The Message of Malachi

The book of Malachi fittingly sits in Christian Bibles as the last book of the Old Testament, which it assumes, summarizes and applies. Yet it also looks forward to the New Testament with its promises of the coming reign of God. A striking feature of the book is the way in which every word of God is contradicted or questioned by his people. God's persistence in speaking to them is a clear picture of sin and grace in close proximity. Furthermore, God's people neither served him wholeheartedly nor turned entirely away in blatant disobedience. This was not neutral territory but a dangerous whirlpool of self-deception. Peter Adam's thorough exposition shows how Malachi is God's effective remedy for such a situation. The greatest sin of God's people is the sin against God—the source of all sin against ourselves and others. At the heart of God's people, the church, must lie a deep, overwhelming conviction that God loves them—just as he reminds Israel in his first words to them in this book.