John Wesley

“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved,

“Loved you - Both personally considered and relatively, in progenitors. Us - Who have been captives, and groaned under it all our days 'till of late. Was not Esau - Did not one father beget them, and one mother bear them?”

but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

“His heritage - Mount Seir with the neighbouring mountains. Waste - By Nebuchadnezzar's arms five years after the sacking of Jerusalem, and whereas Jacob's captivity returned, and their cities were rebuilt, Esau's never were.”

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor?

“O priests - Had undutifulness been found among the ignorant people, it might have been a little excusable. But you, O priests, whose business is to know me, have like Eli's sons despised me yourselves, and made others do so too.”

For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets.

“Incense - A law term for a gospel duty, and under this type are contained the prayers and praises, nay, the whole gospel-worship. A pure offering - Both sincere, in opposition to hypocrisy, and holy, in opposition to impurity, superstition and idolatry.”

“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’

“Ye say - By your deportment. Is polluted - Not a sacred thing. His meat - Either the meat which fell to the priest's share, or the portion which was laid upon the altar.”

“But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord.

“The deceiver - The hypocrite that would seem to offer a sacrifice of the best, but puts God off with the worst. A male - A perfect male, such as God requireth.”

Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.

“Spread dung - It is an expression of the greatest contempt. Of your solemn feasts - Your most solemn days and feasts, shall be as loathsome to me as dung, and shall make you, who offer them as unclean, and loathsome, as if I had…”

Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of Hosts.

“My covenant - If you will not confirm, and keep Levi's covenant among you, I will make it firm on my part, by punishing the violators of it.”

Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us?

“One father - Abraham, or Jacob, with whom God made the covenant by which their posterity were made a peculiar people. Created us - The prophet speaks of that great and gracious work of God, creating them to be a chosen people.”

And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them…

“And this - Beside that first fault, you have committed another, you misuse, and afflict your Jewish wives, whom alone you should have cherished. With tears - Your despised wives fly to the temple, weep and cry to God for redress.”

Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is…

“The wife of thy covenant - To whom thou art so firmly bound, that while she continues faithful, thou canst not be loosed.”

At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them.

“Then - When contempt of God was grown so high. That feared the Lord - Those that were truly religious. Spake often - Conversed together the more frequently.”

So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

“Ye - Ye contemners of God and religion, return to your reason, forced by the convincing power of God's judgments. Discern - Clearly see the happiness of the righteous, and your own misery, who perish in your wickedness.”

“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

“And this may well be an emblem of the day of judgment. The sun of righteousness - Christ, who is fitly compared to the sun, being the fountain of light, and vital heat to his church.”

“Remember the law of My servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.

“Remember - Now take leave of prophecy, for you shall have no more 'till the great prophet,' till Shiloh come, but attend ye diligently to the law of Moses. For all Israel - So long as they should be a people and church.”

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.

“Elijah - Namely John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah, Luke i, 17, and therefore bears his name.”

And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

“With a curse - Which ends in utter destruction; leaving Jerusalem a desolate heap, and a perpetual monument of God's displeasure.”