Question

Please explain Malachi 2:1-4?

Answer 1

It's pretty straight forward. If you are a priest, minister etc and you misuse your office to go against the word of God, you will be cursed. There are many ministers and priests that should be very worried.

Answer 2

God's censure of the Jewish priests for departing from his righteous ways. If they did not take to heart his counsel and correct their ways, grave consequences were sure to follow. Had the priests taught the people God’s laws and kept them, they would have been blessed. But because of ignoring God’s will, a curse, a malediction, would come instead. Even the blessings the priests uttered would turn out to be a curse.

Answer 3

Malachi 2:1-4 (King James Version)

1And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

3Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

4And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts

What is here said of the covenant of priesthood, is true of the covenant of grace made with all believers, as spiritual priests. It is a covenant of life and peace; it assures all believers of all happiness, both in this world and in that to come. It is an honour to God's servants to be employed as his messengers. The priest's lips should not keep knowledge from his people, but keep it for them. The people are all concerned to know the will of the Lord. We must not only consult the written word, but desire instruction and advice from God's messengers, in the affairs of our souls.

Answer 4

A commandment given and punishment threatened to the priests. The commandment disobeyed in v8, and the punishment administered in v9.

Answer 5

1And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

2If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

3Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

4And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

5My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

6The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

7For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

8But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

9Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Clearly, he's speaking to corrupt priests and ministers- false teachers and one's that don't teach truth.

Answer 6

Mal 2:1

And now this is My commandment unto you - , not a commandment, which He gave them, but a commandment in regard to them. As God said of old, upon obedience , “I will command My blessing unto you,” so now He would command what should reach them, but a curse. “He returns from the people to the priests, as the fountain of the evil, whose carelessness about things sacred he had rebuked before. Let the priests of the new law hear this rebuke of God, and conceive it dictated to them by the Holy Spirit to hear, from whom God rightly requires greater holiness, and so will punish them more grievously, if careless or scandalous in their office.” All Christians are, in some sense 1Pe_2:9, “a royal, holy priesthood,” over and above the special “Christian priesthood;” as the Jews, over and above the special priesthood of Aaron, were a Exo_19:6, “kingdom of priests.” What follows then belongs, in their degree, to them and their duties.

Mal 2:2

If ye will not hear - What I have spoken, lay it to heart, and let it sink down into your souls.

Give glory unto my name - That honor that is due to me as a Father, and that fear that belongs to me as a Master, Mal_1:6.

I will even send a curse upon you - I will dispense no more good.

I will curse your blessings - Even that which ye have already shall not profit you. When temporal blessings are not the means of leading us to God and heaven, they will infallibly lead us to hell. In speaking of the abuse of temporal blessings, one of our old poets, in his homely phrase, expresses himself thus: -

Thus God’s best gifts, usurped by wicked ones,

To poison turn by their con-ta-gi-ons.

Yea, I have cursed them already - This may refer, generally, to unfruitful seasons; or, particularly, to a dearth that appears to have happened about this time. See Hag_1:6-11.

Mal 2:3

Behold, I will corrupt your seed - So as to render it unfruitful. Newcome translates, - “I will take away from you the shoulder.” This was the part that belonged to the priest, Lev_7:32; Deu_18:3.

Spread dung upon your faces - Instead of receiving a sacrifice at your hands, I will throw your offerings back into your faces. Here God shows his contempt for them and their offerings.

Mal 2:4

This commandment - That in the first verse; to drive such priests from his presence and his service.

That my covenant might be with Levi - I gave the priesthood and the service of my altar to that tribe.

May God bless you as you study His Word

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King James Bible

Answer 7

Let's try an simpler translation and see if that doesn't help.

Malachi 2 (New Living Translation)

Malachi 2

A Warning to the Priests

“Listen, you priests—this command is for you!

2 Listen to me and make up your minds to honor my name,” says

the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “or I will bring a terrible curse

against you. I will curse even the blessings

you receive. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you

have not taken my warning to heart.

3 I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with

the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile.

4 Then at last you will know it was I who sent you this warning

so that my covenant with the Levites can continue,” says the

Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

5 “The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring

life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence

from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name.

6 They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions

they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me,

living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin.

7 “The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God,

and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the

messenger of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

8 But you priests have left God’s paths. Your instructions have caused

many to stumble into sin. You have corrupted the covenant I made

with the Levites,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

9 “So I have made you despised and humiliated in the eyes of

all the people. For you have not obeyed me but have shown favoritism

in the way you carry out my instructions.”

A Call to Faithfulness

10 Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all

created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other,

violating the covenant of our ancestors?

11 Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been

done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled

the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship

idols.

12 May the Lord cut off from the nation of Israel every last man

who has done this and yet brings an offering to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

13 Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s

altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays

no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure.

14 You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?”

I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you

and your wife made when you were young. But you have been

unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife

of your marriage vows.

15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body

and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children

from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife

of your youth.

16 “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel.

“To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord

of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good

in the Lord’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied

him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Answer 8

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