1:2 - 'I have loved you,' says the Lord
'But you ask, "How have you loved us?"

Here begins the first of six major what biblical scholars call prophetic disputes that make up the book of Malachi. The prophetic disputes is also called the "question-and-answer" or "catechetical" form, in which the prophet (on behalf of the Lord in this case) makes a statement to which his supposed audience then disputes. It is not unique to Malachi (see, e.g., Isa 40:27-28; Eze 12:21-28; Jer 28:1-17; Mic 2:6-11).

I have loved you
There is no greater transformative power in the world than love, and no greater destructive power than the lack, and especially the perception of the lack, of love. Knowing we are loved drives us to do the most noble as well as the silliest things in devotion in all of us. The lack of love, on the other hand, can destroy a person like nothing else can. "I love you," together with "I am with you," must surely count as the most powerful of all possible affirmations that can be made in any human relationship.1 Malachi's first word from the Lord to Israel is "I have loved you." Most English translations render this in the past tense. This suggests that that love is now in question. It is well to keep in mind though that the Hebrew language has no 'past tense' as we understand it. Instead Hebrew verbs are expressed in what grammarians call aspect, and they are either in the perfective or imperfective. Here the verb is perfective, meaning it views the action as complete, whether it is set in the past or future. The translation of the divine affirmation, therefore, needs not suggest that Yahweh loved Israel once but it is now in question. The perfective should rather, we think, be taken to indicate the state of Yahweh's unceasing love, instead of merely the act of loving. It is perfectly sensible here to hear God as saying, "I love you, always had, and always will." The fact that Yahweh would take the initiative to reaffirm His love as here is proof of that love.

This is followed, as in the style of a dispute, with a question, "How have you loved us?" This question probably reflected the facts on the ground, i.e, it may have been an actual question reflected in the attitude of the people among whom Malachi lived and knew well. Life in post-exilic Judah was tough. It had nothing that could, in comparison with what they know or have heard from their parents who went into exile seven or eight decades ago, be described as "glory" of those times past. The oppositions they had faced from the surrounding peoples since their return to the land—so well recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah—and the continuing incursion of neighbouring peoples into territories which once belonged to Judah were not events which could have been encouraging.2 Malachi was preaching, therefore, to a people deeply depressed about their own fate and state as a nation. Questioning God's love came as a natural if—from the point of view of faith—fatalistic response.

Low Chai Hok

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