Malachi 1:11—But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 

Malachi began his message by God’s declaration that He had always loved Israel.  Then, in the remainder of the Chapter 1, Malachi relays God’s reprimand of the priests for offering defiled sacrifices.  As God states His case against the priests, He tells them He is honored among other nations.  God adds that sweet incense and pure, undefiled, offerings are given to Him to honor His name by people of other nations around the world.

We need to understand what a rebuke this is to the priests of Israel.  Israel was God’s chosen people.  They prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They considered themselves to be a special nation among all the nations of the world.  

This attitude of “we’re God’s chosen people” created in the people of Israel a national identity that made them feel as if they were above other peoples.  Their pride in belonging to God resulted in the Israelites looking at anyone who was not Jewish as being a second-rate person.  They literally referred to their neighbors who were not pure-blooded Jews as dogs.

When God says His name is honored in places besides Israel, He is saying people the Jews looked down on were doing a better job of recognizing His place as creator than His chosen people were doing.  God is revealing that Gentiles, who were many times people who were of Greek or other descendencies who were despised by the Jews, were being accepted in their worship over the Jews.  These other nations were demonstrating their respect for God by doing what was right in His eyes, even though they were not Jews.

The acceptable offerings from “other nations” were occurring all day long around the world.  Sweet incense was being burned as a physical representation of the prayers people were saying as they worshipped God.  Pure, correct sacrifices were being brought to be presented to God, unlike the diseased and crippled animals brought by the priests of Israel.

The reason these other nations were burning incense and making offerings to God rested in God’s reputation as God, as creator, as The Almighty, as the one who is supreme and all-powerful.  His name was revered and honored by those who recognized that He should be worshipped simply because He really is the one true God.

The Jews had been given the law directly from God.  They had been instructed by God Himself on what types of sacrifices and offerings to make.  They should have known exactly what pleased God and what would not be acceptable to Him.  But the very people who had the job of performing the sacrifices and ceremonies, the priests, were not following God’s instructions and were even knowingly offering improper, defiled sacrifices.

Malachi 1:11 is a slap to the face of the priests and to the nation of Israel as a whole.  God is letting them know they are not the only ones who can be accepted by Him.  He’s telling the priests to get things right, because other people already do what should be done to honor God’s name.