CHAPTER 1 Dec. 29 
Jacob Loved, Esau Hated 
An oracle: the word of Yahweh to Israel by Malachi.  2I have loved you, says Yahweh.  Yet you say, How have you loved us?  Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? says Yahweh, Yet I loved Jacob; 3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. 4Whereas Edom says, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus says Yahweh of Armies, They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land’, even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever.  5Your eyes will see, and you will say, Yahweh is great—even beyond the border of Israel!
Imperfect Sacrifices 
6A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise My name. You say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ 7You offer polluted bread on My altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted You?’ In that you say, ‘Yahweh’s table contemptible’. 8When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person? says Yahweh of Armies.  9Now, please entreat the favour of God, that He may be gracious to us. With this, will He accept any of you? says Yahweh of Armies.  10Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on My altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says Yahweh of Armies, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. 11For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, My name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to My name, and a pure offering: for My name is great among the nations, says Yahweh of Armies. 12But you profane it, in that you say, ‘Yahweh’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible’. 13You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ and you have sniffed at it, says Yahweh of Armies; and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand? says Yahweh.  14But the deceiver is cursed, who has in his flock a male, and vows, and sacrifices to the Lord a blemished thing; for I am a great King, says Yahweh of Armies, and My name is awesome among the nations.

Commentary

1:4 Edom (Esau) was zealous to return and rebuild the ravaged land which God had once given him, whereas Israel wasn’t, for the most part, zealous to return from Babylon to rebuild the land God had given them. And yet God still loved Israel above Edom, by pure grace. So often those who aren’t God’s people are more zealous for their causes than God’s people are for His.
1:7 ‘The table of the Lord’ refers to the altar. At the breaking of bread service, we eat of “the table of the Lord” (1 Cor. 10:21), the same phrase used here in the Septuagint. By breaking bread we are therefore like the priests of Israel eating at the altar. His work hasn’t been delegated out to a group of specialists; we are all the priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5,9).
1:8 One doesn’t give sub-standard service to their employer. One didn’t bring him a defective animal as a gift. And yet Israel gave their God the lame and the blind animals, they only served Him as far as it didn’t hurt them. They gave Him what cost them nothing. And yet they should not only have served Him as they served their earthly masters; but, because He is the “great God”, they should have given Him even more. And so we must ask: the time we give to our careers and development in them, the thought we give to our secular lives, the respect we pay it… how does this compare to our attitude to Divine things?
1:10 There was nobody to even shut the doors of the temple; there was nobody willing to fulfil Ezekiel’s prophecy / command about the temple doors being shut (Ez. 44:1,2; 46:1,2,12), and so the potential situation prophesied by Ezekiel didn’t come true because God’s people in Malachi’s time just couldn’t be bothered. So much potential was wasted at the return of Judah from Babylon, and it is in our age too.
1:13 Weariness - The repetitive nature of priestly work led them to treat it as "a weariness". They got bored with the things of the Kingdom, as in 2:10,11. Familiarity can so easily lead to our not grasping the awe of being in relationship with God.