An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 188: God the Trade Unionist. And the End of the Old Testament (Malachi 1-4)

Malachi 1-4
God the Trade Unionist. And the End of the Old Testament.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Malachi 1

“I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,”

Poor old Esau got the short straw, I think. Here God, through Malachi, tells of how He favoured Jacob instead, and now Esau’s descendent, the Edomites, are cursed and despised, with promises of destruction upon them. And yet all Esau did was grow vegetables. Jacob conned him out of his birthright, first by swapping it for a bowl of stew when Esau was starving, and then the trick with the sheepskin, taking advantage of an old blind man.

No wonder, perhaps, that God is now displeased with the descendents of the man He chose to favour. The bulk of this chapter is God complaining that the Israelites have been offering substandard sacrifices on his altars – “polluted bread”, blind, lame and sick animals, and keeping the best for themselves. Now, I can’t really blame them for backsliding. At some point somebody must have wondered why they have to give their best livestock to the priests and be left with unhealthy animals. However, I can also see the symbolism. It’s not really a sacrifice if you’re offering up any old tat that you don’t want or need. The purpose, I would think, is a reminder that God is always greater than you and you should honour Him. Cynically one might suspect that the priests support the arrangement because they will get the best cuts of meat, but I would never suggest such a thing.

God even goes so far as to suggest that He will become more revered among the Gentiles than the Israelites.

Malachi 2

“Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

Last chapter I suggested that the priesthood might be cynical and corrupt; here God feels the same, cursing them for profaning His holy places with dodgy rituals. By the sounds of it, the Levites have become too wordly. “For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth”, but the priests have “been partial in the law”. This suggests some kind of favouritism, possibly financial corruption, but certainly a lack of probity on behalf of the Levites. There are also complaints about out-marriage and various types of lies.

Malachi 3

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”

I was wondering why Malachi was included, as so far, although not bad, it’s been the usual catalogue of failures by the Israelites to keep the covenant. But this chapter opens with some hints of some kind of messenger of God, who will purify the Levites so that their offerings are pure again, “But who may abide the day of his coming?” – which sounds vaguely familiar. There are hints in here of elements of the mythology of Christ again (and, as usual, by “mythology” I mean a story that has a meaning, not something made up, so no-one needs to get annoyed).

And who knew, God is in favour of worker’s rights?  “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against […] those that oppress the hireling in his wages”. Next time you’re angling for a pay rise, why not use scripture to support your claim? I take no responsibility for if it works or not. (Malachi Ch 3 V5, in case you need it).

Malachi 4

“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”

And a short little chapter to finish on. The proud and the wicked will be burned up, but those who keep the covenant will thrive. God promises the “prophet Elijah” before the “great and dreadful day of the LORD”, and I can only assume that the hints of the messenger to come refers to Elijah. The only previous Elijah is the one who confronted Ahab and Jezebel, but apparently the name means “My God is Yahweh” – so this could refer to anyone willing to claim such a title.

And thus for Malachi, which was pretty much like most of the other shorter books of prophecy, with exhortations to keep the covenant and condemning those who have failed to do so (and particularly the organised priesthood, who really ought to be leading by example).

And thus for the Old Testament. It’s been a long journey, and a fraught one at times. I know for many people the bible is a source of comfort, but I find it hard to find much in a lot of the OT, full of rape and murder and maulings and burnings and mass destruction; on the other hand these things can be quite exhilarating, and quite a few times its given George RR Martin a run for his money. There are also some great human moments, my favourites probably being the rambunctious adventures of Jacob and Rachel, but I was also pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the psalms, as a very human and personal expression of what faith meant to the writers.

The nature of God, central one might think to the whole work, was a very slippery concept (and perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, as part of the nature of a concept labelled as “God” is surely whatever the human mind cannot fully comprehend). From Yahweh, one of many Middle Eastern deities, to the one and only God, various theories seem to emerge during different points of the history of the Israelites. The covenant with God during the Exodus, the more philosophical musings in the time of Solomon that include ideas such as the Holy Wisdom, and onto the grand imaginings of a celestial king in a UFO on a grand throne that stem from Babylonian influences during the exile.

Does God manipulate human politics to achieve His own end? Is He so far above human affairs and understanding that human worship is irrelevant to Him? Are angels separate entities or merely an aspect of God? You can see why mediaeval researchers were kept so busy.

And conspicuously absent is any entity identified as the Devil. There is no opposite worker of evil in the Old Testament. There is God, and there are those who are ignorant of God. Canaanite deities like Baal are initially considered as some kind of rival, but later dismissed as empty statues, mere wood and stone with no spiritual element. There is the figure of “Satan” who appears in a few books, but he appears more like some kind of trickster than adversary, like a high-ranking underling of God who prods the deity in order to test Him. Even the idea of “hell” is a vague one – for the most part of the OT, the dead are dead, there is no concept of the afterlife.

Mostly I’ve enjoyed the poetry of the King James Version. Sometimes the language becomes too opaque to understand; sometimes this is a problem, other times one can simply ride along on the poetry and feel rather than think. Sometimes the endless fire/lion/sword/earthquake/vine/flood metaphors can become wearisome, other times it throws up a great turn of phrase. My favourite, though, still has to be way back in the beginning with Genesis chapter 1, verse 1.

And the Golden Haemorrhoids, let’s not forget the Golden Haemorrhoids.

And now onwards, to the New Testament, for yet another new, and intriguing, concept on the nature of God and His relationship to humanity.