Malachi

Malachi closes the Old Testament and has a peculiar format: a series of disputes. God makes a statement, the people answer with a skeptical question ("how have you loved us?", "how have we robbed you?") and the answer follows. The context is disappointment: the temple had been rebuilt, but life had not improved as expected, and worship had become routine — defective animals sacrificed, broken marriages, withheld tithes. The book is a call to take faith seriously again. It ends by announcing the coming of a messenger who would prepare the way, a text the Gospels apply to John the Baptist, some four centuries later.