“But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.
Not every prophecy is called a burden; this name belongs to words bearing God's judgment. The ungodly used it as a slur, hoping to excuse themselves from listening. Malachi's doctrine is rightly called a burden because the people had fallen into sins that could not be endured, and they stood summoned before God's tribunal.
AI summary
Commenting on Malachi 1:1-14
God has a reckoning to settle with unfaithful ministers before all others. A son honors his father by nature, a servant honors his master by compact; yet these priests, who are both God's children and servants, neither fear nor honor Him. What they do to the least of God's holy things, they do to Him.
AI summary
Commenting on Malachi 1:6-14
And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us,.... These are the words of the prophet to the priests; and are spoken either seriously, exhorting them to that part of their office which lay in interceding for the people that God would be gracious to them, and forgive their sins; and the rather, inasmuch as they had been the means...