A Book of Remembrance

Malachi’s name means “my messenger,” and his book is built as a dispute. The Lord makes a statement; the people push back with “Wherein?”; the Lord answers. It begins, “I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?” (1:2). Then the priests are confronted. A son honors his father and a servant his master, so where is the Lord’s honor (1:6)? They offer the blind, the lame and the sick, things they wouldn’t dare give their governor (1:8). And they admit their real attitude toward worship: “what a weariness is it!” (1:13). Yet in the middle of the rebuke, the Lord declares that His name will be great among the nations, and in every place a pure offering will be brought to Him (1:11).

🔗 Cross-references

• 1 John 4:19 ↗“We love him, because he first loved us.”
• Omni 1:26 ↗Amaleki invites us to offer our whole souls as an offering to Christ.
• Doctrine and Covenants 59:8 ↗The Lord asks for the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

The Lord reminds the priests of His covenant with Levi, a covenant “of life and peace.” The ideal priest had “the law of truth” in his mouth, walked with the Lord in peace and equity, and “did turn many away from iniquity” (2:5–6). Instead, these priests had caused many to stumble (2:8). Then Malachi turns to families. “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?” (2:10). Men were abandoning the wives of their youth, and the Lord calls a wife “thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant” (2:14). He cares how we keep our promises to one another. The chapter ends with people who have “wearied the LORD” by saying evil is fine with Him, or asking, “Where is the God of judgment?” (2:17).

🔗 Cross-references

• Acts 17:28–29 ↗Paul tells the Athenians that all people are God’s offspring.
• Doctrine and Covenants 42:22 ↗The Lord commands a husband to love his wife with all his heart and cleave unto her.
• Mosiah 18:21 ↗Alma teaches his people to have their hearts “knit together in unity and in love.”

The Lord answers the complaint “Where is the God of judgment?” with a promise. He will send His messenger to prepare the way, and “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple” (3:1). Jesus identified the messenger as John the Baptist (Matthew 11:10), and the Lord came to His temple as a baby carried by Mary and Joseph, and later as a teacher. But Malachi also asks, “who may abide the day of his coming?” He is “like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap” (3:2). A refiner doesn’t walk away from the fire; “he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” (3:3). Then comes an anchor for the whole book: “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (3:6).

🔗 Cross-references

• Matthew 11:10 ↗Jesus quotes Malachi 3:1 and identifies John the Baptist as the promised messenger.
• Luke 2:22–32 ↗The infant Jesus is brought to the temple, and Simeon recognizes Him.
• 3 Nephi 24:2–3 ↗The Savior gives Malachi’s words about the refiner to the Nephites.

“Return unto me, and I will return unto you” (3:7). The people answer, “Wherein shall we return?” and the Lord gets specific. “Will a man rob God? … In tithes and offerings” (3:8). Then He does something rare in scripture: He invites them to test Him. “Prove me now herewith … if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (3:10). He also promises to rebuke “the devourer” (3:11). In our day, tithing is one-tenth of our increase (Doctrine and Covenants 119:4). Elder David A. Bednar has taught that many of its blessings are real but quiet and easy to overlook. Near the end of the year, tithing declaration with the bishop is a natural time to consider this invitation.

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 119:4 ↗The Lord defines tithing as one-tenth of our interest annually.
• 3 Nephi 24:10 ↗The Savior repeats the promise of the windows of heaven to the Nephites.
• Zechariah 1:3 ↗An earlier prophet gives the same invitation: turn to Me, and I will turn to you.

Some people had given up. “It is vain to serve God,” they said; the proud seem happy and the wicked prosper (3:14–15). Every generation hears that argument. Then comes the week’s key verse. Others, who feared the Lord, “spake often one to another,” and “the LORD hearkened, and heard it,” and “a book of remembrance was written before him” for them (3:16). He promises, “they shall be mine … in that day when I make up my jewels” (3:17). The contrast is striking: the cynics talk about God, while the faithful talk to each other about Him, and He leans in to listen. In time the difference between the righteous and the wicked will be plain (3:18).

🔗 Cross-references

• Moroni 6:5 ↗Early disciples met together often to speak with one another about the welfare of their souls.
• Moses 6:5 ↗From the beginning, Adam’s family kept a book of remembrance.
• Psalm 73:16–17 ↗Asaph struggles with the prosperity of the wicked until he goes into the sanctuary of God.

The Old Testament ends with fire for the proud and healing for the faithful (4:1–2), a reminder to remember the law of Moses (4:4), and a promise: “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” to turn the hearts of fathers and children to each other (4:5–6). When Moroni visited seventeen-year-old Joseph Smith in 1823, he quoted it with a difference: the priesthood would be revealed by the hand of Elijah, and he would “plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers” (Joseph Smith—History 1:38–39). On April 3, 1836, Easter Sunday, in the season of Passover, Elijah came to the Kirtland Temple and committed the sealing keys (Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16). Every sealing and proxy ordinance flows from that day.

🔗 Cross-references

• Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16 ↗Elijah appears in the Kirtland Temple and restores the sealing keys.
• Doctrine and Covenants 2:1–3 ↗Moroni’s version of Malachi 4:5–6, now a section of scripture.
• 3 Nephi 25:5–6 ↗The Savior gives this same promise to the Nephites.

Return to the key verse on the last Sunday before Christmas. The Lord keeps a book of remembrance for those who fear Him and think upon His name (3:16). The sacrament asks us to “always remember him,” and here the Lord promises to remember us. This whole year of Old Testament study has been an exercise in remembering: the Creation, the covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, the prophets, and promise after promise of a Redeemer. Malachi 4:2 gives one more: for those who fear His name, “the Sun of righteousness” will “arise with healing in his wings.” This week we celebrate His rising in Bethlehem. As you take the sacrament today, remember Him, and trust that He remembers you.

🔗 Cross-references

• Moroni 4:3 ↗The sacrament prayer: to always remember Him.
• Isaiah 49:15–16 ↗The Lord says He cannot forget us: He has graven us upon the palms of His hands.
• Luke 2:10–11 ↗The angel announces good tidings of great joy: a Savior is born.