Malachi 1

The book opens with God’s tender yet challenged declaration, “I have loved you, says the LORD,” to which the people cynically reply, “How have you loved us?” God answers by pointing to His electing love: “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated,” having laid waste Edom. He then turns to rebuke the priests, who despise His name by offering polluted food and blemished animals — blind, lame, and sick — on His altar, sacrifices they would never dare present to their governor. God says He would rather the temple doors be shut than receive such contemptuous worship, and He declares that His name will be “great among the nations,” where a pure offering will be brought to Him “from the rising of the sun to its setting.”