Malachi 3:7 meaning

God begins Malachi 3:7 with a reproach to remind the Israelites of their consistent pattern of disobedience: From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them.

The basic pattern of disobedience has taken place From the days of your fathers. The nation of Israel began with a promise to Abraham, that God would make his descendants into a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). The patriarchs of the twelve tribes were the twelve sons of Abraham’s grandson Jacob, whose name God changed to “Israel.”

The nation continually rejected God. From Levi murdering innocent men to the people rejecting Moses who God appointed to deliver them, to the first generation to leave Egypt refusing to believe God and enter the Promised Land, to the nation rejecting God as their king (by rejecting self-governance) and asking for a human king. It was consistent that their fathers or ancestors had continually tried God and resisted following His ways.

Now this generation had turned aside just as many of their fathers had. The specific thing they had turned aside from was keeping God’s statutes. This refers to the statutes or provisions of God’s covenant/treaty into which He entered with the people of Israel (Exodus 19:8). The statutes were contained in the words of the law of God, in the first five books of the Bible.

This covenant/treaty followed the ancient form called a “Suzerain-vassal treaty” which was normally between a superior (Suzerain) king and an inferior (vassal) ruler. In God’s case, He, as the supreme ruler, made His covenant directly with the people. He gave them His statutes, or law, to show them the way to live that would lead to great blessing. Thus, God set up a system of self-governance.

Jesus said that God’s law was basically summarized by two great commands: the command to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). It is obvious that a society with a “let’s love one another” culture will thrive. The opposing alternative in human affairs is always some version of “the strong exploit the weak,” which of course will lead to violence and poverty.

To have turned aside means to deviate from the righteous path God prescribed in His statutes. That the people have not kept them emphasizes that God has given each human stewardship of their own choices. God has constructed nature such that He is everywhere for those who seek Him and hidden from those who desire to avoid Him (Psalm 19:1-3, Romans 1:19-20).

In the context of God’s covenant relationship with the Israelites, the verb translated as you have turned aside connotes Israel’s rebellion against the divine statutes of their covenant/treaty with the LORD God (Hosea 7:14). Such a willful rejection of the divine laws was not new to the Jews but was a pattern that had been taking place since the time of their ancestors (Deuteronomy 9:6−14). Human nature, the flesh, always strives against God’s commands (Romans 8:7, Galatians 5:17). Only through the power of the Spirit can one truly follow God’s divine laws (Romans 8:5, Galatians 5:16).

In the previous section, Malachi expressed that the post-exilic Judeans wearied the LORD by asking Him for justice while they themselves were pursuing evil. Malachi informed them that God would send His messenger, the Messiah, who would be like a refining fire. The people had asked “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17). God answered that He would send His messenger to bring justice, but part of that would be to purify His people (Malachi 2:17 - 3:6).

Although the people of Judea considered themselves to be righteous, they were not. So now after setting the record straight that the people have turned aside from following God’s covenant statutes, the LORD invites His covenant people to repent, saying, Return to Me, and I will return to you (v 7).

The verb Return denotes a movement back to a previous location or condition. For example, when God confronted Adam in the garden of Eden, He said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken” (Genesis 3:19). Similarly, Jacob is said to have returned (same verb) to the land of his parental origin after a twenty-year sojourn with Laban in Haran (Genesis 31-35).

However, the imagery of returning can be more than a physical motion. Here God refers to a change of attitude or perspective. He wants His people to return to a mindset that believes following His ways are for their best. This is instead of believing that their own ways are superior. When someone returns to God, they do so by turning aside from evil ways of exploitation and self-destruction. These evil ways are presented by the world system as being “life” and “benefit” when they are actually self-destructive.

When we believe that our own ways are superior to God’s ways, we don’t really leave room for God to benefit us. That is why the LORD asked His wayward covenant people to return to Him so that He might return to them. God wants to walk in fellowship with them, but true fellowship must be mutual.

That the LORD would return to His covenant people means He would restore fellowship with them and bless them beyond measure (Deuteronomy 28:1-14; 2 Chronicles 7:14). The prophet Malachi adds the phrase, says the LORD of hosts, to let his audience know that God was the primary author of the message.

This same basic idea that God desires fellowship with us also occurs in the New Testament. There the Word states that God will not walk in the forgiveness of fellowship with us if we are not forgiving others (Matthew 6:14-15). But if we confess our sins He cleanses and walks in fellowship with us (1 John 1:3, 6, 9).

The term for LORD is “Yahweh” in the Hebrew language. It is the name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). That name speaks of God’s character as the creator of all that is, all existence (“I AM”). It is this name God used as His covenant name when He established His relationship with His chosen people (Exodus 3:14; 19:8).

In Malachi, the prophet likely used the term to remind the Judeans that God was their covenant partner. But the God who established a covenant with Israel/Judah is not a manmade deity, like the pagan gods that are no more real than the wood they are made of (Isaiah 44:16-17). Instead, He is the LORD of hosts.

The term hosts (Hebrew, “Sabaoth”) means “armies” and denotes the angelic armies of heaven (1 Samuel 1:3). In prophetic literature, the phrase LORD of hosts often describes God’s power as a warrior leading His army to defeat His foes (Amos 5:16, 9:5; Habakkuk 2:17). Here in Malachi, it demonstrates God’s power as the supreme commander who has complete control over all human affairs. The LORD of hosts is both the all-powerful God as well as the husband and shepherd of His people.

His people have strayed from His care by refusing to follow the ways of life He laid out before them in the covenant/treaty. He asks them to return to Him so He can forgive and bless them and walk in fellowship with them. But when the prophet challenged the people to repent, the people replied, How shall we return?

This question likely stems from the fact that they thought there was no reason to turn. They had chosen to believe that they were doing good when actually they were doing evil, as we saw in Malachi 2:17. The people apparently had chosen a perspective that, so long as they were appeasing God through giving Him sacrifices (on their terms no less), that God was obligated to bless them, even though they were exploiting others.

But that treats God like a pagan deity. The mindset behind worshipping a pagan deity is that the false deity can be manipulated to serve us. The true God is the manager of all that is, He cannot be managed. The sense in which the people ask God, How shall we return? is like them saying, “What else can we possibly do to return to the LORD when we are already doing so well?”

In their mind, they committed no offense against God and had no reason to change their attitude or actions. Through this message of Malachi, the LORD is giving them the opportunity to see reality as it is. God exhorts them to turn from the false, self-seeking reality they had chosen. To turn from justifying their exploitation of others, and their partiality (Malachi 2:10). To turn from breaking their marital vows to indulge in pagan sexual practices and abandoning the wives of their youth (Malachi 2:11, 14).

Much of God’s promised blessing comes from the natural consequences He built into His creation. The LORD wanted the people to repent so that they would experience those blessings, in addition to divine blessings. Notwithstanding the choices they make, God promises that He will, in due time, send His Messiah to bring righteousness to the earth and fulfill all the promises He has made to His people.