Interesting thought. Malachi was written around the time of Ezra-Neh. The latter is anti-climactic, legalistic, covenant-thwarting, & ineffective. Based on Torah commitment, Ezra commands the Jews to divorce their pagan wives & send away kids (Ezra 10). Mal 2 says God hates this.
Ezra-Neh is a post-Exilic reaction to the errors that led to Exile, but the ancient Jews were fulfilling Torah in the wrong spirit, which was oppressing women, children, & foreigners. They were making the same mistakes of the pre-Exilic Israelites but from the opposite direction.
This supports my reading of Paul (and Jesus) that many ancient Jews had turned Torah into an idol, which necessarily (as with all idolatry) led to oppression.
There's a nice lesson here on fundamentalism, discernment ministries, progressive political correctness (or ANY politics!), and the Conservative Resurgence.
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