The Book of Malachi
Malachi is the last of the prophets, the one who closes the Old Testament. His name means "my messenger," and his book is wholly turned toward a coming: he announces the messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord, and the Lord himself who will come to his temple. After him, prophecy falls silent for four centuries, until John the Baptist appears, the one of whom he had spoken. Malachi prophesies about five centuries before Christ, a generation or two after the return from exile, when the Temple has been rebuilt but fervor has fallen away. His name, which means my messenger, sums up by itself his whole book, stretched toward the one who is to come. After him, no prophet will speak again in Israel: a long silence of four centuries opens, which only the voice of John by the Jordan will come to break.
The last of the prophets
Malachi speaks to a weary and disillusioned generation, returned from exile and rebuilding without fervor. The priests offer neglected sacrifices, sick beasts; the people doubt that serving God brings anything; marriages break, injustice grows. To this lukewarmness, the prophet opposes the holiness of God and the certainty of his coming. His book, the last of the Old Testament in our Bibles, stands like a threshold: it looks back over the whole history of the covenant, and forward toward the day when God will come to fulfil all. His manner is that of a tight dialogue: to each reproach of God, the people answer with an objection, how have we despised you, how have we wearied you, and God dismantles the excuse one by one. This tone of lively discussion suits a generation that doubts, not by open revolt, but by wear and indifference, and whose eyes must be reopened to the holiness of the One it serves half-heartedly.
The pure offering among the nations
Against the contemptible sacrifices offered by unfaithful priests, Malachi announces a new worship, which will one day rise from all the earth. “from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering.” Malachi 1:11 A pure offering, presented in every place and by all the nations, will replace the defiled sacrifices of the Temple. The Church has always recognized in this prophecy the announcement of the Eucharist, the one offering of Christ presented on the altars of the whole world, from the rising to the setting of the sun, to the ends of the earth. True worship will no longer be shut in a single temple, but offered everywhere the name of God is invoked. Thus the last of the prophets, without fully knowing it, already describes the Mass: one single offering, that of Christ, rising from all the altars of the earth, at every hour of the day, on the lips of all peoples. What the unfaithful priests of his time profaned, God will make pure forever by entrusting it no longer to a single sanctuary, but to the Church spread over the whole earth.
The messenger who prepares the way
Then comes the great announcement, the one that gives the book its name. God will send a messenger to prepare his coming: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple.” Malachi 3:1 The Lord whom the people await will come himself, preceded by a herald who will level his road. The Gospel will recognize this messenger in John the Baptist, the voice crying in the desert, preparing hearts to receive Christ; and the Lord who comes suddenly to his temple is Jesus himself, presented as a child in the Temple, then teaching in it and purifying it. The last prophecy of the Old Testament thus points, beforehand, to the one through whom it will open onto the New.
Elijah will return
The book, and with it the whole Old Testament, closes on a promise turned toward the future: “I will send you the prophet Elijah, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.” Malachi 3:23 Elijah, once taken up in a chariot of fire, will return to bring hearts back to God before the great day. Christ will say that this word was fulfilled in John the Baptist, come in the spirit and power of Elijah. Thus the Old Testament does not end on an ending, but on an expectation, the door wide open toward the one who comes. The last word of the prophets is a finger pointed toward the dawn of the Gospel. Between this last verse and the coming of Christ stretch nearly four hundred years that are called the silence: no prophet, no new word, but an expectation that grows. The people reread their Scriptures, hope for the Messiah, watch for the return of Elijah. When John the Baptist finally appears, austere like the prophet of fire, all will understand that the silence is broken and that the day announced by Malachi is dawning. The Old Testament thus closes not on a conclusion, but on a promise in suspense, awaiting only its fulfillment.