Malachi 2:5 Commentary and Bible Study

These two verses show how much God valued that covenant made with Levi, and how much good it did when it was implemented faithfully. It brought life and peace to the people, and was a wonderful training full of deeply instructive symbols and pictures of the work of Christ. It showed how God would one day remove sin at Calvary, it taught the distinction between clean and unclean, and it gave Israel statutes which were vastly superior to those of all the surrounding nations. While the priests continued to carry out their ministry faithfully, and while the people obeyed the law taught them by godly priests, the nation was kept relatively free from the corruptions of the surrounding nations. There were even times of wonderful revival in their history. Levi – the priests and Levites, for Levi himself was long dead – feared the Lord in the sense that he had deep reverence for the Lord and was afraid to depart from the commandments of God. Never would he have imagined that he was free to invent new ritual in the temple, for he was the student and God was the teacher, and Levi was being taught by what he was commanded to do. The priests studied the law of God and were careful to teach it to the people – those like Ezra who expounded the word of God. The law was in his mouth because it was in his heart, and what the mouth speaks is the overflowing of the heart. The priest walked with God in peace because he had a conscience that was not deeply troubled, and when he sinned he came and confessed his sins to the Lord. He did tremendous good by teaching the people a godly standard and encouraging them to walk in it. Fallen human behaviour which is natural to fallen human beings was restrained by this means, and although much of what was done consisted in types and shadows, it was effective within the limits that God intended.