Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Malachi 1:11

For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

11. For ] “I will no longer accept the local and polluted offering, for I will substitute for it a pure and universal offering.” “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”

my name shall be great ] The A.V. supplies shall be here and twice again in this verse ( incense shall be offered; my name shall be great), and the R.V. is, though with shall be in the margin. The reference may well be to the present as foreshadowing the future; to the spiritual offering of prayer and praise already offered in their synagogues and by the Jews of the Dispersion, whereby proselytes were won, and the way prepared for the New Dispensation and the abolition of the Temple ritual. The view that Almighty God is here recognising the worship of the heathen world as in reality offered to Him is quite inadmissible. The whole tenor of the Old Testament emphatically contradicts it, and the teaching of the New Testament is accordant and explicit: “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God” (1Co 10:20, cited from Deu 32:17). The terms of the prophecy itself forbid such an interpretation: for Jehovah Himself expressly declares that incense and offering are offered to His name, and that His name is great.

The prophecy of this verse is at once repeated and expounded by our Lord Himself. Joh 4:21-24.

incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering ] There has been difference of opinion as to the grammatical construction of this clause, but the arrangement and rendering of A.V. is retained in R.V. and has the support of many critical authorities.

By “incense” and “offering” we are to understand those “spiritual sacrifices” of prayer and praise (Heb 13:15) and almsgiving (ib. Heb 13:16; Php 4:18) and self-dedication (Rom 12:1), which all Christians as a “holy priesthood” (1Pe 2:5) are privileged to offer, and which are “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”. The more enlightened among the Jews recognised such spiritual sacrifices under the typical offerings of the ceremonial law, and they were therefore in no danger of giving a material interpretation to a prophecy like this. Before the prophecy was fulfilled it had come to be a matter of popular Jewish belief and practice that incense was the symbol of prayer. (Luk 1:9-10). The Psalmist saw the same spiritual significance in “incense” and “offering” ( minchah, as here, Psa 141:2). It has been supposed that by the offering, or minchah, of this verse, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are intended. But if that be the case we have here a prophecy of the universal offering of literal incense also; for by no sound canon of interpretation can we give a material sense to one ( offering) and a figurative sense to the other ( incense) of two words which are thus placed by a writer in the same category. And then it follows that incense is as necessary a part of Christian worship, as “the bread and wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received.”

It has been too hastily assumed that the early Christian writers put this interpretation on the minchah here foretold. Justin Martyr, for example, affirms that Almighty God in this passage declares by anticipation His acceptance of those who offer the sacrifices prescribed by Christ, that is to say “those sacrifices which in the eucharist of the bread and cup are offered by Christians in every part of the earth.” But he presently makes it clear that it is not the bread and cup themselves that he means. “I too assert,” he says, “that prayers and giving of thanks, offered by worthy worshippers, are the only sacrifices which are perfect and acceptable to God. And these alone moreover have Christians learned to offer even in the memorial of their dry and liquid sustenance, in which too the remembrance is made of the passion which for their sakes the Son of God endured.” ( Dial. cum Tryph. 177.)

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For – The form of words does not express whether this declaration relates to the present or the future. It is a vivid present, such as is often used to describe the future. But the things spoken of show it to be future. The Jewish sacrifices had defects, partly incidental, partly inherent. Incidental were those, with which the prophet had upbraided them; inherent (apart from their mere typical character) that they never could be the religion of the world, since they were locally fixed at Jerusalem. Malachi tells them of a new sacrifice, which should be offered throughout the then pagan world, grounded on His new revelation of Himself to them. For great shall be My Name among the pagan. The prophet anticipates an objection which the Jews might make to him. Jos 7:9, what then will God do unto His great Name? Those by which He would replace them, would be more worthy of God in two ways:

1) in themselves,

2) in their universality.

Then, whatsoever the pagan worshiped, even if some worshiped an unknown God, His Name was not known to them, nor great among them. Those who knew of Him, knew of Him, not as the Lord of heaven and earth, but as the God of the Jews only; their offerings were not pure, but manifoldly defiled. A Hebrew prophet could not be an apologist for pagan idolatry amidst its abominations, or set it on a level with the worship which God had, for the time, appointed; much less could he set it forth as the true acceptable service of God. Malachi himself speaks of it, as an aggravation of cruelty in their divorcing of their wives, that they Mal 2:11 married the daughter of a strange god.

The worship of those Jews, who remained, out of secular interests, in foreign countries, could not be represented as the pure offering; for they made no offerings: then as now, these being forbidden out of Jerusalem; nor would the worship of such Jews, as were scattered in the large empire of Persia, be contrasted with that at Jerusalem, as the pure worship; else why should the Jews have returned? It would have been an abolition of the law before its time. Malachi prophesies then, as had Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah Zep 2:11, of a new revelation of God, when, and in which, people should worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the pagan.

Our Lord Himself explains and expands it in His words to the Samaritan woman; Joh 4:21, Joh 4:23-24, Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and declared the rejection of the Jews, sealing their own sentence against themselves Mat 21:41, Mat 21:43, I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof; and before Mat 8:11-12, Many shall come from the East and West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, and the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.

Incense shall be offered unto My name, literally I think, there shall be incense, oblation made unto My name (this is a mere question of construction) , and a pure oblation.

This sacrifice, which should be offered, is designated by the special name of meal-offering. (Lev 2:7 (Lev 2:14 in English) and the verses following.) God would not accept it from the Jews; He would, from the Pagan. It was a special sacrifice, offered by itself as an unbloody sacrifice, or together with the bloody sacrifice. (Lev 6:17 (Lev 6:10 in Hebrew)), It is most holy, as the sin-offering and as the trespass-offering. In the daily sacrifice it was offered morning and evening, with the lamb. Since this was typical of the precious blood-shedding of the Lamb without spot upon the cross, so was the meal-offering which accompanied it, of the holy eucharist.

The early Christians saw the force of the prediction, that sacrifice was contrasted with sacrifice, the bloody sacrifices which were ended by the One full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction made by our Lord on the altar of the cross for the sins of the whole world, and those sacrifices which He commanded to be made on our altars, as a memorial of Him. So Justin, who was converted probably 133 a.d., within 30 years from the death of John, says God has, therefore, beforehand declared, that all who through this name offer those sacrifices, which Jesus, who is the Christ, commanded to be offered, that is to say, in the eucharist of the bread and of the cup, which are offered in every part of the world by us Christians, are well-pleasing to Him. But those sacrifices, which are offered by you and through those priests of yours, He wholly rejects, saying, And I will not accept your offerings at your hands. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, My Name is glorified among the Gentiles; but ye profane it.

He points out further the failure of the Jewish explanation as to their sacrifices, in that the Church was everywhere, not so the Jews. You and your teachers deceive yourselves, when you interpret this passage of Scripture of those of your nation who were in the dispersion and say that it speaks of their prayers and sacrifices made in every place, as pure and well-pleasing, and know that you speak falsely, and endeavor in every way to impose upon yourselves; first, because your people are not found, even now, from the rising to the setting of the sun, but there are nations, in which none of your race have ever dwelt: while there is not one nation of people, whether Barbarians, or Greeks, or by whatsoever name distinguished, whether of those (nomads) who live in wagons, or of those who have no houses, or those pastoral people that dwell in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of all things, through the name of the crucified Jesus. And you know that at the time when the prophet Malachi said this, the dispersion of you through the whole world, in which you now are, had not yet taken place; as is also shown by Scripture.

Irenaeus in the same century He took that which is part of the creation, namely, bread, and gave thanks, saying, This is My body. And the cup likewise, which is of the creation which pertains unto us, He professed to be His own blood, and taught people the new oblation of the New Testament; which the Church receiving from the apostles offers unto God in the world: unto Him who giveth us nourishment, the firstfruits of His own gifts, in the New Testament; of which in the twelve prophets Malachi gave beforehand this intimation (quoting Mal 1:10-11); most evidently intimating hereby, that while the former people should cease to make offerings to God, in every place sacrifice should be offered unto Him, and that in pureness; His Name also is glorified among the Gentiles. Now what other name is there, which is glorified among the Gentiles, than that which belongs to our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified, and man is glorified?

And because man belongs to His Own Son, and is made by Him, He calls him His Own. And as if some King were himself to paint an image of his own son, he justly calls it his own image, on both accounts, first that it is his sons, next, that he himself made it: so also the Name of Jesus Christ, which is glorified in the Church throughout the whole world, the Father professes to be His own, both because it is His Sons, and because He Himself wrote and gave it for the salvation of men. Because, therefore, the Name of the Son properly belongs to the Father, and in God Almighty through Jesus Christ the Church makes her offering, well saith He on both accounts, And in every place incense is offered unto My Name, and a pure sacrifice. And incense, John in the Apocalypse declares to be the prayers of the saints. Therefore, the offering of the Church, which the Lord hath taught to be offered in the whole world, is accounted with God as a pure sacrifice, and accepted of Him.

Tertullian contrasts the sacerdotal law through Moses, in Leviticus, prescribing to the people of Israel, that sacrifices should in no other place be offered to God than in the land of promise, which the Lord God was about to give to the people Israel and to their brethren, in order that on Israels introduction thither, there should be there celebrated sacrifices and holocausts, as well for sins as for souls, and nowhere else but in the holy land Lev 17:1-6; Deu 12:5-14, Deu 12:26-27, and this subsequent prediction of the Spirit through the prophets, that in every place and in every land there should be offered sacrifices to God. As He says through the angel Malachi, one of the twelve prophets (citing the place).

Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus, 220 a.d. martyr, in a commentary on Daniel, says that when Anti-Christ cometh, the sacrifice and libation will be taken away, which is now in every place offered by the Gentiles to God. The terms Sacrifice offered in every place are terms of Malachi.

So Cyprian, in his Testimonies against the Jews, sums up the teaching of the passage under this head , That the old sacrifice was to be made void, and a new sacrifice instituted.

In the apostolic Constitutions, the prophecy is quoted as said by God of His ecumenical Church.

Eusebius says , The truth bears witness to the prophetic word, whereby God, rejecting the Mosaic sacrifices, foretells that which shall be among us. For from the rising of the sun etc. We sacrifice then to the supreme God the sacrifice of praise; we sacrifice the divine, reverend and holy oblation: we sacrifice, in a new way according to the New Testament, the pure sacrifice. The broken heart is also called a sacrifice to God – We sacrifice also the memory of that great Sacrifice, performing it according to the mysteries which have been transmitted by Him.

Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of it only as prophesying the rejection of the Jews and the adoption of the Gentiles.

In the liturgy of Mark , it is naturally quoted, only, as fulfilled in the reasonable and unbloody sacrifice, which all nations offer to Thee, O Lord, from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof, not in reference to the cessation of Jewish sacrifices.

Chrysostom dwells on its special force, coming from so late a prophet. Hear Malachi, who came after the other prophets. For I adduce, for the time, no testimony either of Isaiah or Jeremiah or any other before the captivity, lest thou shouldest say that the terrible things which he foretold were exhausted in the captivity. But I adduce a prophet, after the return from Babylon and the restoration of your city, prophesying clearly about you. For when they had returned, and recovered their city, and rebuilt the temple and performed the sacrifices, foretelling this present desolation then future, and the taking away of the sacrifice, Malachi thus speaks in the Person of God (Mal 1:10 (end) and Mal 1:12 (beginning)). When, oh Jew, happened all this? When was incense offered to God in every place? when a pure sacrifice? Thou couldest not name any other time, than this, after the coming of Christ. If the prophet foretelleth not this time and our sacrifice, but the Jewish, the prophecy will be against the law.

For if, when Moses commandeth that sacrifice should be offered in no other place than the Lord God should choose, and shutteth up those sacrifices in one place, the prophet says that incense should be offered in every place and a pure sacrifice, he opposeth and contradicteth Moses. But there is no strife nor contention. For Moses speaketh of one sacrifice, and Malachi of another. Where doth this appear? (From the place, not Judaea only; from the mode, that it should be pure; from the offerers, not Israel, but the nations), from East to West, showing that whatever of earth the sun surveys, the preaching will embrace. He calls the former sacrifice impure, not in its own nature but in the mind of the offerers; if one compares the sacrifice itself, there is such a boundless distance, that this (that offered by Christians) might in comparison be called pure.

Even the cold, but clear, Theodoret has Foretelling to the Jews the cessation of the legal priesthood, he announces the pure and unbloody sacrifice of the Gentiles. And first he says to the Jews, I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept a sacrifice at your hands. Then he foreshows the piety of the Gentiles, For from the rising of the sun etc. Mal 1:11, you then I will wholly reject, for I detest altogether what you do. Wherefore also I reject the sacrifice offered by you; but instead of you, I have the whole world to worship Me. For the dwellers in the whole earth, which the rising and setting sun illumines, will everywhere both offer to Me incense, and will sacrifice to Me the pure sacrifice, which I love. For they shall know My name and My will, and shall offer to Me reverence due. So the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, Woman, believe Me, that the hour cometh and now is, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. The blessed Paul, being instructed in this, says 1Ti 2:8, I will that men pray everywhere etc., and the divine Malachi clearly taught us in this place the worship now used, for the circumscribed worship of the priests is brought to an end, and every place is accounted fit for the worship of God, and the sacrifice of irrational victims is ended, and He, our spotless Lamb, Who taketh away the sin of the world, is sacrificed.

Lastly, Augustine , Malachi, prophesying of the Church which we see propagated through Christ, says most plainly to the Jews in the person of God, I have no pleasure in you, and will not receive an offering at your hands. For from the rising of the sun etc. Since we see this sacrifice through the priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchizedek, now offered to God in every place from the rising of the sun to its setting; but the sacrifice of the Jews, of which it is said, I have no pleasure in you, neither will I accept an offering from your hands, they cannot deny to have ceased; why do they yet expect another Christ, since what they read as prophesied and see fulfilled, could not be fulfilled, except through Him?

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mal 1:11

My name shall be great among the Gentiles.

Gods name shall be great

Prophecy has a double sense–or rather, an inferior and a higher designation: not only to keep the faith and the hope of the Church in exercise by the presentation of a grand consummation, but to edify, to warn to comfort, and to instruct the Church. The prophets were the ordinary preachers of righteousness. Though their lessons of morality and religion were conveyed in the figured strains of poetry, they were highly conspicuous and impressive. We behold, in the discourses of those holy m-n, a faithful and fearless statement of the principles of pure theology. Malachi closes the prophetic dispensation. He appears in the worst part of tile Jewish history. Darkness came upon them, and for four hundred years that darkness seemed to increase in depth. Malachi gives a revelation of the coming of the Lord. Here he declares that God shall be magnified and honoured and worshipped by all nations.

I. The prophecy embraced the revelation of Gods name amongst the gentiles. God cannot be magnified or revered or worshipped unless He is known. God can only be known as He is pleased to reveal Himself. He has given us a revelation of Himself, clear and full, so that we may know God. The name of God denotes Himself, His nature, His moral character, and all that can be made known of Him to the mind of man.

1. It denotes His self-existence. That existence is absolutely eternal, immortal, invisible. As He thus exists, He exists independently. All existence, however varied and modified, must be an emanation from Himself. And thus He appears to us, arrayed in the awful attributes of the Creator and Governor of all things. He is the parent of all; and on Him all depends.

2. It denotes the spirituality of His nature. This would follow from the infinite perfection of His nature. God is capable, as Spirit, of occupying immensity without displacing matter. A real Christian carries about with him a solemn sense of the spiritual presence of God; and he connects with that the presence of all His attributes–of power and purity and love. Wherever we go we have a present God.

3. It denotes the mysterious existence of the Trinity in the unity of the godhead.

4. It denotes the harmony of His attributes.

II. The majesty of Gods government. My name shall be great among the Gentiles. It shall be magnified–it shall be a name of weight, of authority; before it every name shall bow. Wherever the name of Jesus is published, that name becomes dominant. The majesty of the Redeemers kingdom is demonstrated by its interior and intellectual design. Human beings under no other government are ruled by truth, by interior influences, which bring the mind and the affections to God. And the Lords government is demonstrated by the silent but irresistible agency employed.

III. The celebration of His worship. The worship will be spiritual, but it will be offered in every place. Spiritual worship is enlightened: it is the result of knowledge; it perceives its object, and rejoined in its object; it takes hold of a promise, or fixes on a precept; it must be the result of faith, for faith sees the great Invisible; it must be the kindling of the Holy Spirit. There will be living offerings: it will not be a cold, irrational service, but the service of a warm heart; each man will offer himself to God, and each man will be a holy and a purified oblation, kindled by the fire of God. And thus myriads of spirits everywhere, all over the world, shall be ascending in flames of pure devotion to God. (Theophilus Lessey.)

The name of Jesus among the Gentiles

The Rev. Mr. Broadhead, returned missionary from India, related a beautiful incident when preaching foreign missionary sermons in the county of Durham. Whilst in India it was made known to him that not far from his residence there was an extraordinary piece of architectural work in the shape of a temple, most luxuriously designed in white marble. This edifice was erected in memory of some female, but one of the things that specially attracted the notice of the missionary was the great number of arches which it contained. On nearing the entrance the attendants told him that if he whispered a word inside the building it would be re-echoed from every arch proceeding into the interior. The missionary breathed out the word Jesus, and instantly the echoes were resounding from every part of the building. The effect was magnificent. The desire of every Christian heart is–

Let the echo fly

The spacious earth around.

Christs influence increasing

Speaking on the day of Mr. Gladstones funeral, the Rev. F. B. Meyer said: One of the marks which distinguishes Jesus Christ from every human teacher and reformer is the fact that His influence is ever increasing. The influence of Gladstone, to-day so great, will diminish year by year, but Jesus Christs influence was never so great as it is now.

Of the meaning of the name of God

I. The principal scriptural acceptations of the name.

1. Sometimes it signifies God Himself. Praising or blessing the name of God is praising God Himself. By His name being great is meant their acknowledging or professing Him to be the true God, and their adhering to the worship of Him only, in opposition to all idolatry and false religions.

2. Sometimes it is used to signify His true religion and worship. The place which the Lord your God shall choose,. . . to put His name there, means the place where He shall appoint His servants to appear before Him with the external tokens of their homage and worship.

3. In other places of Scripture the name expresses those adorable perfections or attributes which are, as it were, the proper denomination and character of the Divine nature. See Exo 34:5.

4. Once more, the name signifies the authority of God, or His Divine commission.

II. The event predicted. In it is evidently contained–

1. To the Jews, something comminatory.

2. In relation to the Gentiles, a particular promise; joined with a general declaration concerning the state and condition of the universal Church in the future and latter ages of the world. Whatever be the true meaning of these and the like prophecies; whether there be a time still to come, wherein they shall be accomplished literally, or whether they are intended only to express the natural tendency of the universal and sincere practice of Christianity in the present world, and the real effect which shall be obtained by it in the world to come, we must not be too curious about particular times and seasons. Learn–

(1) Our duty to promote the knowledge of God, and interest of true virtue among men.

(2) To justify to ourselves the various methods in which the wisdom of God has chosen to reveal itself to the world.

(3) If we, under the clearer light of the everlasting Gospel, still live corruptly, how much heavier must be our punishment than that of the Jews. (S. Clarke, D. D.)

And in every place incense shall be offered unto My name.

The future glory of Messiahs kingdom

Two phenomena of the moral world severely task the faith of religious persons. One is, that so large a portion of the globe should not even be nominally Christian. The other is, that Christendom itself should be so corrupt and so scantily imbued with vital godliness. Attempts may be made to reconcile our minds to this difficulty in the moral administration of the world, by urging that the scheme of nature lies open to similar objections, and that much physical energy runs to waste in abortive efforts and through counteracting forces. But analogies of this kind are more ingenious than conclusive; they silence rather than satisfy. We may find comfort in such reflections as these–

1. It is the prerogative of an infinite Being to be deliberate and slow, whereas haste and precipitation are the characteristics of s limited nature.

2. Much may be going forward by secret and unnoticed processes, conducive and preparatory to the development of Messiahs kingdom.

3. God has consulted His own glory in thus far contracting the supply of His Spirit; since He has thereby made apparent the insufficiency of moral means, and the strongest objective inducements, although accompanied with common grace, to overcome the repugnance of the human heart to the humbling doctrines and self-denying precepts of the Gospel.

4. Contrasted with the stage of thick darkness or glimmering twilight between which the world has been so long divided, the glory of that unclouded day will be the more conspicuous, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. But the prophecies have a special virtue, reviving our drooping faith. This text contains a sublime annunciation of that triumphant era when Messiah shall have dominion from sea to sea. It is usual with the prophets to describe the dispensation of the Gospel by terms and analogies taken from the Mosaic ritual.

I. The prediction that incense shall be offered unto the name of Jehovah. The incense denotes primarily the intercession of the Saviour. He hath given Himself for us, an offering of a sweet-smelling savour. The Word is, in the original, the past participle of a verb which means to fume, and may properly denote any sacrifice which, being consumed by fire, was carried up in smoke. Its spiritual meaning should not be restricted to proper acts of worship, but should be held to comprise all those holy works which are the produce of a spiritual nature–those sacrifices of righteousness with which God is well-pleased. Then translate the passage, In every place whatever is fumed shall be brought near unto Thy name,–then what else is represented to the mind save the universal reign of evangelical righteousness? What is meant by the phrase, offered unto Thy name? There is strong presumptive evidence for believing that this denomination of Jehovah is no meagre expletive, but carries a direct and explicit allusion to Christ the Mediator. This appellation of God is strictly associated with the character He sustains in redemption. The elder patriarchs appear to have understood the name as a sacramental term, by which Jehovah exhibited Himself conversing with guilty men through the promised Intercessor, the Word made flesh.

II. The prediction that a pure offering should be everywhere presented to Jehovah. We have considered the offering of incense to imply the benign effect of our Lords pacification, in rendering the worship and service of mankind acceptable to Jehovah, and surely the pure offering will express the sanctification of the Church, and of each individual believer, and the consequent purity of those offerings which are brought near to Jehovah by His spiritual household. In this pure offering see–

1. The extraordinary extension and purity of the Church. Contemplate the entire extermination of the lewd and sanguinary rites of paganism, and the abolition of all bloody sacrifices, through the oblation of one great victim, who by actually putting away sin has annulled all symbolical immolations. Henceforth we are to render only unbloody offerings–the sacrifice of thanksgivings. We are warranted to contemplate the Catholic Church as one magnificent offering to Immanuel. The Church, indeed, teems with nominal Christians, self-deceivers, and hypocritical pretenders. But from this it shall hereafter, even in its visible pale, be wholly or extensively purged. Another thing constituting the adult Church a pure offering will be this–that its worship will be no longer debased with fiction and mummery. The doctrines of transubstantiation, indulgences, masses, penances, purgatory, and supererogation will fall to the ground, and with them will expire the adoration of images, saints, and angels. And the universal Church will be free from sectarian distinctions. We may also anticipate a considerable abridgment of ecclesiastical ordinances.

2. The religious worship of that brilliant age will have a peculiar purity, owing to the improved character of the individual Christians. They will have attained a much higher illumination. The conscience will then be thoroughly pure and undefiled. There will be none of that double-mindedness and self-delusion with which the purest minds of this silver age are more or less alloyed. We are even led to expect a state of perfect exemption from the dross of earthliness. The kingdom of Christ will be developed in their bosoms in all its purity and fulness; and to them it will be not less easy than delightful to have their conversation in heaven. The promise of the text is most encouraging. What manner of persons, then, ought we to be? If the blessed Trinity is incessantly employed in this work of regeneration, shall we not help it forward as humble but zealous instruments, with the best faculties that we have? (J. N. Pearson, M. A.)

A worshipping world

I. The glorious prediction of a worshipping world. We accept any promise according to the known worth or truthfulness or power of him who gives it. Here is the very highest authority, even that of God Himself. The image is very significant; it is taken from the wide circuit and prevalency of solar light which visits every portion of the globe. There can be no vividly more glowing nor general promise of the widespread power of the Gospel than this is.

II. This divine time of general happiness includes millennial glory for the world. The second image employed indicates the glorious season of true religion possessing the hearts of men in all its Divine purity and hallowed devotions. The contrast is lovely between the two figures used. Light, the most beautiful element in nature; perfume, the sweetest of elements; the incense of most precious odours represents the purity of soul-worship presented to God, whether in public devotions or from private hearts. We need not enter on the question, whether this Divine time shall be before or after the second advent in glory. The sweet incense and pure offering which Jehovah now demands and loves are spiritual devotions, true prayers, praise, obedience, love, and charity. These are to be found in every place. The coming glory of Christ in the conversion of the world is the earnest prayer of faith now; it is the glowing object of Divine hope now; it is often the warm pulse and action of Christian love and charity.

III. Our imperative duty to extend the Gospel of Christ in all lands.

1. This is the Christians duty of obligation.

2. Efforts for the conversion of the heathen always bring down rich blessings on the soul. (J. Angley, M. A.)

Acceptable worship

I. The worship which God ordains. All true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The first idea relative to Gods ordination of worship is, that human inventions in the worship of God are rejected as hateful to Him. Open vice is not more evil in the sight of God than the mockery which is offered in human inventions. There is one offering that is pure, and that is the offering of God in Christ for us, and that alone God will accept. Its purity constitutes its value. We must keep an eye upon the two natures of Christ, and the purity of both, in order to get at the pure offering.

II. The exaltation of the name of Jehovah. In Scripture the one prominent object the Lord has in view everywhere is the glory of His own name. The honour of Jehovahs name is to be constantly eyed, in doctrines received, in experience enjoyed, and in practice manifested; and the interests of the living Church are involved therein. (Joseph Irons.)

The universal spread of the Gospel

For our Lords obedience unto death His Father appointed unto Him a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. The world-wide spread of Christs Gospel is the truth announced here.

I. The scripture testimony to the ultimate universal spread of the Gospel. This testimony is full, clear, and decisive. It is given alive under patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations.

II. The same truth is evident from the nature of the case.

1. The need of redemption is universal. All false religions bear testimony to the need. And to their own insufficiency to satisfy this need.

2. The Gospel alone can satisfy this craving of mankind. It proclaims the one oblation by which Christ hath for ever perfected, etc. It shows the chains of evil broken by the great Deliverer.

3. The Gospel is fitted for universal diffusion. All other religions are adapted only for local influence; even the Jewish religion was suited only to Palestine. But the Gospel is at home under every clime, and with every race of man.

4. The Gospel implants the instinct of universal diffusion. It produces hatred of sin, and love to God and man. It impels the Christian to say to his brother, Know the Lord. It finds a brother where the Samaritan found a neighbour. It brings us to our knees to pray, Thy kingdom come.

5. The kingdoms of providence and grace are united under the same sceptre. The revolutions of nations ultimately further the Gospel.

III. The voice of history confirms the conclusions. Here we have Gods works confirming His words. The witness of history is to the point, whether we consider–

1. The importance of the conquests hitherto won by the Gospel. Christianity has conquered every religion with which it fairly came in contact–Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Persian, Scandinavian, Celtic, Phoenician, Polynesian.

2. The proved weakness of the only weapons with which it can be assailed. Persecution, false philosophy, and priestcraft. Then–

(1) Let us submit ourselves to Christs authority.

(2) Let us fervently pray for the advancement of the kingdom.

(3) Let us cherish and promote the missionary spirit.

(4) Let us contribute liberally and cheerfully of our substance to this good end. (Evangelical Preacher.)

A pure offering.–

An acceptable sacrifice

The world rose in vision before Malachi, as one great altar, burning everywhere with the incense of devout hearts, and covered with its myriad races, offering themselves to God as a pure offering. The vision must have comforted him. The glorious era which Malachi gazed on for a moment has not yet come. We may, however, offer unto God a pure offering.

I. The duty suggested. From the earliest ages the custom of presenting offerings to God has prevailed. It might have arisen from instructions given to our first parents, or from the natural instinct of gratitude or of fear. The first family presented their offerings. Christianity does not remove from us this obligation, though Christ has offered Himself without spot for us. He offered Himself that we may be able to offer ourselves through Him. Ourselves are the best offerings we can give. If we had no sense of possession in ourselves we could not consecrate ourselves to God. Every sacrifice, sincerely made for the worlds advancement, is an offering presented to God.

II. What a pure offering is. Many offerings are not pure. Men defile their offerings by their own impurity. How can man present an offering that shall be pure in Gods sight?

1. It must come from a purified heart. Mens hearts may be purified and yearn after God. Holy love may prompt the gift. Cleansing fountains abound on this polluted earth. Angelic ministries, the sanctifying spirit, the purging flame of Gods truth, the fountain of forgiving love opened at the Cross, are all ours to take away our guilt, as we seek to present our offerings to God.

2. It must proceed from a penitent and obedient spirit. The disposition of the offerer will be regarded more than the offering. Gifts separated from the inner life are of no value to God.

3. It must emanate from a spirit of entire consecration to God. Entire consecration purifies. To devote ourselves to God is to separate ourselves from sinful defilements. Offerings ever derive their value from the devoted spirit of the offerer. Entire consecration is difficult to our depraved hearts. All lingering covetousness must be conquered.

III. How it should be presented. We should seek not to mar our offering by the way in which we present it. It should be–

1. In faith. Which will lay hold of Gods willingness to accept our gifts, however lowly and insignificant they may be. Faith will lead us away from the altar, rejoicing in the assurance that God has accepted our offerings.

2. By Jesus Christ. He is the High Priest of humanity. He presents prayers, praises, works for us. He presents the saints themselves as an offering without blemish to God.

3. With sincerity. God looks into the heart of the offerer. Some offerings are presented only for the eves of men.

4. With grateful eagerness. All lukewarmness should be banished. Grateful love should animate us.

IV. Blessings attend the presentation of a pure offering. We have a consciousness of Divine approval. Every time we present ourselves as a pure offering to God we receive ourselves back again from His hands with every spiritual power quickened and enlarged. (W. Osborne Lilley.)

The Christian sacrifice

I. A definition of the christian sacrifice. As the ancient Church meant it. Not the mere sacrament of the body and blood of Christ; but the whole sacred action or solemn service of the Church assembled. The sacrifice of praise and prayer through Jesus Christ, mystically represented in the creatures of bread and wine. This is the sacrifice which Malachi foretold the Gentiles should one day offer unto God. Incense denotes the rational part of the sacrifice. Mincha the material part of it. The rational part is prayer, thanksgiving, and commemoration. Mincha, the material part, is a present of bread and wine. It is called a pure offering–mincha purum; wherein does this purity consist? Some think the meaning is purely or spiritually offered. Others say pure, by reason of the disposition and affection of the offerer. I prefer to understand, pure in respect of Christ, whom it signifies and represents a sacrifice without spot or blemish. Six particulars contained in the definition of the Christian sacrifice.

1. That this Christian service is an oblation.

2. That it is an oblation of thanksgiving and prayer.

3. An oblation through Jesus Christ commemorated in the creatures of bread and wine.

4. This commemoration of Christ is also a sacrifice.

5. The body and blood of Christ, in this mystical service, was made of bread and wine which had been first offered unto God, to agnize Him the Lord of the creature.

6. This sacrifice was placed in commemoration only of Christs sacrifice upon the Cross, and not in a real offering of His body and blood anew. The sacrifice of Christians is nothing but that one sacrifice of Christ once offered upon the Cross again and again commemorated. (Joseph Mede, B. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. From the rising of the sun] The total abolition of the Mosaic sacrifices, and the establishment of a spiritual worship over the whole earth, is here foretold. The incense of praise, and the pure offering of the Lamb without spot, and through him a holy, loving heart, shall be presented everywhere among the Gentiles; and the Jews and their mock offerings shall be rejected.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This verse is a very full and plain prediction or promise made on behalf of the Gentiles, that they should be a people to the Lord, and should exalt his name, and worship him in a pure way, and well-pleasing to the Lord. That when he casteth off ceremonial services and carnal ordinances, he will set up spiritual and heavenly, and all nations, from east to west, shall submit to them, and sanctify the holy and reverend name of God in them.

Incense; a law term for a gospel duty; and under this type is contained the prayers and praises, nay, the whole gospel worship is that incense which shall be offered unto God, which is in the verse called a pure offering.

A pure offering; both sincere, in opposition to hypocrisy, and holy, in opposition to impurity, and purged from superstition and idolatry. The sum of this verse is contained in that Joh 4:21-24.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. ForSince ye Jewishpriests and people “despise My name” (Mal1:6), I shall find others who will magnify it (Mt3:9). Do not think I shall have no worshippers because I have notyou; for from the east to the west My name shall be great among theGentiles (Isa 66:19; Isa 66:20),those very peoples whom ye look down upon as abominable.

pure offeringnot “theblind, the lame, and the sick,” such as ye offer (Mal1:8). “In every place,” implies the catholicity of theChristian Church (Joh 4:21;Joh 4:23; 1Ti 2:8).The “incense” is figurative of prayers (Psa 141:2;Rev 8:3). “Sacrifice”is used metaphorically (Psa 51:17;Heb 13:10; Heb 13:15;Heb 13:16; 1Pe 2:5;1Pe 2:12). In this sense thereference to the Lord’s Supper, maintained by many of the fathers,may be admitted; it, like prayer, is a spiritual offering, acceptedthrough the literal offering of the “Lamb without blemish,”once for all slain.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same,…. From east to west, which is all habitable; not so north and south, as Kimchi observes, the extremes of which are not habitable. Abarbinel thinks that in is causal; and that the sense is, because of the motion of the sun in rising and setting, the Gentiles acknowledge God to be the first mover and cause of all things; and who, though they worship the host of heaven, yet ultimately direct their worship to the supreme Being, the Cause of causes; and supposes this to be a reproof of the priests, who might have learnt better even of the very Heathens; but the former is to the true sense, which declares the large extent of true spiritual worship in the Gentile world:

my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; through the preaching of the Gospel, attended with the spirit and power of God to the conversion of many; whereby he himself is made known, and the perfections of his nature, and his several names, and particularly that of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus; who, as such, is called upon, and greatness and glory are ascribed unto him for the gift of his Son, and the mission of him into the world, to be the Saviour of Gentiles as well as of Jews:

and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name; some Jewish writers understand this of Israelites, the disciples of the wise men, studying in the law, and putting up their evening prayers to God, in every place where they live among the Gentiles; which are as acceptable to God as if they offered incense, and a pure offering; this way goes Jarchi, to which agrees the Targum; and this sense is given in the Talmud n, and other writings of theirs; but Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Abarbinel, interpret it of the Gentiles, though in different ways, and foreign from the sense of the text; which is, that not in Jerusalem the worship of God should be as formerly, but in all places in the Gentile world, and where particularly prayer should be made to God; see Joh 4:20 comparable to incense for its fervency, fragrancy, and gratefulness, Ps 141:2:

and a pure offering; meaning either the Gentiles themselves, their souls and bodies, Isa 66:20 or their sacrifices of praise, good works, and alms deeds Heb 13:15 which, though imperfect, and not free from sin, may be said to be “pure”, proceeding from a pure heart, sprinkled by the blood of Christ, and offered in a pure and spiritual manner, and through the pure incense of Christ’s mediation:

for my name [shall be] great among; the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts; which is repeated for the certainty of it.

n T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 110. 1. Tanchuma apud Abarbinel in loc.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Here God shows that he no longer cared for the Jews, for he would bid altars to be reared for him everywhere and through all parts of the world, that he might be purely worshipped by all nations. It is indeed a remarkable prophecy as to the calling of the Gentiles; but we must especially remember this, — that whenever the Prophets speak of this calling, they promise the spread of God’s worship as a favor to the Jews, or as a punishment and reproach.

The Prophets then promised to the Jews that the Gentiles would become allied to them; so does Zechariah,

“

In that day lay hold shall ten men on the skirt of the garment, and will say to a Jew, Be thou our leader; for the same God with thee will we worship.” (Zec 8:23.)

It would have been then the highest honor to the Jews had they become teachers to all nations, so as to instruct them in true religion. So also Isaiah says, that is, that those who were before aliens would become the disciples of the chosen people, so that they would willingly submit to their teaching. But as the Jews have fallen from their place, the Gentiles have succeeded and occupied their position. Hence it is that the Prophets when speaking of the calling of the Gentiles, often denounce it as a punishment on the Jews; as though they had said, that when they were repudiated there would be other children of God, whom he would substitute in their place, according to what Christ threatened to the men of his age,

“

Taken away from you shall be the kingdom of God, and shall be given to another nation.” (Mat 21:43.)

Such is this prophecy: for our Prophet does not simply open to the Gentiles the temple of God, to connect them with the Jews and to unite them in true religion; but he first excludes the Jews, and shows that the worship of God would be exercised in common by the Gentiles, for the doctrine of salvation would be propagated to the utmost extremities of the earth.

This difference ought to be noticed, which interpreters have not observed, and yet it is what is very necessary to be known; and for want of knowing this has it happened that passages wholly different have been indiscriminately blended together. The Prophet then does not here promise, as we have often stated in other places, that the whole world would be subject to God, so that true religion would everywhere prevail, but he brands the Jews with reproach, as though he had said, “God has repudiated you, but he will find other sons for himself, who will occupy your place.” He had repudiated in the last verse their sacrifices, and we know how haughtily the Jews gloried in the holiness of their race. As then they were inflated with so much pride, they thought that God would be no God except he had them as his holy Church. The Prophet here answers them, and anticipates their objection by saying, that God’s name would be celebrated through the whole world: “Ye are a few people, all the nations will unite in one body to worship God together; God then will not stand in need of you, and after he rejects you his kingdom will not decay. Ye indeed think that his kingdom cannot be safe, and that his glory will perish except he is worshipped by you; but I now declare to you, that the worship of God will flourish everywhere, even after he shall cast you out of his family.”

We now then see what the Prophet means when he says, that Great will be the name of God from the rising to the setting of the sun (208) It is simply said in Psa 113:3

“

From the rising to the setting of the sun wonderful shall be the name of God.”

There indeed it is only a promise, but here the Prophet includes the punishment which the Jews had deserved, as though he had said, that after they were rejected by God on account of their ingratitude, the Gentiles would become holy to God, because he would adopt them instead of that wicked and ungodly people.

But I have said, that the calling of the Gentiles is here clearly proved, or may with certainty be elicited from this prophecy, for this reason, because the name of God cannot be great without the teaching of the truth. It is therefore the same thing as though the Prophet had said, that the law which had been given to the Jews would be proclaimed among all nations, so that true religion might spread everywhere: for the basis of true religion is to know how he is to be worshipped by us, inasmuch as obedience is better than all sacrifices. And it is necessary always to begin with this principle — to know the God whom we worship: and hence Christ himself, in the fourth chapter of John, condemns all the religions which then prevailed in the world, because men presumptuously worshipped gods devised by themselves. Since then it is necessary that the worship of God should be based on the truth, then God declares that his name would become renowned in every place, he doubtless shows that his law would be known to all nations, so that his will might be known everywhere, which is, as we have said, the only rule of true religion.

He afterwards adds — Everywhere shall be offered incense to my name, and a clean offering. Why? Because my name shall be great. The repetition is not useless; for it was a thing then incredible, inasmuch as God had not in vain separated the Jews from the rest of the world; nor was it an ordinary commendation, when Moses said in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy — “Show me a nation to whom God draws nigh as lie does to you: this then is your nobility and your excellency, to have a God nigh and friendly to you.” Hence also it is said in Psa 147:20 —

“

He has not done thus to other nations; his judgments has he not made known to them.”

It was then the peculiar privilege of the race of Abraham that God was known and worshipped by them. The very novelty, then, of what is here said might have closed the door against this prophecy; and this is the reason why the Prophet repeatedly confirms what it was then difficult to believe — the name of God, he says, shall be great in every place

We must also bear in mind that God cannot be rightly worshipped except he is known, which Paul confirms when he says — “How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” for except the truth shines forth, we shall grope like the blind, and wander through devious ways. There is therefore no religion approved by God except what is based on his word.

Moreover the Prophet, by מנחה, meneche, offering, and by incense, means the worship of God; and this mode of speaking is common in the Scriptures, for the Prophets who were under the law accommodated their expressions to the comprehension of the people. Whenever then they intend to show that the whole world would come to the faith and true religion — “An altar,” they say, “shall be built to God;” and by altar they no doubt meant spiritual worship, and not that after Christ’s coming sacrifices ought to be offered. For now there is no altar for us; and whosoever builds an altar for himself subverts the cross of Christ, on which he offered the only true and perpetual sacrifice.

It then follows that this mode of speaking ought to be so taken, that we may understand the analogy between the legal rites, and the spiritual manner of worshipping God now prescribed in the gospel. Though then the words of the Prophet are metaphorical, yet their meaning is plain enough — that God will be worshipped and adored everywhere. But what are the sacrifices of the New Testament? They are prayers and thanksgivings, according to what the Apostle says in the last chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. There was also under the law the spiritual worship of God, as it is especially stated in the fiftieth psalm; but there were then shadows connected with it, as it is intimated in these words of Christ —

“

Now is come the hour when the Father shall be worshipped in spirit and in truth.” (Joh 4:13.)

He does not indeed deny that God was worshipped in spirit by the fathers; but as that worship was concealed under outward rites, he says that now under the gospel the simple, and, so to speak, the naked truth is taught. What then the Prophet says of offering and incense availed under the law; but we must now see what God commands in his gospel, and how he would have us to worship him. We do not find there any incense or sacrifices.

This passage contains nothing else than that the time would come when the pure and spiritual worship of God would prevail in all places.

And thus it appears how absurd are the Papists, when they hence infer that God cannot be worshipped without some kind of sacrifice; and on this ground they defend the impiety of their mass, as though it were the sacrifice of which the Prophet speaks. But nothing can be more foolish and puerile; for the Prophet, as we have said, adopts a mode of speaking common in Scripture. And were we to allow offering and incense to be taken here literally, how could, מנחה, meneche, offering, be the body and blood of Christ? “Oh!” they say, “it is a sacrifice made of bread, and wine was added. Oh! Christ has thus commanded.” But where has he said “sacrifice?” (209) They again deny that it is bread? for they say that it is transubstantiated into the body of Christ: now then it is not a sacrifice of bread, nor of fine flour; for the form only, visible to the eyes, and without substance, remains, as they imagine. There is in the meantime no reason for us carefully to discuss a subject so clear; for as we have seen in Joel —

“

In the last days I will pour my Spirit on all flesh, and prophesy shall your sons and your daughters; your old men dreams shall dream, and your young men visions shall see.” (Joe 2:28.)

So also we find what is similar in this place; for the Apostles, though not taught by visions, were yet we know illuminated; and then visions were not given commonly at the commencement of the gospel, nor dreams; they were indeed very rare things. What then does Paul mean? For he speaks of the whole body of the Church, as though he had said that all, from the least to the greatest, would be Prophets. Did they become Prophets by visions and dreams, whom God illuminated by the doctrine of the gospel? By no means. But Joel, as I have said, accommodated what he said to the time of the law. So also in this place the Prophet, by offering and incense, designates the spiritual worship of God. Let us now proceed-

(208) The verse begins with כי, which Calvin suggests may be rendered “ certe — surely,” or verily; and this would be most suitable here —

Verily, from the rising of the sun to it setting, Great shall be my name among the nations; And in every place incense shall be brought To my name, and a pure offering: Verily, great shall be my name Among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts.

The Septuagint render the first part as past, “glorified has been my name;” and the second in the present, “is brought.” But the future is intended, as the last verb is in that tense, “I will not accept:” for when there is no verb in a sentence, and the auxiliary verb is understood, as is often the case in Hebrew, the tense is regulated by the context. “I will not accept your offering, but an offering shall be brought to me,” and has been or is, but shall be. — Ed.

(209) As an instance of a gradual deviation from the truth, Justin Martyr, in the second century, rendered the word “incense,” θυσια, a sacrifice, while in the Septuagint it is θυμιαμα, incense.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Mal. 1:11.] The name of God, treated with contempt by priests, will receive universal homage. Jewish worship will be rejected, and Gentiles offer spiritual worship in the Church of Christ (Mat. 21:43). Place] (Joh. 4:21-23; 1Ti. 2:8). Incense and pure offerings] Prayers (Rev. 5:8), thanksgiving, and praise (Heb. 13:15-16).

Mal. 1:12. But] a renewal of charge against priests in Mal. 1:7. Profaned] habitually. Say] by acts and life. Table] i.e. the altar, polluted by worst offerings. Fruit] and food, i.e. the provision of the altar.

Mal. 1:13. Weariness] An oppressive drudgery, not an honourable privilege. Snuff] Do not hide your contempt. Torn] Taken by violence; not fit to eat, and unlawful to offer (Exo. 22:30; Lev. 7:24; Eze. 4:14).

Mal. 1:14. Deceiver] The hypocrite, professing one thing and intending another. The people now reproved. Male] required by law (Lev. 1:3; Lev. 1:10). King] An argument for service from the majesty of God. Dreadful] Jews had no fear nor reverence for Jehovah. The heathen] will reproach all who offer to God corrupt and offensive sacrifices.

HOMILETICS

THE GREAT NAME HONOURED.Mal. 1:11

The priesthood is to be transferred, and the Gentiles will become worshippers of Jehovah in sincerity and truth. A prediction is given of the future glory of Gods name.

I. Great by the universality of its revelation. Great among the Gentiles, great among the heathen, great from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same. The name, the perfections of God, shall be known from east to westthe greatness of God shall be clear and prevalent as the orb of day. Gentiles shall come to the light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising (lit. sunrising, Isa. 60:3).

II. Great by the purity and prevalence of its worship. When Jehovahs greatness is known, then incense and sacrifice will be offered to him, which are not defiled.

1. Pure worship. A pure offeringnot the blind, the lame, and the sick,pure from carnal ordinances and the corruptions of human life. Offerings which spring from hearts sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and fragrant as incense from the altar. Prayer, praise, and thanksgiving will be holy and acceptable to God.

2. Universal worship. In every place, not confined to Jerusalem, Canaan, or any locality. This implies the abrogation of the old dispensation, and the universal spread of the Gospel. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lords name is to be praised (Psa. 113:3).

MANS ESTIMATE OF GODS WORSHIP.Mal. 1:12-13

The people were poor, and offered the worst sacrifices. The priests connived at this to secure their gains, and thus profaned the name and despised the service of God.

I. Gods service was burdensome. Behold, what a weariness is it! God requires willing service. Nothing is a greater drudgery than service without love. Many are weary in Gods cause. What should be a pleasure is a toil. The Sabbath is a loss of time. Money and gifts presented to God are wasted. Everything done for God is useless. Wherefore this waste?

II. Gods service was despised. Ye have snuffed at it, treated it contemptuously, think it a trifle to blow away with your breath. If we wrongly estimate Gods service, we shall be vexed with his demands. Who likes to give to any person whom they disregard? To despise anything God-like is a symptom of a base heart. He that despiseth his ways shall die.

Such acts

Of contumacy will provoke the Highest
To make death in us live [Milton].

GODS ESTIMATE OF MANS WORSHIP

These words may be taken in another sense (orig.) You have said, behold what a weariness it is, a matter of weight, whereas you might have blown it away, it was so trifling.

I. What we think to be great is very little. Little in its substance and spiritlittle in comparison to our ability, and Gods claims upon us. What paltry gifts we offer to him who gave himself for us! Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong [Dryden].

II. What we think will be acceptable may be rejected. Sacrifices unsuitable and wicked will be cursed (Mal. 1:13).

1. Because offered in a spirit of indifference. We put God off with anything.

2. Because offered in a spirit of deception. Jews offered a female under pretence they had no male in their flocks.

3. Because offered in a spirit of falsehood. The liar, under stress of danger or desire, vows a pure, and then when the peril is past or the desire gratified, offers an impure or blemished beast. God cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked!

GODS MAJESTY A MOTIVE FOR TRUE SERVICE.Mal. 1:12-14

Because Gods greatness is known and Gods majesty dreaded among the heathen, they should offer the best sacrifice. David prepared the materials, and Solomon built the temple, under a deep sense of Gods greatness. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness (1Ch. 29:11; 2Ch. 2:5).

I. Gods great majesty calls for due reverence. Honour to whom honour is due, is a maxim of social intercourse. What honour, then, must there be due to the Omnipotent, the Infinite, and only wise God! How unreasonable for man to reflect upon his majesty by offering inferior when we can offer superior service! Our hearts should adore a spiritual majesty, which it cannot comprehend, and, as it were, lose itself in his infinitude. We must believe him great without quantity, omnipresent without place, everlasting without time, and containing all things without extent; and when our thoughts are come to the highest, let us stop, wonder, and adore [Bp. Hall]. Who so great a God as our God?

II. Gods spiritual nature calls for spiritual worship. Formal worship and bodily exercise in waiting upon God, do not honour him. If this hypocrisy, this resting in outward performances, so odious lo God under the law, a religion full of shadows and ceremonies, certainly it will be much more odious to do so under the Gospel, a religion of much more simplicity, and exacting so much the greater sincerity of heart, even because it disburdens the outward man of the performance of legal rites and observances [Chillingworth]. Christian sacrifice of prayer and praise must be intelligent and sincere, not outward, slight, and superficial; internal, for only with the spirit can we be earnest and sincere; spiritual as opposed to ritual, to anything outward. God is a Spirit (not matter or form), and they that worship him must worship him in spirit (spiritually and sincerely) and in truth (truthfully in desire and life) (Joh. 4:24).

III. Gods universal dominion demands loyal obedience. My Name is dreadful among the heathen. Men have no fear of God before them, treat him as they do a fellow-creature whom they regard, and by whom they are overawed. This is the root of ignorant, heartless service, of irreverent systems and theologies of the present time, says a writer. To correct this error, God reveals his name, insists upon his demands, and sets forth his supremacy and universal dominion. He is a God to whom we have to render account, whose presence and power we cannot shuna Father who loves and redeems us; we should therefore constantly and cheerfully submit to his authority, and obey his will. God is not dethroned, nor does he reign over a decaying empire. He must and will be obeyed in freedom or force. The Lord most high is terrible; he is a Great King over all the earth.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Mal. 1:11. The Jewish sacrifices had defects, partly incidental, partly inherent. Incidental were these, with which the prophet had upbraided them; inherent (apart from their mere typical character), that they never could be the religion of the world, since they were locally fixed at Jerusalem. Malachi tells them of a new sacrifice which should be offered throughout the then heathen world, grounded on his new revelation of himself to them. For great shall be my name among the heathen. The prophet anticipates an objection which the Jews might make to him. What then will God do unto his great name? Those by whom he would replace them would be more worthy of God in two ways

(1) in themselves;
(2) in their universality [Pusey].

Every place.

1. Canonical hours abolished.
2. Holy places abolishedsince we cannot be always in them.
3. Every time and place consecrated (cf. Treas. of David, Psa. 113:3), or the daily universality and purity of Divine worship.

Mal. 1:14. King. God is a Kinga great Kinga great King who is feared. As God is alone Lord, through his universal providence and his intrinsic authority, so he alone is King so great, that of his greatness, or dignity and perfection, there is no end [Pusey].

Cursed. The description and doom of the false worshipper.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

Mal. 1:14. Deceiver. We never deceive for a good purpose; knavery adds malice to falsehood [Bruyre].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(11) This verse contains no verb, and, as far as the rules of grammar are concerned, its participles may be rendered either by presents or futures. If we take the words as referring to the present, we are met by the insurmountable difficulty that in no sense, at the time of Malachi, could the Lords Name be said to be great over all the earth, or pure sacrifices to be offered to Him in every place. Nor can we, with many commentators, suppose that heathen rites are here referred to as being offered ignorantly, through idols, to the one true God. (Comp. Popes universal prayer:

Father of all, in every age,

In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!)

For there is no hint given of any such meaning being intended; and, moreover, such a sentiment would be quite foreign to the Old Testament, which always represents heathen rites as being an utter abomination, and always speaks of the adhesion of the Gentiles to the worship of the true God as a thing of the future. We are compelled, therefore, to take the words as a prophetic announcement of the future rejection of Israel and calling of the Gentiles.

In every place.In contradistinction to the one place (Deu. 12:5-7). (Comp. our Lords words to the woman of Samaria: Joh. 4:21-24.)

Incense shall be offered . . .This is a possible rendering of the words; but this Hebrew word is not elsewhere used for incense, and may more naturally be rendered shall be burnt, as the passive participle of the verb used in Lev. 1:9. Dr. Puseys footnote on this passage is well worth reading, as, indeed, his footnotes usually are. We prefer, therefore, to take the words thus: an oblation shall be burnt to my name, even a pure offering. In any case, unless we are to expect some future establishment of a universal offering of material sacrifices, we must understand both expressions in a spiritual sense, which is, in truth, the only reasonable way of interpreting such passages. (See Notes on Zec. 2:6-13; Zec. 3:8-10; Zec. 6:9-15, and especially 14:16-21.) If, therefore, any Christians would claim this verse as a support for their custom of offering incense in churches, they must conform also with Zec. 14:16-21, and go up every year to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. The word offering, as in the preceding verse (comp. 1Sa. 2:17; Isa. 1:13), denotes sacrificial gifts in general, not the flour offerings as distinguished from the flesh offerings. The word pure is emphatic, not as signifying the bloodless sacrifice of the Mass (Council of Trent), as distinguished from the bloody sacrifices, but as the converse of polluted (Mal. 1:7). The above remarks we have made in no controversial spirit, but simply in the interests of truth; and lest any should suppose us to imply that the above interpretation was originated by the Council of Trent, we refer the reader to Dr. Puseys Commentary, in which he shows, by quotations from SS. Justin, Irenus, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, and Augustine, as also from Tertullian, Eusebius, and Theodoret, that it is quod semper, quod ab omnibus, quod ubique. Those, therefore, who prefer so-called authority to the results of calm criticism are bound to disagree with us.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

11. Jehovah cannot accept impure sacrifices from his own people, when less favored nations offer to him sacrifices that are pure.

Rising of the sun going down The farthest ends of the earth (compare Zec 8:7; Psa 103:12).

My name shall be great LXX., “glorified,” which is to be preferred here, since “great” is found later in the verse, where it is in its proper place. The name of Jehovah is glorified and sacrifice is offered because the name of Jehovah is great. To glorify the name of Jehovah is to render proper worship and honor to him.

Gentiles heathen The same word in Hebrew in both cases. It would be better to translate “nations,” that is, the nations other than the Jews.

In every place Not only “in every sacred place,” but “everywhere” (Zep 2:11); to be understood literally, but in the loose sense in which the English word is sometimes used; Schultz, “in every clime.”

Incense Not to be limited to incense proper; like “offerings” in Mal 1:10 and again here, the term includes sacrifices and offerings of every sort (compare Amo 4:5).

Offering Practically identical in meaning with “incense,” with which it stands in apposition: “incense is offered, even a pure offering.”

Pure The emphasis rests upon this word. In contrast to the “polluted bread” offered by the Jews (Mal 1:7-8) the nations offer sacrifice that is faultless. Some recent commentators abbreviate the present Hebrew text, which is a little awkward, and read simply, “in every place a pure offering is offered unto my name.” The last clause explains why Jehovah is thus honored among the nations.

My name shall be great For the significance of name of Jehovah see on Amo 2:7; Mic 4:5. The words used here are equivalent to “I in my manifestations am great.” What the prophet means to say is that the wonderful things which Jehovah has done (or will do) have been (or will be) so great and powerful that he is (or will be) recognized as the true God even among other nations, and as a result is receiving (or will receive) homage from them.

Mal 1:11 has been and still is the subject of much discussion. The chief point of controversy is the question whether the verse points to the prophet’s present or future. The Hebrew, apart from the context, permits either translation. LXX. refers it to the present, so also a few of the early church fathers; A.V., A.R.V., and margin of English R.V. refer it to the future; English R.V. and margin A.R.V., to the present. Interpreted of the present, the translation is, “For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense is offered unto my name, even a pure offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith Jehovah of hosts.” Until quite recently commentators were about equally divided, but the most recent writers are inclined toward interpreting the words of the present; and this seems to be the most natural interpretation in the light of the context, because (1) both Mal 1:10 and Mal 1:12 refer to the present, and in Mal 1:12 at least the same grammatical construction is used as in Mal 1:11; (2) the prophet’s argument requires this interpretation. That it is the present conduct of the Jews that he condemns is quite evident (Mal 1:12), but in order to make the contrast effective he must place over against the present conduct of the Jews the present conduct of the nations.

But granting that Mal 1:11 refers to the prophet’s present, what does it mean? Some have thought that the prophet has in mind the worship rendered by Jewish proselytes among the nations, or by Jews scattered among the nations. Neither interpretation is quite satisfactory, because (1) the number of proselytes technically so called must have been very small during the first half of the fifth century B.C., and the dispersion had not proceeded very far at that time. (2) Neither does justice to the prophet’s language, which seems to imply that members of foreign nations rendered in some way acceptable service to Jehovah. Against this interpretation that the prophet is thinking of foreigners, several objections have been raised: (1) “It would be unheard of that a prophet who holds such strict views of the law, and abominates foreign wives on account of their heathen deities as a pollution of the holy nation (Mal 2:11-12), would apply the predicate pure to heathen offerings.” (2) This view “contradicts the definite assertion that the knowledge of the name of Jehovah forms the postulate of such service.” (3) The teaching of the New Testament is said to be explicit: “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God” (1Co 10:20).

A New Testament statement cannot be used to prove what an Old Testament writer may or may not have written, for it is universally admitted that the coming of Jesus has resulted in religious thinking along new lines. But even the New Testament permits the interpretation suggested. Though Rom 1:19-20, and Act 17:23 ff., do not express the identical thought, they move in the direction of the statement in Malachi when they assert that even nations other than Jews may do things acceptable to God.

The force or weakness of the second objection depends upon the interpretation of the expression name of Jehovah. As stated in other connections, it means practically Jehovah in manifestation (see on Amo 2:7; Mic 4:5). In the interpretation of the clause “my name is great among the nations” we may readily follow Keil, who, however, interprets Mal 1:11 of the future. “And the name of God,” says he, “is only great among the Gentiles when Jehovah has proved himself to them a great God, so that they have discerned the greatness of the living God from his marvelous works and thus have learned to fear him.” That this will happen at some future time, and in some cases in the immediate future from the standpoint of the speakers, is taught in several passages in the Old Testament (for example, Zep 2:11; Exo 15:14-16; Psa 46:9-11), but the Old Testament goes beyond this. There are several passages in the Old Testament which assert with an emphasis not surpassed in Mal 1:11 that the nations have already “discerned the greatness of the living God from his marvelous works” and, in some cases at least, have “learned to fear him”; for example, Psa 126:2, which is dated by many in the period of Malachi’s activity; the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, especially the decrees ascribed to the Persian kings, which deal with the period beginning with the return in 537 and end, generally speaking, with the second visit of Nehemiah, about 432, in the latter part of which period falls the activity of our prophet; also the Book of Daniel. The testimony of these passages is of value, whatever the date of the composition of the books, for there can be no doubt that from the very beginning the pious Jews attributed the permission to return from Babylon to the direct interference of Jehovah, a view which implies the belief in a recognition on the part of the Persian rulers of the greatness and supremacy of Jehovah (compare also Isa 11:12; Isa 49:22). It is seen, then, that the second and the third objections find no support in Scripture.

There remains the first objection, that the idea of Malachi calling the heathen offerings pure is absurd and “unheard of.” Is this statement true? (1) A recognition of the presence of Jehovah worship among the nations does not necessarily exclude opposition to marriage alliances with those who have not yet come to serve Jehovah properly. In Hebrew as in English the term everywhere does not include every individual or community, or even every nation. The prophet says “among the nations.” (2) The opposition to mixed marriages, like the hostility toward the Samaritans in the days of Jesus, was based upon racial as well as upon religious feelings; therefore the prophet might recognize the presence of true worship among the surrounding nations and yet, because of this racial prejudice, be opposed to alliances with these very nations. It would not be difficult to find analogies even in the twentieth century A.D. (3) With few exceptions the development of the religious thought of Israel, at least from the eighth century onward, proceeded in the direction of the statement of Malachi. Amos recognized that the nations possessed a certain amount of moral and religious light, and he condemned them for not living up to it (Mal 1:3 to Mal 2:3; compare Mal 3:9-10); Isaiah condemned the Assyrians for disregarding the commission of Jehovah (Isa 10:5-7); but all this implies the possibility of rendering acceptable service to Jehovah. Aside from these implications the statements in later books (for example, Dan 4:34 ff; Dan 6:25 ff.; compare Jon 1:14-16) must not be overlooked. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah also imply the belief in a recognition of Jehovah as the true God by the Persian kings and a desire to serve him in a proper manner. These allusions, though not expressing the thought exactly as it is expressed in Mal 1:11, certainly make it possible to think of Malachi as believing that in his days an acceptable worship was rendered to Jehovah among the nations of the earth. (4) Sacrificial terms came to be used in Israel in a metaphorical sense of acts and expressions of devotion other than the literal offering of sacrifice (Psa 51:17). The terms of Mal 1:11 might be understood in this wider sense, though in addressing the Jews the prophet would use the same terms primarily in a literal sense. If so, the thought of Mal 1:11 would be that people in every clime, even without the special revelation granted to the Jews, had come to recognize Jehovah as the true God as a result of his mighty works for Israel, and that at the time of the prophet they were rendering to him a purer service than the Jews, whom alone Jehovah had known among all the families of the earth (Amo 3:2).

This does not mean, however, that the prophet recognized the presence of monotheism in the heathen religions, or that he regarded all the sacrifices that were offered to different deities as offered in reality, though perhaps unconsciously, to the one true God. The true view, it seems to the present writer, is expressed by Schultz in these words: “The prophet is pointing out, in contrast to the selfishness and petty avarice of the inhabitants of the Holy Land in regard to sacrifices, that far more valuable sacrifices are being offered all round about to the Great God who is proving himself more and more the God of the nations.” Though, as stated above, we cannot speak here of proselytes in the technical sense of that term, the observation by the Jews of this turning to Jehovah among the nations would create and encourage a spirit of proselyting.

Mal 1:12 is a repetition of the rebuke in Mal 1:7. In sharp contrast to the honor which Jehovah receives among the nations stand the contempt and insult he suffers from his own people.

But ye Who have enjoyed special privileges and advantages.

Have profaned it That is, the name of Jehovah (see on Amo 2:7; Mic 4:5). Better, R.V., “ye profane it,” continually. The same idea is expressed by despise (Mal 1:6) and pollute (Mal 1:7). The rest of Mal 1:12 indicates how they profane the name of Jehovah.

In that ye say By their actions more than by their words.

The table of Jehovah is polluted Literally, the table of Jehovah, polluted is it. Polluted here is identical in meaning with contemptible in Mal 1:7. They consider anything good enough for the table, that is, for the altar of Jehovah.

The fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible Literally, the fruit thereof, contemptible is its eating. Fruit is that which is laid upon the altar, the sacrifice or offering. The clause, when interpreted naturally, expresses the thought that the portion of the sacrifices belonging to the priests is not considered good enough to serve them as food and is therefore despised. If the sacrificial animals were as poor and diseased as the prophet points out, such thought does not appear strange; and yet some take exception to this interpretation on the ground that “If the flesh had been too bad for food in their estimation, they would not have admitted such animals or offered them in sacrifice.” Those who take this latter view consider “his eating” equivalent to its meat or food (R.V.), in apposition to “the fruit thereof.” Its food would then be the sacrifices placed upon the altar, which would be the food of Jehovah (Mal 1:7), therefore A.V. “his meat.” The Hebrew does not favor this interpretation, and if the present text is correct the first view is preferable. It is not impossible, however, that the word translated his fruit a peculiar designation for sacrifice has arisen through dittography, and that the original read simply “and contemptible is his food,” that is, the food of Jehovah (see on Mal 1:7). If the word is omitted the thought of the two clauses of Mal 1:12 becomes practically identical. Altar and sacrifice they esteem lightly, and they consider anything good enough to be offered to Jehovah. Mal 2:13

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Mal 1:11. For, from the rising of the sun, &c. In this and the preceding verse, we have two important points of our religion declared in the fullest manner: First, the abolition of the sacrifices and ceremonies of the ancient law. The second, a pure sacrifice offered to the Lord in every place and in every nation; the synagogue rejected, and the church of the Gentiles chosen. The prophet describes the Christian sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving, by the external rites of the Jewish worship. Incense was considered as an emblem or figure of prayer by the Jews themselves. This spiritual service, the prophet says, shall be offered up in every place; whereas the Jewish worship was confined to the temple. The words of our Saviour, Joh 4:21-22 are a good commentary on this passage. Nothing can be more simple than the principle here enforced, or more agreeable to the rules of just interpretation, than to suppose that the language of the law is employed to convey these prophetic intimations of the Gospel. This offering is said to be pure, to intimate, that it would not be less acceptable for not being at the temple. See the note on Zec 14:18. Div. Leg. book 6: sect. 6 and Calmet.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 1269
THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES

Mal 1:11. From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles: and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.

THROUGHOUT all the prophetic writings we shall find the predicted abandonment of the Jews followed by a promise respecting the future call of the Gentiles. It should seem as if God intended by this to provoke his people to jealousy, according as he had before intimated by Moses, in order that by any means he might stir them up to deprecate his threatened judgments. In the passage before us, Jehovah complains of the extreme impiety of the Jewish nation. Amongst the priests themselves, who should have been an example to others, such was the selfishness and utter destitution of every religious principle, that none were to be found who would even shut the temple doors for nought, or kindle a fire upon his altar but for their own temporal advantage. God therefore tells them, that he would no more accept an offering at their hands. But would he therefore be destitute of a people, and be forgotten in the world? No: for he would take to himself a people from among the heathen, amongst whom such offerings should be presented to him as he would accept, and his name, which the Jewish people had so dishonoured and despised, should be great among them to the ends of the earth. Thus would he make their apostasy subservient to the good of others, or, as St. Paul expresses it, the fall of the Jews should be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them should be the riches of the Gentiles [Note: Rom 11:11-12.].

In further considering this prophecy, shall notice,

I.

What is implied in it

We may see here by implication,

1.

The intended abolition of the Mosaic law

[Sacrifices and incense were to be offered at Jerusalem alone, and in the temple, in which God had chosen to place his name there [Note: Deu 12:10-14.]. But in the prophecy before us it is intimated, that incense and offerings should be presented to the Lord in every place; which could not be without a disannulling of tile commandment before given. Of course, with this one commandment must the whole law be abrogated, because the whole priestly office, in all its most important operations, would be superseded. Nor is this an inference of mine only: it is drawn by an inspired Apostle from premises precisely similar. God had foretold, by David, that a new order of priesthood should arise, even one after the order of Melchizedec. This would of necessity militate against, and supersede, the established priesthood; that which was predicted being to arise from the tribe of Judah, whilst that which had been established was confined to the tribe of Levi. From hence the Apostle infers the total abolition of the Levitical priesthood, and of the whole law with which it was connected [Note: Heb 7:11-14.]: and the same inference is plainly deducible from the prediction contained in our text.

This observation shews how mistaken the Jews are in thinking their ceremonial law to be of perpetual obligation; since their own prophets frequently, and in the plainest terms, intimated, that it was intended only for a season, to prepare the way for a better and more spiritual dispensation: and, in conversing with the Jews, it will be well to shew them this from their own Scriptures, as St. Paul himself has done, in the most satisfactory manner, in his Epistle to the Hebrews.]

2.

The nature of that worship which alone is acceptable to God

[Of the ceremonial observances, when unattended with a spiritual frame of mind, God himself has frequently spoken in the most contemptuous terms [Note: See Isa 1:10-14. Jer 6:20. Amo 5:21-23.] The temple itself, as the first martyr Stephen informed the Jews, was despicable in Gods eyes, if its ordinances were not administered in a becoming manner [Note: Isa 66:1-2. with Act 7:48-50.]. It is the incense of a devout spirit, and the offering of a pure heart, that God approves: and wherever these are presented to him, there will he give manifest testimonies of his favourable acceptance. This is plainly intimated in the prophecy before us; and by our Lord himself it is unequivocally declared to the Samaritan woman; Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him [Note: Joh 4:21; Joh 4:23.].

This is a point that deserves attention from us, as much as from the Jews. We, no less than they, are apt to rest in external observances, and to think that we serve God, if we perform some outward act which he prescribes. But we must never forget that he looketh at the heart, and estimates all our services entirely by that If we draw nigh to him with our lips, whilst our heart is far from him, we worship him in vain [Note: Mat 15:8-9.].]

But to enter more fully into the prophecy, we must notice,

II.

What is expressed in it

It announces clearly,

1.

The calling of the Gentiles

[It is surprising that the Jews should not have seen that the Gentiles were, in Gods time, to be called into his Church. The prophecies relating to this subject were innumerable: yet not even the Apostles themselves, for several years after the day of Pentecost, were able to enter into their import, or to acquiesce in the purposes of the Most High. It will not be unprofitable to turn to a few passages in the Psalms, and in the Prophets, relating to this event [Note: Psa 22:27; Psa 72:11. In Psa 98:1-3. it is spoken of as if it were already accomplished. See also Isa 11:9; Isa 49:6; Isa 49:22-23 and Zec 8:20-22.] We may consult also some passages adduced by the Apostles in relation to it [Note: Act 15:14-17. Rom 15:9-12.] What can be more clear? Even the text alone, if there had been no other passage, would have been sufficient to establish this point beyond a doubt. How strange then is it, that, even to this hour, the Jews should not be able to see in us the accomplishment of their own prophecies! But it has been well said, that prejudice has neither eyes nor ears; nor can any evidence suffice, without the operation of divine grace, to bear down its influence. We see this in relation to the Jews and their Scriptures; and we must not be stumbled, if we see it in Christians also, notwithstanding the superior light which they enjoy.]

2.

The state of the world when that event shall take place

[Gods name will then be great, in every place, and in every heart. The regard paid to him will no longer be formal and fictitious: it will be spiritual and real, from the inmost soul. All his perfections will be then adored: all his dispensations will be received with the profoundest reverence, as the counsels of unerring wisdom, and as the fruits of unchanging love. The name of Christ especially, O how precious will that be! when all the glory of the Godhead is beheld in his face, and all the treasures of divine grace are received through him: verily, as the prophet has said, he will in that day be exalted and extolled, and be very high. That this will be the case in the latter day, may be seen by what took place in the apostolic age. It may be farther seen in what is yet daily realized in our own hearts: and so far will it be from being diminished by the further diffusion of divine light, that in that day the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven-fold, as the light of seven days; and the knowledge of the Saviours glory will be, no less in depth than in extent, as the waters that cover the sea ]

This subject may be yet further improved
1.

For the edification of our own souls

[Let us see how far our calling has been productive of suitable effects. What is the estimation in which our Saviour is held by us? and, What are the offerings which from day to day we are presenting before him? Truly if we view him aright, all other things are as dung and dross in comparison of him and, if we are serving him aright, our whole selves, body, soul, and spirit, are sanctified unto him, as a reasonable service [Note: Rom 12:1.] ]

2.

For the encouragement of our exertions in behalf of others

[This prophecy must be fulfilled in all its extent. Whatever difficulties may lie in the way, they shall all vanish, as soon as the Lords time is fully come. The evening shades may in appearance be more and more obscuring the horizon; but in the evening time it shall be light. As instruments, we may be but weak: but this need not discourage us. We are not weaker than was the rod whereby Moses wrought all his miracles. If God be pleased to make use of us, the depths of the sea shall become a way for the ransomed to pass over; and the rock shall pour forth its streams to give drink to the chosen people of the Lord. The Lord will work; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

This is a most blessed verse, which comes in amidst the charges the Lord had brought against Israel, like some sweet stream, in a dry and barren land, and it is full of grace from beginning to end. I beg the Reader to remark with me, how blessedly it speaks of that glorious kingdom of grace, in the Lord Jesus Christ, which was to be so extensive, and including both Jew and Gentile; evidently therefore alluding to the days of the Gospel. And I beg him further to remark, that the incense here promised to be offered in every place, is expressly said to be a pure offering. Here again, as plainly pointing to Jesus, whose one offering, once offered, perfected forever them that are sanctified. No offering but his could be pure; for even the prayers of the saints can only come up pure before God, in, and through Him, and the censer of his offering. See Rev 8:4-5 ; Heb 10:14 . And I beg to offer one observation more on this delightful verse, which is to remind the Reader, that as a confirmation of the whole, Jehovah twice in it points to his great name, as the cause of all our mercies. So then, from east to west, in the great revolution of the sun’s power, through all the varieties of the earth, this blessing is absolutely promised. The North and South are not spoken of indeed, probably because the extremities of both are not habitable; but in every place where the people are, this blessing, and from free sovereign grace alone, shall be given in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed, blessed forever be Jehovah, for Jesus Christ! Lord! hasten thy kingdom, and fulfil this promise! Amen.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Mal 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

Ver. 11. For from the rising of the sun, &c. ] Whereas they might object, if you will not have service from us, you can have none at all; for other people walk every one in the name of his god, Mic 4:5 , and the Gentiles have their vanities, and doctrines of vanities, Jer 14:22 ; Jer 10:8 , wherewith they are wholly taken up. Take you no care for that, saith God here.

For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles] I will provide for mine own great name, that is, for my glory (for so God’s name is used in that sense, Exo 9:16 Psa 8:1 ). I will be no loser by your rejection; for I have other people that will more reverence me, and do me better service; so that I need not be beholden to you. I have from east to west those that will make hard shift but I shall have service done me. I can “set a sign, and send to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud,” &c., “that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles,” Isa 66:19-20 . And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, &c., that though sick, weakly, and unfit for travel, yet they shall come on end; and rather in litters than not at all; they shall be content to suffer any hardship for heaven, as the stone will fall down to come to its own centre, though it break itself in a hundred pieces. The Gentiles once converted shall fly as a cloud, Isa 60:8 , that is, with greatest pernicity and swiftness; yea, they shall in such flocks come to the Church, as if a whole flight of doves, driven by some hawk or tempest, should scour into the columbary, and rush into the windows. There are those who have observed, that the name of God in all the maternal languages consisteth of four letters ( , Y , Deus, Dieu, Gott), to intimate that he hath his people in all the four quarters of the earth, out of all countries, nations, and languages. Deu 6:4 “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” In the original the last letter of the word hear is greater than the rest, as calling for all possible heed and attention. So likewise is the last letter in the word one, which being Daleth, and standing usually for four (as a numeral letter), signifieth, say the Hebrew doctors, that this one God shall be worshipped in all the four corners of the earth. Hebrew Text Note This Cyprian hath also gathered from the Greek letters of the name Adam; which do severally signify the four quarters of the world, east, west, north, and south: to teach that Christ, the second Adam, will fetch his people from all parts ( A A, D D, A A, M M ), and hath therefore built his Church, his New Jerusalem, four square, Rev 21:16 , and placed on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, Rev 21:13 , that all from all parts may have free and open access unto him. Babylon was in like manner built four square, as Herodotus testifieth; and Constantinople is so situated between Europe and Asia, as if it were fatally founded to command both. This is much more true of Uranople, the city of the great king, open to all comers, as the Aedilis, or chamberlain’s house in Rome was. “O thou that hearest prayers, to thee shall all flesh come” (saith the Psalmist, Psa 65:2 ), come with a courage, since they are sure as of access, so of success in all their suits through Christ the Mediator, “who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles,” Eph 2:14 . This the perverse Jews could never abide to hear of; nor can they to this day. And therehence is it that they have in their expositions basely depraved this text, and corrupted the true sense of it, as is to be seen in the Chaldee Paraphrast and David Kimchi; calling us still Gel Mamzer, bastard Gentiles, and cursing us in their daily prayers, which are not (sure) that pure offering mentioned in this verse, and interpreted by them of the prayers of the holy Jews everywhere dispersed. The rejection of the Jews and acceptation of the Gentiles into grace and favour is a hidden mystery; such as maketh the apostle of the Gentiles cry out, “O the depth!” Rom 11:33 ; yea, it is a part of that great “mystery of godliness,” 1Ti 3:16 , that “God manifested in the flesh should be preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world.” Let us pity the poor hardened Jews; and pray the rending of the vail that is yet spread over them; that the rebuke of God’s people may be taken away from off all the earth, Isa 25:7-8 . Let us also praise God, who hath made us Gentiles meet “to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” Col 1:12 . And take heed that we sin not away our light, and cause God to take his kingdom from us, giving it to a nation that will bring him better fruit, Mat 21:43 . We have a fair warning given us by the example of the Jews, Rom 11:11 . Seest thou another shipwreck? look to thy tackling.

From the rising of the sun ] From the east of Judaea the sun of Christ’s gospel passed by the south of Greece, to the west of the Latin Church, and these islands of ours that lie in the sea, into which the sun is said to go down, or to lie down, as in its tabernacle of rest (which is an expression of the old Greek poets, and the original word here used agreeth to it). All the danger is, lest the gospel, in this its solar motion, be travelling for the west of that other world, the American parts; and quitting its present places of residence and unworthy possessors; and then farewell England. Oh, let us pray that that dismal day may never arise wherein it shall be said, that the glory is departed from our English Israel.

My name shall be great ] Name for fame, as Exo 34:5-6 Phi 2:9 Gen 11:4 . Renowned men are called men of name, Gen 6:4 , and base men are called men of no name, Job 30:8 .

Shall be great ] Not that God is great, or less. Magnum et parvum sunt ex iis, quae sunt ad aliquid, saith Aristotle. But God’s name is said to be great when he is declared or acknowledged to be great, as the word sanctified is used, Mat 6:9 , and the word justified, Mat 11:19 Jas 2:21 . God’s fame and glory is as himself, eternal and infinite; and so abides in itself, not capable of our addition or detraction. As the sun which would shine in its own brightness and glory, though all the world were blind, and did wilfully wink. Howbeit, to try how we prize his name, and how industrious we will be to magnify and exalt it, he hath declared that he esteems himself made glorious; and accounts that he hath received, as it were, a new being by those inward conceptions we have of his glory, and those outward honours we do to his name.

And in every place incense shall be offered ] Not at Jerusalem only, as the Jews held; nor in mount Gerizim, as the Samaritans, Joh 4:20-21 ; but any place without difference, be it but a chimney, might make a goodly oratory, 1Ti 2:8 . All religious differences of places was taken away by Christ’s death. Therefore as soon as he had said, Joh 19:30 “It is finished,” he gave up the ghost, and presently the vail of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, Mat 27:51 . And from that hour there was no more holiness in the temple than in any other place. Though till then the temple was so holy a place, and such religious reverence did God’s people bear to it, that after the Chaldeans had burnt it they honoured the very place where it had stood, and esteemed it holier than any other. This appears by those eighty persons whom Ishmael murdered, Jer 41:5 , and by Daniel’s opening his windows toward Jerusalem, when he prayed, Dan 6:10 .

Incense shall be offered, and a pure offering ] Insigne testimonium pro sacrificio Missae, saith Bellarmine. This text is a notable testimony for the sacrificing of the mass, which Papists will needlessly have to be the sacrifice here meant and mentioned. Much like that Sorbonist, that finding it written at the end of St Paul’s Epistles, Missa est, &c., bragged he had found the mass in his Bible: so another, reading Joh 1:4 , Invenimus Messiam, made the same conclusion (Beehive of Rome, fol. 93). We shall waive their arguments as sufficiently answered by others; and take the meaning of the Holy Ghost here to be of such spiritual sacrifices of the New Testament as all Christians, even the whole royal priesthood, are bound to offer up to God. These are called incense and offering by analogy, 1Pe 2:5 , the type for the thing thereby shadowed, as Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Augustine interpret the text, Rev 5:8 ; Rev 8:3-4 . This incense is prayer and praise, Psa 141:2 Heb 13:15 Hos 14:4 Psa 51:19 . This pure offering is every faithful Christian, together with all the good things that he hath or can do. It is simplex oratio de conscientia pura, saith Tertullian. Thus those good Macedonians gave themselves to the Lord, saith St Paul, “and unto us by the will of God,” 2Co 8:5 . Thus the Romans had delivered themselves up to the form of doctrine that had been delivered unto them, Rom 6:17 , and are yet further exhorted to exhibit, present, make tender, yield up, and offer, as spiritual priests, their bodies (and much more their souls), to God, as a living sacrifice, Rom 12:1 , by a willingness to do what he requireth, Psa 40:6 Rom 15:16 , and to die for his sake if called thereunto, Phi 2:17 2Ti 4:6 . Swenkfeldians took away all external service, saith Zanchy. Libertines say, it is sufficient that we sacrifice to God the hidden man of the heart. The Pope saith to his vassals, My son, give me thy heart; be a Papist in heart, and then go to church, dissemble, do what ye will; but God requires to be glorified with our spirits and bodies both, because both are his, 1Co 6:20 . The very Manichees, that denied God to be the author of the body, fasted on Sundays, and in fasting exercised a humiliation of the body. But (2.) as the true Christian sacrificeth himself to God, so all that he hath or can; and is ready to say, as that Grecian did to the Emperor, If I had more, more I would bring thee ( E , ). It comforts him to consider, that “if there be a willing mind, God accepts according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not,” 2Co 8:12 . Noah’s sacrifice could not be great, yet was it greatly accepted, because of clean beasts, and offered in faith. It is the godly man’s care that his offering, though it be poor, yet may be a pure offering, proceeding from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, 1Ti 1:5 ; and then he is sure it is pure, by divine acceptation through Christ, 1Pe 2:5 . In confidence whereof he lifts, up holy hands, 1Ti 2:8 . And although, sensible of his impurities and imperfections, his heart misgives him sometimes, as Jacob’s did, lest his father should discern him; yet when he remembereth that he is clothed, as Jacob was, with the garment of his elder brother, the robe of Christ’s righteousness (which is not a scant garment, as Bernard saith, but reaching to the heels, and covering all the parts of the soul), he goeth boldly to the throne of grace, and covers God’s altar with his evangelical sacrifices; such as are contrition and self-denial, Psa 51:17 ; confidence in God, Psa 4:6 ; obedience to the preaching of the gospel, Rom 15:16 ; beneficence to the poor, Phi 4:8 ; &c. In all which his aim and endeavour is to worship God in spirit, and to do all more out of thankfulness, and less out of constraint of conscience. For he knows that as the greatest growth of sinners is in spiritual wickedness (as in those that sin against the Holy Ghost), so the greatest growth of grace is in spiritual holiness, in worshipping God more in spirit and truth.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

For. See the Structure (“J” and “J”, above) for the commentary.

Gentiles = nations.

heathen = nations, or Gentiles.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

For from the raising i.e. So it would have been had Israel been true. Isa 45:5; Isa 45:6. So it shall be despite Israel’s failure.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

from: As the preceding verse was a prediction of the abolition of the Levitical priesthood, so this is a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles, and the spiritual priesthood of the Gospel times. As none but priests of Aaron’s race might burn incense before Jehovah, a total change of the external administration of the sacred ordinances is evidently predicted. Psa 50:1, Psa 113:3, Isa 45:6, Isa 59:19, Zec 8:7

my name: Mal 1:14, Psa 22:27-31, Psa 67:2, Psa 72:11-17, Psa 98:1-3, Isa 11:9, Isa 11:10, Isa 45:22, Isa 45:23, Isa 49:6, Isa 49:7, Isa 49:22, Isa 49:23, Isa 54:1-3, Isa 54:5, Isa 60:1-11, Isa 60:16-22, Isa 66:19, Isa 66:20, Amo 9:12, Mic 5:4, Zep 3:9, Zec 8:20-23, Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10, Mat 28:19, Act 15:17, Act 15:18, Rev 11:15, Rev 15:4

and in: Isa 24:14-16, Isa 42:10-12, Zep 2:11, Joh 4:21-23, Act 10:30-35, Rom 15:9-11, Rom 15:16, 1Ti 2:8, Rev 8:3

incense: Psa 141:2, Isa 60:6, Luk 1:10, Rom 12:1, Phi 4:18, Heb 13:15, Heb 13:16, Rev 5:8, Rev 8:3, Rev 8:4

for: Isa 66:19, Isa 66:20

Reciprocal: Gen 9:27 – dwell Exo 9:16 – that my Exo 20:24 – in all places Lev 2:1 – frankincense Lev 2:14 – a meat offering Lev 17:8 – that offereth Lev 21:6 – profane Num 7:32 – incense Num 15:4 – a meat Num 16:46 – and put 1Ki 13:1 – burn Psa 4:5 – Offer Psa 45:17 – I will Psa 48:10 – According Psa 49:1 – inhabitants Psa 66:4 – General Psa 67:7 – all the Psa 72:19 – and let Psa 95:3 – a great Psa 96:8 – bring Psa 96:10 – Say Psa 111:9 – holy Psa 138:5 – for great Ecc 5:1 – give Son 4:6 – the mountain Isa 5:26 – end Isa 14:1 – the strangers Isa 18:7 – shall the Isa 19:21 – and shall Isa 24:15 – isles Isa 27:13 – and shall Isa 37:20 – that all Isa 56:7 – them will Isa 66:23 – shall all Jer 10:6 – thou Jer 16:19 – Gentiles Eze 20:40 – there shall Eze 39:21 – I will set Eze 47:8 – the waters Dan 2:45 – the great Hos 2:23 – Thou art my God Mic 4:1 – and people Zep 3:10 – General Zec 2:11 – many Zec 14:20 – shall there Mal 3:3 – an Mat 2:11 – frankincense Mat 8:11 – That Mar 4:31 – is less than Mar 12:9 – and will Luk 13:29 – General Luk 14:23 – Go Luk 21:24 – until Luk 24:47 – among Act 7:49 – what house Act 11:1 – the Gentiles Act 13:47 – that thou Rom 1:5 – for his name Rom 3:29 – General Phi 3:3 – worship Col 3:11 – there 1Th 1:9 – ye 1Pe 2:5 – spiritual

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Mal 1:11. God had intended from the start that the services of the law were to be temporary (Gal 3:19), but when these people became so insincere in their sacrifices it caused Him to be all the more displeased with them. This will shed some light on the language of Heb 10:5-8 as to the displeasure of God with the animal sacrifices. Among the Gentiles is a prediction that another law and service will be Instituted that will be oftered to all people, not to Jews only.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mal 1:11. For from the rising of the sun, &c., my name shall be great among the Gentiles You may perhaps think, if I will not accept an offering from your hands, that I shall have none; but in this you err greatly; for know that my name shall be great, or highly reverenced, among all the nations of the earth, who will worship me, not as you do, as if it were a labour for which they ought to be paid; but with pure minds, inflamed with love toward me and zeal for my glory. And in every place incense shall be offered to my name Prayers and praises shall be presented before me as incense. For here the prophet describes the Christian sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving by the outward rites of the Jewish worship: see note on Zec 14:16. Indeed, incense was considered by the Jews themselves as a figure or emblem of prayer and praise: see Psa 141:2; Luk 1:10. This spiritual service, the prophet says, shall be offered in every place, whereas the Jewish worship was confined to the temple. The words of Christ, Joh 4:21-22, are a good commentary upon this text; where to worship in spirit is opposed to the carnal ordinances of the Jewish service, such as meats and drinks and bloody sacrifices, or to mere external worship; and in truth, to the types and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, which were only shadowy representations of things to come. And a pure offering Namely, the offering of prayer and praise, of faith, love and obedience, of the heart and life, the body and soul, to be dedicated to and employed for God. Such, also are the oblations of real Christians for the support of Gods worship, the maintenance of a gospel ministry, or the relief of the poor. Thus, in this verse, two important points of our religion are declared in the fullest manner: the abolition of the sacrifices and ceremonies of the ancient law, and the pure and spiritual nature of the Christian worship and service.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name [shall be] {m} great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

(m) God shows that their ingratitude and neglect of his true service will be the cause of the calling of the Gentiles: and here the Prophet that was under the Law, used words that the people would understand, and by the altar and sacrifice he means the spiritual service of God, which should be under the Gospel, when an end would be made to all these legal ceremonies by Christ’s sacrifice alone.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

D. Situation: the priests’ worship profaning the Lord’s name 1:11-14

This is the second section that describes how the priests were dishonoring the Lord’s name (cf. Mal 1:6-9). It is one of the bookends that flanks the central command to stop the pointless sacrifices (Mal 1:10).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

It was particularly inappropriate for Israel’s priests to despise Yahweh because the time would come when people from all over the world would honor His name (i.e., His person; cf. Isa 45:22-25; Isa 49:5-7; Isa 59:19). Incense accompanied prayers (cf. Rev 5:8) and grain offerings were offerings of praise and worship (cf. Heb 13:15-16). In that day people from many places would offer pure offerings. This refers to worship in the Millennium (cf. Mal 3:1-4; Isa 11:3-4; Isa 11:9; Dan 7:13-14; Dan 7:27-28; Zep 2:11; Zep 3:8-11; Zec 14:9; Zec 14:16).

"Others argue that this verse legitimizes sincere pagan worship as really being directed to the one true God. However, such a notion is antithetical to the militant monotheism that permeates Israel’s Yahwistic theology." [Note: Robert B. Chisholm Jr., Handbook on the Prophets, p. 478. See also Baldwin, pp. 227-28.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)