Welcome to the “Ten Minutes with…” series.  I’m Buddy Pennington, Pastor of Westville Assembly of God in northern Holmes county, Florida, and I’ll be your host for the videos, which present lessons centered on books of the Bible.  The first of the series came from the New Testament book of James.  You can access those at this channel on YouTube and on FB at WestvilleAG@2513CypressSt.   You’ll find notes for the lessons at westvilleag.org.  This video will begin the lessons on the Old Testament book of Malachi.  So welcome to “Ten Minutes with Malachi.”

Malachi 1:1 NLT.
[1] This is the message that the LORD gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi. 

Who was Malachi?  He is placed in the Old Testament as the last of the minor prophets.  The Old Testament prophets are separated into two groups—Major Prophets and Minor Prophets.  You can do an extensive internet study on these two groups of God’s messengers, but for our introduction to Malachi, we’ll reference GotQuestions.org, which uses the book A Survey of the Old Testament by Paul Benware, and christianity.com as resources.

The Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The Minor Prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Minor Prophets are also sometimes called The Twelve.

“The Major Prophets are described as “major” because their books are longer and the content has broad, even global implications. The Minor Prophets are described as “minor” because their books are shorter (although Hosea and Zechariah are almost as long as Daniel) and the content is more narrowly focused. That does not mean the Minor Prophets are any less inspired than the Major Prophets. It is simply a matter of God choosing to reveal more to the Major Prophets than He did to the Minor Prophets.”

Although Malachi is listed as the last of the minor prophets, he is either directly quoted or alluded to at least 15 times in the New Testament.  Because of cultural and historical references that are found in his writing, such as the re-establishment of temple sacrifices and having a governor, Malachi is thought to have been a contemporary of Nehemiah and Ezra.  That would put his prophesies around the year 450BC.

In the case of Malachi, God uses him to reprove Israel for their impiety in Chapters 1, 2 and 3.  Malachi points out numerous examples of how Israel as a nation has stopped being holy and disciplined in righteousness and in their worship of God.  He gives warnings concerning everything from offering unacceptable sacrifices to divorce.  He chastens the priests for improperly leading the people in worship and the whole nation for not tithing as they had been instructed to do.

Malachi does pronounce judgments on the wicked, but he also reminds Israel of the consolations of the righteous.  In Chapter 4, he foretells the coming of the one who would be the forerunner of the Messiah.  Jesus used him to explain the purpose of John the Baptist in God’s timeline in dealing with the appearance of Messiah.  And Malachi also predicts the actual appearance of Messiah.

Although Malachi is last in the list of twelve minor prophets, he still has much to say to me and to you about living in a right relationship with God.  His questions and answers still are just as relevant to us today as they were when they were first recorded.  

We’ll move into Lesson 1, Part 1 on the next video.  That lesson will come from Malachi 1:2-5.  I encourage you to subscribe to this channel.  Also, if you have prayer requests or would like to leave other comments, please do so.  You can find notes for the studies at westvilleag.org.  I look forward to seeing you next time when we continue “Ten Minutes with Malachi.”