Albert Barnes Commentary Malachi 2

And now this is My commandment to you—not a commandment that He gave them, but a commandment concerning them. As God said long ago, upon obedience, I will command My blessing to you, so now He would command what should reach them, but a curse.

“He returns from the people to the priests, as the source of the evil, whose carelessness about sacred things He had rebuked before. Let the priests of the new law hear this rebuke of God, and understand it as dictated to them by the Holy Spirit, from whom God rightly requires greater holiness, and so He will punish them more severely if they are careless or scandalous in their office.”

All Christians are, in some sense, a royal, holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), over and above the special “Christian priesthood”; just as the Jews, over and above the special priesthood of Aaron, were a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6). Therefore, what follows belongs, in their own measure, to them and their duties.

If you will not lay it to heart—namely, the rebukes addressed to them, "to give glory to God." For the glory of God is the end and aim of the priesthood. This should be the principle and rule of their whole life, "to the greater glory of God."

God says, I will send the curse upon you, namely, that which He had threatened in the law for disobedience; and I will curse your blessings. He will turn your blessings into a curse. He does not say, "I will send you curses instead of blessings," but, "I will make the blessings themselves a curse."

Thus, as it is written, The things which should have been to their wealth became to them an occasion of falling (Psalms 69:23); to the proud, the things that lift them up; to the gluttonous, their abundance; to the avaricious, their wealth. These things, which become blessings if used for the glory of God, yet when self, not God, is their end, do, by God’s dispensation and Providence, become a curse to them.

As God declares, "The goods of nature, the goods of fortune, the goods of the Church allowed to you, I will turn to your greater damnation, permitting you to abuse them for pride; and your damnation will be more severe, the more good things you have received from Me."

For this reason, Christ declares in the Gospel, Unto whomever much is given, of him shall be much required (Luke 12:48).

Yea, I have cursed them—(literally, "it"), meaning each one of the blessings, already.

God’s judgments, like His mercies, are individual, with minute care, showing that it is His doing. The curse had already gone forth and had begun to seize upon them from the time they began to despise His Name. His judgments do not break in at once, but come little by little, with warnings of their approach, so that we may turn to Him and escape the wrath to come.

Behold, I will rebuke the seed for your sake -, that is, so that it should not grow. He who works by His sustaining will all the operations of nature, would at His will withhold them. Neither priests nor Levites cultivated the soil; yet, since the tithes were assigned to them, the diminution of the harvest affected them. The meal-offering too was a requisite part of the sacrifice. (Joel 2:14).

And spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts -, or, “of your sacrifices.” It was by the law carried outside the camp and burned with the animal itself. They had brought before the face of God maimed, unfitting sacrifices; they should have them cast back, with their refuse, upon them; “as a lord that rejects a gift, brought to him by his servant, casts it back at him.” “Of your sacrifices, not of Mine, for I am not worshiped in them: you seek to please, not Me, but yourselves.” So God said of Eli (1 Samuel 2:30), them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.

And one shall take you away with it -, literally “to it.” They should be swept away, as if they were an appendage to it, as God said (1 Kings 14:10), I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, until all be gone. As are the offerings, so shall it be with the offerers.

And you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you: this, which He had just spoken. Those who do not believe God when He threatens, know that He is in earnest and not to be trifled with, through His punishment. That My covenant might be with Levi. God willed to punish those who at that time rebelled against Him, so that He might spare those who would come after them. He disciplined the fathers, who showed their contempt for Him, so that their sons, taking warning from this, might not be cut off. He continues to say what the covenant was, which He still willed to continue, if they would repent.

My covenant was with him life and peace; - literally “the life and the peace;” that which alone is true “life and peace.”

The covenant was not with Levi himself, but with Aaron, his representative, with whom the covenant was made in the desert, as is indeed expressed here; and, in him, with all his descendants after him, who succeeded him in his office. Thus, when it is said (1 Chronicles 6:49), “Aaron and his sons offered upon the altar of burnt-offering,” it must be understood not of Aaron in person alone and his sons then living, but of any of his descendants who succeeded in his and their place.

So our Lord promised to be with His Apostles (Matthew 28:20), “always to the end of the world,” that is, with them and those whom they should appoint in their place, and these others, until He Himself should come. God promised, if they would keep the law, that they should live in peace on the earth; indeed, that they should have peace of mind and a life of grace. “Life” is an indefectible being, which man does not forfeit by sin, to which death is no interruption, changing only the place of the soul’s life.

And I gave them to him -, in, or as, “fear.” “Fear, not servile but filial and pure, as Paul bids Christians (Philippians 2:12), ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’” God gave them an awe-inspiring gift, to be held with fear and awe for its very preciousness, as one would anxiously hold what is very precious, yet very fragile and easily marred.

And he feared Me, and was afraid before My Name - Malachi unites two words, the second expressive of strong fear, by which a man is, as it were, crushed or broken. They are often united in Hebrew, but as expressing terror, which men are commanded not to feel before other men.

Toward other men it is always said (Deuteronomy 1:21; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:9; Joshua 10:25; 1 Chronicles 22:13; 1 Chronicles 28:20; 2 Chronicles 20:15, 20:17; 2 Chronicles 32:7; Isaiah 51:7; Jeremiah 23:4; Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 46:27; Ezra 2:6; Ezra 3:9), “fear not, neither be ye dismayed;” toward God alone, it is a matter of praise. Man’s highest fear is too little, for he does not know who God is.

So Isaiah says (Isaiah 8:12–13), “Fear ye not their fear (the fear of this people), nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread.”

“What can be more precious (than this fear)? For it is written (Proverbs 13:13), ‘He who feareth the Lord will be rewarded.’ , ‘The fear of the Lord is honor and glory and gladness and a crown of rejoicing.’ He says, “the fear, wherewith he feareth Me and was afraid,” that is, he received the fear of God in his whole heart and soul. For these reduplications and emphases suggest to the hearer how rooted in virtue are those thus praised.”