Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Malachi
Book: Malachi
Chapter: 1
Overview:
The ingratitude of
Israel.
(1-5) They are careless in
God's
institutions.
(6-14)
1-5 All advantages, either as to outward circumstances, or
spiritual privileges, come from the free
Love of
God, who makes
one to differ from another. All the evils sinners feel and fear,
are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes
and comforts are from the unmerited
Mercy of the
Lord. He chose
his people that they might be holy. If we
Love him, it is
because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to
undervalue the mercies of
God, and to excuse our own offences.
6-14 We may each charge upon ourselves what is here charged
upon the priests. Our relation to
God, as our
Father and Master,
strongly obliges us to fear and honour him. But they were
So
scornful that they derided reproof. Sinners ruin themselves
By
trying to baffle their convictions. Those who live in careless
neglect of holy ordinances, who attend
On them without
reverence, and go from them under
No concern, in effect say, The
table of the
Lord is contemptible. They despised
God's name in
what they did. It is evident that these understood not the
meaning of the sacrifices, as shadowing forth the unblemished
Lamb of
God; they grudged the expense, thinking all thrown away
which did not turn to their profit. If we
Worship God
ignorantly, and without understanding, we bring the
Blind for
Sacrifice; if we do it carelessly, if we are cold, dull, and
dead in it, we bring the sick; if we
Rest in the bodily
Exercise, and do not make
Heart-work of it, we bring the lame;
and if we suffer vain thoughts and distractions to
Lodge within
us, we bring the torn. And is not this evil? Is it not a great
affront to
God, and a great wrong and injury to our own souls?
In order to the acceptance of our actions with
God, it is not
enough to do that which, for the matter of it, is good; but we
must do it from a right principle, in a right manner, and for a
right
End. Our constant mercies from
God, make worse our
slothfulness and niggardliness, in our returns of duty to
God. A
spiritual
Worship shall be established.
Incense shall be offered
to
God's name, which signifies
Prayer and praise. And it shall
be a pure
Offering. When the
Hour came, in which the true
worshippers worshipped the
Father in
Spirit and in
Truth, then
this
Incense was offered, even this pure
Offering. We may rely
On God's
Mercy for
Pardon as to the past, but not for indulgence
to
Sin in future. If there be a willing mind, it will be
accepted, though defective; but if any be a deceiver, devoting
his best to
Satan and to his lusts, he is under a
Curse. Men
now, though in a different way, profane the name of the
Lord,
pollute his table, and show contempt for his
Worship.