Clinton R. Gill Commentary On Malachi 1 Jewish tradition says that prophecy -continued forty years under the second temple, and this prophet (Malachi) they call the seal of prophecy, because in him the series or succession of prophets broke off. The traditional Christian view is that Malachi is the link between the' (bid and New Covenants. Tertullian called him "the shirt and boundary of Christianity.” The authenticity of this writing is established by references to it in the New Testament, (eg. Matthew 11:10, Matthew 17:12, Mark 1:2, Mark 9:11-12; Luke 1:17; Romans 9:13). Malachi’ s exact date we do not know, but it is probably about 460 B.C. Some have placed it ,a-s late as 424 B.C. The remnant had returned from Babylon in 538 B.C. Haggai and Zechariah had succeeded in getting them to rebuild the temple in 520516 B.C. In 457 Ezra had lent his assistance to Jewish national restoration. Fifteen years later in 444 B.C., Nehemiah had rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. In all, about a century had lapsed since the return from captivity. There was no resurgence of the idolatry which had driven their fathers into such punishment, but indifference and lack of real commitment were the order of the day. The laxity of the priests in teaching and enforcing the law was evidenced in the people’ s lack of support of the temple services, Unacceptable sacrifice of the worst rather than the first of their flocks were brought to God. Tithes went unpaid and the practice of intermarrying with Gentile women again reared its ugly head. (cp. Ezra 9) In this state the coming of the Messiah for Whom they waited was in reality a threat rather than a promise. We do not know the name of the author of this last Old Testament writing. The word Malachi means "my messenger” and is the name of the writer’ s function. It is suggested that he is called Malachi because of his emphatic prediction of a personal Messiah. The term "Malachi” is actually translated "my messenger” in Malachi 3:1. This primary prediction of the book (3:1) is applied to John the Baptist, also the Messiah’ s messenger, (cp. Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2, huke 7:17, Matthew 17:10-12, Mark 9:11-12, Luke 1:16-17) Most commentators point out that Malachi’ s prophecy coincided with the first period of Daniel’ s seventy weeks (cf. Daniel 9:24). Thus the emphasis upon him as the Messiah’ s messenger seems fitting. MALACHI’ S MESSAGE . . .Malachi’ s central concern is for fidelity to the covenant. (See the Covenant Theme in the Prophets, chapter III.) The priests have corrupted the worship which was designed to perpetuate covenant consciousness among the people. The men are marrying foreign women and so opening the door to idolatry as had Solomon of old. In refuting this evil, Malachi rises to one of the heights of Old Testament prophecy in describing the purpose of the covenant in the ultimate worship of God among the Gentiles. His references to God as Father, the ideal priest, and the blessings of true obedience are equally striking in their Messianic overtones. He further clarifies, "the Day of the Lord,” and points to the forerunner of the Messiah. It is no doubt for these reasons that Malachi immediately precedes the New Testament in our English versions of the Bible. The next word from Jehovah to His people is John’ s preaching. ; OF . Malachi 1:1. Malachi 1:1 ---The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by Malachi. LXX ... The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of his messenger. Lay it, I pray you, to heart. Malachi begins with the prophet’ s usual' claim to inspiration, “ the burden of the word of Jehovah,” The message is to Israel. The term "Israel” appears four times in Malachi. Malachi 1:1, 1:5, 2:16, and Malachi 4:4) There can be little doubt that its use in this nontext is designed to underscore the covenant relationship of the people to Jehovah. (See review of the use of "Israel” in Chapter IV, comments on Micah 1:5) The message will first convince, then comfort; first discover sin, then reprove it. It will reach its climax in the promise of Him Who is to take away sin. - GOD LOVES ISRAELMal_1:2-5 Malachi 1:2-5 ---I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’ s brother? saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever. And' your eyes shallv.see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond the border of Israel. In these verses Israel is charged with being insensible to God’ s love. To overcome this insensitivity, He says emphatically, "I have loved you.” It is not the first time He has declared His love, (cp. Jeremiah 11:3-4) All of His dealings, from the initial establishment of the covenant, have been the result of this love. In answer to the anticipated question "Wherein hast thou loved us?” Jehovah answers specifically in terms of His preference for Jacob over Esau. The Jews were prone to think of themselves as superior to other races. Here God reminds them He has shown His love to them, not just in preference to other races, but in preference over those of their own race. Jacob and Esau were twin brothers, yet God established His covenant with Jacob, father of all Israelites, rather than with Esau, father of the Edomites. "I loved Jacob ... I hated Esau.” God does not, of course, unequivocally, hate any man or race of men. (cf. Acts 10:34-35) This statement must be kept in context. It is in contrast to His great love for His covenant people that His love for others seems hatred by comparison. Much in the same vein, Jesus de¬mands that we "hate” father, mother, brother, sister, wife and even self. (Luke 14:26) We know He does not want us to literally hate anyone, (cp. Matthew 5:43-48) Neither does He hate anyone, excepting in comparison to His love for His chosen people. The evidence of His preferential love for Israel over Edom is pictured im contrast of Edom’ s homeland to the "land flowing with milk and honey” into which He led His people. Edom lies southeast of the Dead Sea in the Arabian desert. Its capital, Petra, was cut out. of solid red limestone cliffs. The surrounding area is desolate and. barren. Paul set upon the contrast between Jacob and Esau in establishing God’ s love for His covenant people. (Romans 9:13) The apostle points out the contrast is not between two nations per se, for “ they are not all Israel that are of Israel.” (Romans 9:6) The real contrast is between the covenant people and the noncovenant people for “ this is a word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” ' (Romans 9:9-13) Since it was His promise to redeem all mankind that was the heart of His covenant, His preferential treatment of Israel is ultimately .evidence of His love even for Edom! Nevertheless, in the years before Christ, He could point with justification to His treatment of His people in comparison to others as evidence of His love. Malachi 1:6-9 Malachi 1:6 ---God’ s love and faithfulness to His covenant people stands in stark contrast to their unfaithfulness to Him. They neither fear Him as a master nor honor Him as a father . . . and their priests are the chief offenders. The severe reproof of the priests is a just one. They have profaned the holy things of God with which they were intrusted. It was their sin that was leading the people to be unfaithful. They took His name in vain, not by pronouncing it in profanity, but by offering unacceptable sacrifices to him. They are accused of polluting the altar. When they deny the charge, saying, “ Wherein have we polluted thee?” , Jehovah’ s answer is “ In that ye say the table of Jehovah is contemptible.” Malachi 1:7 ---The term “ bread of God” is synonymous with “ sacrifices to God” (Leviticus 21:8), so we should not think here of the table of shewbread, but of the sacrificial flesh offered upon the altar. The priests have declared the table of God contemptible by sanctioning the offering of skimpy and blemished sacrifices. The sacrificial animals Darius, and no doubt his successors had provided Israel as a vassal state were kept to replenish their own flocks and only the culls were brought to God. Such cheap religion is less than worthless, it is an affront to God. Malachi 1:8 ---The law said such animals were not to be offered as sacrifice (cp. Leviticus 22:17-25, Deuteronomy 15:21) yet the priests addressed here saw no harm in it. The governor appointed by the Gentile emperor would not eat the meat they offered to God, yet they presented it as an act of worship and said, “ it is not evil.” Their real error in offering blemished sacrifices lies in the fact that such animals could not do what the sacrifices were designed to do, namely, typlify the ultimate Sacrifice, without spot or blemish. (1 Peter 1:19) It was to keep this prophetic object lesson before the people that the temple had been rebuilt. It was to maintain this constant covenant reminder in the eyes of the people that the sacrifices must be made according to divine directive. A blemished animal could not possibly portend the coming Lamb of God, and without that portent the entire sacrificial system was meaningless. Malachi 1:9 ---The scathing irony of verse nine underscores this truth. Malachi challenges the unfaithful priests to try it, if they think such unacceptable sacrifices will win them the favor of God. The entire passage draws a vivid contrast between man’ s religion and God’ s sacrificial scheme of redemption. Men, in their religious efforts to curry God’ s favor, always think of themselves as bringing Him something. The advent of the Christ, toward which the sacrificial system pointed, is the exact opposite. God was bringing the Real Sacrifice to man. From the beginning God has not been served by men’ s hands as though He needed anything. (cp. Psalms 10:1-12, Acts 17:25) In demanding the presentation of the very best of Israel’ s flocks to be slain upon the altar, God intended that they learn something of the price He would pay for our redemption when He offered the “ Choice Jewel of Heaven” on Calvary. If He were to tolerate a lesser offering, the whole point of the sacrifices would be missed. GOD Malachi 1:10-14 Malachi 1:10---Calvin points out that, in the temple, one priest was stationed at the doors of the court of burnt offerings for the express purpose of keeping out animals unfit for sacrifice. In this verse, God cries out in anguish for just one priest whose concern for God’ s law would cause him to shut the door against such blemished sacrifices as were being offered daily. It would be better to let the fires go unkindled than to continue to desecrate the altar and mar the meaning of God’ s covenant by offering animals unfit to depict the coming Real Sacrifice. Better none at all than these. (cp. Isaiah 1:11-15) Since no such priest stood at the door, God would Himself refuse to accept their sacrifices. Malachi 1:11---This verse is reminiscent of Paul’ s attitude toward those Jews who rejected the preaching of the Gospel. (Acts 13:46) God, Who lives in eternity and so is much less pre-occupied with time than we, treats the acceptance of His Sacrifice by the Gentiles as an already accomplished fact. He Who knows the end from the beginning is able of. the very stones to raise up children to Abraham (Matthew 3:9). Other sheep He has which are not of this fold (John 10:16). “ For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves . . .” (Romans 2:14) and God is glorified. His name is, in fact, great among the nations. (cp. Isa_1:-11-15) Malachi 1:11 ---“ Sacrifice,” in Malachi 1:11, is used figuratively as in Psalms 51:17, Hebrews 13:10; Hebrews 13:15-16 and 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:12, but the truth is that “ in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.” (Acts 10:35) Malachi 1:12-13---Whereas the ineffable name of God is thus glorified among the nations who have not the law and are thus separated from the Messianic hope, foreigners in the commonwealth of Israel, oblivious of the promises of God and unaware of any hope as yet (Ephesians 2:12), that same name is made a mockery among those who have for centuries been His covenant people. They offer to God what they would not eat themselves, and even this is “ a drag,” irksome service! Isaiah had informed their fathers that it was God Who is wearied by such service and not they. (Isaiah 43:22 -f) Meat taken by violence, i.e. torn by animals, was not even lawful for human consumption, yet they offered it to God. (cp. Exodus 22:31) Malachi 1:14---For “ deceiver” here, read hypocrite. It was not poverty, as some pretended, which caused such niggardly sacrifices. It was greed which placed personal gain above God’ s required service. They possessed “ a male,” i.e. such as required by law sacrifice, yet they offered God blemished animals. (cp. Leviticus 1:3-10) Even the Gentiles would be too fearful of God to do such things. Malachi 1:1 The burden (Zechariah 9:1; Zechariah 12:1; see note on Nahum 1:1). The word of the Lord is heavy and full of threats, but, as St. Jerome notes, it is also consolatory, because it is not "against" but to Israel. By this name the whole covenanted nation is designated, here, perhaps, with some idea of reminding the people of Jacob's faith and patience, and stimulating them to imitate their great ancestor. By Malachi; literally, by the hand of Malachi (comp. Jeremiah 37:2). That Malachi is the proper name of the prophet, and not a mere official designation, see the proof in the Introduction, § II. The LXX. renders, ἐνχειρὶἀγγέλουαὐτοῦ, "by the hand of his angel," or" messenger," and some curious theories have been founded on this translation; e.g. that an angel was the real author of the book, or came and explained it to the people. A similar legend once obtained concerning Haggai, called" The Lord's Messenger" (Haggai 1:13). At the end of the verse the LXX. adds, "fix it in your hearts," which Jerome supposes to have been imported hither from Haggai 2:15. Malachi and his burden.I. MALACHI, THE LAST OF THE OF THE OLD . He may be compared to: 1. A late evening closing a long day of light and blessing, and which is itself: 2. A midsummer twilight in some northern latitude, bearing on its besom the new and still brighter day of the gospel. 3. A finger post pointing across an untrodden waste of time in the direction in which the ages should move onwards towards the advent of their expected King. 4. A faithful minister, the last of a noble succession, resigning his trust (the prophetic gift), but bidding his flock expect to "see greater things than these," and expiring with the gospel on his lips (Malachi 4:2-6). II. THE PROPHET'S BURDEN. Any word of the Lord is: 1. A burden of responsibility to the bearer (1 Corinthians 9:16, 1 Corinthians 9:17). Especially so are messages of judgment with which Malachi was charged. So Jeremiah felt (Jeremiah 15:10-21; Jeremiah 20:8-10), and Paul (Philippians 3:18), and our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 19:41-44). It is thus a test of fidelity (Proverbs 30:6; Ezekiel 3:17-21) and of courage (Micah 3:8). 2. Messages of judgment should be felt to be burdens by the sinner because they proceed from a God to whom judgment is "a strange work," yet who hates sin more than suffering, and whose holiness is seconded by his omnipotence. Only by repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ can the burden be changed into a beatitude, the curse into a blessing. Malachi 1:1 Burdensome prophecies."The burden of the Lord to Israel by Malachi." Much of the work of the Old Testament prophets involved a serious strain on feeling, and may appropriately be figured as a "burden" which they were called to bear. A very large proportion of it consists of denunciations, declarations of swiftly coming and overwhelming Divine judgments. Those prophets were, in fact, raised up to meet a condition of society and national life of which God disapproved, and by which God was dishonoured. It should never be forgotten that the prophets belong to the Israelite my, and that was not God's ideal of government for his people. It brought and perils the significance of which the prophets were to declare. Malachi's is the last prophet voice of the Old Testament times. After him a great prophetic silence fell on the land. No direct utterance came from God for some three hundred years, until John the Baptist appeared. Nothing is certainly known concerning this Prophet Malachi. He is, indeed, only a name, and our interest lies entirely in his message. His name means, "The Messenger of Jehovah," and it calls us to attend to the message rather than to the speaker. We do know something of the times in which he lived, and we can understand what would be the burden of a Jehovah prophet at such a time. After Nehemiah had been working for some twelve years at the moral reformation of the people of Jersualem and Judea, he was recalled to Persia; and immediately on his departure the old evils which he had stoutly resisted came back like a food. In spite of the presence of Ezra in Jerusalem, it was seen that a reformation enforced by the civil power, rather than as the fruit of individual conviction, had no permanent vitality. When Nehemiah's back was turned, "the tithes due to the temple, the Levites, and the priests were not delivered, and the greatest distress was thus caused to all those who depended on them for maintenance. The choristers, the guards of the gates, and the ordinary Levites alike, were compelled to go back to their homes, and cultivate their fields for a living. Public worship was thus interrupted, and the temple, forsaken by its ministers, was neglected by the people. Nor was the refusal to pay tithes the only sign of an altered spirit. The sabbath was profaned, both in town and country, wine presses were busy in its sacred hours, and the roads and fields were dotted with the workers taking sheaves to the barn on their heavily laden asses. Jerusalem itself was disturbed by a sabbath fair, to which loads of wine, grapes, figs, and much else were carried in during sacred hours. After all the professed zeal to put an end to mixed marriages, things were rapidly drifting to almost a worse condition than of old. The very priests had rapidly lost their high tone. Their irreverence, indifference, and worldliness shocked the thoughtful. Everything that Ezra and Nehemiah had effected was well nigh undone." The Prophet Malachi had the "burden" laid upon him of recalling both priests and people to their duties. And this he did partly by vigorous denunciations of surrounding evils, and partly by anticipations of the times of Messiah. The Coming One would surely prove to be a stern Rebuker of national sin. I. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE WAS A BURDEN TO HIMSELF. Denunciations of wrong doing and wrong doers lose their true force when those who utter them enjoytheir work. Then they put into them a bitter tone, which makes them ungod-like messages. Stern things have still to be spoken for God, but they must be spoken with pathos in the tone, and tears ready to start. No man can deliver a message of judgment aright, unless he feels it to be a burden. II. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE SHOULD BE A BURDEN TO THOSE . A burden of holy concern. It should set them upon grave self-searching. It should burden them with anxiety about their sins, and with earnest efforts to put sin away. If it was not taken as a burden in that sense, it would become a burden as bringing upon them full, unrelieved, Divine judgments. III. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE MAY BE THOUGHT OF AS A BURDEN TO GOD. "Judgment is his strange work;" "In all their affliction he was afflicted;" "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" We are permitted to think that it troubles God to punish his people. He is burdened by the messages which our sin compels him to send.— R.T. Malachi 1:2I have loved you. The prophet, desiring to bring home to the people their ingratitude, lays down his thesis; then, in his characteristic manner, repeats the objection of the sceptics in an interrogatory form, and refutes it by plain argument. God had shown his love for Israel by electing them to be his people, and by his treatment of them during the whole course of their history. Wherein hast thou loved us! This was the inward feeling of the people at this time. They doubted God's love and faithfulness. Events had not turned out as they expected. They had, indeed, returned from captivity, and the temple was rebuilt; but none of the splendid things announced by the prophets had come to pass. They were not great and victorious; Messiah had not appeared. Therefore they repined and murmured: they were ungrateful for past favours, and questioned God's power and providence. Was not Esau Jacob's brother? God refutes their unjust charge by referring them to a palpable fact, viz. the different fate of the descendants of the twin brothers, Esau and Jacob. How miserable the destiny of the Edomites! how comparatively fortunate the condition of the Israelites! Yet I loved Jacob.Malachi 1:3 And I hated Esau. St. Paul quotes these words (Romans 9:13) in order to illustrate his position, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." Even before his birth Jacob was the chosen one, and Esau, the elder, was to serve the younger. This mystery of Divine election has seemed to some to be stated so harshly that they have thought that the words of the text need to be softened, or to be modified by their explanation. Thus they give the glosses, "I have preferred Jacob to Esau;" "I have loved Esau less than Jacob;" or they have limited the terms "love" end "hatred" to the bestowing or withholding of temporal blessings; or they have affirmed that Esau was hated because God foresaw his unworthiness, and Jacob was beloved owing to his foreseen piety and faithfulness. The whole question is discussed by Augustine, 'De Div. Quint. ad Simplic.,' 1.18 (11.433). He ends by saying, "Deus odit impietatem: in aliis etiam punit per damnationem, in aliis adimit per justificationem." But Malachi is not speaking of the predestination of the one brother and the reprobation of the other; he is contrasting the histories of the two peoples represented by them; as Jerome puts it, "In Jacob vos dilexi, in Esau Idumaeos odio habui." Both nations sinned; both are punished; but Israel by God's free mercy was forgiven and restored, while Edom was left in the misery which it had brought upon itself by its own iniquity. Thus is proved God's love for the Israelites (Knabenbauer). That it is of the two nations that the prophet speaks, rather than of the two brothers, is seen by what follows. Laid his mountains … waste. While the Israelites were repeopling and cultivating their land, and their cities were rising from their ruins, and the temple and the capital were rebuilt, Edom, which had suffered at the hand of the same enemies, had never recovered from the blow, and still lay a scene of desolation and ruin. It seems that Nebuchadnezzar attacked and conquered Edom some few years after he had taken Jerusalem. This event happened during one of his expeditions against Egypt, one of which took place in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, as we learn from a record lately deciphered (see 'Transact. of Soc. of Bibl. Archaeology,' 7.210, etc.). (For Edom and its history, see the Introduction to Obadiah.) Dragons; rather, jackals (Micah 1:8); Septuagint, εἰςδώματαἐρήμου, "for habitations of the desert;" Vulgate, dracones deserti, whence the Authorized Version. Malachi 1:2, Malachi 1:3 The Lord's love for his people.The Lord had chosen Israel as his peculiar people, out of pure love and kindness, without any antecedent merit on their side. This love is strikingly exhibited by contrasting the Divine dealings with the two nations, Edom and Israel. Both came into Divine judgment for sin, and love triumphed in the restoration of Israel; but because of Edom's treatment of Israel, it was left, to its desolations. The word "hate" is employed, but South properly explains that "hating" is sometimes used comparatively for a less degree of love (Genesis 29:31; Luke 14:26). The English word "hate" has somewhat changed its meaning. Now it means, "have a personal aversion to," "regard with ill will." But when our Bible was translated, it had a simpler and kinder meaning, "love less," "show less favour to." It is important to note that the reference is not to God's personal feelings to individuals, but to his providential dealings with nations. Still, it stands out prominently that God's ways with Israel had been the indication of selecting love for her. I. GOD'S LOVE FOR ISRAEL WAS A LOVE. Of Israel, as of Christ's apostles, it could be said, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." The race of Abraham is a selected race. It was separated in order to preserve, and to witness for, the great primary religious truths which are essential to the world's well being, but are imperilled by the free moral experiment of humanity. It was a sign of Divine love that Israel received such a trust. II. GOD'S LOVE FOR ISRAEL WAS A PATIENT LOVE. And the patience was very severely tried by the wilfulness and waywardness of the loved ones. This can be illustrated from every stage of the history. The patience is seen in this, that God kept on endeavouring to correct By chastisement. Under no provocation did he give them up in despair, and let judgment prove finally overwhelming. Compare the case of Edom, which, as a nation, is lost beyond recovery. That patience of the Divine love is the holiest joy to us still. III. GOD'S LOW FOE ISRAEL WAS A LOVE. This is what seems chiefly in Malachi's mind. He wants the people to feel how the love had triumphed in their recovery from captivity, and their restoration as a nation. And these proofs of the Lord's love should have acted as persuasions to the Lord's service.— R.T. Malachi 1:4 Whereas; rather, if, or although; Vulgate, quod si. If Edom were to attempt to repair its desolation, the Lord would not permit it— a striking contrast to the national restoration of Israel. We are impoverished; or, as the Revised Version, we are beaten; Septuagint, ἡἰδουμαίακατέστραπται, "Idumea has been overthrown." Vulgate, destructl sumus. The desolate places; Vulgate, quae destructa sunt, places once in habited and now deserted. Compare the boast of the Ephraimites (Isaiah 9:9, Isaiah 9:10). I win throw down. Edom never recovered its power; it became the prey of the Per starts, the Nabatheans, the Jews under the Maccabees, the Macedonians, the Romans; and finally the Mohammedan conquest effected its utter ruin. They (men) shall call them, The border of wickedness. Edom shall be called, "The territory of iniquity," its miserable condition attesting the wicked ness of the inhabitants thus punished by Divine justice. Hath indignation; Septuagint,παρατέτακται, "hath" been set in battle array;" St. Jerome, "My anger is proved by their enduring desolation; and in contrast to the evils experienced by your brother, ye shall experience the goodness of God towards you." Malachi 1:5 Your eyes shall see. Jacob is addressed. When you see these proofs of God's love for you, you shall leave off murmuring and be ready to praise God for his goodness and power. The Lord will be magnified; better, the Lord is great; Septuagint, ἐμεγαλύνθηκύριος, "The Lord was magnified." God makes his greatness known. From (over) the border of Israel. This means either beyond the limits of Israel, i.e. in all the world, or upon Israel, i.e. by the protection which he vouchsafes to Israel. Malachi 1:1-5 The sovereignty of God in relation to man's secular condition of life."The burden of the word of the Lord," etc. Malachi— which means "Messenger" the last of the Hebrew prophets, is a man whose personal history is wrapped in utter obscurity. He is supposed to have lived after Haggai and Zechariah, and to be contemporary with Nehemiah. It is likely that he occupied a relationship to Nehemiah somewhat analogous to that which Haggai and Zechariah sustained to Zerubbabel. The general opinion is that he prophesied about the year B.C. 430. This was that brilliant period in Greece in which flourished some of its greatest men— Cimon, son of Miltiades, distinguished as a commander; Pericles, the greatest of Athenian statesmen, under whom Athens attained a splendour that made her the wonder and admiration of all Greece; Phidias, the celebrated sculptor, and a host of distinguished artists; Simonides and Pindar, eminent lyric poets; AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, distinguished dramatists; and Herodotus, who has received a title really due to Moses, "the Father of History." From this passage the following truths may be legitimately deduced. I. THAT SOME MEN ON THIS EARTH SEEM TO BE MORE BY THAN OTHERS, AND YET THEY ARE OFTEN OF IT. This is the communication or "burden" of the Divine message which Malachi had to deliver to Israel: "I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?" Israel here stands for all the tribes, all the descendants of Jacob. The Israelitish nation was more favoured than any nation on the face of the earth. In relation to their privileges Paul says of the Israelites, "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came' (Romans 9:4, Romans 9:5). As individuals, some men are more favoured than others. As Jacob was more favoured than Esau, so some men in all generations are more blessed than others— blessed with more vigorous frames, more intellectual resources, more emotional wealth, etc. There is amongst men immense variety in the degree of natural endowments. Read the parable of the talents. But it is man nationally that is here referred to. "I have loved you" that is, "I have regarded you more than other nations." Is not our England more favoured than most if not all of the other nations of the earth? She is, in some respects, as far exalted above all existing states, as Israel of old was above all the heathen nations that surrounded it. But individually, as was said above, all men are not treated alike. Some are born of healthier parents than others, live in more salubrious climes than others, are endowed with higher faculties than others, brought up under more wholesome laws and higher educational influences than others. The existence of these distinctions is too obvious to require either argument or illustration. But whilst this is such a patent fact, the favoured ones are too often unconscious of the distinction. "Wherein hast thou loved us?" Israel did not realize its exalted privileges. How often is this the case! The men most favoured of Providence are often most unconscious of the favours, and they say, "Wherein hast thou loved us?" As a rule, perhaps the moat favoured of Providence are the greatest complainers. What ingratitude is here! II. THAT THIS IN THE OF MEN IS TO BE TO THE OF GOD. "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau." Some read it, "I favoured Jacob, but rejected Esau." Why was Jacob more favoured than Esau? Not because he had a nobler moral character. In some respects he appears more despicable than Esau. It was simply because God chose to distinguish him. The reason of distinction was in the mind of God, and nowhere else. "He worketh all things according to the counsel of his will." His sovereignty does not imply either of two things. 1. Partiality on his part. The fact that the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob, in their history endured, perhaps, calamities as great as those that befell the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, proved that it was no partiality on God's part. He is no Respecter of persons. Nor does it imply: 2. Irresponsibility on man's part. "They who have least," says Godwin, "and bear most, may become better and happier than they who have most and suffer least." The permanent value of all things depends on the use which is made of them: the first often becoming last, and the last first. But no argument can be drawn from differences in men's condition as to which will be the most morally advantageous or disadvantageous according to their conduct. Whilst the differences of one kind depend solely on the Divine will, the differences of the other kind are not irrespective of human choice. III. THOSE WHOM THE OF GOD DOES NOT FAVOUR ARE LEFT IN A . 1. The words teach us that they will have possessions destroyed. "I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons [jackals] of the wilderness." These men, the men of Edom, struggled hard to build up their kingdom and to give it wealth and power, but the product of all their labours was utterly destroyed. Their great things, their "mountains," their wealthy things, their "heritage," the scenes of their power, gave place to the "dragons of the wilderness." Where is Edom now? If Heaven has determined that the fortune you have built up after years of earnest and indefatigable labour shall be swept away, it will depart as a vision of the night. 2. That their efforts were frustrated. "If Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever." They struggle to restore their position, labour hard to build the desolate places, but in every effort they are thwarted. It is in vain to strive against destiny. Mark that all that is here said concerns only the secular prosperity of men. Divine sovereignty is always in favour of spiritual prosperity, progress in intelligence, purity, and happiness. In all these matters men cannot labour in vain. 3. Their enemies prosper. "And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel." Edom hated Israel from the beginning, fought hard against it for centuries, struggled continually to destroy it, but all in vain. The time came when it found itself in ruins and its enemy in prosperity. "The argument of these verses is this," says Dr. Dods, "if you would see the difference between hatred and love, look at the different condition and prospects of Edom and Israel. The desolation with which their territory is visited is irremediable: they have no glorious future beyond: whereas the wretched condition of which you complain is but the bleakness of seed time that precedes the richest harvest." . Are we not here in this England of ours among the peoples whom Heaven has specially favoured? Are not the words specially applicable to us, "I have loved you, saith the Lord"? But what is our practical response? Does not our daily life speak out the ingratitude and unbelief of Israel, "Wherein hast thou loved us?" We do not see it; we do not feel it; "Wherein?" What ought we to think of our civilization, our liberties, our fruitful laud and salubrious air? above all, what of our Christ? "Herein is love."— D.T. Malachi 1:2-5 The sovereign love of God.Remembering that the scriptural sense of "hate" in this and corresponding passages is to love less in comparison, or to reject when there is a competition of claims, we nevertheless learn from this passage— I. THAT GOD'S LOVE TO AND TO NATIONS IS A LOVE. By this we mean that it is a love which bestows special favours, for reasons which cannot be discovered in those that enjoy them, but in the gracious purpose of God. 1. In the case of the two brothers personally we note the following facts: Esau was the elder, yet not the heir of the promise. He suffered at the hands of a brother in some respects less noble than himself. He thus lost his father's chief blessing and had to take the remnants, and to be satisfied with a poorer inheritance, while Jacob received "the glory of all lands." 2. The two nations, Israel and Edom, were separated like two rivers issuing from the same fountain, the one destined to be a highway of commerce and a source of fertility, the other to be lost in the sands of the desert. Israel, blessed with a priesthood, a succession of prophets, and a covenant "ordered in all things and sure," in spite of many apostasies; Edom, allowed to drift into idolatry and crime till it became known as "the border of wickedness," etc. (Malachi 1:4). Such gifts and calling of God cannot be annulled any more than his sentences of judgment can be reversed (Malachi 1:4). In those judgments and in those mercies men shall see the finger of God, and shall stand in awe of the glory of God (Malachi 1:5). These truths applicable to God's dealings with nations now. 3. The salvation of individuals is no less the result of sovereign love, inasmuch as the very beginnings of spiritual life are of God, and are "according to his own purpose and grace," etc. (2 Timothy 1:9). Election is not "an order of merit," but a cord of love. The experience of all Christians confirms the doctrine of God's sovereignty in salvation, though it cannot answer the many questions suggested by God's varied dealings with individuals, or explain the reasons of his eternal purposes. Note St. Paul's "conclusion of the matter" (Romans 11:33-36). II. THAT THIS LOVE OF GOD MAY BE IGNORED BY THE . "Wherein hast thou loved us?" This may arise from: 1. Forgetting past mercies under the presence of present trials, like Israel (Psalms 106:12-14). 2. Forgetting our present blessings as contrasted with the lot of others. 3. Having an imperfect sense of our absolute dependence on the unmerited mercy of God (Deuteronomy 7:7, Deuteronomy 7:8). 4. And therefore taking even our spiritual blessings very much as a matter of course, and indulging in self-complacency rather than cultivating grateful humility in view of "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:7, 1 Corinthians 4:8). Malachi 1:4, Malachi 1:5 Divine judgments by disappointments.The Lord's dealings with Edom are here introduced as contrasting with the Lord's dealings with Israel. And one chief point of contrast is this— Israel's expectations will be realized; but Edom's expectations will be disappointed. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts. They shall build, but I will throw down." There was an exceedingly bitter feeling between Israel and Edom, dating from the time when Edom insultingly refused to allow the passage of Israel through her territory, and so compelled God's people to take the weary and perilous way up the Arabah. Again and again we have hints of the unfriendly feeling between the kindred and neighbour nations; and that it was continued up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar is indicated by the exclamation of the poet, in Psalms 137:7, "Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof." That Jehovah, as God and King of Israel, took its part against Edom is clearly intimated in the prophecy of Obadiah. The point of the passage before us is that on the efforts of Edom to recover itself as a nation no permanency would rest; whereas if Israel would but be faithful to its obligations, it as a kingdom should be established forever. I. FAILURE IN LIFE'S IS A SIGN OF DIVINE DEALING WITH US. However we may say that such failure attends The promise to the good is, "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." The judgment on the evil may be, "Whatsoever he doeth shall fail." There is no experience of life more trying than the disappointment of failing again and again. There is no misery like the hopelessness of feeling as if we could not succeed, and it is no use to try any more. The man is lost who feels that. II. FAILURE IN LIFE'S MAY BE DIVINE , BUT IT MAY BE DIVINE . Chastisement, to convince that we have done the thing wrongly. Judgment, as in the case of Edom, of some sin committed in early life, the spirit of which we have kept up through the long years. If we fail in life, we should searchingly inquire why God lets us fail.— R.T. Malachi 1:6A son honoureth his father. The prophet commences with a general principle which every one allows, and argues from that what was the attitude which they ought to assume towards God. A father. God was the Father of Israel by creation, election, preservation, watchful guardianship (see Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 64:8, etc.). My fear. The fear, respect, reverence, due to me. O priests. He addresses his reproof to the priests, as the representatives of the people, and bound to lead them to obedience and holiness, and to be a pattern to the flock. Wherein have we despised thy Name? The priests have grown so callous, and have so obscured true religion by Pharisaical externalism, that they profess to be utterly unconscious how they have shown contempt of God. The Name of God is God himself and all that has to do with him. Malachi 1:6 The reverence due to God.Earthly analogies to Divine relationships are instructive though imperfect. Neither the most absolute master nor the most affectionate father can adequately represent God. Yet God reminds us of the reverence due to himself from the fear and honour expected by them. The appeal should be most powerful to those who, like the priests here appealed to, are in any positions of authority. It should be a most tender plea to all parents. It falls in tones of deepest pathos on those who have received the adoption and the spirit of sons through Jesus Christ. But the appeal binds all to whom in any sense God stands in the sacred relations of "the Father of spirits" (Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 64:8). We assume the case of a father who combines that wise authority and tender love which makes him a type of the heavenly Father. A son honoureth such a father— I. BY . This is the first lesson a child must learn. After the early conflicts with self-will, it becomes part of the child-nature. It may rise to self-denial or even heroic self-sacrifice. Illust.: Henry Havelock, as a boy, waiting for hours in a crowded street of London, in obedience to his father, who had forgotten him; or Casa Bianca's son blown up in the French flag ship at the Battle of the Nile. God is greatly honoured when our obedience is habitual and cheerful, when we "worship" the "sweet will of God," and can say, "I delight," etc. (Psalms 40:8; Psalms 119:128). II. BY LOVE. The instinctive love of an infant makes way for the intelligent affection, founded on esteem, which the youth feels towards a father who has trained him in habits of obedience. Disobedience begets dislike; submission strengthens love. The pruning and training of wise discipline is rewarded by the copious fruits of love. We most honour God when our love is not merely the love of gratitude even for redemption, but of complacent delight in the character of our Father. In that character there are no flaws such as a partial son may nevertheless see in his earthly father (James 1:17). Let him not have to say John 5:42. III. BY REGARD TO HIS . A boy's eye flashes with indignation if a stranger assails his father's reputation. How do we regard the dishonour done to God by profanity, by reckless criticisms on his character and government, and on the work of Christ ("The Father wounded through the Son")? Can we say, with Christ, "The reproaches," etc. (Psalms 69:9)? Let us beware, however, of the zeal of a Jehu (2 Kings 10:16-31) or of the Pharisees (Matthew 23:15). Let our lives he answers to our prayers, "Hallowed be thy Name." IV. BY HIS . 1. When it has to be exercised in discipline on ourselves (Hebrews 12:5-11). 2. When it is resisted by others. There is a rebellion in the great family of God which requires every true child to take an active part on the side of God. While grieved (Psalms 119:158) and indignant (Psalms 139:21), we shall yet be labourers together with God, that in the spirit of the sinless Son we may seek by all means to save some (1 Peter 4:10, 1 Peter 4:11). Malachi 1:6 Human claims impressing Divine claims.The figure of fatherhood is used in Scripture to suggest God's peculiar relation to Israel; and we are therefore invited to use the family sentiments and responsibilities in the endeavour to realize our obligations to God. Our Lord, in his teachings, made a similar appeal to family feelings: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" And the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews argues in a similar way, "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" It is true that arguments based on human relationships must take due account of human infirmities; but there is an ideal human relationship in every case, which men in their hearts recognize, and the obligations connected with it may always be safely applied to our relations with God. But there is a special point in Malachi's pleading with the priests of his day. In common with Jehovah's people, they came under the children's claims and responsibilities; but, as priests, they were children honoured with special trusts. They were favoured children, and were bound to be model children. The obligation of the servant to the master is similar to that of the son to the father, but in the case of the child there is the help of personal affection. The two figures may be used to illustrate the point of this passage. I. A MASTER'S CLAIM THE DIVINE CLAIM. "If I be a Master, where is my fear? saith the Lord." This is taking the lowest ground. There is no necessary affection in this relationship, There is simply obligation and duty. A servant is bound to serve. Apply to the priests, who were precisely the servants of Jehovah's house, or temple. He had a right to claim service that would honour him, that would show a cherished sense of reverence and fear, and would make others think highly of him. But just that service the priests of the day were failing to render. Still, if no higher relation be realized, God claims our service as his servants. II. A FATHER'S CLAIM THE DIVINE CLAIM. This is higher ground to take, because it is a relation involving personal affection, and the refusal of the claim is therefore the more unworthy. Work out that if the father figure as presented in the Old Testament was a great persuasion of the Divine claims, much more must the Father figure be as revealed in the teaching and Sonship of Jesus Christ.— R.T. Malachi 1:7 Ye offer polluted bread (food) upon mine altar. The prophet answers the priests simply by detailing some of their practices. The "bread" (lechem) is not the shewbread, which was not offered on the altar, but the flesh of the offered victims (see Le Malachi 3:11, Malachi 3:16; 21:6; 22:25). This was "polluted" in that it was not offered in due accordance with the ceremonial Law, as is further explained in the next verse. Wherein have we polluted thee? They did not acknowledge the truth that (as St. Jerome says) "when the sacraments are violated, he himself, whose sacraments they are, is violated" (comp. Ezekiel 13:19; Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 39:7). The table of the Lord is contemptible. This was the thought of their heart, if they did not give open expression to it in words. The "table of the Lord" (Malachi 1:12) is the altar, on which were laid the sacrifices, regarded as the food. of God, and to be eaten by the fire (Ezekiel 41:22; Ezekiel 44:16). They showed that they despised the altar by fancying that anything was good enough for offering thereon, as the next verse explains. Malachi 1:7 Polluted bread; or, priestly sins.What was consumed upon the altar was regarded as God's portion, and may, in a figure, be called "the bread of God." "The offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the bread of God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy" (Leviticus 21:6). By "polluted bread" we are to understand maimed and blemished sacrifices. The Divine reproach is that the priests show how little value they have for the worship of God, since they do not care in how slight and contemptuous a manner it is performed. The Prophet Malachi deals very largely with the unfaithfulness, the unpriestliness, of the priests of his day. It was at once a sign of a sad condition of morals and religion when the priests failed of their duty; and the way to recover the nation to righteousness, when the priests were recalled to the sense of their obligations. I. SOCIETY IN THE OF THE PRIESTS. These may be taken as representing the clergy of the Christian generations. It has always been true that society is reflected in the moral standard of the clergy. This is embodied in the saying, "Like priest, like people;" and it is a wider and more searching truth than is usually apprehended. The clergy are the moral barometers by which the atmosphere of an age is discovered. The priests of Malachi's time declare the moral and religious degeneracy of the people. "The saddest sign of all was the degeneracy of the priesthood which Malachi, though perhaps himself a priest, was specially commissioned to denounce. The lack of all real faith and moral soundness in the very order which ought to have kept alive among the people the essential elements of the spiritual life, was eating like a cancer into the heart of the national sincerity" (Farrar). It may be shown that priestly indifference and unfaithfulness are products and results of neglected personal religious life. So long as priestly duties are instinct with spiritual feeling they will be worthily performed. When personal godliness fails, they become perfunctory, and then if in seeming they are kept up, in reality they deteriorate. It is in maintaining the personal religious life that priests lead the nations. II. SOCIETY IS BY THE OF THE PRIESTS. Therefore Malachi appeals to them. It may be that the priests are the last to yield to the society evils; but they must always be the first recovered. They must become forces on the side of Cad in the restoration of moral health to a nation. Revivals are always hopeless things unless their first effect is the spiritual revival of the clergy.— R.T Malachi 1:8 If ye offer the blind. The Law ordered that the victims should be perfect and without blemish (see Leviticus 22:19-25). Is it not evil! It is more forcible to read this without the interrogation, "It is no evil!" and to regard it as the priests' thought or word, here introduced by the prophet in bitter irony. Their conscience had grown so dull, and they had become so familiarized with constant dereliction of duty, that they saw no wrong in these violations of the Law, and never recalled the people to their duty in these matters. Offer it now unto thy governor. The word for "governor" is pechah, as in Haggai 1:1 (where see note). It denotes a ruler set over a province by a Persian king. As Nehemiah had refused to be burdensome to the people (Nehemiah 5:14-18), it is thought that Malachi must have written this when some other person was acting as governor. But Nehemiah's generosity was exhibited in his earlier administration, and he may have thought it right to take the dues under a more prosperous state of affairs. The prophet may be putting the ease generally— Would you dare offer such things to your governor? At any rate, the question is not about provisions and dues supplied to the governor and liable to be exacted by him in his official capacity, but about voluntary offerings and presents, without which no inferior would presume to appear before his prince (see Introduction, § II.). To offer to such a one what was mean and defective would be nothing less than an insult; and yet they thought this was good enough for God. Accept thy person. Regard thee with favour (Genesis 19:21; Job 13:10; Job 42:8). Malachi 1:8 The law of acceptable sacrifice.It must be such as would be acceptable if offered to any earthly official. This, indeed, is but taking low ground, but that the prophet should take this position, and use this argument, is in itself a revelation of the sad condition into which the priesthood of the day had fallen. He could not take high grounds, and make his appeal directly to the holiness of the claims of the infinitely Holy One. "It argues a great contempt of Almighty God when men are less careful in maintaining the decencies of his worship than they are in giving proper respects to their superiors." It should be borne in mind that the Levitical system very rigorously demanded that only sound and clean animals should he presented in sacrifice. It is always necessary to check the meanness of men, which tempts them to put God off with that which they themselves do not greatly value (see Leviticus 22:22, etc.). The sin of offering the imperfect to God can be tested in two very simple ways. I. OFFER AN GIFT TO YOUR FRIEND. For a birthday time find something you have done with; something you do not care for; something out of taste in your own house, which you are glad to get rid of; something damaged, or soiled, or broken. You send it, saying in your heart, "It is good enough for him." That gift dishonours the friend, and morally degrades you as the giver. If that friend has any spirit, he despises such gifts, and sends the coldest of acknowledgments of their receipt. Is God in Christ our Friend? What shall be the love gifts which alone can be acceptable to him? II. OFFER AN GIFT TO YOUR . If a man wants to show his respect, or to indicate his gratitude for some favour received, he is always most particular in the selection of his present. He takes care that there is no flaw in it; he selects the best possible; he is most anxious about its being conveyed without injury. If the governor has any spirit, he will not look at or receive anything hut the very best. Is God our supreme Governor? Then how can we fail to offer the very best possible to him? III. OFFER AN GIFT TO YOUR GOD. Has he not more claim than either friend or governor to the perfect offering? How should we respond to Though out of our sight, he searchingly tests all our gifts, offerings, and sacrifices. Open out how we may be offering the imperfect in Malachi 1:7, Malachi 1:8 Irreverence-its causes and signs.Notice how in many places Malachi puts the thoughts of sinners into bold and bald words. He interprets their conduct in speech, that they may see the offensiveness of their thoughts and acts. Sins of the heart may sometimes be best exposed by translating them into unsubmissive or even impious prayers. They cannot endure the light when they are paraded in speech under the scrutiny of our fellow men. Still less can they tolerate the brightness that proceeds from the throne of grace, where God seeth in secret, that he may answer him "that setteth up his idols in his heart" "according to the multitude of his idols" (Ezekiel 14:3, Ezekiel 14:4). In this section the irreverence of the priests and people is exposed y the prophet calling things by their right names. Note— I. SOME OF THE CAUSES OF . 1. Inadequate views of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of men. We forget the names and titles of the God with whom we have to do— "Jehovah," "Lord of hosts," "Master," "Father," "a great King," "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders," etc. We forget our own utter sinfulness and unworthiness as "dust and ashes," "the imagination of whose heart is evil from our youth," to have any intercourse with the Thrice-holy One (cf. Job 40:3-5). If it is hard to appreciate this, we may be helped by the contrast between what we see in the characters of Christ and of ourselves. Illust.: Peter (Luke 5:8). 2. Familiarity with sacred things. It may "breed contempt." The altar and its offerings were regarded as commonplace or even despicable objects. The worship of God, the table of the Lord, the most sacred acts and objects may be observed and resorted to without the slightest expectation of gaining good. They might be means of grace, but familiarity makes them contemptible. 3. The indolence which shrinks from the effort needed to stir up ourselves to take hold of God (Isaiah 64:7). Worship must be a spiritual service; it may be a "conflict" an ἀγών (Colossians 2:1). Indolence may beget irreverence, and will, in its turn, be a sign of it. II. SOME OF THE SIGNS OF . We may copy the evil example of the Jews in bringing blind, lame, sick, or polluted offerings. 1. Formal and half-hearted services. "Blind is the sacrifice of the soul which is not illumined by the light of Christ. Lame is his sacrifice of prayer who comes with a double mind to entreat the Lord" (Jerome; Matthew 15:8). 2. Superstitious services; e.g. blind obedience to a man claiming to be a priest, which may save the trouble of searching for God with all the heart. Unintelligent worship, perhaps in an unknown tongue, as though a lesson learned by rote would suffice for the Divine Teacher. 3. Offering to God what we should not dare to offer to an earthly superior (verse 8). As though we would say, "God is not very particular." Yet he requires the very best service we can render. Such conduct is virtual dishonesty, for the intention to sacrifice to God at all implies the sacrificing of our best. Illust.: David (2 Samuel 24:24; cf. Matthew 22:37). Note how the revelation of God in Christ shows still more impressively his claims on our highest services. "The Lamb that was slain" is worthy to receive everything and the best of everything we can offer to him (Revelation 5:12). 4. Still grosser forms of irreverence are seen in the Corinthians feasting at the Eucharist, and thus despising the Church of the living God (1 Corinthians 11:22), and making the table of the Lord contemptible; or in men celebrating a sacred rite as a passport to some secular office; or in getting rid of a base coin at a collection, like "the deceiver" in verse 14. Learn: 1. The many subtle forms of a deep-seated sin of the heart (Jeremiah 17:9). 2. The need of radical remedies such as Divine power alone can employ (Luke 6:43 45; Psalms 19:12-14). Malachi 1:6-9 The profession and the practice of religion."A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a Father, where is mine honour? and if I be a Master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my Name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy Name?" etc. The subject of these words is the profession and the practice of religion; and they suggest two thoughts. I. THE AND THE SHOULD ALWAYS BE IN ACCORD. "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master." This is stated as a fact. The son here, of course, must be supposed to be worthy of the name son. There are some children who are destitute of natural affection. What Aristotle of old said will be endorsed by all thoughtful men. "A son must always be his father's debtor, because he can never repay him for those greatest of all benefits, birth and upbringing, and in these the fathers resemble God." This being so, and you Israel being "my son, my firstborn, a relationship which you profess, where is mine honour? If the language is, as some suppose, specially addressed to the priests, the appeal gets new emphasis. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/zerrcbc/ Malachi 1:2. When the Lord censured them for their worldliness they com· plained that He did not love them. The Lord's reasoning that he still loved his people is couched in the Question Was not Esau Jacob's brother? The fact that while these men were brothers, the Lord chose Jacob or Israel instead of Esau was proof that He loved him. Malachi 1:3. Hated Esau means the Lord denied him any special favors, also He chastised him severely for wrong doings. Malachi 1:4. Esau was the founder of the Edomites who thought they could resist the work of God that was meant for their punishment. Yet they failed, for the Lord was determined to through doing their work. All of this was evidence that Israel had fared better than his brother and hence was beloved by the Lord. Malachi 1:5. The objective of the Lord in thus punishing Esau or Edam was that He might be magnified. Israel was supposed to see all this and ac- knowledge God's greatness. Malachi 1:6. The usual treatment of a son for his father or a servant for his master is cited as an example of proper respect. God's people were not that respectful to Him, but at the same time they were denying their guilt of neglect. Malachi 1:7. The services of the Jews were beneath their abilities and short of the requirements of the law. Their neglect of duty was rendered more objectionable by their attitude. They would ask what was wrong in a way that implied that they could see nothing for the Lord to complain about. Malachi 1:8. The animals to be used in the services were required to be those in the best condition. These Jews were bringing the blind and otherwise defective ones and seemed to think the Lord would accept them notwithstanding their poor qualities. He challenged them to try it out with their earthly ruler and see If he would accept it. Malachi 1:9. The prophet implies that it will be in vatn for them to seek mercy of God while they are conducting such interior services. Been by your means denotes that the corrupt situation was brought about by their own greed. Malachi 1:10. These Jews had become so selfish that they wanted to be paid for all of their services. They would not even close a door unless they were promised a reward for it. With such motives behind their activities the Lord was displeased with them. Malachi 1:11. God had intended from the start that the services of the law were to be temporary (Galatians 3:19), but when these people became so insincere in their sacrifices it caused Him to be all the more displeased with them. This will shed some light on the language of Heb 10:5-8 as to the displeasure of God with the animal sacrifices. Among the Gentiles is a prediction that another law and service will be Instituted that will be oftered to all people, not to Jews only. Malachi 1:12. To profane a thing means to cause it to become merely a temporal something instead of a sacred one. These Jews were pronouncing the services of the Lord to be only common activities and thus they profaned them. Malachi 1:13. This verse means the same as most of the preceding ones. Malachi 1:14. The Jews were required to offer the best of their animals for sacrifice on the altar. A male means just such a beast with all the special requirements as to qualities directed under the Law. God never asks more of a man than he is able to give, but He will not accept any service that is less than one is capable of performing. FOR PRIESTS THE LORd REBUKES THE PRIESTS Malachi 2:1-9 Malachi 2:1-2 --- Here begins a special decree for the priests of Israel who are the cause of Israel’ s infidelity. "Ministers," Moore points out, "can­not sin or suffer alone. They drag down others if they fall.” Thus does God, for the sake of His people, pronounce a curse on their unfaithful spiritual leaders. That which had been their special blessing as priests would, become a curse. Malachi 2:3 ---The law of the sacrificial victims was, on feast days, the special food of the priests. \ Malachi 2:1. The priests were the men who supervised the services at the altar and who were responsible for their proper performances. That is why this passage is addressed to them as stated in the beginning of the verse. Malachi 2:2. Do not lay it to heart signifies that the priests were tolerating this inferior service of the people. They had been guilty of such corruption even before the years of the captivity (Jeremiah 5:31). The present generations of priests were drilting into the same unfaithfulness and the Lord was pronouncing a curse upon them. Malachi 2:3. Dung of your solemn feasts. In preparing an animal for the altar it was required that the internal parts be washed and that would include the removal of the dung. This verse threatened to take that matter and spread it on their faces. Malachi 2:4. Such shameful treatment as described would emphasize guilt. It would also impress them with God's respect for the service that had started with Levi which means the tribe from which the priesthood came. Malachi 2:5. Levi as a tribe showed his fear or r everence for God when he responded to the call to take a stand on the Lord's side (Exodus 32:26). Malachi 2:6, This description of Levi (or that tribe) applies to the time when he came over to the Lord's side and showed his sincerity by fighting against the rebels. Malachi 2:7. Tbe Lord then honored tbat tribe with being the custodian of the law. (See Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 17:9.) With such a charge the priests were expected to be informed about the law and see that it was followed. Instead of doing so they had become indifferent and were encouraging the people in their formalities. Malachi 2:8. The Indifference of these priests was causing the common members of the congregation to stumble or become corrupt in their practices. Malachi 2:9. The priesthood was an important and dignified office and should have been respected by the people. But the corruptions that were allowed to creep into the service had lowered the priests in the eyes of all people. Malachi 2:10. The common brotherhood of the Jews under one Father should have induced the leaders to treat the others respectfully. They did not do so but used their office to take advantage of' the poor and common people. Malachi 2:11. The tribe of Judah had nothing to do officially with the altar services, but those men became guilty with the priests by offering these inferior articles to be used as sacrifices. They also showed their greed for gain in all of theIr conduct as was seen in verse 10 of the preceding chapter. Married the daughter of a strange god. The last word is defined in the lexicon as meanIng "any deity." The Jews never worshiped idols as that word is used after the captivity, but there are other kinds of gods whom one might worship. Paul says that covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5), and the Jews were cer- tainly covetous. And Jesus compared mammon (a word meaning riches) to a god (Matthew 6:24). Hence the god these Jews had married was doubtless the god of mammon or riches as we have seen by their attachment to their wealth. Malachi 2:12. Master means the man who originates these unlawful practices and scholar means the one who cooperates by using them and both classes were to be condemned. Malachi 2:13. This verse describes the hypocritical performances ot the covetous Priests about the altar. All their tears and weeping were for the purpose of making a show. Because of their insincere devotions the Lord refused to accept their offerings. Malachi 2:14. They said Wherefore? meaning to ask why God was rejecting their service. The answer was in the form of an accusation of their un· faithfulness to their marriage relation. The priests had behaved treacherously against the women whom they had taken into covenant relation to be their life companions. Malachi 2:15. Did not he make one? This refers to the original plan of the Lord that one man and one woman should constitute the number composing the marriage unit. These corrupt priests had disregarded that law and were paying attention to other women besides their lawful wives to whom they had promised their exclusive love. Malachi 2:16. Garment is used figuratively and means something for a covering over another person or object. These priests were guilty of violence (unfaithfulness) against their wives, but were hiding behind the leniency of Moses on the subject of tolerating plurality in marriage. (See Matthew 19:8.) Malachi 2:17. God never tires in the sense of becoming weak bodily as man does, but His patience can be exhausted. These priests were charged with having wearied the Lord with their words of falsehood. Those words were in the form of confusing good with evil and then implying that God was not just in condemning them. Clinton R. Gill Commentary On Malachi 3BEHOLD, I SEND MY Malachi 3:1-6 Malachi 3:1 ---Here is God’ s answer to their question, "where is the God of justice.” Suddenly the Lord will appear in the temple heralded by His forerunner. Isaiah had made a similar prediction. (Isaiah 40:3-5). The New Testament applies Malachi’ s prophecy to John the Bap­tist. (eg. Matthew 3:3 Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2-3, Luke 1:16, Luke 3:4, Luke 7:16-21, John 1:23) The obvious fulfillment of this promise in the baptist’ s ministry would be difficult for any open-minded Bible student to overlook. The sudden appearance of the Lord mentioned here was inter­preted by the Rabbis as a dramatic explosive visitation by which the Messiah would announce His presence. It was this popular expectation which the devil exploited in tempting Jesus to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. (Luke 4:9) To have done so would have won for Him instant acceptance as the Messiah on the basis of popular though erroneous expectation. Malachi 3:1 ---"The messenger of the covenant . . , ” What more apt description could there be of Him Whose coming formed the heart of God’ s cov-, enant promise? How fitting that the writer of Hebrews should introduce his comparison of the Old and New Covenants with the argument for the superiority of the New based on the superiority of the Son over the prophets, angels and Moses, who were the messengers of the Old. (cp. Hebrews 1:1 to Hebrews 2:4) Malachi 3:2-6 ---"Who can abide the day of His coming?" The Messiah was coming but not to confirm the racial arrogance or religious ex­clusiveness of these false Israelites. John will speak of Him as one "whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His thresh­ing-floor; and He will gather His wheat into the garner but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12). Malachi here makes a like prediction. By a change of metaphors he describes the Messiah’ s judgement first as fuller’ s soap then as refiners fire. In this sense, soap and fire have one thing in common, both re­move, impurity. The entire ministry of the Messiah, including His first coming, the intervening age and His second coming, will purge the impurities from the people of God. Those whose profession is false, whose hope is based on false ambition and nationalistic exclusiveness will be removed from Israel. The remnant will be saved. This refining process is described by Zechariah as removing all but a third of those who call themselves Israel, (cp. Isaiah 1:25) Malachi 3:3-4 ---Since Malachi’ s primary concern is with false priests (see above on Malachi 1:10 -ff), he pictures the Messiah, in verse three, as a re­finer sitting before the crucible in which the sons of Levi are purged of those who are unfaithful so that they will offer to Jehovah offer­ings in righteousness. The offerings to the Christ are not the blemished animals of Malachi’ s day. Rather they are to be "holy and acceptable unto God,” (cf. Romans 12:1, Hebrews 13:5, 1 Peter 2:5) as were those offered in the beginning by Aaron. Malachi 3:5-6 ---They have asked "where is the God of justice.” (Malachi 2:17) When Messiah comes they will have their answer. He will testify against the sorcerers (Acts 8:1 Acts 13:6, Galatians 5:20), against adul­terers (Matthew 5:28), against false swearers (Matthew 5:34 Matthew 5:36), against those that "oppress the hireling, the widows, the fatherless, and they that turn .aside the sojourners (Matthew 25:31-46), and that fear not me (Matthew 10:26-28). Special notice should be taken of the inclusion in this list of priest­ly sins of "those that turn aside the sojourner.” ‘ A sojourner was one of another land who was not a Jew. God’ s concern for all men, rather than just for the Jew, as stated in the covenant is apparent throughout His dealings with the people through whom He purposed to bless all men. Malachi 3:6 --- It is a tragic error to assume that, because God has not smitten the wicked, He has changed from a God of justice to one of easy-going tolerance. Malachi points out to his readers that God’ s un­changing nature is the only reason they were not themselves long since wiped out! Paul points out in Romans 11:29 that God’ s mercy toward even the covenant people finds its source in His unfailing faithfulness to His own covenant. Peter speaks to the same fatal fallacy when he writes, "But for­get not this one thing beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to tepentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9)IF THE PEOPLE WILL RETURN IN TO GOD HE WILL YET BLESS THEM Malachi 3:7-12FROM THE DAYS OF YOUR FATHERSMal_3:7 Malachi 3:7 ---When Stephen stood before the council and accused' them with, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ... as your fathers did, so do ye,” (Acts 7:51) he was in'good company. Malachi here levels the same charge against his readers. Just as their ancestors had turned aside from God’ s ordinances to worship Baal, these were turning aside in making a mockery' of the same ordinances. The withholding of tithes, the offering of blemished animals, the indulging' in sorcery and adultery and false swearing while showing unconcern for human need by oppressing wage-earners, widows, orphans and non-Jews indicated theirs was a religion of form rather than sincerity. The prophet sees no advantage in this over the false religion which had brought on the Babylonian captivity. There is an eternal principle presented here which the modern church member cannot afford to ignore. The observance of outward form and the passive abstention from false religion are a sham if done as these did them. The cheapening of the ordinances of God as they did in offering unacceptable sacrifices, or as is often done in present day‘ churches by penny-wise and niggardly church budgets are no more advantageous than false doctrine. The lack of any real, concern for the poor, the abandoned, the downtrodden, that is frequently hidden under an annual Christmas basket, does not deceive Him Who knows the hearts of His people. The entreaty of God to such people to return to Him is fre­quently met today as in Malachi’ s time (v. 7) with a blank faced and feigned innocence expressed in "wherein shall we return?” Malachi 3:8-13 ---Malachi’ s answer to this sham is "will a man rob God?” When their response was again an assumed innocence ex­pressed in, "wherein have we robbed thee,” the prophet goes directly to the heart of the matter . . . "in tithes and offerings.’’ That they could answer in such false righteousness after what the prophet has written in the preceding chapters about their unholy sac­rifices, is amazing, It is no more so than the assumed correctness of the "New Testament Christian” today whose sacrifices of himself is an hour or two on Sunday and whose giving of "tithes and offer­ings” consists of less than he spends for soft drinks and tobacco, Malachi 3:9 ---"Ye are cursed with a curse because ye rob me” declares Malacbi. Our own consciences may accept a cut-rate allegiance to God, but He will not. The country parson who said, "Salvation is free but it ain’ t cheap,” spoke the truth! There is a significant distinction drawn here between tithes and offerings. The law defined the first tithe as a tenth of all that was left after the first fruits were paid.. This.tenth went directly to the Levites for their support. (Leviticus 27:30-34) A tenth was to be paid in turn to the priests. (Numbers 18:26-28) A second tithe was to be paid for the entertainment of the Levites and their own families at the temple. (Deuteronomy 12:18) A third tithe was to be paid every third year for the welfare of the poor, etc. (Deuteronomy 14:28) It has been estimated that the total, tithes amounted annually to approximately 27% of one’ s gross income. The offerings' were in addition to the tithes. These consisted of not less than 1/60- of one’ s corn, wine, and oil (Deuteronomy 18:4, Nehemiah 13:10-12).So the Israelite under the Old Covenant gave in three categories. (1) He sacrificed the first fruits of his fields and flocks (2) he tithed three times, first of all remaining after the sacrifices, second for the entertainment (expenses) of the Levites and thirdly for the sake of supporting the poor, and (3) he then gave an offering of at least 1/60 of all his grain, wine and oil. It was common, during the lean years, such as those which pre­vailed at the time of this writing, to neglect the tithes and offerings. Malachi, as we have seen, accuses Ills readers of also bringing much less than the first fruits for sacrifice. Malachi 3:10 ---Jehovah’ s challenge (v. 10) is to bring all the tithes (he whole tithe) into the storehouse and see if times do not change. Jesus would say, "seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (cp. Matthew 6:19-34) Here is the eternal principle of giving which continues from cov­enant to covenant. The support of the Lord’ s work must come first in the economic lives of His covenant people. He who gives only what he can afford has not given at all! This passage, especially verses nine and ten, are frequently used to prove that one who does not give ten per cent of his income to the church is robbing God. Conversely, on the basis of these same verses, promises are frequently extended that "God will open the windows of Heaven” to those who practice "store-house tithing.” Before one makes such accusations or promises from these verses it would be wise to keep in mind several pertinent points concerning Mosaic tithing; (1) The tithes spoken of here had to do with the tithes of the fruit of the land, not wages per se. (2) These words are directed specifically to Judah because of the neglect of the ordinances of the law. (3) No money was involved. The tithe was a portion of the produce of an agrarian society. (4) The promise to "open the win­dows of heaven” has to do with rain which would end a drought and cause the land to again become productive when the people met the requirements of giving. The principle taught, which must be learned by Christians, is stated by Jesus, not as a command to count one dollar of every ten into the offering, but to put the kingdom of God before the material necessi­ties of life. (cf. Matthew 6:33) When this principle is applied to the giving of money, ten per cent seems a frightfully immature and inade­quate amount, especially when those who “ had witness borne to them through their faith, (even though they) received not the promise ...” (Hebrews 11:39) were required to give 27% of all they produced on the land. Malachi 3:11-12 ---Upon their return to faithfulness in tithes and of­ferings, God promised to remove the blight from the land. Whatever was organically wrong with the crops would be corrected. They had robbed God (v. 8) from the very first (v. 7). They were now cursed (v. 9) with drought (v. 10). The curse brought about by their dis­honesty had taken two forms, drought and locusts (v. 11). Their re­pentance would be the occasion of unmeasured blessing, blessing so great they would be the envy of surrounding nations, (v. 12) God’ s provisions are always more than adequate to those who are honest in their dealings with Him.WHEN THE DAY COMES, TRUE WILL BE SPAREDMalachi 3:13— 4:3 Mal 3:13-15 ---Malachi continues to list Jehovah’ s grievances against the people. They needed to return and they feigned unaware­ness of any such need (Malachi 3:7). They robbed God, yet pretended not to be aware of the robbing (Malachi 3:8), They have spoken against God, and again pretended innocence (v. 13 cp. Malachi 2:17) The prophet continues to speak frankly, as he answers this latest question, "Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge?” Such complaining is not uncommon among those who cannot un­derstand the spiritual nature, of God’ s covenant. Those who see the covenant as a mercenary bargain, attend to outward observance in the hope of receiving material blessings. When such are not forthcoming, because they are at most incidental to God’ s purpose in His people, such worshippers are always disappointed and prone to despair, God has never promised wealth to the faithful or poverty to the unjust. We manifest a gross ignorance of His nature and His love when we judge the worth of service to Him on such basis. The evidence of this misunderstanding on the part of Malachi’ s readers is seen in the last part of verses fourteen and fifteen. They equate their sacrifice of blemished animals and the withholding of tithes and offerings out of concern for material necessities with "keep­ing His charge.” They equate pietly with walking "mournfully.” They mistake pride for real happiness and complain that the wicked are bet­ter off than the rest. They accuse God, very subtly, of injustice be­cause the wicked "tempt God and escape.” Malachi 3:16-18 ---Rather than continuing to rebuke their lack of perception, Malachi turns to words of comfort. He assures them the faithful will not be forgotten. They will be spared who are God- fearers, ''and ultimately made to understand the real difference between the righteous and the wicked. A book of remembrance is being written he assures them, in which the names of the faithful were being recorded (cp. Esther 6). In the day when Jehovah acts, they will be spared His judgment and beyond this, they will be revealed as Jehovah’ s peculiar treasure, (cp. John 3:18,1 Peter 2:9) Even in dark times there ate those few who fear Him and so "speak,” i,e, converse with one another about Him, THEY THAT FEARED JEHOVAH Malachi 3:16 Malachi foresees the repentance of some, though not all the peo­ple. They would speak with one another, No doubt their speaking would concern the need for repentance, for genuine worship, As always, the fear of Jehovah would prove the beginning of wisdom for Jehovah would hear and remember. THEY SHALL BE MINEMal_3:17-18 Malachi’ s covenant consciousness is evident here. It is those who fear Jehovah and think on His name who are His people. No refer­ence is made to religious ritual or racial origin. Peter voiced this same convictioa Following the thrice repeated vis­ion which convinced him to go to a non-Jewish home with the gospel, and the resultant demonstration of God’ s overwhelming approval of his action in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter exclaimed, "of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every na­tion he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him.” (Acts 10:34-35) Paul confirms this same truth in Romans 2:13, "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Malachi would have his readers understand this truth. In the days of Jehovah His people will be those who really serve. Verse 1 Malachi Chapter Three This and the following brief chapter (which is included with this one in the Hebrew Bible) are among the most Messianic passages in the Old Testament. This is appropriate indeed, because of the long, long night of Israel's new status, not any longer that of the faithful covenant people, yet still preserved and protected through the providence of God until the promised Messiah should arrive - that long, long night of about half a millennium was at this point in Israel's history about to begin. Indeed it had already begun. Israel is no longer referred to by God's prophet as "the people of God," but as "this whole nation" (Malachi 3:9). They would abide many days for God "without king, without prince, without altar, without sacrifice, and without ephod and teraphim" (Hosea 3:4-5). Robinson pointed out that most of these two chapters (Malachi 3-4) regards the Messiah, "The apocalyptic character of Mal 3:13 to Malachi 4:2 is fine."[1] It is simply incredible to us that he failed to include all of Malachi 3 in such an analysis, for the first verse (Malachi 3:1) of this chapter is one of the most brilliant and revealing prophecies of Jesus Christ in the whole Bible. Malachi 3:1"Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts."Homer Hailey provided this accurate interpretation of what is actually stated here: "Jehovah's response to their question, "Where is the God of justice?" (Malachi 2:17), is that He himself will come, and suddenly. But before he comes, he will send his messenger to prepare the way before him. This promise of a messenger rests on Isaiah 40:3-5 : The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain; and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it (Isaiah 40:3-5)." It is strange that there should be any dispute over who this messenger is.[2]"I send my messenger ..." This messenger was none other than John the Baptist, a fact attested by the testimony of Jesus Christ himself and the holy apostles. (See more on this under Malachi 4:5-6, below.) It is a measure of critical arrogance that any man should deny this. "No sure identification of `my messenger' is possible ... Malachi 4:5-6 is a later addition, and consequently is not a reliable index to the thought of our prophet."[3] What if such a remark were the truth? (which of course it isn't); is not the testimony of Jesus Christ the Lord reliable? Jesus said: "But I say unto you that Elijah has come already, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they would ... then understood the disciples that he spake unto them of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:11-13)." So much for the question of who the messenger is. Beyond any question of doubt the prophecy referred to John the Baptist. Note also that it is Almighty God who will send the messenger. "He shall prepare the way before me ..." Practically all commentators on this passage have recognized that Malachi's prophecy is supplementary to the promise of Isa 40:3-5 (quoted above). The metaphor of Isaiah's prophecy means that in a manner comparable to that of ancient monarchs who sent messengers ahead of them to make preparations, smooth the roads, etc., just so, in like manner, before the Lord will come in the person of the Christ, a preparer will go before him, herald his coming and make ready the people to receive him. Isaiah's prophecy actually included what Malachi here said; and the accurate reading of Mar 1:2 has "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet ... etc." Of course, Mark applied it unequivocally to John the Baptist. "All that Malachi here prophesied, the same had Isaiah more concisely and more clearly prophesied in other words."[4]There are a number of very important implications of the truth revealed here, that God will send a messenger to prepare the way before the Messiah: (1) Israel is not yet ready to receive the Messiah. The moral and religious condition of the whole nation is such that a further period of waiting is necessary. This fact of the nation's being yet unprepared for the reception of the Lord, shows that Israel had, "No grounds for murmuring at the delay of the manifestation of divine glory."[5](2) The work of this messenger would not be a literal smoothing of roads, etc., as in Isaiah's metaphor, but would be worked out in the spiritual sector. John the Baptist would call the people to repentance, and point the way to One greater than himself. (3) The actual work of identifying the Lord when he came would be the mission of this messenger, a mission fulfilled when John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). With regard to the problem inherent in the fact that John the Baptist was not actually Elijah, see under Malachi 4:5-6, below. Suffice it here to note that: "The identification does not mean that John is Elijah come back to earth according to some principle of reincarnation. The two were distinct personalities. Rather it does mean that John ministered `in the spirit and power of Elijah' (Luke 1:17)."[6]"And the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple ..."Not only, would God send a messenger, the Lord himself would come to save his people (and all mankind). The purpose of the Lord's coming would not be that of restoring the scandalous old kingdom of the fleshly Israel, but that of the redemption of all men from sin. Note the impact of two clauses: "I will send ..." and "The Lord ... will come." This makes it absolutely necessary to differentiate between the messenger who preceded, and the Lord who came afterwards. The proper identification of "the Lord" in this passage makes him one and the same with Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. "Whom ye seek ..." The thought of this is synchronous with "whom ye desire" as applied to the messenger of the covenant and shows that "The Lord whom ye seek" is the same as "the messenger of the covenant whom ye desire." Thus, the Lord himself is also a messenger, but of a far greater and more important dimension. The first messenger identified the Messenger who would reveal the New Covenant. "Will suddenly come to his temple ..." Gill relates how: "This was interpreted by the Rabbis as a dramatic explosive visitation by which Messiah would announce his presence. It was this popular expectation which the devil exploited in tempting Jesus to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:9). To have done so would have won for him instant acceptance as the Messiah on the basis of popular though erroneous expectation.[7]"And the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire ..." This can be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ: "He is identified with the Lord; and he is the covenant angel who guided the Israelites to the promised land, and who is seen in the various theophanies of the Old Testament. The Divinity of Messiah is thus unequivocally asserted."[8]"Suddenly come to his temple ..." This was fulfilled in many ways. When Joseph and Mary presented Christ in the temple as an infant, the event was the occasion of the aged Simeon's magnificant identification of the Christ child as: "A light for revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of thy people Israel" (Luke 2:32). This, of course, was an eloquent testimony that here was indeed the Messiah. Jesus cleansed the temple twice, showing his full authority over it in both instances. He did indeed come "suddenly" to his temple. Baldwin was profoundly correct in the observation that: "The promise suggests that there was continuing disappointment with the second Temple, despite the encouragement of Haggai and Zechariah (Haggai 2:7; Zechariah 2:10, etc.)."[9]Of course, Christ would build the true Temple, and would consign the second temple, as he had done with the first, to desecration and destruction. "Behold, he cometh ..." There is absolutely nothing in this passage to justify the knee-jerk comment that, "Of course, Malachi thought all of this was going to happen right away." The very fact of Malachi's prophecy of John the Baptist (Elijah), who was thus identifiied with the first of the prophets, indicated that a new era was dawning. God's prophetic message was complete, and the period of waiting would ensue. That the Lord would appear "suddenly" also suggests that his coming would follow a long and indefinite period during which faith would almost disappear, and that his actual appearance would be an occasion of surprise. No Israelite could even begin to believe that the events foretold here would begin to unfold before the appearance of Elijah; and, since Elijah did not appear to that generation at all, no one could have supposed that all of this was in the process of happening right then. "Whom ye seek ... whom ye desire ..." There is another thought in these words. The question asked by the Jews which had precipitated this prophecy (Malachi 2:17) was, in effect, a plea for the judgment day to come. They were like the people mentioned by Amos 5:18-20, who envisioned God's judgment as an occasion when God would kill all of their enemies and put them in charge of the whole world. Before Malachi was through with this, he would show that the judgment day is going to be bad news and not good news for a great many. Verse 2 "But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap."The coming of the "day of the Lord" is not the prophecy of any one-day event, except in the case of that day of the final judgment of all men, when God will judge in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed ... even Jesus Christ; and, despite all the New Testament references to the final judgment being an apparent reference to a single, simultaneous event involving the totality of human kind, Christians should not imagine that they know all about what will occur then. "The day of the Lord ..." refers to the Messianic age, from first to last; it referred to the Day of Pentecost; it referred to the destruction of Jerusalem; it referred to the first Advent of Christ; and it refers to the second Advent of Christ. That is why some prophecies must be applied to one event, or situation, and other prophecies to still other events, with some passages, such as the one here, having reference to a mighty principle dominating the whole Messianic age. "Who can abide the day of his coming ...?" Israel could not abide the day of the coming of Jesus. They crucified him, incurring as a punishment the destruction of their city, state, and temple. The evil multitudes who did not accept Christ could not abide the day of his coming. But there is yet another application. At the final judgment, the New Testament prophet foretold that mighty men would hide in the caves and rocks of the mountains for terror, giving as the reason, "For the great day of their wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?" (Revelation 6:17). In this connection, one should read again the startling prophecy of Amo 5:18-20. The notion that Malachi here refined and reduced the severity of Amos' prophecy is wrong. The passages are supplementary, not contradictory. "Refiner's fire ..." The smelter must be applied to all men and all the institutions of men; only the pure shall stand. Only the just shall be saved; and, according to the Bible, the rest shall perish. This was the thing "Elijah" also referred to when John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Matthew 3 has an account of his message: "His fan is in his hand; and he will thoroughly purge his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12). This is exactly the thought behind the metaphor of the "refiner's fire." "Malachi seems to blend, as Joel, the first and second coming of Christ. The first coming too was a time of sifting and severance, according as those, to whom he came, did or did not receive him."[10]Verse 3 "And he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness."The Messianic thrust of the passage continues here. The covenant with Levi is no more; but there will be a new "priesthood," namely, the totality of all Christians in Christ, and their offerings "in righteousness" shall be such as were spoken of by Peter, whose language shows that he had this very passage in mind: "The proof of your faith, being more precious than gold ... proved by fire ... ye are built up a spiritual house ... a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ, etc. (1 Peter 1:7 1 Peter 2:5). The sacrifices "in righteousness" offered by the Christian include: our faith (Philippians 2:17), the love of God (Mark 12:33), our words, "the calves of our lips" (Hosea 14:2), our confession of Christ (Hebrews 13:15-16), our baptism into Christ (Romans 12:1), our praise (Hebrews 13:15), our contributions (Philippians 4:18), our songs (Colossians 3:16), our prayers (Revelation 5:8), the entire life of a Christian (2 Timothy 4:4), etc. In this dispensation, the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic law are replaced by spiritual sacrifices. These must be distinguished from the One Great Sacrifice of the blood of Christ for all men, which is the atonement for sin. The fact of the priesthood (Levi) being mentioned first here indicated that God's judgment would always begin with those of the greatest privilege. It is so even yet, and eternally. "For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel?" (1 Peter 4:17). Peter's conclusion here fits exactly into this prophecy. Hailey's deduction is therefore correct: "The Lord will not come simply as a judge of the heathen, but as a judge of His own as well."[11]Verse 4 "Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and in ancient years."Malachi has been criticized by some for glamorizing "the good old days" in this passage, but there is eternal truth in what he said. The days of Abraham, Moses, and David had indeed revealed a better response to the word of God than was evident in the times of Malachi, but it might very well be that the prophet here spoke of the peace and righteousness and tranquility of Eden itself before sin entered. Whatever was meant, the "Judah and Jerusalem" of this verse are not to be understood in any sense as the literal land of Palestine. It is the ideal Jerusalem, the Church of the Living God, which is meant. Not all the scholars have discerned this; but, as Pusey declared: "Judah and Jerusalem then are here the Christian Church."[12] Also, as Keil wrote: "We must not infer from Malachi 3:3-4 that Malachi imagined that Old Testament worship would be continued during Messianic times; but his words are to be explained from the custom of the prophets, using forms of the Old Testament worship to depict the reverence for God which would characterize the new covenant."[13]Before leaving these verses (Malachi 3:3-4), the problem raised by Smith should be noted: "The emphasis upon sacrifice and ritual here is in striking contrast to the depreciation of ritual at the hands of the earlier prophets."[14] Such a view derives from two fundamental errors: (1) the earlier prophets did not depreciate ritual at all, but ritual insincerely practiced. The common critical opinion that God's prophets care for nothing except social justice is a ridiculous caricature of what they really taught. (2) The "offering" here refers to the "spiritual sacrifices" of the new covenant, which throughout the New Testament receive the most emphatic emphasis. Verse 5 "And I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts."This summarizes the social injustices which marked the Israel of Malachi's day, which were abhorrent to God, not merely at that time, but in all generations; and the fact of Malachi's mentioning the components of the true worship of God prior to and ahead of these obligations has been an embarrassment to some of the "social gospel" commentators; but the order given here is correct. The reason for this lies in the truth that social justice never was maintained at any place on earth in any time of human history, apart from the knowledge and worship of the true God. The worship of God and social justice stand related to each other as cause and effect. The fool's proposition that ethical and moral equity can appear apart from and totally dissociated from the worship of God in Christ is disproved by every page of human history. As Durant expressed it: "There is no significant example in history ... of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion."[15] All of the holy apostles of the New Testament followed the same order of stressing religious duties to God first, and moral and social obligations afterward. The outline of every one of Paul's epistles was doctrine first, hortatory second. Jesus himself in giving the "first and great commandment," made "love of God" first, and "love of neighbor second." People cannot improve upon this order. The terror of such a judgment as that mentioned here lies in the fact that God is both witness and judge, as well as executioner of the penalty. Regarding the abuses singled out here: sorcery, which the Jews had probably picked up in Babylon, flourished right down to the days of Elymas (Acts 13:8); adultery, a prevalent sin in Israel, was committed in an aggravated sense through their marriage of foreign wives, and by their heartless divorce of their lawful spouses; the significant fact about all these evils was that they continued unabated until the Messiah came. "And fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts ..." As Hailey said, "The root of their actions was clear; they did not fear Jehovah."[16] Far more than that, however, is indicated. (See, above, under this verse.) All social evils have the same root and source. If men want a better society, it must begin by a return to God, a revival of his praise and worship. Such things are not secondary; they are primary. Verse 6 "For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore, ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed."Some scholars are incredulous at such a statement as this. Smith revised it with the comment that, "Nothing less than a clear threat of punishment will satisfy the context."[17] Accordingly, he read the passage, "Therefore, ye sons of Jacob shall be consumed." However, Malachi, not Powis Smith, should be followed. Smith did not understand what the passage means. The unchangeableness of God meant that, no matter what Israel did, God would preserve them until the Messiah was delivered to mankind through their flesh. What the passage is saying is, that if it were not for the immutable promises of God, Jacob would have been consumed in an instant, a fate which they fully deserved. If God had destroyed fleshly Israel, the Messiah would not have come; and all men would have been forever lost in sin. It was, therefore, with respect to God's eternal purpose of redemption, that he could not, and would not destroy Jacob. Adam Clarke properly discerned the import of the passage: "Because of this ancient covenant, ye Jews are not totally consumed; but ye are now, and shall be still, preserved as a distinct people."[18]The continuity of fleshly Israel upon the earth, despite their perpetual and persistent rebellion against the will of God is one of the great mysteries of all time. Paul revealed in Romans 11:25-26 that this continuity of the fleshly Jews will go on until 'the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," which many understand to be the end of the world. However, two things should be kept clearly in mind: (1) The continuity of fleshly Israel does not mean their perpetual enjoyment of any status as "God's chosen people." That, they are not; nor have they ever been so since the days of the Minor Prophets. The unwillingness of God to destroy Jacob cannot be read as any approval of Jacob. It was only that he was a physical necessity until Messiah should be born. (2) The continuity of fleshly Israel in the times subsequent to their official hardening and destruction by the Romans in 70 A.D. shows that some very good reason attaches to God's preservation of them until this very day. In the light of what has occurred, it is clear enough that the preservation of fleshly Israel has signally aided and encouraged the growth of Christianity. They stand mid-stream in human history, still hardened, still bitterly opposed to Christ; but the Jews themselves are the proof of everything their Bible says, as well as of everything in the New Testament. This too is a mystery of God. (See full comments on this amazing truth in my commentary on Romans, pp. 411-417. But the corollary with the pre-Christian Jacob is likewise true. This fleshly continuity of Israel does not endow fleshly Jews with any status as "God's chosen people." The only "Chosen People" God has ever had since the day of Pentecost is composed of that remnant of mankind (including Jews and Gentiles exactly alike) who are baptized into Christ. It is distressing that many commentators read God's words about "Not consuming Jacob," here as a pledge that "God will save us, no matter what we do. Our confidence is in the unchangeableness of God." This thought is foreign to the passage. The people who will be saved are those who serve God; and the people who will not be saved are the ones who do not serve God, as Malachi himself stated in Malachi 3:18. Verse 7 "From the days of your fathers ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, Saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?"The apostasy of Israel had begun almost from the very first and flourished unabated throughout pre-Christian and Christian history alike. "Wherein shall we return ...?" "This is the same old Pharisaical spirit as in Malachi 1:6, etc., throughout the prophecy. They do not acknowledge their offense; they consider that they are righteous and need no repentance."[19] As Smith said, "The question is not bona fide, but a virtual declaration of innocence."[20]Pusey contrasted the unchangeableness of God with the unchangeableness of Jacob! "I am not changed from good; ye are not changed from evil."[21]Verse 8 "Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."A proper appreciation and understanding of what Malachi taught here would prostrate many a Christian upon his knees in repentance. If God considered the non-payment of tithes, or the mere partial payment of them as "robbing God," what about millions of professed Christians who do not give as much to the work of God as they spend for soft drinks and tobacco? Any candid appraisal of what men are doing today must reach the conclusion that they have certainly not stopped robbing God! THE TITHEThe tithe means "a tenth," that part of the year's harvest which was due to be paid for the support of the worship of God. It was holy unto the Lord (Leviticus 27:30-33). God had commanded it to be given, not because God needed to receive it, but because men needed to pay it. As for the question of whether or not a Christian is obligated to tithe his income, it appears to this writer that nothing less than this should be expected of every true child of God. Yes, there are liberties in Christ that did not apply in the Law of Moses; yes, it's true that no specific regulation regarding the tithe is to be found in the New Testament; yes, it's true that many Christians boldly affirm that the old laws on tithing do not apply in the church. However, we are commanded to give "freely," and to give "liberally," and to give "as God has prospered us," etc. Therefore, we emphatically deny that giving less than a tenth can, by any stretch of imagination, be designated as giving freely and liberally, or as God has prospered us. The arrogant selfishness of God's redeemed people, as demonstrated by what they give, must be put alongside the example of those ancient Jews, and must be classified by the same words of Malachi. It is robbing God! (See further discussion of this subject in my commentary on Hebrews, pp. 144-146.) It has already been noted that ethical and social morality flow downward and receive their motivation from a proper relation to God. Malachi had just enumerated some of the gross immoralities of the people; but in this passage he blasted the pinnacle of their sins. They were robbing God! When one deliberately robs his God and Creator, will he then be faithful to his wife? When one has already violated the highest obligation that the soul knows, will he then avoid swearing a lie, defrauding a neighbor, or swindling a sojourner out of his rights? Let a man honor his duties to God first, for only God is able to convince him of the sanctity of any lesser duty. An illustration: This writer once performed the wedding ceremony for a lovely couple. The groom was a devoted Christian, faithful in every way. His bride was not religious, and she deliberately set out to change his religious life. Seven years afterward, and a number of years after her husband had drifted completely away from the church, that worldly little woman came desperately seeking help for the preservation of her marriage. Her husband had taken up with one of the girls at the office! She was patiently listened to and then told as tenderly as possible: "Look, dear, when you took him away from his God and Saviour, you cut the bud out of his moral and spiritual life. Why should he be faithful to you, when he is not faithful to his God? Bring him back to Jesus; and then, but not before then, something might be done to save your home." It is not a light thing when one of the Christian partners stops attending church. The wreck of the top of the structure of man's moral life will, in the process of time, usually be communicated downward, ultimately destroying all honor, virtue, and morality. Verse 9 "Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation.""The curse ..." Again, note the definite article. It is indicative of the end of relationship with God. It is that which followed the final and judicial hardening visited by God upon incorrigible sinners. (See under Malachi 2:2, above.) "Even this whole nation ..." Israel is not here designated as my people," or "the people of God"; the status of Israel from this time forward in human history was simply that of any other people on earth. "The word here, `nation,' is normally used only of the heathen; and so it reminds them that their conduct was unworthy of a covenant people."[22]Verse 10 "Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.""The whole tithe ..." As Smith said, "The form ... suggests not that the tithe had been allowed to go wholly by default, but that it had not been paid in full."[23]"There shall not be room enough to receive it ..." This carries the meaning that, "God's gifts will overflow the capacity of his children to receive them."[24] It will be remembered that in 2 Kings 4:1-7, Elisha aided the widow in preventing her sons from being sold as bondmen. The oil flowed as long as there was a vessel in which to place it; but when no other vessel remained, the oil ceased. How limited indeed are the capacities of men to receive the blessings of God! Verse 11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts.""The notable thing about this entire description of the manifestation of God's favor is that the only blessings mentioned are of a material character."[25] It would seem that God decided to meet the people on their own level. Since they do not appreciate anything except material prosperity, that also would be revealed to them as a blessing from God and from God only. Let them return to God, and he would bestow upon them material prosperity. The question of God's giving material blessings to Christians in the present times is also related to what is revealed here. Although, the blessings of the New Testament include primarily the spiritual and holy blessings of a renewed fellowship with God, material blessings are also positively included. Note: "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's sake, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life!" (Mark 10:29-30). "God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:7-8). Verse 12 "And all nations shall call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Jehovah of hosts."This is a summary of promises of blessing, showing that God's blessing would include everything necessary for a wholesome and happy environment of the people of God, provided only, that they would respond to his love by obeying his commandments, honoring his name, and giving to him their praise, thanksgiving and offerings as he had commanded them. Isaiah 62:1-4 has a description of such times: "The nations shall see thy righteousness ... thou shalt be a crown of beauty in the land of Jehovah ... thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken ... nor Desolate: but thou shalt be called My-delight-is-in-her,[26] and thy land, Beulah." By no imaginative accommodation may such promises be applied to fleshly Israel in the land of Palestine. What is surely in view here is the righteousness and peace of the new covenant people who will come to the foreground in the New Testament. The certainty of this lies in this very passage from Isaiah which also contains the prophecy of the "new name," which can be none other than the name Christian (Isaiah 62:2). Verse 13 "Your words have been stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee?"In response to the charge of speaking against God, the people make their usual denial, professing an innocence which they are too wicked to merit, but their wickedness is not apparent to those whose minds have been darkened and whose hearts have been hardened. Very well, Malachi will spell it out for them in the next line of the prophecy. Verse 14 "Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?"This is the age-old problem of the prosperity of the wicked contrasted with the struggles and tribulations of the righteous. Psalms 73 addresses the same problem. The saints of all ages have confronted it and have been perplexed by it. There is only one answer; and it is the same in the Psalm, or in Malachi, or always. "It was too painful for me, Until I went into the sanctuary of God, And considered their latter end" (Psalms 73:16-17). "Their latter end ..." If this life alone constituted the sum and total of all being, then it would have to be allowed that there are many situations in which the wicked clearly have an advantage. However, the Word of God teaches that there is a judgment of Almighty God, upon which occasion the wicked will be punished and the righteous rewarded. The child of faith should therefore be established and grounded in the conviction that the Father will surely see to it that he receives all, and far more, than he could deserve, and that, "Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ's, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" (Mark 9:41). The reason many today fall into the same evil attitude as that here rebuked by Malachi lies in the fact that the New Testament doctrine of the eternal judgment has been soft pedaled, or even eliminated from the perverted theology of our times. The doctrine of the judgment is one of the fundamentals of Christianity (Hebrews 6:2); and, without it, there is no answer at all to such problems as this one. There is also another phase of the problem, as cited by Jamieson: "The Jews mistook utterly the nature of God's service, converting it into a mercenary bargain. They attended to outward observances, not from love of God, but in the hope of being well paid for it in outward prosperity."[27]"We have walked mournfully ..." Like Hailey, we identify the mourning here with those self-originated fasts of Zechariah (Zechariah 7-8). Whether or not the Jews were sincere in observing such unauthorized fasts, is immaterial. The point is, they were trusting in their own devices, instead of returning to God. Verse 15 "And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God and escape."The "proud" mentioned here, or "arrogant," are not the heathen but the godless Israelites who have cast off all restraints of holy religion and were living like the pagans which they in heart had become. Malachi will answer their objections. In the next three verses (Malachi 3:16-18): "He assures the plus that Yahweh has not forgotten them, but intends to treat them with a Father's love in the great day of judgment that is coming. They will then realize fully the distinction that God makes between the godly and the ungodly. In that day, the wicked will be wholly consumed, like stubble in the flames, whereas the righteous will rejoice exceedingly and will triumph gloriously over their enemies.[28]Verse 16 "Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name."Christians should not trouble themselves about the justice of God. God Himself is keeping the records; he knows them that are his; their eternal felicity is assured; God hears their prayers; God will reward them gloriously. "They that feared Jehovah spake often with one another ..." The need of the community of fellowship is basic and necessary for meeting the trials and temptations of life. It was true of ancient Israel, and it is true today. Men who forsake the fellowship of the church are unquestionably on the way to eternal shame. The human soul needs the support, fellowship, and encouragement of "the communion of the saints," all of which are abundantly available to the Christian in the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper, ordained of God to supply these basic pre-conditions of fidelity. "A book of remembrance ..." This is a metaphor, of course. God does not need a literal book, or anyone to write in it. The thought here is quite similar to that in passages which mention the "book of Life." The thought of God's keeping his records in a book occurs in several Old Testament passages (Exodus 32:32-33; Psalms 69:28 Psalms 86:6; and Daniel 12:1). "But only Malachi calls it a book of remembrance."[29] Keil thought the metaphor here is founded, "On the custom of the Persians, of having the names of those who deserved the king's favor written in a book with a notice of their merits."[30]; Esther 6:1 refers to such a custom as it affected Mordecai. (Compare Philippians 4:3; Revelation 20:12). Of the very greatest importance is the glimpse afforded in this passage of that "righteous remnant," so often mentioned in the Old Testament. "There is never a time when Jehovah does not have his `seven thousand in Israel' whose knees have not bowed unto Baal (1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:4)."[31] The great and final apostasy had already descended upon the nation once called "the chosen people"; but God's purpose of redemption was not at all frustrated. In the midst of the wicked nation, there were those who "waited for the kingdom of God" (Mark 15:43). "were looking for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 1:25), and who also, "departed not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and supplications night and day" (Luke 1:37). There were a few Israelites indeed, true sons of Abraham, who were without guile (John 1:47), and a few whom Jesus Christ himself identified as "sons of Abraham" (Luke 19:9). No one knows how large this minority was at any given time; but the truth of its existence is clearly given. This priceless verse in Malachi gives the secret of maintaining faith and confidence in a time of widespread wickedness: "When the fire of religion burns low, true believers should draw the nearer together, to keep the holy flame alive. Coals separated soon go out."[32]Verse 17 "And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, and in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."In the background of such a prophecy as this, and in many other such promises in the Old Testament, there is the haunting fear of that "day," that terrible day that shall conclude the course of men on earth. A proper understanding of God's promise to "spare them" must be read against the universal consciousness of Doomsday that flies like a banner over both the Old Testament and the New Testament. "The end of the world" was mentioned in the giving of the Great Commission; and that ultimate catastrophe which, like the sword of Damocles, hangs over the heads of all mankind, is a definite part of holy revelation; and the concept of it is inseparably joined to all of the sacred promises of the entire Bible. In this connection, it is interesting to note that the prognosis for man's future upon earth, as provided by the philosophies of infidels and unbelievers, invariably carries this pathetic threat. Bertrand Russell, for example, stated that the future of man on earth was no more promising than that of the pterodactyl or the brontosaurus. The world around us indeed seems to be rushing headlong forward on a collision course with disaster. Particularly, the last great prophecy delivered to mankind, the Book of Revelation, is a sevenfold description of the end of the present order and the founding of a new one. The assignment of the true follower of God in Christ is exactly that of the saints of old who waited patiently for the kingdom. True, the kingdom for us has come; but the ultimate execution of the wrath and judgment of God upon human wickedness has not yet occurred. And amid the howls and shrieks of unregenerated men who scoff at such things, let the true Christian remember that "In your patience ye shall possess your souls" (Luke 21:19). Verse 18 "Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.""Him that serveth God ... serveth not ..." Again, in the Bible there appears here the grand cleavage of human kind into two, and only two classes, a division that appears repeatedly throughout the Bible. The wheat and the chaff, the good and the bad, the right hand and the left, the keepers and the rejects, the wheat and the tares, the wise and the foolish there are many examples. Gasque gave the meaning here as: "Therefore, it does make sense to serve God even in a day when it seems that the majority have forsaken him."[33]"The parallelism here identifies the righteous as one who served God, and the wicked with one who does not serve him."[34] The relationship of the soul to God is determinative; and that relationship is either proved or disproved by whether or not one does or does not serve God. Jesus strictly advocated the same principle: "The people who hear Jesus' words and do them will be saved; the people who hear his words and do them not will be lost" (Matthew 7:24-27). "Not everyone that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Charles Box Commentary On Malachi 3Will A Man Rob God?- Malachi Three -God"s prophets had powerful messages for the people of their days. They also gave information concerning the coming of the Messiah and His work. Malachi does exactly that in this chapter. He tells of the forerunner who prepared the way for the coming of Christ and then he wrote of the Christ, Himself. God"s terrible judgment will come against sinners that were not purified by the cleansing blood of Jesus. Strong rebukes were given against the Jews for their unfaithfulness in giving. They had robbed God. If they would repent and do right God would bless them abundantly. Malachi rebuked the people for their hard speech against God. There will one day be a final judgment of separation between the righteous and wicked. Let us prepare now for eternity with Christ. Malachi 3:1-5 The messenger and the Messiah -- Malachi 3:1-5 : Messiah would come. However, before His coming there would be one to prepare His way. Malachi wrote, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 3:1) In Matthew 11:10 Jesus made it clear that this was a reference to John the Baptist. Isaiah also prophesied of John as "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3) John"s work was to prepare the people to receive the Messiah. John preached that the people should repent and prepare for the coming of the Savior. He announced that the Messiah would appear in a surprising manner and He would come to His Temple. He would give a New Covenant for the people through His death on the cross. No one will be able to stand God"s final judgment. When Jesus came He came as Redeemer. His second coming will be with fire and judgment. When Jesus read Isaiah"s prophecy in the Temple He stopped reading before the announcement of God judgment. (Luke 4:17-20, Isaiah 61) He was then speaking of the beginning of His ministry, not the end of the world. Malachi spoke of both the beginning and the end of Jesus" work. There was first the purifying and then the judgment. The Jews had many sins either to be forgiven in Jesus or to face in judgment. They had (1) Practiced sorcerers, (2) Committed adulterers, (3) Been false sweaters, (4) Taken advantage of people that they hired to work, (5) Abused the widow, and the fatherless, (6) Refused to help strangers, and (7) Failed to fear God. Malachi 3:6-12 The sin of ingratitude -- Malachi 3:6-12 : The people did not see that they had any need to repent. Malachi moved to discuss in more details two specific sins of the Jews. The first was that they were robbing God with their giving. The people denied this, yet they were very guilty of this sin. When the people held back part of their giving or gave inferior products they were robbing God. Many are guilty of the same sin today. Ingratitude is an ugly sin that shows itself in our giving. The Jews had not given as they should so the entire land was under a curse. Christians today struggle with giving 10 % and the Jews likely gave from 20 to 25 % when you consider all their tithes and offerings. Let us remember that everything belongs to God and give as if we believed that! If we refuse to show our loyalty and faithfulness to God in our giving we will miss many blessings! Malachi even called upon the people to put God to the test and give and observe how blessed they would be. Malachi 3:13-15 The sin of speaking against God -- Malachi 3:13-15 : The Jews denied that they were doing anything wrong. This amounted to saying that God was making false charges against them. The attitude of these Jews was terrible. They felt that God was wrong in His dealings with them. They said very disrespectful things to God. They even denied that it is worthwhile to obey the will of God. God said,"Your words have been (insolent) harsh against Me," Says the LORD." These people thought that God owed them something for living under His law. They even said the arrogant were blessed by the Lord and that the wicked prospered. We do well to remember that God always looks at the hearts of those who come before Him. Malachi 3:16-18 The Book of remembrance -- Malachi 3:16-18 : The message of this chapter ends with God reminding the people that He would remember those who serve him in righteousness. This book of remembrance contains deeds of the Christian age. Christians are people that "Fear the Lord" and honor Him. Christians reverence the Lord, love Him and are devoted to His service. Those who fear the Lord and serve Him are set in contrast with the insolate and rebellious. Words of the righteous were words of faith and reverence. God remembers! Let us fear the Lord and think on His name. There are major differences between those who are saved and those who are not and God has a book of remembrance. Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send (I send) my messenger. God answers that he is coming to show himself the God of judgment and justice. Are they ready to meet him and to bear his sentence? Who this "messenger" is is disputed. That no angel or heavenly visitant is meant is clear from historical considerations, as no such event took place immediately before the Lord came to his temple. Nor can Malachi himself be intended, as his message was delivered nearly four, hundred years before Messiah came. The announcement is doubtless founded upon Isaiah 40:3, and refers to the same person as the older prophet mentions, who is generally allowed to be John the Baptist, the herald of Christ's advent (Matthew 11:10; John 1:6). Prepare the way before me. The expression is borrowed from Isaiah, loc. cit. (comp. also Isaiah 57:14; Isaiah 62:10). He prepares the way by preaching repentance, and thus removing the obstacle of sin which stood between God and his people. Whom ye seek. When ye ask, "Where is the God of judgment?" Shall suddenly come to his temple. The Lord (ha-Adon) is Jehovah, as in Exodus 23:17; Isaiah 1:24; Isaiah 3:1, etc. There is a change of persons here, as frequently. Jehovah shall unexpectedly come to his temple ( τὸνναὸνἑαυτοῦ) as King and God of Israel (comp. Ezekiel 43:7). There was a literal fulfilment of this prophecy when Christ was presented in the temple as an infant (Luke 2:22, etc.). Even the messenger of the covenant. He is identified with the Lord; and he is the covenant angel who guided the Israelites to the promised land, and who is seen in the various theophanies of the Old Testament. The Divinity of Messiah is thus unequivocally asserted. In him are fulfilled all the promises made under the old covenant, and he is called (Hebrews 9:15) "the Mediator of the new covenant." Some render," and the Messenger," etc; thus distinguishing the Angel of the covenant from the forerunner who prepares the way. But this is already done by the expressions, "My Messenger," and "the Lord." Whom ye delight in. Whose advent ye expect with eager desire. Malachi 3:1 Preparation work."Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." It is fully recognized that the allusion here is to the ministry of John the Baptist. In him was realized the fulfilment of the promise that Elijah should come again. Our Lord declared that Elijah had come, in his time, and had not been recognized. And the disciples understood him to speak of John the Baptist. The more familiar figure of a "preparer of ways" is that given in Isaiah 40:3, Isaiah 40:4. In vision the prophet sees the march of a triumphant king and army. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/zerrcbc/ Malachi 3:2. Abide the day of his coming means to face it or feel equal to the awfulness of that day. It is because it will be very thorough in its treatment of sinners in the process of cleansing or purifying them. Malachi 3:3. A refiner's fire ·is used to separate the dross from precious metal, and the fact has been used throughout the Bible to illustrate the work of purifying men tram their sins. Sons of Levi is said figuratively because they were the ones who were the priests under the Mosaic system. They had become corrupt in their office and the prediction means that the priests of this new covenant will be purified by the refining influence of the Gospel. Malachi 3:4. Judah and Jerusalem are used spiritually to refer to the services under Christ, in about the same sense that Levi is mentioned in the preceding verse to signify the spiritual priesthood in the system under Christ. Malachi 3:5, The evils named In this verse bad been commttted by the Jews in Malachi's time. and the words of condemnation were meant as a severe r ebuke ot them. And they were also a prediction of the exacting regulations regarding such practices to be instituted in the time of Christ. Malachi 3:6. God bas never dealt with man as his conduct deserved or he would bave been long since consumed. It has always been thus with God for he changes not; that is why the sons of Jacob had not been consumed. Malachi 3:7. As proof that God has always been the same lenient One he is at the present time, they are reminded of the wayward conduct of the fathers in spite of the pleadings which He made with them, in which they were urged to Return unto me, ana I 'will return unto you, Malachi 3:8. Will a man rob God' was doubtless answered with an emphatic "no" by these people. But they recognized the question actually to be an accusation that they had robbed Him, and then they asked in what way they had done SO. The Lord's reply was that it was done in tilhes and offerings. When the Jews held back a part of their tithes, or brought some inferior products to the service, they were thereby robbing God. Malachi 3:9. The whole nation could justly be charged with the evils com- plained of because all the people upheld the corrupt priests and prophets (Jeremiah 5:31). Malachi 3:10. There never was or will be a time when it pays to defraud the Lord out ot His deserts. On the other hand, it is always profitable in the end to be liberal and cheerful in the service to God. Hence these people are challenged to cast their trust on the Lord and cease holding back what they were obligated to give into the service of Him because it will be to their advantage to do so in reality. Malachi 3:11. The Lord even promised to protect their increasing products from the ravages of those who would devour them. The plants for fruit and other articles of food were guaranteed to bring their yield to maturity. Malachi 3:12. Besides the general favors Indicated in this verse that fleshly Israel could have acquired, the greater one pertained to them as spiritual Israel. The words all nations were fulfilled when the Gospel was offered to Jew and Gentile alike. Malachi 3:13. The Lord again takes up his complaint against fleshly Israel. One ot their chief taults was to deny that what they were doing was wrong. In so speaking they virtually charged God with making a talse accusation against them. Malachi 3:14. The Lord specifies some of the things they were saying unjustly. Perhaps the most serious was to deny that it was worth wbile to obey the law. Malachi 3:15. Here Is another serious charge that reflects against the justice of God. They said that the proud and wicked persons were the ones who were accorded the most happiness by the Lord, which was the very opposite of the truth. It is no wonder that theLord said he was "wearied" with them. Malachi 3:16. Going back to the subject in verse 12 and others, the prophet looks forward to some of the glorious features of the Gospel age. .Then is an adverb of time, referring to things that were to be done in the Gospel system under Christ. The past tense is a grammatical form often used in prophetic writings, but it was several centuries in the future when Malachi wrote it. Space often are from one word which is DABAR and Strong defines it, "A primitive root; perhaps properly to arrange; but used figuratively (of Words) to speak." Young defines it. "To speak (consult) together." Among the many words by which it has been rendered in the King James Version are answer, communication, counsel, language, message, promise. question, r eason, r eport, re- quest, saying, speech, talk, aud word: the last one is used 770 times. With all this critical intormation at hand it would indicate that the wording in our common version is justified. It undoubtedly means that the citizens in the kingdom of Christ were to be in close touch with each other, which would require that they assemble whenever they can. This all agrees with the admonition at Paul in Hebrews that the disciples of Christ should not forsake the assembling together of tbemselves (Hebrews 10:25). Book of remembrance does not mean that God needs any mechanical plan to keep Him from forgetting anything. The expression is used figuratively and means that the names of God's Children are carefully inscribed in the heavenly record, and the fact is spoken of as being recorded in a book. (See Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 3:5 Revelation 21:27.)' Malachi 3:17. They shall be mine. If I were to buy and pay for something it certainly would be mine. Jesus purchased the church with his own blood and it is said to be His. (See Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:19 1 Peter 2:9.) Jewels is from which Strong defines, "wealth," It is the word for "veculiar treasure" in Psalms 135:4. The Lord regards the members of bis chUrch as jewels since t hey are so valuable, He having said such a great price (his blood) for them. That day means the Gospel dispensation in which time He was to make up or gather these jewels into the fold or church. I will spare them, etc., is equivalent In thought to that in Hebrews 8:11. Malachi 3:18. The gist of this verse is that the members or the new kingdom will have superior knowledge of what is right and wrong. That is because they will have the "perfect law of liberty" for their guidance. But this is not all, for the leaders of. the Jewish kingdom, especially In the days of Malachi's writing. had mixed together the good and the evil and bad refused to make any difference between them. (See chapter 2: 17,) The Gosvel was to be clear and exacting and those who believe it will be trained to "have no fe llowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11). Clinton R. Gill Commentary On Malachi 4BEHOLD, THE DAY COMETH Malachi 4:1-6 Malachi 4:1 ---The association of fire with the final judgement is a theme which runs throughout much of the Scriptures. Daniel describes it vividly. (Daniel 7:9-10) The Psalmist sang of it. (Psalms 1:3) Peter affirms it at some length. (2 Peter 3:7-10) Malachi promises that those who feel this final fire will be with­out hope of springing again to life. They will be without branch or root. (See Amos 2:9)) Malachi 4:2 ---The prophet does not, however, limit his vision of the coming day to that of doom. In contrast, he presents the effects of its coming on God’ s people. On those who fear His name the sun of right­eousness shall rise with healing in its (His) wings. Here is one of the most picturesque descriptions of the Messiah to be found in the Old Testament. To dissect it is to destroy it. Suffice it to say, that as the sun is the light and source of life to all the eaith, so the Christ is the light and giver of life to the true worshipper. Malachi 4:3 --When this day comes, and the wicked are punished by fire while God’ s people aire freed from all care, the question of Mal 3:15 will finally be answered. Jesus’ rehearsal of the fate of the rich man and Lazarus is a fine illustration of this truth, (cf. Luke l6:19-ff) The unrighteous rich who lord it over the righteous poor will, in that day, find their situations completely reversed ... eternally and completely. In out present day, when churches have become pre-occupied with alleviating the temporal needs of men, regardless of their spiritual con­dition, and when making a profit in business has become, to some, im­moral regardless of the good that may be done with such wealth, the idea that the iniquities of this life will be rectified in the next is passe to some. In the presence of this spiritual blindness, God’ s people dare not lose sight of our obligation to be concerned for men’ s temporal needs in Jesus’ name. (cf. Matthew 25:31-46 Matthew 25:1 John 3:16-18) But this concern can, by no form of logc, negate the coming day of judgement Nor can such concern negate the fact that the injustices of wicked men who prey upon the righteous and deprive the weak obviously go unpunished here and now. Honesty, in business, is not always the "best policy” for those whose chief purpose is personal gain. Just as surely as this is so, so does the justice of God demand a day' of reckoning. For those who come to Christ, the day of reckoning was held on Calvary (Romans 3:25-26). For those who do not fear God, the time of reckoning is yet to come and it will. Malachi 4:4-6 ---Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the chil­dren, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.The Old Testament Scriptures close with a prophetic plea to God’ s people to remember the law of Moses. It would be some four hundred years before Jehovah would speak again. In the interim, if they are to survive as His people, the law must be remembered. Special attention is called to the statutes, that is those portions of the law dealing with religious ceremony. These ceremonies, as we have seen, were designed to keep visually and tangibly before the people an object lesson of the coming Lamb of God. If they were to fall into disuse before He came, Calvary would indeed be hard to comprehend. Fortunately, they did not fall into disuse. During the Maccabean period and shortly thereafter (c. 160 B.C.), the party known as the Pharisees came into being for the express purpose of maintaining the literal outward observances of the statutes governing the Mosaic cere­monies in worship. Regrettably the Pharisees became obsessed with the letter to the neglect of the spirit of these observances, but they did. quite significantly, preserve the form. In calling for remembrance of the law, Malachi does so in such a way as to provide the people one last term of its covenant meaning. The burden of the last Old Testament writer was delivered to a stiff­necked and rebellious people. They prided themselves on being Jehovah’ s people, but he bluntly declared, "I have no pleasure in you, saith Je­hovah of hosts.” (Malachi 1:10) They thought they could play fast and loose with God, but Malachi reminded them of the greatness of Him with Whom they had to do, (Malachi 1:14) In their faithlessness, Mal­achi reminds them of the covenant, and told them flatly they were breaking it. (Malachi 2:1-9) He despaired of the nation as a whole and of the race as a race. He foresaw the coming of a terrible day in which this proud and wicked people would be utterly consumed. But the remnant would survive, made up of those who individu­ally feared Jehovah (Malachi 4:2) and thought upon His name. That is, those who had come to understand the true character of the eternal God and His purpose for all men. (Malachi 3:16) These faithful would be spared only because they had fulfilled God’ s covenant conditions (cf. Exodus 19:5-6) laid down on Mount Horeb (Sinai). Those who were so spared would be God’ s true Israel; all the rest were doomed. Verse 1 Malachi Chapter Four This brief chapter of six verses is, in the Hebrew Bible, included with Malachi 3. It is an appropriate and exciting close to the Book of Malachi, to the voice of Prophecy, and to the Old Testament Canon of the Bible. "For behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."This is a reference to the final judgment, at which time God will make a summary end of wicked and rebellious men. The unique survivors of that holocaust will be those from all ages, the people of God, the redeemed in Christ. Neither Christ, nor any of the apostles, ever softened or reduced the intensity of this promise in any manner. John the Baptist, revealed later in the chapter as the forerunner of the Judge, used exactly the same figure: "But the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12). Christ himself spoke of, "The eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 12:42). Peter spelled it out at some length, "The heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7). It is of no consequence whatever that wicked men simply do not believe this; God will accomplish it just the same. "But a righteous God would not destroy all men!" That is what the ante-diluvian world thought; and the same God who promised that he would not again destroy the earth with a flood, has also promised a second and terminal destruction by fire. My God give men the grace to believe what he has revealed. Verse 2 "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and gambol as calves of the stall."Note that we have capitalized "Sun of Righteousness," as in the Authorized Version, there being no sufficient reason whatever for writing it "sun of righteousness," as in our version and many others. Clinton R. Gill is the only commentator we found who spoke out against the popular fad of denying the identity of Christ in this passage. He wrote: "Here is one of the most picturesque descriptions of the Messiah to be found in the Old Testament. To dissect it is to destroy it. Suffice it to say, that as the sun is the light and source of life to all the earth, so the Christ is the light and giver of life to the true worshipper."[1]"The Sun of Righteousness was understood by the fathers, from Justin downwards, and nearly all the earlier commentators to be Christ, who is supposed to be described as the rising sun.[2]... At least as early as the time of Coverdale (1535), the sun of righteousness was understood to be Jesus. This interpretation is continued in "The Translators to the Readers" of the King James Version: "But when the fullness of time drew near, that Sunne of Righteousness, the Son of God should come into the world."[3] (Neither Keil nor Lewis, however, accepted this). To us, there are insurmountable obstacles to accepting the current scholarly position regarding this passage. We confess a positive certainty that they are all wrong about it. The instinct of the ancients regarding who is meant by the Sun of Righteousness is a far better guide than the doubts of the world's current crop of scholars. What is the reason for denying the reference here to Christ? It hinges, absolutely, upon the use of a feminine pronoun with the Hebrew word for "sun," which is also feminine here: The Hebrew uses a feminine pronoun "her wings" to agree with sun ([~shemesh]) which is a feminine noun in Hebrew.[4]The thing that astounds us is that none of the scholars suggests "emending" this text to remove the difficulty. They never hesitate to "emend it" in order to create a difficulty! But what about this reference to the sun as feminine? The Hebrew Bible uses both masculine and feminine references to the sun. J. M. Powis Smith stated that: "It is usually masculine, but it is feminine here and in Genesis 15:17; Jeremiah 15:9; Nahum 3:17, and Isaiah 45:8."[5] In all of these passages, "sun" is clearly a reference to the solar orb; and so it must be considered here. And that celestial body cannot represent anyone ever heard of on earth, except the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, it is far more likely that Our Lord is indicated here than it is that, "The Babylonian sun-god Shamash" should be considered as having any "connection with the `sun of righteousness'"[6] mentioned here. How amazing it is that liberal scholars who cannot find Jesus anywhere in the passage can discover the heathen sun-god of ancient Babylon! The witness of the whole Bible identifies God (and Christ) with the sun, or the rising sun: "He (God) shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth (2 Samuel 23:4) ... Jehovah God is a sun and a shield (Psalms 84:11) ... The Dayspring (the sun-rising) from on high shall visit us (Luke 1:78) ... There was the true light (Christ) even the light that lighteth every man, coming into the world (John 1:9) ... I am the light of the world (John 8:12) ... Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; and Christ shall shine upon thee (Ephesians 5:14) ... Ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day-Star (which is the sun, of course) arise in your hearts (2 Peter 1:19). "The Sun of Righteousness" here in Malachi fits Jesus Christ alone, and no other. No idiosyncracy of Hebrew grammar can hide this fact which is as clear as the sun at perihelion! One other notable testimony should be observed. If the passage here has a feminine cast (and it does), why do all the late versions translate, "sun of righteousness with healing in its wings?" The answer is, that they know the feminine does not fit here, and so they must substitute the neuter. Why not substitute the masculine, as did the translators of the KJV? That, at least, has the advantage of being in line with what the passage has to mean. The de-personalization of this promise of the "Sun of Righteousness" is widely advocated. Hailey has this: "Righteousness itself is the sun that shall arise with healing in its rays or beams. This divine righteousness will be as accessible to all as is the light from the rays of the sun."[7]However, there is no righteousness, nor was there ever any, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. "The righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22) is that righteousness revealed "in the gospel" (Romans 1:17); and that must be identified as the only righteousness that ever arose to shine over the Messianic age. Thus, there is absolutely no way to get Christ out of what is plainly meant here. Any theory that abstract, impersonal, righteousness, shall rise over the human race like fog from the great swamp, is certainly a novel and unheard of postulation. The position cited from Harley is the current, popular interpretation, followed by the vast majority of scholars today. Deane, for example, said it was, "This Divine righteousness that shall beam upon them"[8] that fear the Name of God. Despite the many concurrent opinions supporting this removal of personality from this passage, such views are unacceptable. Righteousness is simply not an impersonal quality. Righteousness is one of the names of God: Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: JEHOVAH- (Jeremiah 23:6) Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby she shall be called: JEHOVAH- (Jeremiah 33:16) The meaning of JEHOVAH- is "The Lord Our Righteousness"; and let it be noted that Jeremiah used it in connection with both masculine and feminine words, Israel being masculine, Jerusalem being feminine; and, since Malachi's word for the fleshly Jews was no longer "Israel," but Jerusalem (feminine), that may account for his use of the feminine here. And here the reference is to the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ. Bennett offers the ingenious suggestion that: "The KJV, "Sun" with a capital letter is not a reference to a personal agent, but rather to a figurative representation of righteousness itself. It was not the prophet's purpose to predict Christ personally in this phrase, but to contrast what the day of judgment would present to the righteous with that which it would present to the wicked."[9]The weakness of this and all similar views lies in the invariable principle seen throughout the Bible that the judgment is not to be some automatic development, rising unaided and spontaneously from the populations of earth. It will be a personal judgment, conducted by Jesus Christ himself. Thus, the very nature of the thing alleged to be meant here forbids its separation from Divine Personality, in this case, as we believe - CHRIST. As for the notion that "it was not the prophet's purpose here to predict Christ," it must be affirmed that "the Lord's coming suddenly to his temple" (Malachi 3:1), the forerunner "Elijah" sent to prepare the way before him (Malachi 3:1 Malachi 4:5-6), and the "Great and terrible day of the Lord" (Malachi 4:5) point squarely to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to no other. "Unto you that fear my name ..." This identifies the people upon whom the "Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings." The mention of "My Name" is significant. The reference is to the name of God, JEHOVAH-, The Lord Our Righteousness; thus the key to knowing what the "Sun of Righteousness" actually is, or rather WHO he is, stands at the head of the passage. Dentan noted that, "`To fear my name' means `to practice reverently my religion.'"[10]"And ye shall go forth and gambol as calves of the stall ..." This is an agricultural metaphor from the care and feeding of livestock. Such carefully protected and cared-for animals exhibit a quality of playful happiness that appears most desirable. Verse 3 "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts."McFadyen disapproved of what God here revealed: "In their joy, they would frisk like calves, and part of that joy would be to trample the wicked like ashes under the soles of their feet. This ugly vindictive trait reminds us how fierce the temper of the later time could be."[11]If this text is read, it must be clear that nothing in it speaks about the joy the saved shall receive from trampling the wicked or seeing them punished. There is nothing vindictive, ugly, or mean in God's Word here, or anywhere else. What is revealed is the fact: (1) that the gross wickedness of mankind shall be burned up like stubble, (2) that the ashes will remain, and (3) that a new generation of God's people would tread upon the ruins and remains of what preceded it. Many of earth's great cities today are built upon the ruins of previous cities and civilizations; and the citizens of those cities are not vindictive or hateful because they are "treading" upon the ashes of former generations. Instead of complaining about what is perceived as a flaw in the character of God, men should heed what he said; for it is sure to come to pass. The destruction of the earth by fire at the end of this age, and the coming of the "new heaven and the new earth" prophesied by the apostles of Christ, leave unanswered the question of where the new heaven and the new earth will be located. Will our planet be completely removed, and a new sphere become the home of the redeemed, or does "destruction," or "burned up" refer to a purging of the old location, which would be the site of the new? There could be a clue to the answer here. The ashes of the old will lie beneath the feet of the new. If this is correct, it would correspond to the first destruction of the earth by water. "It overflowed with water ... perished." Yet in that instance also, the remains of the old lie beneath the feet of the new. Verse 4 "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances."The last three verses of Malachi are generally rejected and downgraded as an interpolation, gloss, or editorial addition to the prophecy of Malachi. As Gailey put it: "The final verses of the Book of Malachi are probably a postscript by a pious scribe, seeking to provide a suitable conclusion for the Book of Twelve (Minor) Prophets as well as for the Book of Malachi."[12]Such views are erroneous. There could be no truth at all in the allegation that this passage has any other source than the prophet who wrote the rest of the book; and even Malachi was a source secondary, God Himself being the author of the prophecy "through Malachi." The destructive critics speak of "the editor." What editor? There is no evidence in this prophecy or anywhere else on earth of there ever having been an "editor." If there was one, he could not have been a Jew, for nor Jew in a thousand years would ever have closed the book with the threat of a curse upon the whole earth! So the alleged "editor" must have been a pagan, but when did the Jews allow the pagans to edit their Holy Scriptures? Furthermore, our Lord Jesus Christ himself affirmed the last two verses of this book as a genuine word from God, a true prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist to be the Herald and forerunner of the Christ. How could some interpolator, "pious scribe" (he must really have been "pious"), or editor have appended a holy, genuine, and marvelously fulfilled prophecy from God, doing so in the fraudulent act of palming off his "postscript" as an authentic portion of another man's prophecy? One simply has to be both naive and gullible to accept the nonsense shamelessly advocated by critical enemies of the Bible. One rather timid commentator suggested that after all, "perhaps Malachi could have written these verses." As a matter of fact, no one ever known except Malachi could have written them. "The law of Moses ..." The mention of Mount Horeb, the name given in Deuteronomy for Mount Sinai, in the same clause here indicates that Deuteronomy was in the mind of the prophet. One thing that has been revealed vividly throughout the Twelve Prophets is the prior existence of the Pentateuch. All of the Minor Prophets addressed Israel in respect of the prior sacred covenant that existed between them and God; and the countless examples of appeal to specific instances of the sacred law demonstrated that at the time of these prophets, the Law of Moses was a unified whole, understood and accepted by all the people (at least in theory), and that the Pentateuch is prior to and earlier than any of the Minor Prophets. "Even the statutes and ordinances ..." This reference to specific parts of the Mosaic law indicates that there was a certain complexity in it, and that all of it, even the details of it, were to be respected and obeyed. Scholars differ as to just which provisions were called "ordinances," and which were called "statutes." Verse 5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible days of Jehovah come.""Elijah ..." Did this mean that Elijah who was "caught up" to the Lord, and who therefore, apparently did not die, -that he would return to prepare the way before the Lord? (2 Kings 2:1-12). Of course, the Jews generally understood this to mean that the same Elijah the Tishbite would be the one who returned. There was a strong tradition among the Jews that continues to the present day, to the effect that the literal, self-same Elijah the Tishbite, would in time return. The Feast of Purim among the Jews until this day sets a plate, goblet, and empty chair for "Elijah"; and so the myth is perpetuated. The LXX, notoriously wrong in many instances, actually translated this place, "I will send you Elias the Tishbite." That is not what God said, nor is it what God meant. The Septuagint (LXX) introduction of a literal identification with Elijah the Tishbite into this promise of God's sending "Elijah the prophet" was but another example of how the Jews had "improved on the Word of God" to compel its conformation with their interpretations and prejudices. We may be certain that when the Pharisee sent to inquire of John the Baptist if he was "Elijah," that they presented the question in terminology that identified him as the Tishbite; for, at least, that is the question that John the Baptist answered, saying, "I am not" (John 1:21). The Jewish religious hierarchy had accepted that false interpretation of a literal return of Elijah for over four centuries before Christ came; and this shows that wrong interpretations long "accepted" are still, nevertheless, wrong. However, the religious "false shepherds" of Israel were without excuse for their error. (1) An angel of God had appeared in the temple, breaking a four-century absence of any such wonder. The angel had appeared to Zacharias from the right hand side of the altar of incense saying: "Thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John ... He shall be great in the sight of the Lord ... He shall go before his face in the Spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him" (Luke 1:13-17). If there had been any spiritual discernment whatever among the whole roster of Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, scribes, and Elders of Israel, - if they had possessed the slightest degree of spiritual perception, they would instantly have recognized John, the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth, as the divinely appointed fulfillment of this remarkably specific promise in Malachi. Elijah would be, not the literal Tishbite, but a new personality going forth "in the spirit and power of Elijah." Note that the very terminology of Malachi was quoted by an angel of God, "hearts of the fathers to the children," etc. Of course, this divine revelation was rejected out of hand by the Pharisees, because it contradicted their literal view that the Tishbite was meant. Nevertheless, as Keil said: "This address of the angel gives an authentic explanation of Mal 4:5-6 : the words, "and the heart' of the children to the fathers" being omitted, as implied in the turning of the heart of the fathers to the children, and the explanatory words, "and the unbelieving to the wisdom of the just," being introduced in their place."[13](2) John the Baptist himself adopted the very type of clothing worn by Elijah the Tishbite, the raiment of camel's hair, and a leather thong around his waist, indicating that John himself was fully conscious of his identity with Elijah prophesied by Malachi. It was a clever bit of maneuvering on the part of the Pharisees to extract from John the Baptist the words, "I am not"; and the only way that could have been accomplished was for their question to have made an affirmative answer impossible, asking, "Are you Elijah the Tishbite?" If those ancient hypocrites had looked upon John with honor, had received the baptism that he preached, and had paid strict attention to the very clothing that he wore, to say nothing of the words of an angel of heaven, they would instantly have known that he was that "Elijah which was to come." (3) The testimony of Christ that John the Baptist was indeed "that Elijah which was to come" (Matthew 17:12-13) was within a few years certainly, and much earlier probably, available to the Pharisees; but they even refused that testimony, and have continued till this day "the empty chair" routine at the annual feast of Purim! (4) The Pharisees knew that, "The Son of David," whom they expected to ascend the throne of the literal David in Jerusalem, would nevertheless not be "the literal David," but another of his posterity and in his likeness. It is true that there were differences in the situations as regarded Elijah and David; but the principle of two distinct personalities being stamped with a single designation was one with which they were already familiar; and they should have had no trouble at all applying it to the two Elijah's, (1) the Tishbite, and (2) the son of Zecharias. (5) Jesus doubtless knew that the literal view of the Tishbite's returning to earth would continue to be advocated and used by Satan throughout history; and, therefore, Jesus Christ presided over a literal return of Elijah on the mountain of transfiguration, in which event Moses and Elijah met Jesus upon the holy mountain and carried on a conversation with him in the hearing of Peter, James, and John. Whether or not the Pharisees knew of this until afterward is immaterial. They surely learned of it eventually. "That Elijah" promised by Malachi was John the Baptist. If one thinks it is a mystery why the Pharisees did not understand this, let him try to explain why a scholar like Smith would exclaim: "There is no warrant for going beyond what is written here and refusing to accept the language at its face value!"[14] The reason for such a view lies in the adamant fundamentalism of liberal scholars in all scriptural passages where a literal view contradicts spiritual truth. It was this spirit which denied the death of Jairus' daughter on the grounds that Jesus had said, "She is not dead, but sleepeth." (See a full discussion of the disease of "Fundamentalism Among Liberals" in my commentary on James-Jude, p. 289.) "Before the great and terrible day of Jehovah ..." Deane did not identify the messenger "Elijah" ofMalachi 4:5 with the messenger that was foretold as preceding the "messenger of the Covenant" in Malachi 3:1, giving as the reason the following: "The latter (in Malachi 4:5) comes before the first advent of our Lord, the former appears before the day of judgment."[15] However, there is actually no impediment to receiving the messenger mentioned in Malachi 3:1 as the same messenger mentioned in Malachi 4:5. Peter himself identified, "The day of the Lord, the great and notable day" and "The great and terrible day of Jehovah" (Joe 2:31; Acts 2:17-20) as being the same. That "That DAY" was identified with Pentecost on one occasion (by Peter) and with the final judgment on another (by Malachi) is no problem. The frequent expression in all the Minor Prophets regarding "that day," "the last days," "the latter days," and "in those days," etc ... all pertain to the Messianic Age, that is, all of the time between the first and second Advents of Christ. There is a melding and blending by all prophets of events in the Messianic times which actually are separated by vast intervals of time. Jesus himself continued this characteristic by prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the coming of the final judgment with a single set of answers, some portions of which are applicable to one event, some to the other, and some to both alike. (See Matthew 24.) That the two messengers of Mal 3:1 and Malachi 4:5 are identical is evident. "The thought in Malachi 4:5 is parallel to that of Mal 3:1. Prior to the Day of the Lord, a heaven-sent messenger would prepare the way."[16] "The prophet (Elijah) in 4:5 is usually identified with the messenger of Mal 3:1. Both will appear in order to make preparation for the coming of the Lord to judge his people."[17]Verse 6 "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."All except the last clause of this verse was discussed in the notes on the preceding Malachi 4:5. "Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse ..." This verse could not have been written by any Jew who ever lived, except by the true prophet of God, Malachi. That no pious scribe, editor, or interpolator wrote it is inherent in the fact that Jews have never accepted this verse at all, even while knowing it to be a genuine part of the prophecy; and this accounts for the fact of none of their versions of the Old Testament allowing this verse to stand as the conclusion. In order to avoid it, they repeat one of the previous verses after verse 6, thus making the repeated verse to be the conclusion. Thus, the Old Testament Canon closes with an admonition for "those who fear God's name" to keep the sacred Law, and to wait for the great Herald who would usher in the age of Messiah by calling the people to repentance and identifying the Christ himself, a mission gloriously and faithfully fulfilled by John the Baptist, whose witness of Christ is as eloquent as any found upon the sacred page: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World." It is a most significant truth that no other prophet appeared between Malachi and John the Baptist. The bitter prophecy of Hos 3:4-5, began at this point to be fulfilled. Many true souls grieved over the long spiritual drought: We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long! (Psalms 74:9). All of God's prophets had done their work, but the people had rejected them all. There was no further word that God could send. The hardened and rebellious nation would continue to exist (according to God's holy purpose); but the precious fellowship of other days was gone forever. A hint of all this may be found in these final six verses. This promise that God would send Elijah, who had left the earth four hundred years previously, was, "A promise which suggests that the age of the prophets is now felt to be over."[18] When that Elijah appears, his business will be that of restoring the broken harmony. In the meanwhile, let the true followers of God keep the sacred Law and await the unfolding of the purpose of the Almighty. Charles Box Commentary On Malachi 4The Work of John The Baptist- Malachi Four -The last words of the Old Testament pointed to the New Covenant and the coming Messiah who would bring redemption. The coming of the Christ to the earth had to do with the destruction of wickedness. Some wickedness will be destroyed by forgiveness of sins and sinners becoming new creatures in Christ. Paul wrote, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Other wickedness will be destroyed at the final judgment. John recorded these sobering words, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15) This little chapter looks at both the destruction of sin by forgiveness and by judgment. Malachi 3:18 closed with the words, "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." The thought of this verse was that those under the New Covenant would have a much better understanding of right and wrong. They would live under the perfect law of liberty. James wrote, "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James 1:25) The people of Malachi"s day had so mixed good and evil that they could make no distinction between the two. The people said they were doing good when they were, in fact, doing evil. They wearied the Lord with this attitude. (Malachi 2:17) Malachi four begins with the word "for" or for this reason God would send his strict gospel and people would easily understand the distinction between right and wrong. Malachi wrote, "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1)The Messiah would make salvation possible. But before his coming John the Baptist would come in the likeness of Elijah. Malachi 4:1 The Judgment is certain -- Malachi 4:1 : Judgment is coming but the righteous will be delivered. One of the main reasons why it is so important for people to obey the gospel is coming judgment. We read, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31) The wicked will face a fiery and certain judgment. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 21:8) The fiery judgment will be so complete that God said "it shall leave them neither root nor branch." John the Baptist taught this same idea of a burning fiery judgment when he said Jesus would baptize "with fire." He said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." (Matthew 3:11) "The day of judgment is certain to come. And it will be like a red-hot furnace with flames that burn proud and sinful people, as though they were straw." There will not be a branch or a root left. The All-Powerful God promised this judgment. Malachi 4:2-3 Redemption is possible -- Malachi 4:2-3 : Redemption is better than the healing rays of the sun. "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts." Those who fear the Lord and honor Him will have a glorious deliverance. Those who fear the Lord are those who hold Him in awe or reverence. They are faithful and obedient to the Lord. As the sun shines throughout the world the gospel of Christ is preached worldwide to bring healing to those who are lost in sin. Zecharias, the father of John the Baptist, referred to the Messiah as the "dayspring from on high" or the "sunrise." "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:76-79) God"s people (those freed from sin by the Messiah) go forth as fattened calves just released from the stall. Malachi 4:4 Remember the Law of Moses -- Malachi 4:4 : As the book of Malachi closed and as the Old Testament closed a final exhortation was given to the Jews to be obedient to the Law of God. The next law for the Jews and all creatures would be the New Covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. God said, "Do not ever forget the laws and teachings I gave my servant Moses on Mount Sinai." The simple instruction is "obey the Word of God." People cannot disobey the Law of God and claim to be faithful to Him. How important is obedience to God? In the gospel of John we read, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15) You are never more like Jesus than when you are obeying the will of God. Knowing God, serving God and having a personal relationship with God is dependent upon our obedience to God. Obedience is not an optional matter if you wish to go to heaven. In your obedience you will be blessed, but as with all of God"s promises there is a prerequisite. You must obey! Malachi 4:5-6 John was to prepare the way for the Messiah -- Malachi 4:5-6 : The Lord promised to send the prophet Elijah before that great and terrible day came. He was to lead children and parents to love each other more so the land could be spared of doom. There is no doubt that this is a reference to John the Baptist. We read, "And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother"s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:12-17) People would be united under Christ. Malachi pointed to John who was to prepare the way for Jesus, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come." (Matthew 11:12-14) Let us be people of God who are prepared for our Lord"s second coming! Malachi 4:1 Burn as an oven (a furnace). Fire is often spoken of in connection with the day of judgment and the advent of the Judge. It is a symbol of the holiness of God, which consumes all impurity, and also represents the punishment inflicted on the ungodly (Psalms 1:1 to Psalms 6:8; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 66:15, Isaiah 66:16; Daniel 7:9, Daniel 7:10; Joe 2:30; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Peter 3:7, etc.). The LXX. adds, "and it shall burn them." Stubble (see note on Obadiah 1:18); or, perhaps, chaff, as Matthew 3:11, Matthew 3:12. Root nor branch The ungodly are regarded as a tree which is given up to be burned so that nothing of it is left. The same metaphor is used by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:10; comp. Amos 2:9). The Hebrew text includes this chapter in Matthew 3:1-17. Malachi 4:1 The Divine fire."The day cometh that shall bum as an oven." Fire is one of the most familiar figures of the Divine working. It is one of the forces which man most dreads when it gets beyond control. And it is the force on which man most relies for the purifying of the good and the destruction of the evil. The fire of the oven is fire at its intensest. A hole is dug in the ground, a fire of stubble is kindled in it; by this time a large stone is heated, and on the stone the bread can be baked. Malachi has already dealt with the refining power of the fire of God. That which is good is freed and cleansed and improved by means of it. The prophet does not see the whole of the features of the day of God; only those which are directly related to the condition and needs of the people in his day. Every prophet is one-sided; and we must learn from all if we would apprehend the whole of truth, even concerning the Divine fire. Malachi had to adapt his teachings to some who were sincere but mistaken. To them the Divine fire is disciplinary. "He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver." But he had also to adapt his teachings to some who were wilfully and persistently wrong. To them the Divine fire is, In some sense, destructive consuming. "The proud shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up." There are two things characteristic of the Divine fire, which are suggested by the double figure of refining and consuming. I. THE OF THE DIVINE FIRE DEPENDS ON WHAT IT ON. This is one of the most marked peculiarities of common fire. It scatters water; it melts wax; it destroys wood; it hardens clay; it purifies metal. It makes silver valuable; it makes dross worthless. And so with the Divine fire. The apostle dwells on its testing power (1 Corinthians 3:13); but here its actual moral effect on differing characters is indicated. Take classes of character in Malachi's time, and show the different effects which Divine dealings had upon them. Take types of character now, and show how Divine dealings soften or harden. II. THE DIVINE FIRE IS OF THE FORMS OF THINGS, NOT OF THINGS. Science now explains that common fire destroys nothing; it only Changes the forms and relations of things. When the state of the wicked is irremediable by any existing moral forces, then their form and relation must be changed. As in the time of the Flood, humanity had to be put in new conditions. God's fire destructions always begin a new regime.— R.T. Malachi 4:2 The Sun of Righteousness. The sun which is righteousness, in whose wings, that is, rays, are healing and salvation. This Divine righteousness shall beam upon them that fear the Name of God, flooding them with joy and light, healing all wounds, tee moving all miseries, making them incalculably blessed. The Fathers generally apply the title of "Sun of Righteousness" to Christ, who is the Source of all justification and enlightenment and happiness, and who is called (Jeremiah 23:6), "The Lord our Righteousness." Grow up; rather, gambol; σκιρτήσετε; salietis (Vulgate). "Ye shall leap!" comp. Jeremiah h 11). The word is used of a horse galloping (Habbakuk Jeremiah 1:8). The happiness of the righteous is illustrated by a homely image drawn from pastoral pursuits. They had been, as it were, hidden in the time of affliction and temptation; they shall go forth boldly now, free and exulting, like calves driven from the stall to pasture (comp. Psalms 114:4, Psalms 114:6; So Psalms 2:8, 17). Malachi 4:2 The Sun of Righteousness.In Malachi 4:1 and Malachi 4:2 we are once more presented with the twofold aspect of a Divine fact. (See homilies on Malachi 3:2 and Malachi 3:6.) "Dies irae, dies ilia."But "that day" need not be a "day of wrath." It may be memorable, admirable, as the day of full salvation. As the first coming of Christ was for the "rising again" of some, "that they which see not might see" (John 9:39), so at his second coming, though "revealed from heaven in flaming fire," he shall be "admired in all them that believe;" for he shall bring "rest" and full redemption to them (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). The great and terrible day of the Lord will have both a bright and a dark side, like the cloud that came between the Egyptians and the Israelites. To "the proud and all that do wickedly" it will be a day of utter destruction. It will "burn like an oven," fire burning more fiercely in a furnace than in the open air. The wicked, having made themselves like "the dry tree," "ready for the burning," will be consumed root and branch, with no hope of renewed life such as might survive the stroke of the feller's axe (Job 14:7-9). These threats are applicable to all times of judgment, when "the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud … and upon all the cedars of Lebanon," etc. (Isaiah 2:12-17). We may see fulfilments of them in successive epochs of judgment, from the troublous times that followed the days of Malachi down to the destruction of Jerusalem and the judgment of the great day. Similar figures of destruction by fire justify this extended application (Psalms 21:9, Psalms 21:10; Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 10:17, Isaiah 10:18; Nahum 1:5; Zephaniah 1:18; Matthew 3:12; 2 Peter 3:7-10). But such times need be no terror to the faithful servants of God, for "unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings. As we do not confine the prediction of the day of the Lord to any one day, so we do not limit the promise of "the Sun of Righteousness" to any one person. Whenever a signal manifestation of God's righteousness is displayed on behalf of his servants, it is like the rising of the sun on a dark, cold, and unhealthy land. But the manifestation of the righteousness of God in the Person and work of Christ so far excels all other manifestations that we may limit our further application of the words to our Lord Jesus Christ, "that in all things he may have the pre-eminence." What the sun is to the material world, the Messiah is to the moral world. The following blessings are suggested by the figure. 1. Light after darkness. Such is Christ to all men (John 1:4, John 1:9), especially to his own countrymen (Luke 1:78, Luke 1:79; Matthew 4:12), but in a deeper sense to all that followed him (John 8:12). He brought the light of truth (Isaiah 9:2), for he was himself" the Truth." Where he rises, like the dawn, upon the benighted and bewildered traveller, he guides into the way of peace and of salvation. The light of truth shows us "the paths of righteousness" (Psalms 143:8, Psalms 143:10). 2. Warmth after cold (Psalms 19:6). Christ not only gives light, but life. His presence causes that spiritual warmth which is a life giving power. He is "a quickening Spirit" (John 5:21, John 5:25; John 6:47, etc.). There is a spiritual as well as a solar chemistry. The beams of the Sun of Righteousness both enlighten, warm, and quicken (1 Corinthians 1:30). 3. Health after sickness. The figure of "wings" may allude to the rays of the sun, or perhaps to the breeze which in many hot regions, especially in the zones of the trade winds, begins to blow over the land early in the morning, bringing freshness and health with it. The Jews had a proverbial saying, "As the sun riseth, infirmities decrease." Christ, when in our midst, scattered around him blessings of healing, both physical and spiritual. At Jericho he brought sight to blind Bartimaeus and life to dead Zacchaeus. So is it wherever he rises, like the light of life, on the souls of men (Psalms 147:3; Isaiah 57:19; Ezekiel 47:12; 1 John 5:11, 1 John 5:12). The terms "righteousness" and "healing," being very comprehensive, remind us of the blessings brought by Christ at both his first and second comings. At the first advent he diffused the rays of righteousness, whereby he both justifies and sanctifies those who turn to him, just as the sun imparts light, life, and joy to all who turn towards it. At the second, he will own the righteousness which he gave, and will exhibit it, cleared of all the misjudgments of the world, before men and angels. By his first advent he gave spiritual healing, justification, and all its allied blessings, summed up in the royal gift of "eternal life." At his second he will bring full salvation, when, as one has said, there shall be "understanding without error, memory without forgetfulness, thought without distraction, love without simulation, sensation without offence, satisfying without satiety, universal health without sickness" (Isaiah 55:1-13 :20, 21; Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:1-5). Malachi 4:2 The healing sunrise."The Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." "As the rising sun diffuses light and heat, so that all that is healthy in nature revives and lifts up its head, while plants that have no depth of root are scorched up and wither away, so the advent of the reign of righteousness, which will reward the good and the wicked, each according to his deserts, will dissipate all darkness of doubt, and heal all the wounds which the apparent injustice of the conduct of affairs has inflicted on the hearts of the righteous" (W.H. Lowe). The figure of "healing in his wings" may be illustrated by the fact that, off Smyrna, every morning about sunrise a fresh gale of air blows from the sea across the land, which from its wholesomeness and utility in clearing the infected air is always called "the doctor." I. THE WORLD UNDER THE OF EVIL. Represented by those dark, depressing, unhealthy days when there is no light in the sky, and the damp mists lie low. Then the plants droop, the flowers do not care to open, and the leaves hang. The song birds are silent, and the hours drag on wearily. To the good the darkness of prevailing evil sentiment, evil opinion, evil practice, is necessarily afflictive. These things make an unnourishing atmosphere and bad circumstances. When the darkness of evil prevails in As Malachi saw the people in his day, they were in the gloom of triumphant self-will, and there was no sunlight of God in their sky. That sunshine was his hope for the future. II. THE WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF . And that time he saw dawning when Messiah should appear. The birth of the Babe of Bethlehem was the strong sunrise of righteousness. Picture the dawning of the sun in full, clear strength after weeks of dulness, damp, and disease. How the sunbeams dry up the mists, warm the chilled earth, waken the music of the birds, make the flowers smile, and gladden man's heart. "Notice these flowers all around us, how they turn smiling to the sun's ardent gaze, bend forward in seeming reverence, throw open their pretty cups, and cast around their sweetest perfume. So, when the Sun of Righteousness shines, all moral goodness joyously responds. Evil slinks away into the shadows. When that Sun shines on through the eternal day, man's answering goodness may flourish abundantly."— R.T. Malachi 4:3 Ye shall tread down the wicked (comp. Micah 4:13). They who were once oppressed and overborne by the powers of wickedness shall now rise superior to all hindrances, and themselves tread down the wicked as the ashes under their feet, to which the fire of judgment shall reduce them. In the day that I shall do this; rather, as in Malachi 3:17, in the day which I am preparing. Malachi 4:3 The secret of triumph over wickedness.The figure of "treading ashes" is suggested by the previous figure of "burning." When the wicked are burned up in the fire of God, all their power to injure the good will be gone. They will but be as ashes of the oven, ashes spread abroad, ashes made a path to walk over. The tone of the prophet is not one of glorying over the fate of the wicked, but of rejoicing in the removal of the hindrance which the wicked ever put in the way of God's faithful servants. I. THE ILL ESTATE OF THE GOOD WHEN THE WICKED, OR GODLESS TRIUMPH. This may be illustrated in every sphere. 1. The National. Illustrate from the times of Jeremiah, when a godless party held power in the state, and tried to force an Egyptian alliance. Or from the times of Malachi, when formalist and careless Levites were corrupting the religious sentiments of the people. Or from the state of the Jewish nation in the time of our Lord, when the fountains of religious and secular authority were corrupt, and the crucifixion of ideal virtue was a possibility. Show in what an evil case good people, who feared the Lord, were placed at such times. See the sufferings of Jeremiah and of our Divine Lord. So there are national times now when evil sentiment prevails, and the servants of God have to "keep silence," because it is an "evil time." 2. The intellectual. The deistic age of our grandfathers was an evil time for devout believers. This critical age of ours is a time of sore strain for those who would preserve the simplicity of faith. The same truth may be illustrated in the smaller spheres of family, or school, or business. Whenever self-indulgence, bad sentiments, or evil characters have power, those who would live godly, sober, and righteous lives are sorely put to it. Though for them this need be but culturing discipline, the treading on the camomile plant that makes it yield freely its fragrance. II. THE ILL ESTATE OF THE WICKED WHEN THE GOOD, OR GOD FEARING, TRIUMPH. This can be treated without any unworthy glorying over the disabilities of others. The point may be illustrated in every sphere, national, political, social, intellectual, or in the smaller spheres of the family, the school, the business, the Church. The point to dwell on is the distress of the wicked, not from personal suffering, hut from their inability to do mischief. We may rejoice that the wicked are made helpless by the triumph of goodness.— R.T. Malachi 4:1-3 The day of the world's retribution."For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven," etc. A graphic representation of these verses is given by Stanley: "The day spoken of was to be like the glorious but terrible uprising of the Eastern sun, which should wither to the roots the insolence and the injustice of mankind; but as its rays extended, like the wings of the Egyptian sun, God should, by its healing and invigorating influences, call forth the good from their obscurity, prancing and bounding like the young cattle in the burst of spring, and treading down under their feet the dust and ashes to which the same bright sun had burnt up the tangled thicket of iniquitous dealing." These words lead us to consider the day of the world's retribution. I. IT WILL BE A DAY TO THE WICKED. "Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Primarily this may refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was indeed a time of judgment, but it points on through the whole period of retribution. Mark two things. 1. How this retributive period regards the wicked. They are "stubble;" without life, beauty, or value; utterly worthless. They may be wealthy, learned, influential; yet they are nothing but "stubble," destitute even of one grain of moral wheat. 2. How this retributive period will destroy the wicked.II. IT WILL BE A PERIOD TO THE . "But unto you that fear my Name shall the Bun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." This language may be regarded as indicating the blessedness of the world to a good man. 1. It is a world of solar brightness. "The Sun of Righteousness" arises on the horizon of his soul. There are souls that are lighted by sparks of their own kindling, and by the gaseous blaze springing from the bogs of inner depravity. All such lights, whether in the forms of philosophic theories or religious creeds, are dim, partial, transitory. The soul of a good man is lighted by the sun. The sun: The soul of the good man is lighted by something more than the brightest lights of human genius; something more, in fact, than moon and stars; lighted by the Sun himself, the Source of all light and warmth and life. Christ is the Light of the good. 2. It is a world of Divine rectitude. "Sun of Righteousness." "The kingdom of God is within you." Eternal right is enthroned. God's will is the supreme law. The meat and drink of godly souls are to do the will of their Father who is in heaven. Such a soul is right: 3. It is a world of remedial influence. "With healing in his wings." The sun's beams are in Scripture called his wings (Psalms 139:9). The soul through sin is diseased, its eyes are dim, its ears are heavy, its limbs are feeble, its blood is poisoned. The godly is under remedial influences. The beams of the "Sun of Righteousness" work off the disease, repair the constitution, and enable it to run without being weary, and to walk without being faint. There is a proverb among the Jews that "as the sun riseth, infirmities decrease." The flowers which droop and languish all night revive in the morning. The late Mr. Robinson, of Cambridge, called upon a friend just as he had received a letter from his son, who was surgeon on a vessel then lying off Smyrna. The son mentioned in his letter that every morning about sunrise a fresh gale of air blew from the sea across the land, and from its wholesomeness and utility in cleansing the infected air the wind was called "the doctor." Christ is the Physician of souls. 4. It is a world of buoyant energy. "Ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." See the calf which from its birth has been shut up in the stall, let forth for the first time into the green fields of May, how full of buoyant energy! it leaps, and frolics, and frisks. This is the figure employed here to represent the gladsomeness with which the godly soul employs its faculties under the genial beams of the "Sun of Righteousness."— D.T. Malachi 4:4 If the people would meet the judgment with confidence and secure for themselves the promised blessings, they must remember and obey the Law of Moses. Thus the last of the prophets set his seal to the Pentateuch, on obedience to which depended, as of old (see Leviticus 26:1-46.; Deuteronomy 28:1-68.), so now, the most abundant blessings. My servant. Moses was only the agent and interpreter of God. The origin and authority of the Law were Divine. Horeb. The mention of the mountain would remind the people of the awful wonders that accompanied the promulgation of the Law (Exodus 19:16, etc.; Deuteronomy 4:10-15) For all Israel Not merely for the people who heard the Law given, but for the nation unto all time. Nor could they be true Israelites unless they observed the terms of the covenant then made. With the(even) statutes and judgments. These terms, which explain the word "Law," include all the enactments, legal, moral, ceremonial. Malachi might well remind the people of their duty, and thus support Nehemiah in his struggle to win them to obedience (see Nehemiah 9:38; Nehemiah 10:29). The LXX. places this verse at the end of the chapter, probably because the original conclusion (verse 6) was thought too harsh to be left as the close of the Old Testament. The Jews had a feeling that books in the Bible should end with the name Jehovah. In the case of Isaiah and Ecclesiastes, they repeated, after the last verse, the last but one. Malachi 4:4 Loyalty to God's revealed will.It was characteristic of the restored exiles that they endeavoured exactly to reproduce the old Mosaic system; but there was a grave danger involved in their effort. They could not precisely reproduce everything. There must be some adjustment to the very different social and religious sentiments and relations. But those who claimed the authority to make the adjustments would be almost sure to carry their authority too far, and claim to alter and amend the very laws and rules. Under the guise of translation, adaptation, and amplification, the new law of the rabbis became established; and the mischief that it had become in the time of our Lord is evident in its actually overlaying the revealed Law of God, and making the Jehovah religion a burden beyond bearing. Malachi seems to foresee the mischievous growth of an evil which had already begun in his time, and in this closing passage of his work solemnly calls the people back to the unquestionable and unrivalled authority of the Horeb revelation given to Moses. It is the great recall that has been again and again found necessary in the course of the ages. It is the recall needed today. "To the Law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20). I. THE SIGN OF IN GOD'S PEOPLE. Practical interest in God's revealed Word. The old Jew had none of the difficulties which modem infidelity and modern criticism have put in our fathers' way and in ours. Our fathers were troubled by being assured that a book revelation was impossible. They might have confidently, yet meekly replied, "But here it is." We are troubled by being told that the Bible is not at all what we think it to be, and is not trustworthy. We may quietly reply, "Whatever it is, it is 'a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path.'" Treatment of the Word is the best test of the godly life. II. GOD'S WORD SHOULD BE KEPT IN MIND, It is designed to replenish our life at its fountains of thought, knowledge, and feeling. Therefore the prophet says, "Remember ye the Law of Moses." Keep it in mind; freshen the memory continually. III. GOD'S WORD IS BEST KEPT IN MIND BY KEEPING IT IN THE LIFE. "If any will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." Practical obedience is of the utmost importance in the Christian life. Malachi 4:5 Elijah the prophet. This is not the same personage as the "messenger" in Malachi 3:1; for the latter comes before the first advent of the Lord, the former appears before the day of judgment; one comes to prepare the way of the Lord, and is followed immediately by Messiah's coming to his temple; the other is sent to convert the chosen people, lest the land be smitten with a curse. There seems to be no valid reason for not holding the literal sense of the words, and seeing in them a promise that Elijah the prophet, who was taken alive from the earth, shall at the last day coma again to carry out God's wise purposes. That this was the view adopted by the Jews in all ages we see by the version of the LXX; who have here, "Elijah the Tishbite;" by the allusion in Sir 48:10; and by the question of our Lard's disciples in Matthew 17:10, "Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come." Christ himself confirms this opinion by answering, "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." lie cannot be referring here to John the Baptist, because he uses the future tense; and when he goes on to say that "Elias is come already," he is referring to what was past, and he himself explains that he means John, who was announced to come in the spirit and power of Elias (Luke 1:17), but of whom it could not be said that he "restored all things." The same opinion is found in the Revelation (Revelation 11:3, Revelation 11:6), where one of the witnesses is very commonly supposed to be Elijah. It is argued by Keil, Reinke, and others, that, as the promise of King David in such passages as Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24; Hosea 3:5, etc; cannot imply the resurrection of David and his return to earth, so we cannot think of an actual reappearance of Elijah himself, but only of the coming of some prophet with his spirit and power. But, as Knabenbauer points out, for the attribution of the name David to Messiah, long and careful preparation had been made; e.g. by his being called "the rod of Jesse," the occupant of David's throne, etc.; and all who heard the expression would at once understand the symbolical application, especially as David was known to have died and been buried. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/zerrcbc/ Malachi 4:2. The healthful effects of the Gospel of Christ is likened to the warm and healing rays of the sun. Go forth is from puwsu which Strong defines, "To spread; figuratively act proudly," Moffatt renders it to "leap." The verse as a whole means that the citizens in the kingdom of Christ were to be blessed with great spiritual strength and activity. Malachi 4:3, We know that Christians are not permitted to use any kind of literal violence against Sinners, hence this treadIng of them is explained by the comments on verse 1. And we know this "burning" and "treading" did not reter to the time after the judgment day, for it was to occur in the day that I shall do this, referring to the time of the Gospel age. Malachi 4:4. A last exhortation is given to the Jews of the time of Malachi, that they should remember the law of Moses. There was never to be another law of government given to them until that one so forceably predicted in this book ot the prophet. Malachi 4:5. But while no other written law was to be given before that new age is usbered into the world, tbere was to be a man sent just before that time to speak orally to the Jews by way of preparation for the new law. That man was to have the power and spiritual strength of Elijah. Dreadlul day means that the kingdom of Christ would be severe against sinners (see comments on verses 1 and 3), but would be respected by the righteous. Malachi 4:6. The phrases of this verse refer to the reformative work that was to be accomplished by this Elijah (or John the Baptist). Without the effects of this forerunner and the new kingdom to follow, the whole world would have suffered the wrath or an outraged God.