Malachi

It didn’t work.

God sent Israel into exile to learn to be humble. Exile was supposed to help them realize they can’t do everything on their own. When you try to do everything on your own, you have to force things to go your way. That’s when bad things happen. Instead, when you rely on God, you just focus on being a good person, and trust that God will make things turn out ok.

This is the whole point of the story of Israel. How will God help people be good? How will he turn selfish, greedy, violent people into selfless, generous, and peaceful people?

The original people weren’t great, so God exiled them from the Garden of Eden. Since then, God has been trying to teach people to be good so they can return to the garden. But people don’t learn. Telling them what to do doesn’t work. They don’t obey.

So God tried starting over with the best person he could find. He killed everyone in a flood and used Noah to repopulate the earth. But that didn’t work.

Then, God thought if people really believed in him, and believed he was on their side, and saw how good he was, then they would obey. So he partnered with one family, and when they became a nation enslaved, he freed them with many signs and wonders. He parted the sea for them. Surely, after this display of power and faithfulness, the people will believe in God enough to trust his advice.

But they don’t. They disobey God at every turn. What’s next? Maybe if there was one good human leader, the rest will follow and become good people. So God raised up David to be king over them. But even though David was one of the best, he still wasn’t good enough. Not by a long shot. Temptation led him to commit adultery and murder. His sons were a disaster, and Israel descended into centuries of violent, oppressive kings.

What’s next? God sent many prophets to preach to Israel about how to live. And all the prophets said that if Israel doesn’t live the way God wants, they will be exiled. Many of the prophets told Israel exactly which nations will conquer them. I have a feeling God knew they wouldn’t listen to the prophets. But maybe they would listen when they saw all the prophet’s predictions come true.

The hope was that exile would show Israel that trying to do everything on your own is futile. Violence and oppression don’t work. Selfishness doesn’t work. In exile, they would realize that everything the prophets said was true. They even predicted the exile. Then, Israel could finally listen to the prophets and dedicate themselves to being good people. But it didn’t work.

Malachi lived after the exile, when their Persian oppressors allowed Israel to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Malachi sees nothing has changed, and everyone is still selfish. But he still holds hope for God to finally succeed in teaching people to be good. Malachi predicts that someday soon, God will come.

In hindsight, the christian story tells us that God had to become human to show us how to live, and to give us the tools to live well. Forgiveness seems to be one of the most important tools. But we still have the choice about whether to accept this tool. We can choose to accept that God forgives us, and we can also choose to forgive others. Perhaps this is the bedrock of a peaceful world.

Update about this Substack

I have paused paid subscriptions. Knowing that people were paying for my writing was putting too much pressure on me. I’ve been trying to post once a week, but I’ve fallen short of that lately. I think, moving forward, I’d rather take the time I need to reflect on everything deeply. This might mean posting every week, or every two weeks, or whatever schedule feels right.

If you are a paid subscriber, please take this time to switch to being a free subscriber, if that feels right. I have extended the pause in payments to August. At that time, payments will resume. If you are ok with paying for an unknown amount of writing from me, you are free to continue paying, starting in August. Free subscribers and paid subscribers will always get the same content.

Malachi is the last prophet, so I’m moving on to “The Writings”. The third group of books in the collection we call the Old Testament. This includes lots of different books, from Psalms and Proverbs to Ruth and Esther. My writing schedule on here will vary, depending on what feels right for each book.