After the return of the Jews from the exile of Babylon, and the reconstruction of the second temple of Jerusalem under the government of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty, the prophet Malachi denounced in his oracles the most important religious and social problems of his time. The terrible tyrannies of Assyria and Babylon had come to an end, but the problems were not over.
According to Malachi, many children of Israel had abandoned fidelity to the law and boasted that evil was better than good. Malachi warned about the teaching of error, that is, heresy between the common and simple people, because many affirmed: "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them" Malachi 2:17.
In addition, in one of his oracles the prophet denounced that the religious leaders had abandoned the science of the Most High, being respecters of people and dividing the rich and the poor:
"´But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi,´ says the LORD Almighty. ´So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, for you have not obeyed me but have shown favoritism in the way you carry out my instructions.´ Malachi 2:7-9.
And about this the Bible teaches us that God does not show favoritism and that the Law must be fulfilled equally with all; but it is very probable that the favoritism that the prophet denounced was related to the search for economic gains or money, the love of money is in the Bible a form of idolatry.
Faced with all these problems, the prophet did not lose the gift of hope, and using the figure of Elijah, he prophesied the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven, the change of minds and hearts in mankind by the action of God's grace: "He will turn the heart of fathers to their sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers" Malachi 3:24. In the Christian faith, this prophecy about the future arrival of Elijah is attributed to the figure of John the Baptist.
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