1A revelation, Yahweh’s word to Israel by Malachi.
2“I have loved you,” says Yahweh.
Yet you say, “How have you loved us?”
“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says Yahweh, “Yet I loved Jacob; 3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.” 4Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,” Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever.”
5Your eyes will see, and you will say, “Yahweh is great—even beyond the border of Israel!”
6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says Yahweh of Armies to you priests who despise my name. “You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘Yahweh’s table is contemptible.’ 8When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says Yahweh of Armies.
9“Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?” says Yahweh of Armies.
10“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies. 12“But you profane it when you say, ‘Yahweh’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’ 13You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it”, says Yahweh of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says Yahweh.
14“But the deceiver is cursed who has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
What is particularly striking about the manner of prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is that they were to address God as their Father. Out of this new relationship flow other important features of the prayer that distinguish it from the meaningless babble of the pagans (Matt 6:7-8). Though Yahweh had occasionally described himself as a father to Israel (e. g., Hos 11:1; Mal 1:6, 2:10), it was because the nation owed its existence and well-being to God's covenant with Abraham, and Isaac's miraculous conception. Until Jesus came, there is no evidence that individual believers thought of God, or addressed him, as their personal father. But now, in union with Jesus, the (ontological) Son of God, believers have been adopted into a new relationship as sons (Gal 4:1-7).
The address, "Our Father," serves to remind those praying that they share God as Father with everyone he has begotten. Thus, the self-interest that drives pagan prayer is subordinated to the interests of others (Phil 3:3-4). Carrying on in order "to be heard" (Matt 6:7) is replaced with confidence that "Your Father knows what you need before you ask" (v. 8). In response to this amazing new reality, the first three requests (vv. 9-10) give priority to God and His coming kingdom. The last requests--equal in number and not unimportant--express humble dependence upon God to meet the needs of His people until His kingdom comes (vv. 11-13). The forgiveness requested in verse 12 is for restoration to fellowship (1 John 1:9), not justification.
Whether the doxology, at the end of verse 13, is original or a scribal addition, it concludes the prayer on the note with which it begins: The glory of God. Thus, the prayer as a whole is summarized with the words of Jesus' prayer, "'yet not as I will, but as You will'" (Matt 26:39, NAU).