Old Testament severity

"And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 2:1-4)

The author is reminding his audience of the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and Leviticus 26:14-39. He is also foreshadowing Jesus:

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40)

I suppose that the smart-alek lawyer must have been thinking about Malachi 2 and Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 when Jesus reminded him that the law and Prophets are all about loving and revering God with all your being. I guess that must have shut that guy up pretty effectively.
.

These passages me glad of a few things. Not the least of which include:

• I'm not a priest.
• For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19-20)