Malachi: God’s Unchanging Love

by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2019

Overview

When times are hard, it is difficult to believe that God loves us. All appearances seem to count against such a belief. Yet, that is exactly what this little Book of Malachi is all about. Yahweh still loves Israel in spite of all appearances to the contrary. And this same unchanging Lord still loves us. This, then, is the central affirmation and the key argument of the book: God has, and continues, to love us, and no amount of doubting, objecting, or arguing the contrary will remove this fact.

Key Features

• Contains elements of exegetical, expositional, and application commentaries
• Models Kaiser’s approach presented in Towards an Exegetical Theology
• Focuses on the theme of God’s love

Contents

• A Call to Respond to God’s Love (Malachi 1:1-5)
• A Call to Be Authentic (Malachi 1:6-14)
• A Call to Love God Totally (Malachi Z:1-16)
• A Call lo Trust an Unchanging God (Malachi Z:17-3:12)
• A Call 10 Take Inventory (Malachi 3:13-4:6)
• Suggested Outline and Worksheet for a Syntactical-Theological Analysis
• The Usefulness of Biblical Commentaries for Preaching and Bible Study

Top Highlights

“But Malachi still maintained that God continued to love them. He also had a three-fold rebuttal for the heart of their complaint. First of all, the harshness of their present lot in life was more than justified by the people’s frigid formalism and outright disloyalty to their Lord—from the top (the priesthood) to the bottom of society (1:6–2:16; 2:17; 3:7–12).” (Pages 11–12)

“The theme of Malachi’s first message is the theme of the whole book, ‘I have loved you, says the Lord’ (1:2).” (Page 21)

“Out of its fifty-five verses, forty-seven are first-person addresses of the Lord to Israel.” (Page 18)

“in every case except one (2 Chron. 29:36) it is connected with disaster or judgment” (Page 84)

“Why did God make Adam and Eve only one flesh, when he might have given Adam many wives, for God certainly had more than enough of the Spirit, or his creative power, in reserve to furnish many partners? However, our God was seeking a godly offspring, and such plurality would not have been conducive to this result. This solution seems to be the more preferable one.” (Pages 71–72)

Endorsements

A useful and up to date commentary . . . that not only discusses the lexical, syntactical and theological problems of the original text but also consistently attempts to bridge the historical gap by applying the message of the book to the contemporary reader. . . . [This] commentary is a valuable and needed addition to the literature available on [Malachi]

—Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

A demonstration model for the application of the principles of exegesis described by the author in his Toward an Exegetical Theology. . . . Kaiser’s two volumes should prove helpful to seminarians.

—Society for Old Testament Study Book List

Stands in dialogue with some recent scholarship and offers interesting structural observations. . . . The book will be of most value for use within ecclesiastical circles. Nonetheless, it will also be of interest to the scholar working on the minor prophets.

—Religious Studies Review

Product Details

• Title: Malachi: God’s Unchanging Love
• Author: Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Print Publication Date: 2019
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Pages: 172
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. O.T. Malachi › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9781532679490, 9781532679506, 1532679491, 1532679505
• Resource ID: LLS:MLCHGDSNCHNGNLV
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-08-30T23:02:17Z

About Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

Walter C. Kaiser (1933–) is an evangelical Old Testament scholar, writer, speaker, and educator. He earned degrees from Wheaton College and Brandeis University.

Kaiser taught Bible and archaeology at Wheaton College and taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in several capacities. He currently serves as the Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2006 retired as their President.

Kaiser has contributed to numerous publications like Journal for the Study of Old Testament and Westminster Theological Journal. He has also written over 30 books including Toward an Exegetical Theology and A History of Israel: From the Bronze Age through the Jewish Wars.