Sacrifices of Malachi: Mass or Praise?

Introduction

In the Tanakh (Old Testament), there are many prophecies concerning the coming of the New Covenant, one of these being the sacrifices of Malachi, and how the Gentiles (non-Jews) all over the world would offer up pure sacrifices and offerings to God, where physical Israel themselves had continually failed:

• “This is the matter of the word of YHWH concerning Israel [that came] by the hand of His messenger.
  
  ‘I have loved you,’ says YHWH. ‘But you’ve asked: ‘How have You loved us?’; ‘Wasn’t Esau the brother of Jacob?’ asked YHWH, ‘Yet, although I loved Jacob, I disliked [his brother]; so I ordered an end to his borders and I gave him a home in the desert. And because Edom will say, ‘Although we’ve been cut down, we’ll return and rebuild our [homes]’, ‘For this,’ says YHWH the Almighty; ‘If they rebuild them, I’ll still knock them down; For the ‘Lawless Borders,’ is what they’ll be called, and a ‘People Opposed to YHWH. And when your eyes see this, you’ll say: ‘YHWH has been magnified far beyond Israel’s borders.’
  
  ‘Fathers are glorified by their sons and servants bring glory to their masters. But if I’m your father, where is My glory? And if I’m your Master, where is [your] fear?’ asks YHWH the Almighty.
  
  ‘You Priests treat My Name with contempt, then ask how you’ve shown it dishonour?! By bringing unclean bread to My Altar!‘ Then you ask how you’ve made it unclean?! You do it when you say that My table’s unclean, and you treat it with contempt by the things that you bring! For, when you offer [a lamb] who’s blind; Isn’t this something that’s evil? And when you bring Me the lame and the ill; isn’t this [something that’s] wrong? Carry it instead to [your king] (The man who [rules over] you). Will this gift bring you his favour? Yes, when you present it to him, will he bestow honour upon you?’ asks YHWH the Almighty. ‘No!’
  
  ‘Now, repent before the face of your God. Yes, come before Me and beg! With all the bad being done by your hands, should I accept such things from your souls?’ asks YHWH the Almighty. ‘No! Thus to you, the doors will be closed. So don’t come and ask for My favour by igniting a fire on My Altar. There’s nothing at all that I need from you,’ says YHWH the Almighty. ‘So I won’t accept any [gifts] from your hands.
  
  Among the rest of the nations (All from the sunrise to the sunset) My Name has been [and will be] glorified. For, to My Name, they [have and will] burn incense, and what they offer before Me is [and will be] pure! Yes My Name is [and will be] great among even the gentiles,’ says YHWH the Almighty.
  
  ‘But, you still profane it whenever you say: ‘The table of YHWH is unclean!’ And you treat the food that’s set before Me as something that’s worthy of contempt. For you say: ‘It’s just too much trouble’, and then you [sniff in disdain],’ says YHWH the Almighty. ‘As you bring Me game and the lame and the ill. Yes you’ve offered such things up to Me. But, when I receive these things from your hands, do you think that I’ll show you favour?’ asks YHWH the Almighty. ‘No! Cursed is the powerful man Who has a male [sheep] in his flock and whose vow [to Me] is now due, but he offers Me something imperfect instead! For, no one is greater than I,’ says YHWH the Almighty. ‘My Name is [and will be] known among even the gentiles!”. – Malachi 1

The question to ask of course, is “just what are these sacrifices spoken of that the Gentiles will be performing”? We shall examine further.

Scriptural Examination

The first thing we must understand, is just what “offerings and sacrifices” were.

In the Old Testament, there have been many kinds of sacrifices and offerings. The earliest we see being in Genesis, when Cain and Abel made offerings to God to gain his approval. Abel offered a lamb, whilst Cain offered fruit or vegetables (Genesis 4:3-4). Likewise, we see such similar offerings from those such as Noah, and Abraham.

By the time of Moses and the establishment of the Mosaic Law for the nation of Israel, God set up priesthood to make offerings to him in his Temple, and these consisted of many kinds of sacrifices and offerings, ranging from animals, incense, grain, and drink offerings (Numbers 18, Leviticus 1-5).

All these offerings had different purposes; we see there were sacrifices for repentance, cleansing of guilt, giving of thanks, peace, and general praise.

When Yeshua died for our sins, he took upon the role of the blood sacrifices, which atones for our sins, removes our guilt, and enables our repentance:

• “But when the Anointed One appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Anointed One, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God….
  
  Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For the Anointed One has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself…
  
  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshua the Anointed One once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when the Anointed One had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet”. – Hebrews 9:11-14, 22-26, Hebrews 10:10-13

Seeing that Yeshua was said to have died once for all time for our sins, and this taking away the notion for any more blood sacrifices, the question remains on just what kinds of sacrifices the prophecy of Malachi speaks of which the Gentiles perform all over the world.

There have been several interpretations and ideas concerning such sacrifices spoken of.

Some believe it refers to a “sacrifice of the Mass” or “the Eucharist”, typically in Catholic and Orthodox churches, and others that hold to the doctrine of the “Real Presence” of the Communion, that it refers to either a “re-sacrifice” or “re-presentation” of the sacrifice of Yeshua’s body and blood to God, each time the Communion of bread and wine is held.

Others hold to a notion that the sacrifices spoken of are future altar offerings of the Christian or Jewish priesthoods all over the world after the Second Coming of the Lord, when a theorised “Third Temple” of Jerusalem will be built and a system of offerings is re-established on Earth.

And another interpretation is that of the offerings of worship and praise that all Christians give as the Universal Priesthood, or of our conjoined crucifixtion along with the Lord as part of his body.

The Mass?

For denominations that believe the sacrifices of Malachi refers to the Mass or Eucharist, they usually hold it to be a continual sacrifice of the body and blood of Yeshua being offered up to God in some mystical manner, and other churches also hold to a similar view through symbolism, even without a mystical real presence doctrine.

We must recognise of course that this ‘assumes’ that the sacrifices being spoken of by Malachi are sin offerings, or blood offerings, animals, or other such similar offerings, and not just merely gift offerings of another kind. There is an assumption made as the premise of the interpretation, that there is only one kind of sacrifice it could refer to. 

However, as formally noted, there are many sacrifices, grain, drink, crop, incense, service, etc…  In both the Hebrew and Greek, the phrase for the Gentile “offering” in Malachi, can also mean any of these offerings:

“מִנְחָה, Minchah
gift, oblation, meat offering, present, sacrifice

From an unused root meaning to apportion, i.e. Bestow; a donation; euphemistically, tribute; specifically a sacrificial offering (usually bloodless and voluntary) — gift, oblation, (meat) offering, present, sacrifice”. – Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

“מִנְחָה
gift, present, tribute, offering made to God, of any kind, whether grain or animals, grain offering (whether raw, roasted, ground to flour, or prepared as bread or cakes), fine flour with oil and frankincense, new grain offering of two loaves of leavened bread, barley meal without oil or incense…” – Brown-Driver-Briggs

“θυσία, thusia
a gift, tribute, offering” – Strong’s Concordance

“2378 thysía – properly, an offering (sacrifice); an official sacrifice prescribed by God; hence an offering the Lord accepts because offered on His terms…. refers to various forms of OT blood sacrifices (“types”) – all awaiting their fulfillment in their antitype, Jesus Christ (Heb 10:5-12)”. – HELPS Word-studies

The Hebrew and Greek we see, could both refer to any and all kinds sacrifices, and have been used to refer to all such kinds of sacrifices.

It has been noted, even by some Catholic scholars, that the term for offering used in Malachi, more readily refers to grain or bread offerings in the manner it is used in the original Hebrew texts.

“From the term which the Prophet Malachi uses, וּמִנְחָ֣ה (pronounced: min-khaw), when it comes to that term throughout scripture, it’s usually used to refer to bread sacrifices, or grain offerings, even though there are also times when, if prefixed by some other term, it can be referring to the sacrifice of praise as well, and the term also is used sometimes to refer to “the meal” which is eaten around the sacrifice. Such as with the beginning of Samuel with the High Priests sons who are abusing their roles, that term is what would be referred to by the meal that some of them are eating.

The term though, is almost always used in the context that it’s used in Malachi 1:11 as referencing some sort of bread or grain offering. When it is used to refer to indicate a sacrifice of praise, or a sacrifice of thanksgiving it is almost always affixed with a certain term specifying that. When it is used alone, almost always and especially in this time period it’s either referring to a ritual meal, or the grain offering“. – Cardinal Robert Bellarmine

Such is also the pattern we readily see in concordant reference listings:

Of course, the argument presented by theologians of the Mass and Real Presence, is the notion that it refers to the “sacrifice of bread” during the Mass, and thereby they attempt to draw a connection between the body of the Lord, and the grain or bread offering being a “sacrifice” that would be performed by Christians all over the world, via the Lord’s Supper or Communion.

However, we must bear in mind, that grain and bread offerings were never sin offerings in scripture, and therefore, the “real presence” of the Eucharist cannot be made to be compared to a grain offering as this text speaks of, for the grain offerings did not cover sin, but only animal blood sacrifices (Hebrews 9:22) which are differentated from grain and bread offerings in the Torah (Leviticus 2-5), Yeshua’s body and blood being a typology the former, not the latter, a high priest blood atonement sacrifice:

• “When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to YHWH, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it… If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before YHWH… And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of YHWH’s commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them… he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to YHWH for a sin offering.’ YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, ‘If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of YHWH, he shall bring to YHWH as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering‘”. – Leviticus 2:1; 3:1; 4:1-3; 5:14-15
• “…YHWH said to Moses, ‘…Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering… Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before YHWH at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for YHWH and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for YHWH and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before YHWH to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself…. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses”. – Leviticus 16:2-3, 6-11, 15-16
• “Yet it was the will of YHWH to crush him [the Messiah]; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of YHWH shall prosper in his hand”. – Isaiah 53:10
•  “…how much more will the blood of the Anointed One, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God… he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself“. – Hebrews 9:14, 26
• “God presented him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.” – Romans 3:25

The Eucharist of the Catholic and Orthodox Mass is often considered a re-presentation of Yeshua’s “sin offering”, and thereby there can be no comparison or parallel between the grain and bread offerings of Malachi, and the Mass of bread and wine which is said to be the transubstantiated or otherwise spiritually present sacrifice or offering of his real body and blood. To add a further complication, those who believe in transubstantiation, believe the bread and wine are “no longer” bread and wine, and therefore it can no longer even be considered “grain”, for the ‘bread’ is “no longer present”, but his body. And those who believe in Consubstantiation, that the body the Lord becomes “ingrained into” the bread that still remains present, are guilty over conflating two different kinds of offering as one.

Thereby, to contrast a grain offering, which according to the Law, was an offering of giving thanks, gifts and praise, not sin, guilt or atonement sacrifice, is inappropriate.

We do see in the Law, that sometimes grain or bread and drink offerings were done ‘in tandem’ with other offerings, such as animal sacrifices for giving thanks, but this was always understood as a thanks giving meal “along with” and “distinct” from the animal or blood sacrifice offering in itself. We even see this in the Passover festival, which in itself was a forshadowing of Yeshua as the sacrifical lamb:

• “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that one may offer to YHWH. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and loaves of fine flour well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with loaves of leavened bread. And from it he shall offer one loaf from each offering, as a gift to YHWH. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning”. – Leviticus 7:11-15
• “Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household… and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it”. – Exodus 12:3-4, 6-8

This thereby makes the Malachi sacrifice of grain or bread completely unrelated to the real body and blood of Yeshua “in itself”, but it is to be understood as something that is offered “alongside” it.

Another important detail to focus on, is that God Yah praises the Gentiles for their clean sacrifices given to him, ‘in contrast’ to the Israelites who give him polluted sacrifices.

The Gentile’s sacrifices are clean, not because they are clean by innate or ontological perfection, but because of the “peformances” or holiness of the sacrifices of the Gentile worshippers, which makes their offerings clean, in contrast to the sinful Israelites.

It shows that both sacrifices being spoken of can be made dirty or clean by those performing them, and ‘hence’ God berates the Israelites for that which the future Gentile majority will do better than the Jewish majority, fulfilling several New Testament scriptures, which describe the Gentiles more readily accepting the Gospel and praising God in more holiness, than the Jews (Acts 13:44-48).

In contrast, Lord Yeshua’s offering is ‘not’ reliant on the performance of men to be unpolluted, but our independent offerings and acts of worship are, and that is why the Gentiles are being praised by God in their cleaner and better offerings than the Israelite’s, and that is the theme of the chastisement. Without the offerings having the potential of being polluted, then the parallelism between the unrighteous Jew and righteous Gentile is robbed of its intent. 

We see the sacrifices of Malachi ‘can’ be polluted, which is the entire point of the praise of the Gentile sacrifices for being unpolluted in comparison to the Israelite sacrifices.

Yeshua’s sacrifice is the only eternally unpolluted sacrifice in of itself, and of which can only be offered up by himself as the pure, unpolluted high priest (Hebrews 4:14, John 10:18), which is not comparable to the Gentile sacrifices in themselves being praiseworthy on ‘their’ (the Gentile’s) part for their lack of pollution.

Of course, we can still make an argument or potential connection between the offerings of Malachi and the Lord’s Communion of bread and wine. As aforementioned, the grain, bread and drink offerings were often offered “alongside” the blood offerings, as means of praise and giving of thanks.

It is interesting to note that the early Christians, from at least as early as the 2nd Century, began to call the Lord’s Supper the “Eucharist” which is Greek for “Thanksgiving”. If we are to understand the context that the Lord’s meal was said to be “rememberance” and “proclamation” of the Lord (Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:26), then it is our way therefore of praising and thanking the Lord Yeshua and God for what they have done for us.

As Yeshua’s blood and body sacrifice was said to be one offering once for all time (Hebrews 7:27), then this means there is no need to keep repeatedly offering up his sacrifice to God, but we can however, in the manner of thanksgiving, just as was done by the Israelites alongside their blood sacrifices, eat the meal of bread and wine, of which in itself thematically represents his body and blood, as the meal offering given to God “alongside” Yeshua’s ‘single’, ‘true’ and ‘real’ body and blood offering that was done once on the timber he was crucified upon in the 1st Century.

We also can find this interpretation of the offering, far more in line with the notion of a “meal” or “bread” offering in accordance with the Torah, for it is not a presentation or performance of “the sin offering” on the altar in itself which we are offering or partaking in our Communion of bread and wine, but an honour, rememberance, and thanks of it.

This form of thanks and praise offering by means of our practice of Communion, also, unlike Yeshua’s own true and real sacrifice, ‘can’ be polluted by our misconduct (1 Corinthians 11:20-22, 27-29, 33-34), and hence, we find fullilment in this respect of Malachi, of the majority of Christians holding the Communion in a clean, honourable and praiseworthy way, along with repentance of our sins.

Future Sacrifices?

Some hold the view that Malachi is yet future, and will rely either on the building of a third temple of Jerusalem to restore the sacrificial offering system, or that it will rely upon the coming of New Jerusalem from above, the Bride of Lord Yeshua (Revelation 21:2), who will then act as priests all over the world to perform said physical offerings once more.

In light of awaiting a third physical temple to be built in Israel, it is wise to remember that the scriptures tell us that faithful Christians make up this new temple, which is the Body of Yeshua and his bride to be:

• “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua [the] Anointed….” – 1 Peter 2:4-5
• “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’. This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about the Anointed One and the Congregation“. – Ephesians 5:32

It is also wise to remember that Malachi tells us it is a “world wide” offering, as opposed to the Israelite Temple offerings, and thus is not reliant on a location. This echoing Yeshua’s words to the woman at the well that worship of God would no longer be on physical mountains or in temples (John 4:21-23).

Of course this does not take away the potential notion that the sacrifices may be performed by the Universal Christian Priesthood which will meet the Lord in the air at his Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4:17) and then descend down to the Earth to rule it as kings and priests.

Such sacrifices of course, would not be animal or blood offerings, since as we’ve seen Yeshua was the final of such types of sacrifices, and Malachi more readily speaks of grain and incense offerings.

The big question to ask however, is whether or not it makes sense to believe that any kind of “physical” system of offerings will return in the future Kingdom. It would be apparent that the Lord’s preaching intended to further spiritualise worship of God, and to make to take physical things to their higher and more perfect prinicples, through himself and his followers being that Temple in themselves, rather than something of localised ritual worship.

If we ourselves make up that Temple which fills the whole Earth, then in order to perform a sacrifice or offering via said Temple “altars”, then it means the offerings have to be given up inside of ourselves, us being the “physical construct” of said Temple – and in that respect, it makes little sense to think that in the New Kingdom, we will all be on our hands and knees roleplaying being tables or sacrifical altars for grain and incense to be burned a top of us.

It does however lend to the interpretation of the offerings being of our own worship, devotion, and praise.

Offerings of Praise & Worship

As mentioned in the article on the Universal Christian Priesthood, we see in scripture the kinds of sacrifices Christians are said to give, which ‘can’ be compared to such grain offerings, services, and incense:

• “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” – Psalm 141:2
• “And at the hour of the incense offering, the whole congregation was praying outside.” – Luke 1:10
• “And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.” – Acts 10:4
• “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin“. – Romans 6:6
• “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”. – Romans 12:1
• “Through him [Yeshua] then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” – Hebrews 13:15
• “…you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua [the] Anointed.” – 1 Peter 2:4
• “Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the set-apart, on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the set-apart, rose up before God from the hand of the angel.” – Revelation 8:3-4

Furthermore, we see that being a part of Yeshua’s body, Christians are living unbloody sacrifices, and sometimes they are bloody if literal death for the Gospel is involved. We note that the saints, or “set apart”, are the holy ones of the Christians all over the world, their sacrifices being their prayers, service, suffering and even martyrdom in some cases. 

We are told by the Apostles, we “die with him” when we are baptised and put faith in him, becoming sacrifices ‘with him’ in death by faith:

• “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him (ie; sacrificed as he with him), we will also live with him”. – 2 Timothy 2:11, Romans 6:8

We see here, we too are being crucified all over the world when we have faith in him. A new kind of sacrifice never seen before in Judaism, where one man becomes man at the same time by unity of faith and the conjoining of many bodies as one. This fulfilling Lord Yeshua’s instructions in part when he says “carry your timber (or cross) with me” (Matthew 16:24). Hence we are all that global sacrifice living with Yeshua and being dead at the same time, hung on a cross whilst we are living. Dead to sin and our old way, and alive in the new life with him. His sacrifice being once for all time and complete, and world wide, we ourselves being the new sacrifices being his body by means of faith and service and suffering, echoes and images of the same sacrifice, yet new and continual each day in our ever living dedication.

This also fulfills a typology from Isaiah, in how our own sacrifices in this manner, are identified with the Lord’s own sacrifice as we “die his death” in this process and become a world wide sacrifice, the whole Church being the physical living manifestation of Malachi and Isaiah both. The dualistic application of Spiritual Israel and the Messiah as one sacrificed body and Suffering Servant, which as I mentioned in that article, explains why both Israel and one man are both said to be the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4, Isaiah 43:1,10, Isaiah 11:12, Isaiah 53:9).

As Christians, both Jew and Gentile, are considered the “true Israel” according to Yeshua (John 8:39, Galatians 3:29), and that they also are considered to be his family (Matthew 12:48-50), and his body (John 17:21, 1 Corinthians 12:27), fellow heirs and judges (Revelation 1:6), his Adamic children (1 Corinthians 15:45), and his Bride to be (2 Corinthians 11:2), of “New Israel”, which according to the writings of Apostles Peter and Paul, “suffer and die along with him” (Romans 8:17, 1 Peter 4:1).

In this sense, all with faith in Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah, are said to be becoming “suffering servants” along with him, though it is ultimately Jesus himself that was the one ultimate sacrifice for all time (Hebrews 10:12, Colossians 1:24).

The fulfilling of Yeshua being the ultimate Suffering Servant, and making us one with his body, in turn makes us a part of this, and therefore it can be understood that a larger fulfillment of Isaiah’s passage in the collective sense for all of “Israel”, that is, those who do the Father’s will, and follow his Son, according to Yeshua, which makes them truly Israel and “sons of Abraham”, is also fulfilled.

And so, the mass unbloody sacrifice, is better justified to be that of our own faith in Yeshua, and service, praise, worship, prayer, conjoining etc, for it fulfills all kinds of sacrifices; the grain, drink, incense, blood, etc. Spiritual Israel as Yeshua’s body and temple, as living sacrifices, being that world wide sacrifice of Malachi. This is a more appropriate interpretation in being the typology of the grain offering, unlike a re-presented sacrifice of sin and atonement via the “Real Presence of the Eucharist” which would ‘not’ be a grain offering. And also being more appropriate than the notion of any future physical altar offerings in accordance with the revelations of the New Covenant.

Conclusion

We’ve seen that overall, the fulfillment of Malachi‘s offerings can be found in the Universal Christian Priesthood, the offerings, sacrifice, worship and service performed by us all to God.

The grain and bread offerings being not of sin, according to the Torah, but of thanksgiving and praise, along with the offering of prayerful incense. A typology which is found in our inward worship and outward expressions to God from ourselves who make up the Temple of God and the Body of the Lord Yeshua – dying with him in an unbloody way, and still being alive as we worship and offer ourselves clean toward our God.

The Lord’s Supper also, being in tandem with this thanks giving and praise of bread and grain, as we eat the meal offering which finds its place next to in tandem with the blood atonement offering for our sins that was given up by our Lord Yeshua, as an honour and remembrance of it, just as loaves were eaten alongside in honour and thanks of the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant.