You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts?’ (v 14).

Malachi spelled out three claims describing the arrogant words of the people, placing themselves above their Suzerain/Ruler LORD. The first is the statement that it is vain to serve God.

The term vain (“shav”) means “worthless” or “empty.” From their perspective they were following all the rules of offering sacrifices and following God’s commands and getting nothing in return. To follow the LORD was vain, it brought no benefit. The problem with this claim was of course that it was not true.

The priests were not following the commands of their covenant/treaty with the LORD. They were not teaching the commands to the people, were treating the people with partiality, and were defiling His altar with blemished sacrifices (Malachi 1:7, 2:9). The people were guilty because they had begun to engage in sexual immorality associated with pagan worship and were therefore breaking their marriage vows (Malachi 2:11, 14). They had also failed to bring in the tithes and offerings commanded of them (Malachi 3:8).

Thus, the claim of the people that God was unjust for not blessing them was far from true. God has chronicled the fact that it is, instead, the leaders and the people who have broken their covenant vow with Him.

The people made a second claim that is similar to the first, that it is vain to serve God. They make this through a rhetorical question: What profit is it that we have kept His charge and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts? The expected answer to this rhetorical question asked by the people is “None, there is no profit.”

In the marketplace, profit refers to a return on an investment. It is a reward, a gain. The post-exilic Judeans thought they were keeping God’s commands, when they were not. So they accordingly interpreted the curses upon them as stemming from God’s injustice (Malachi 2:17). They pridefully accused Him of not keeping His covenant promises (Malachi 3:13).

Their perspective is that they have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts, therefore He ought to reward them. The posture of mourning might refer to the practice of fasting. Jesus referred to this when He said:

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”
(Matthew 6:16).

Perhaps the people of Malachi’s day were expressing grief and sorrow as they came before the LORD of hosts to appease Him or to gain favor with others. But “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). His desire is obedience from the heart. If the outward worship is not orienting the heart toward Him, then it is not something He gives any value (Malachi 2:13).

The third claim made by the Jews of Malachi’s generation concerns the justice of God. In their skepticism and rebellion against God, they stated: “So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape” (v 15).

They claim that God is not blessing them as they supposed He should, therefore He is unjust and not keeping His covenant vow. Instead, He is blessing those who are proud: So now we call the arrogant blessed. God promised to bless Israel if they walked in His ways (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). Israel wrongly believed they were walking in His ways because they were performing certain religious rituals without having a heart to love and serve.

Appropriately, God had initiated the curses on them, based on the terms of the covenant/treaty into which Israel entered with Him (Deuteronomy 28:15). Since their perspective was wrong, they interpreted the situation incorrectly, accusing God of being unjust and breaking His covenant vow. In fact, the opposite was true—God was being just.

The people of Judah incorrectly saw the evil ones as fortunate, as being blessed by God. To them, not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape. This might have included the priests who were swindling the people and treating them with partiality (Malachi 1:14, 2:9). The people saw this injustice and concluded God was rewarding it. As they asked in Malachi 2:17, “Where is the God of justice?”

Because they saw the wicked growing prosperous and the righteous living meagerly and often afflicted, they concluded there was no benefit to following God’s ways. They were being short-sighted. God encourages His people that although a wicked man may prosper for a season, the end of that man will be as the flower of the grass (Psalm 37:9-10, 35-38).

The Jewish community of that generation thought things were the opposite of what was actually happening. They had a bad perspective of their current reality, which led to a bad perspective of God. Perhaps they knew the book of Psalms, which says a righteous person “prospers in whatever he does” (Psalm 1:3). But “the wicked are like chaff which the wind drives away, and they will not stand in the judgment” (Psalm 1:4).

They saw wickedness seeming to prosper and wondered where God’s justice was (Malachi 2:17). Elsewhere in the Bible, we see the fact that the wicked may prosper for a time (Jeremiah 12:1), but that should not deter the righteous from continuing their obligations to keep God’s statutes and trust that in the end, the path of righteousness will lead to great gain.

But God was looking for a remnant to follow Him. He wished that at least one priest would take a stand against the crooked practices and defiled worship taking place (Malachi 1:10). He was looking for someone to stand in the gap for Him (Ezekiel 22:30). He was looking for a group of people to be salt and light for Him. He was looking for some who would follow His ways and be a light to His people.

Fortunately, some people will step up and listen to the LORD and repent. They will begin to follow His ways. We will see this in the next section.