BEMA Episode Link: 69: Malachi — Q&A
Episode Length: 17:59
Published Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2018 01:00:00 -0700
Session 2
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings hear the message of Malachi, seeing how he utilizes a question-and-answer format to prophetically speak to the people of God.

Discussion Video for BEMA 69

Out of Babylon by Walter Brueggemann

Transcript for BEMA 69

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 69: Malachi - Q&A

Comprehensive Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

This episode examines the Book of Malachi, the final prophetic voice before Esther in the biblical canon. Marty Solomon and Brent Billings explore how Malachi uses a unique question-and-answer dialogue format to confront the post-exilic community’s spiritual apathy and nostalgia for a past that never truly existed. The prophet addresses a people disappointed by their return from exile, who have fallen into cynicism and half-hearted worship.

Key Takeaways

  • Malachi employs a distinctive Q&A dialogue structure where God makes accusations and the people respond with defensive questions
  • The post-exilic community struggled with disappointment—their return from Persia didn’t restore the glorious kingdom they had envisioned
  • Persian rule, though less overtly oppressive than Babylon, was actually longer, wider, and more culturally subtle in its control
  • The people fell into spiritual apathy, offering defective sacrifices and withholding tithes, claiming “it’s futile to serve God”
  • Nostalgia for “the good old days” often involves lying to ourselves about a past that wasn’t as great as we remember
  • A faithful remnant responded to Malachi’s message by writing a “scroll of remembrance,” demonstrating that small groups of committed people can change everything
  • The key question posed: “Do we imagine new tomorrows or do we lie to ourselves about a better past?”

Main Concepts & Theories

The Post-Exilic Disappointment

The remnant community that returned from Persian exile expected to “make Jerusalem great again” but instead found themselves still under imperial control. While Persia allowed them to return home, they remained under “the boot of empire.” As Walter Brueggemann notes in Out of Babylon, Persian rule actually stretched further and lasted longer than Babylonian rule.

Key distinction: Instead of physical persecution and military domination, they experienced cultural servitude—”a system that controlled them from the inside out.” This subtle oppression destroyed their will to resist the idolatry around them, making it harder to fight than outright persecution.

The Danger of Deceptive Nostalgia

Marty Solomon identifies a universal human tendency: when present circumstances are difficult, we romanticize the past. The episode presents Rabbi Fohrman’s critical question: “Do we imagine new tomorrows or do we lie to ourselves about a better past?”

This pattern has destructive consequences:

  • We become cynical, jaded, bitter, and angry
  • We live poorly in the present
  • We fall back into the sins and struggles of our past
  • We fail to move forward on the path God has for us

The fundamental truth: You can’t go backwards, you can only go forward.

The Q&A Dialogue Structure

Malachi (whose name means “my messenger”) uses a unique prophetic format:

  1. God makes an accusation
  2. The people respond with a defensive question (“How have we…?”)
  3. God provides specific evidence
  4. The cycle repeats

This structure reveals the people’s spiritual blindness—they genuinely don’t recognize their own failures.

Specific Accusations and Responses

First Exchange - Dishonoring God (Malachi 1:6-8)

  • Accusation: “Where is the honor due me? You priests show contempt for my name.”
  • Question: “How have we shown contempt for your name?”
  • Evidence: “By offering defiled food on my altar… blind, lame, and diseased animals. Would your governor accept these gifts?”

Second Exchange - Unfaithfulness (Malachi 2:13-14)

  • Accusation: God no longer accepts their offerings
  • Question: “Why?”
  • Evidence: “You have been unfaithful to the wife of your youth”

Third Exchange - Robbing God (Malachi 3:7-10)

  • Accusation: “You rob me”
  • Question: “How are we robbing you?”
  • Evidence: “In tithes and offerings”

Fourth Exchange - Arrogant Speech (Malachi 3:13-15)

  • Accusation: “You have spoken arrogantly against me”
  • Question: “What have we said against you?”
  • Evidence: “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain? Evildoers prosper.’”
The Apathy Problem

The root issue wasn’t theological confusion but spiritual apathy. The people had concluded that faithful obedience “doesn’t work” because they weren’t experiencing the blessings they expected. This led to:

  • Half-hearted worship (offering defective sacrifices)
  • Withholding resources (not bringing tithes)
  • Cynical attitudes (“Why bother?”)
  • A complete loss of hope in God’s promises

The episode emphasizes that the famous tithing passage (Malachi 3:10) is often misused as a prosperity formula. In context, it’s about the consequences of not believing God’s promises and taking an apathetic approach to covenant faithfulness.

The Faithful Remnant Response

Unlike some prophetic books that end in despair, Malachi records a positive response. A faithful remnant:

  • Heard God’s message through the prophet
  • “Feared the Lord and talked with each other”
  • Wrote a “scroll of remembrance”
  • Were called God’s “treasured possession” (echoing the Exodus covenant language)
The Power of the Few

The episode concludes with a powerful theme throughout Scripture: small groups of committed people can change everything. Examples cited:

  • 7,000 who hadn’t bowed to Baal in Elijah’s time
  • 20 righteous people who could have saved Sodom and Gomorrah
  • The remnant in Malachi who wrote their names on a scroll

Application to today: In a world dominated by debate, argument, and divided worldviews, in a culture that seems beyond hope, a few people taking a stand can make a difference and “change everything.”

Cultural vs. Physical Oppression

The episode draws an important parallel between the post-exilic community and contemporary Western Christianity. Persian rule was more dangerous precisely because it was subtle:

  • Not physical servitude but cultural servitude
  • Not robbing material possessions but robbing identity as God’s partners
  • Not outright persecution but enticement into a system of control

Modern application: “It’s harder to fight the idolatry present in our Western American culture than outright idolatry because it’s more subtle and hidden and internal.”

Examples & Applications

Personal Nostalgia and Spiritual Decline

Marty shares his own struggle with wanting to return to “how it was four years ago” in a particular situation, illustrating that even spiritual leaders face the temptation to romanticize the past. He identifies friends who:

  • Were miserable in their old context and couldn’t wait to leave
  • Moved to a new situation that proved challenging
  • Began remembering the old context as “the good old days”
  • Became cynical and bitter in their current situation

The pattern: “When I begin to believe this [nostalgia], I start to live much more poorly in the present. I get a lot more cynical, jaded, bitter and angry. I fall into bad attitudes and bad habits. I find myself beginning to fall into sins of the past.”

The Apathetic Worship Parallel

The episode highlights the stark contrast between:

  • Later Jewish practice: Extreme commitment to offering perfect, spotless sacrifices
  • Malachi’s audience: “A blind goat… who cares. A goat’s a goat. Temple is a temple; path is a path.”

This demonstrates how spiritual apathy leads to carelessness in the very practices designed to maintain covenant relationship with God.

The Practical Challenge of Giving

Brent notes that modern electronic giving involves little effort, but in Malachi’s time:

  • People had to gather physical resources (goods, animals)
  • They had to travel to bring offerings
  • It required significant time and energy

The people’s attitude: “What? It doesn’t even do any good, so why go to all this effort?” This reveals how disappointment in outcomes can lead to abandoning faithful practices.

Contemporary Divided Culture

The episode concludes by applying Malachi’s message to modern times:

  • A world “completely frustrated”
  • A culture “dominated by debate and argument and bifurcated worldviews”
  • A society that “seems to be beyond hope”

The answer: A few people putting their names on a scroll (making a commitment) can still change everything.

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

  1. The Nature of Persian Cultural Control: How did Persian rule differ from Babylonian rule in its methods and impact? What does this teach us about recognizing and resisting subtle forms of cultural captivity?

  2. The “Scroll of Remembrance”: What was the significance of writing names on a scroll in ancient Jewish culture? How does this practice relate to other biblical “books” (Book of Life, etc.)?

  3. Malachi’s Identity: Given that “Malachi” simply means “my messenger,” what are the theories about the prophet’s actual identity? Why might the text preserve this generic title?

  4. Connection to Hosea: The episode briefly mentions that Malachi 2:14 (unfaithfulness to “the wife of your youth”) connects to Hosea. What are the theological parallels between these two prophets?

  5. The Tithe in Context: How has Malachi 3:10 been used and misused in prosperity gospel teaching? What does the passage actually teach about giving, testing God, and covenant faithfulness?

  6. Remnant Theology Throughout Scripture: How does the concept of a faithful remnant develop from the Elijah narrative through the prophets to the New Testament concept of the Church?

  7. The Transition to Esther: Why is Esther not considered a “prophetic voice” in Jewish thought? What is the significance of Malachi being the last prophetic voice before the “silent years”?

  8. Apocalyptic Elements: How do the final verses of Malachi (especially chapter 4, not covered in this episode) connect to apocalyptic themes and messianic expectations?

  9. Apathy vs. Apostasy: What is the spiritual difference between outright rebellion against God and the apathetic half-heartedness that Malachi confronts?

  10. Hope and Rationality: Rabbi Fohrman’s question about whether hope is rational or irrational deserves deeper exploration. How does biblical hope differ from wishful thinking or denial?

Comprehension Questions

  1. Describe the unique literary structure of Malachi and explain how it functions to reveal the spiritual condition of the post-exilic community. What does their repeated question “How have we…?” indicate about their self-awareness?

  2. Compare and contrast Babylonian and Persian rule over God’s people. Why was Persian cultural control potentially more dangerous than Babylonian military oppression? How does this parallel challenges faced by Western Christians today?

  3. Analyze the four main accusations God makes through Malachi (dishonoring God through defective sacrifices, unfaithfulness, robbing God in tithes, speaking arrogantly). What common root issue connects all four problems?

  4. Explain the concept presented in the episode: “Do we imagine new tomorrows or do we lie to ourselves about a better past?” How does nostalgia for a romanticized past affect our present spiritual walk and future direction?

  5. Discuss the significance of the “scroll of remembrance” and the faithful remnant’s response to Malachi’s message. How does this positive conclusion differ from other prophetic books, and what principle does it establish about the power of committed minorities to create change?

Personal Summary

Malachi stands as the final prophetic voice calling God’s people back from spiritual apathy and deceptive nostalgia. The post-exilic community, disappointed that their return from Persia hadn’t restored Israel’s former glory, fell into a dangerous pattern of romanticizing the past while becoming cynical about the present. Through a powerful Q&A dialogue format, God confronts their half-hearted worship, defective sacrifices, withheld tithes, and ultimately their belief that “it’s futile to serve God.”

The most penetrating insight of this episode is Rabbi Fohrman’s question: Do we imagine new tomorrows or lie to ourselves about a better past? This question exposes a universal human tendency—when the present is difficult, we rewrite history to make yesterday seem better than it was. This nostalgia breeds cynicism, bitterness, and apathy, causing us to abandon faithful practices and fall back into old patterns of sin.

Yet Malachi’s message breaks through. A faithful remnant responds by writing a “scroll of remembrance,” committing themselves to covenant faithfulness despite disappointment. God calls them His “treasured possession,” echoing the Exodus marriage covenant. This demonstrates a consistent biblical principle: small groups of committed people can change everything—whether 7,000 who hadn’t bowed to Baal, 20 who could save a city, or a remnant who put their names on a scroll.

The episode’s contemporary application is particularly relevant: in a world dominated by division, debate, and despair, we face the same choice as Malachi’s audience. Will we surrender to apathy, convinced that faithfulness “doesn’t work”? Will we pine for a golden age that never existed? Or will we be among the few who write our names on a scroll, committing to walk the path forward even when the present is difficult and the future uncertain?

The challenge is to recognize subtle cultural captivity for what it is, resist the apathy it breeds, and join the faithful remnant who believe God’s promises are worth pursuing—not because circumstances always turn out as we hope, but because covenant partnership with God is the only path to true wholeness.

Episode Image/Theme: Q&A (Question and Answer dialogue format)

Related Episodes:

  • 4 Isaiah (Hope)
  • Ezra-Nehemiah (Passionate Leadership)
  • Haggai (Build!)
  • Zechariah (Apocalyptic Literature)

Key Scripture Passages:

  • Malachi 1:6-8 (Defective sacrifices)
  • Malachi 2:13-14 (Unfaithfulness)
  • Malachi 3:7-12 (Tithes and offerings)
  • Malachi 3:13-18 (Scroll of remembrance)

Recommended Resource: Walter Brueggemann, Out of Babylon

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