Malachi, part 1

As I read through the first chapter of Malachi, I notice a literary pattern. First Yahweh makes a statement. Next, Israel or the priests ask a question based on the statement. Next, Yahweh elaborates. Then Israel asks another question based on what Yahweh just said, and so on.

The first statement Yahweh makes is "I have loved you." He is asked in return, "How have you loved us?" Then Yahweh talks of Jacob and Esau, when what he is actually referring to is the lands of Israel and Edom. Jacob and Esau were brothers, yet Yahweh favored Jacob. The statement "Jacob have I loved" is quite famous.  In Malachi, land of Edom is said to be a wasteland. Yahweh basically says it is cursed and under his wrath. The author of Malachi has associated Edom with Esau. Since we know Yahweh never actually spoke to anyone, the author clearly has some kind of prejudice against the land of Edom and its people that he wants to see maintained. If you read the Wikipedia article on Edom, you will see several possible reasons Israel may have had for its animosity. Plus, it is unclear if a kingdom of Edom even existed by the time of this writing. As is suspected of many prophetic writings, the prophet may have been writing about  Edom after it was already destroyed. This prophecy that is not actually prophecy is called postdiction.

Yahweh's second claim is to tell the priests that he gets no respect from them. They show contempt for his name. The priests ask, "how have we shown contempt for your name? Yahweh says, "You place defiled food on my altar." (This is his third claim) The priests ask, "How have we defiled you?" The answer to that question takes up the rest of chapters one and two.

These are the ways the priests defiled Yahweh: 1. They offered crippled and diseased animals as sacrifices. "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal." If the priests do not listen to this admonition, they will also be cursed. Yahweh demands proper reverence, as in the old days when Levi was priest. 2. They married the daughters of foreign gods. This is akin to breaking faith with Yahweh. There is this weird kind of marriage analogy that represents Israel's relationship with Yahweh. In Malachi 2:14-16 it is not clear if god is talking about a man's actual relationship with his wife or his faith in god, or both. We are told Yahweh hates divorce. Yet Yahweh also hates the Jews' marriages to foreign women. He tells them not to break faith with the wife of their youth, but we saw in Nehemiah that the Jews were told to break up their marriages with the non-Jewish women. Confusing.

More to come.