This morning, over coffee, I read Malachi and finished the Old Testament for 2026. There’s something fitting about ending the year’s journey through Israel’s story with this book. It’s the last prophetic word before centuries of silence, and it leaves us leaning forward, waiting for what God will do next.
How I Used to Read Malachi
For most of my life I’ve read Malachi through two lenses.
The first is the tithe. Malachi is blunt: “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me” (Malachi 3:8). The people were holding back from God, and He challenges them to bring the full tithe into the storehouse and put Him to the test, to see if He will not open the windows of heaven and pour down a blessing until there is no more need (3:10). Our tendency to shortchange God and His promise to bless faithfulness have always stood out to me.
The second is the ending. Malachi prepares us for John the Baptist, the messenger who would prepare the way (3:1), the Elijah who would come before the great day of the Lord (4:5–6). The Old Testament closes by pointing ahead.
Both of those are true and important. But this time, reading Malachi as a whole, I saw much more in these four short chapters.
A Minor Prophet with a Major Punch
Malachi is classified as a minor prophet, but he delivers a major punch. Point by point, he exposes how hollow religious practice falls short of what God has called His people to.
The book opens with God saying, “I have loved you.” The people answer, “How have you loved us?” (1:2). That pattern repeats throughout the book. God speaks of His love, His calling, how He set them apart and blessed them, and the people push back with questions and excuses. They offer blemished sacrifices. The priests grow careless. They grow weary of worship and even say, “It is vain to serve God” (3:14).
They were doing religion, but they weren’t getting it.
Duty or Relationship?
I think getting it is where we cross from religious duty into relationship with God.
Religious duty is, sadly, the main way people approach God. It’s why the world has so many religions: each is a human attempt to build a road to God. Even people who recognize that there must be an intelligent designer behind creation often set up their own process for acknowledging Him and reaching Him.
But God has already made the way. That’s what Malachi keeps pressing toward. God calls His people to repent and to trust Him with everything. The tithe is part of that trust. Obedience to the law is part of that trust. But the heart of it is a turning of the whole person toward God.
That’s the same message Jesus proclaims when He steps onto the scene: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Malachi sets the table, and Jesus picks up the call.
The Book of Remembrance
The part that moved me most today is Malachi 3:16–17. In the middle of a people arguing with God, there is a remnant whose hearts are soft and tender toward Him. They grieve over the evil around them. They talk with one another about the Lord. And God hears.
“Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession.'” (Malachi 3:16–17)
Throughout the Old Testament there are long lists of names: priests and Levites serving in the temple, families returning from exile, genealogies that most of us are tempted to skim. It’s remarkable that all those names were recorded. And here Malachi shows us why. God keeps a record. He knows His people.
Let’s drill into that. He knows us intimately. He loves us as individuals, and He relates to us as people He loves. We are His treasured possession.
What an astounding thought. The Creator of the universe, the One who cast the stars into place, who designed the atom and how protons, neutrons, and electrons hold together to form all matter, knows you. Not just humanity in general. You. And He loves you enough that He sent His Son to die for you, and He recorded that saving plan across the pages of Scripture, beginning long before Bethlehem.
I’m blown away by that.
The Sun of Righteousness
Malachi’s last chapter includes one of my favorite promises:
“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” (Malachi 4:2)
The word is sun, S-U-N. But every time I read it, I hear S-O-N. I can’t help it, because that’s who the entire Old Testament has been looking toward. Every sacrifice, every prophet, every promise, every list of names has been leaning forward to Jesus.
Looking Ahead
After Malachi come roughly 400 years without a recorded prophetic word before Jesus arrives. A lot happened in those years, and maybe that’s a conversation for another day. For today, I want to sit with how Malachi closes the Old Testament: summing up Israel’s long story of God’s faithfulness and His people’s struggle, and pointing straight toward God’s great climactic act of sending His Son.
God isn’t looking for hollow religious performance. He’s looking for tender hearts that turn to Him, trust Him, and know they are known.
So here’s my question for you: Are you approaching God out of duty, trying to build your own road to Him, or have you stepped into the relationship He’s already made possible through Jesus?
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
