It doesn’t pay to try to steal from the Lord. That is what Malachi 1:6-14 is about. Malachi 1:8 is about stealing from God. It reads, “When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.” The world at the time of Malachi: We don’t have an exact date for the book of Malachi but it was probably written around 430 BCE.[2] Persia was the regional superpower at that time (cf. Ezra-Nehemiah). Persia militarily occupied Palestine and they did grant Judah a somewhat privileged place among the occupied Palestinian nations (cf. Ezra 1:2-4, 6:1-12, 7:11-28; Nehemiah). Persia eventually lost control of Palestine to the Greeks who after conquering it (or ‘liberating’ it in today’s vernacular) traded it among themselves for a century or two – with a brief period of self-governance - before the Romans took o...