Journal: Masters Seminary Journal
Volume: TMSJ 07:1 (Spring 1996)
Article: Malachi 3:16: “Book of Remembrance” or Royal Memorandum? An Exegetical Note
Author: David C. Deuel

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MSJ 7:1 (Spr 96) p. 107

Malachi 3:16: “Book of Remembrance” or Royal Memorandum?1
An Exegetical Note

David C. Deuel

Associate Professor of Old Testament

In the ancient world, kings used documents to administrate their domains. They preserved some texts in the royal archives as records of administrative decisions; others were dispatched and carried by messengers to officials who would perform the actions commanded therein.

Correspondence was delivered in several ways: foot runners traversed short distances; caravans, although somewhat slow, carried the correspondence longer distances; chariot-riding messengers were no doubt the fastest. During the period of Persian domination, or perhaps earlier, Near Eastern kings built sophisticated networks of roads and relay stations,2 in essence a postal system, to accommodate the movement of correspondence. With a communication infrastructure in place, they were able to expand their empires considerably.

Scripture portrays God as King. In so doing, it draws upon the trappings of kingship in order to form analogies about what God is like3 and how He works. God possesses a throne, manifests attributes of

MSJ 7:1 (Spr 96) p. 108

kingship, and gathers about Himself courtiers among whom are messengers and scribes. In His role as Sovereign par excellence, God appears as the exalted and transcendent4 King who dispatches His messengers from His heavenly court to direct the affairs of His people. Isaiah the prophet, when caught up by vision into the heavenly royal court, received a commission by the enthroned Sovereign to dispatch God’s missives (Isa 6:1–13). Similarly, Haggai, “the messenger of the Lord, spoke the message of the Lord” (Hag 1:12).

“Malachi” translated means “My [i.e., God’s] messenger.” The book of Malachi presents God as “a great king” (Mal 1:14) by drawing upon administration imagery in a number of ways: in the first chapter, God introduces his messenger, the bearer of the book’s message; chapter two portrays the priests as messengers who have strayed from the path (v. 8), leading to the recipients of God’s message; “My messenger” reappears in chapter three along with “the messenger of the covenant;5 and chapter four predicts Elijah’s return as a messenger.

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