Verse 1:1-2:9 Part I. REPROOF OF THE PRIESTS FOR NEGLECT OF DIVINE SERVICE. Malachi 1:1 § 1. Heading and author. 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 1:2-5 § 2. The prophet declares God’s special love for Israel Malachi 1:2 I 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 1:4 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 1:6-14 § 3. Israel had shown no gratitude for all these proofs of God’s love, and the very priests had been the chief offenders by offering defective sacrifices, and profaning the temple worship. Malachi 1:6 A 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 1:7 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 1:8 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 1:9 Beseech God; literally, the face of God. This is not a serious call to repentance, but an ironical appeal. Come now and ask the favour of God with your polluted sacrifices; intercede, as is your duty, for the people; will he accept you? will he be gracious to the people for your sakes? This hath been by your means. These words form a parenthesis, implying that it was from the priests that the evil custom of offering blemished animals proceeded, and they were answerable for the consequences; that their intercessions were vain was the result of their transgressions in these matters. Others interpret, "The thing depends on you," i.e. whether God shows favour or not. Will he regard your persons? Will he show favour to any one because ye intercede for him? So it might be translated, Will he accept any because of you? Malachi 1:10 The prophet continues his severe reprobation of the priests. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught, etc.? Thus rendered, the passage rebukes the mercenary spirit of the priests, who would not even shut the temple door nor kindle the altar fire unless they were paid for it; or else it means that, though all the officers of the temple were remunerated for their most trivial services, yet they were remiss in attending to their duties, and neglected the law of sacrifices. The Latin Version omits the negative in the last clause, Quis est in vobis qui claudat ostia, et incendat altare meum gratuito? The LXX; with some little variation in the reading, renders, Διότικαὶἐνὑμῖνσὐκλειθήσονταιθύραικαὶοὐκἀνάψεταιτὸθυσιαστήριον, μουδωρεάν, "Wherefore also among you the doors shall be shut, and my altar shall not be kindled for nothing," i.e. God threatens that the temple services shall wholly cease. But it is best to consider the passage as continuing the sarcastic strain of the preceding verse, and saying in effect that it would be better to have no pretence of worship at all than to have it thus profaned. Translate as in the Revised Version, Oh that there were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle fire on mine altar in vain! The doors are those of the inner court of the temple, where the great altar stood; and the polluted sectaries is offered "in vain," because it offends God rather than propitiates him. An offering (minchah). Here not sacrifice in general, as many commentators suppose, because it would be unnatural to take the word in one sense in this verse, and in a different sense in the following, where it is confessedly used in its restricted signification. The term is applied technically to the offering of fine flour combined with off and frankincense, burnt on the altar (Le Malachi 2:1, etc.); though it is also occasionally used even of bloody sacrifices; e.g. of Abel’s. As liturgically employed, it denotes the unbloody offering. So in this verse we may note a kind of climax. God would not accept the victims sacrificed, no, nor even the meat offering, which was naturally pure and unpolluted, Malachi 1:11 My Name shall be great. The course of thought is this: God does not need the worship of the Jews and their impious priests; he needs not their maimed sacrifices; his majesty shall be recognized throughout the wide world, and pure worship shall be offered to him from every nation under heaven. How, then, shall he not punish those who, being his elect, ought to have been an example of holiness, and prepaid the way for his universal reception? The LXX. treats this circumstance as already occurring at this time, Τὸὄνομάμουδεδόξασται, "My Name hath been and is glorified." This could only be said if it was allowed that the heathen in some sense, however blindly and imperfectly, did worship the true God. But the notion cannot be upheld for a moment; and there is a general consensus of commentators in referring the time to the Messianic future, when God’s power is acknowledged and worship offered to him, not in Jerusalem alone, but in every place. The participles in this verse may be rendered by presents or futures, but there can be little doubt that a prophecy is intended, and not a statement of a fact—which, indeed, could not be truthfully maintained. When such a future is in stere, is this a time for Jewish priests to dishonour Jehovah? Incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a pure offering (minchah). The universal worship is expressed in the terms of the Jewish ritual (see note on Zephaniah 3:10). The Hebrew is more forcibly rendered, In every place incense is burned, oblation made unto my Name, and indeed a pure oblation. Incense is to our minds a type of prayer (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3, etc.); the pure oblation is the symbol of the Christian sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; and the prophet, rising superior to Jewish prejudices, announces that this prayer and sacrifice shall no longer be confined to one place or one specially favoured country, but be universal, worldwide. The Fathers and mediaeval writers, and many modern commentators, see in this verse a prophecy of the Holy Eucharist, the "pure offering" commemorative of Christ’s sacrifice, which is found in every nation under heaven where the Name of Christ is adored. Malachi 1:12 But ye have profaned it; ye profane God’s Name. The prophet contrasts the negligence and profanity of the priests with the piety of the Gentile nations, which he foresees. The table of the Lord (see note on Malachi 1:7). The fruit thereof, even his meat. The food and meat of the altar are the victims offered thereon. By their conduct the priests made both altar and offerings contemptible. Septuagint, Τὰἐπιτιθέμεναἐξουδένωταιβρώματααὐτοῦ, "Its meats that are laid thereon are set at naught;" Vulgate, Quod superponitur contemptibile est, cum igne qui illud devorat. This is either a free paraphrase, or for "meat" Jerome must have read a participle, "eating," and taken "that which eats" the offering to be the fire which consumes it, as "lick up" (1 Kings 18:38). Others explain the Vulgate to mean that the priests complain of the scantiness and inferiority of the victims, the flesh of which formed their support. But as this was owing to their own neglect, they were not likely to make it a subject of complaint Malachi 1:13 What a weariness is it! The reference is to the table of the Lord. Despising the altar, and performing their duties without heart or faith, the priests found the services an intolerable burden. Vulgate, ecce de labore, which seems to be an excuse of the people, urging that they offer such things as their toil and poverty allow. Septuagint, ταῦταἐκκακοπαθείαςἐστί, which has much the same meaning. The present Hebrew text is represented by the Authorized Version. Ye have snuffed at it; i.e. at the altar. The phrase expresses contempt. "It" has been supposed to be a "scribes’ correction" for "me." The Septuagint and Syriac give, "I snorted at them." That which was torn; rather, that which was taken by violence—that which was stolen or unjustly taken. Septuagint, ἁρπάγματα: Ecclesiasticus 34:18 (31:21), "He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is ridiculous (μεμωκημένη)" Lame... sick (see Leviticus 22:19-25). Thus ye brought an (bring the) offering (minchah). Subject to analogous defects is even your meat offering, the accessory to other sacrifices, and therefore it is unacceptable. Malachi 1:14 But (and) cursed be the deceiver. The curse is fulminated against all who are guilty of these violations of the Law. The prophet mentions two instances out of many. The first is of one who offers a female victim, on pretence that he has no male in his flock. This will be clearer if we translate, with Keil, "And cursed is he who deceives, whereas there is in his flock a male animal." Septuagint, "Cursed is he who was able and bad in his flock a male." And voweth … a corrupt (blemished) thing. The second case is of one who in some emergency vows an offering, and then pays it by presenting a blemished animal (Le Malachi 3:1, Malachi 3:6). With a slightly altered punctuation, some editors give, "a faulty female." For I am a great King. This is the reason that they are cursed who dishonour him. Dreadful. Held in awe and reverence. Septuagint, ἐπιφανές, notable." He whom the Gentiles honour will not permit his own people to profane his Name. Malachi 1:1 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 1:2-5 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 1:6 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 1:7, 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 1:11 God’s honour secured in spite of his people’s sins. The heartlessness and negligence of the priest leads God to say that the fires of the altar might as well be extinguished, and the temple shut up as it had been in the days of Ahaz; for no offerings would any longer be accepted at their hands, and "Ichabod!" "No glory!" was written on the altar. The godly remnant of the Jews naturally begin to say, "What a dishonour that would be to the God of Israel!" and to ask, like Joshua (Joshua 7:9), "What wilt thou do unto thy great Name?" And even the formalists, who had not entirely cast off God, but wished to keep on speaking terms with him, would shrink from such a public slight being offered to the God of their nation. To all such fears God gives an answer in the declaration and prediction of verse 11, "My Name shall be magnified; my honour shall be secured, in spite of my people’s sins:" (1) among new and more numerous worshippers; (2) by purer and more spiritual sacrifices. I. AMONG NEW AND MORE . It was an inveterate superstition of the Jews that the honour of God was in some way bound up with sacred places or persons. He had taught them in the past that his glory was not attached to the ark, as they thought when they took it into battle (1 Samuel 4:1-22.), or to one line of priests (1 Samuel 2:27-36), or to the tabernacle at Shiloh (Psalms 78:59-64), or to the temple (Jeremiah 7:1-16). He now teaches them that his glory is independent both of the revived priesthood, the restored temple, and the nation brought back from captivity. The temple may be again destroyed; the priesthood may be abolished; the people disinherited. God has a larger temple than the sanctuary on Mount Moriah, or even than the land of promise itself. His temple extends "as far as the east is from the west." His worshippers shall be as numerous as the tribes and the tongues of the heathen world. No longer shall it be especially true that "In Judah is God known; his Name is great in Israel;" "For from the rising of the sun," etc. Comparing this prediction of the kingdom of Christ on earth with others, we are reminded of a few truths respecting the way in which God’s honour would be secured among the nations of the earth. His judgments would arouse them (Isaiah 59:18, Isaiah 59:19). His free love would seek those who knew him not (Isaiah 65:1). The atoning sacrifice on the cross would attract their sin-burdened consciences (John 12:32), and the beneficence of the reign of Christ would allure all classes to accept his dominion (Psalms 72:8-14, especially Psalms 72:12, "For," etc.). Thus the Name of God would be glorified in his Son. Apply this truth: 1. To those who refuse to give to God the glory due unto his Name. So did the Jews in the days of Christ. But God’s honour could be secured in other ways (cf. Matthew 21:41-43; Luke 19:37-40). Note in the former and latter parts of Psa 22:1-31. the contrast between Psalms 22:6-8 and Psalms 22:27-31. "His own received him not," but "the Gentiles glorified the word of the Lord" (Acts 13:48; cf. Isaiah 49:3-9; Matthew 8:11, Matthew 8:12). 2. To those who are tempted to shrink from honouring God because of the risk to themselves or the sacrifice required at their hands. Illust.: Esther 4:10-14. The loss will be only our own (Matthew 10:39). God will find other servants in our place to render the honour he asks at our hands, and to receive that which he bestows in return (1 Samuel 2:30). 3. To God’s faithful servants who are needlessly anxious about his glory in "a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy;" e.g. Moses (Numbers 14:11-21), Joshua (Joshua 7:9). But God is more jealous for his own honour than we can be (Deuteronomy 32:26, Deuteronomy 32:27), and is wiser than we can be in answering the prayer he has taught us, "Hallowed be thy Name." II. BY PURER AND MORE . 1. By the revelation of God in Christ as "the Saviour of all men," God’s Name was truly magnified (Psalms 96:1-13. and 98.). That revelation included a sacrifice, the sacrifice of a sinless soul to suffering in order to do the will of God (Hebrews 10:7-10), and thus to offer a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Thus the prayer was answered (John 12:28) and the prediction fulfilled (Romans 15:8, Romans 15:9). 2. By the spiritual sacrifices the acceptable services, like fragrant incense, presented by Gentile hearts, e.g. the penitence of the woman of Samaria; the pertinacious prayers of the Syro-phoenician; the marvellous faith of the centurion; the alms and prayers of Cornelius; the unrecorded acts of faith and service of unknown worshippers in the heathen world;—these are accepted by God, while the tainted sacrifices of the Jewish priests are refused. This a warning to all formalists. 3. By pure offerings from all hearts that "in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours" (cf. John 4:21-24). Our hearts were once impure, but have been cleansed by the blood and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And now we are eager, impatient to express our sense of the greatness and goodness of God by acceptable sacrifices, our "bodies" (Romans 12:1), our gifts (Philippians 4:18), our praises, our good deeds, and any means by which we can "communicate" to others, and thus glorify our Saviour-God (Hebrews 13:15, Hebrews 13:16). Notice, in conclusion, what an encouragement this truth may be to those who long to give unto God the glory due unto his Name, but are dissatisfied with their own efforts. God’s honour will be secured in spits of our failures. These may stimulate us to seek that greater purity by which our offerings may themselves become purer. It will not provoke us to envy, but rejoice our hearts that others are able to render to God more useful service than we do. And if, in the midst of our efforts to offer such pure offerings and fragrant incense as our poor hearts can present, we are called away from this service, we may rejoice to know that God’s honour will not suffer because our services are withdrawn. Illust.: In one Roman Catholic convent there is a chapel of "perpetual adoration," where, every hour, night and day, some service is being offered at the altar. So will be the true worship of God throughout the world—universal and perpetual. BY R. TUCK 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 enjoy their 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 1:2, 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, 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 (1) particular dispositions; or (2) imperfect, training and culture, it remains true that a deeper explanation is possible. 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 1:6 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 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 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 (1) his authority; (2) his holiness; (3) his redemption? Though out of our sight, he searchingly tests all our gifts, offerings, and sacrifices. Open out how we may be offering the imperfect in (1) our acts of worship; (2) our acts of benevolence; (3) our acts of ministry and service.—R.T. Malachi 1:9 Regarding the person. "Will he regard your persons?" The idea of the verse is somewhat difficult to trace; but it appears to be this: "You are expecting that God will accept you just because you are priests, on account of your official standing alone. You think that it does not matter to him what you are morally, so long as you go through the routine of his service according to the standards;" It is intimated plainly enough that their intercessions on behalf of the people must be in vain so long as they are acting unworthily. I. THE SENSE IN WHICH GOD DOES REGARD THE PERSON. 1. He deals with each individual, never loses the one in the many; each person stands out distinctly before him as if there were no other. This truth needs to be dwelt on, because men readily hide themselves from their own view, and think to hide themselves from God’s view, in the class to which they belong. The sins of the priests may not deeply humble any particular priest. 2. He deals with a man’s moral condition. That belongs exclusively to the man. It is his personality. It is the matter of supreme concern to God. II. THE SENSE IN WHICH GOD DOES NOT REGARD THE PERSON. He is no "Respecter of persons." This enlarges the idea, and we may see: 1. That God takes no account of bodily peculiarities. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart." 2. God takes no account of social rank. He pays no deference to the high-born and rich; he shows no indifference to the low-born and poor. His supreme interest is in men, not in the accidents of men. This is not meant to imply any failure in our estimating the value of social status and influence; it only emphasizes that these are not the matters of Divine consideration. They do not belong to the essence of manhood. 3. God takes no account of official position. No man stands in the special favour of God because he is a king, and no man has any special ground for pleading with God in the fact that he is a priest or clergyman. A man’s power of intercession with God is dependent on his personal relations with God, but it is assumed that every priest and every minister is what he ought to be—in accepted personal relations with God. No matter what our office may be, if there is not at the heart of it a right state of mind and heart, the acceptance of the ministry of that office cannot be assured.—R.T. Malachi 1:10 Self-serving religion "One of the works on which Nehemiah looked back with most satisfaction was that he had secured to the Levites the payment of a sufficient remuneration for their work. It was a right thing in itself. It asserted what we have learnt to call the principle of an ’established’ Church, and of a fair division of its income. But that spirit might easily pass, and had actually passed, into the temper which is always clamorous for rights and privileges, which will work only when those rights and privileges are secured. The spirit of the hireling takes the place of that of the worshipper. And so, amongst the foremost sins which the prophet is called on to condemn we find this, noted with special reference to the functions of those Levites over whose interests Nehemiah had been so watchful. ’Who is there even among you,’ he asks, ’that would shut the doors for naught?’ And the hireling spirit, once fostered, showed itself, as it always does, in neglect, evasion, dishonesty" (Plumptre). I. THE WORKMAN IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE. This sentence embodies a good working principle, which has its proper application in religious as well as in secular spheres. They who minister in spiritual things may reasonably claim to be ministered unto in carnal things. Clergymen share all common bodily and family wants; and we have no sympathy with those who talk as if some wrong were done when spiritual men are concerned for their material interests. Priests and Levites deserved their pay. II. THE WORKMAN IS WORTHY ONLY WHEN HE DOES NOT WORK FOR HIS HIRE. This is only true in a higher sense of the Levite; it is really true of every workman. A man is on a low plane when he works just for his wage. He is but a time server, a self-server. The best work never is done by such men; and their work is never the best blessing to them. A man must work for the love of his work if he is to do it nobly. A religious man must work for God if his work is to be acceptable. To work Malachi 1:11 The universal worship that is to be. These words are usually taken as a prophetic announcement of the future rejection of Israel and calling of the Gentiles; but it is difficult to trace the connection of thought, if this be regarded as the prophet’s meaning. The LXX. rightly uses the present, not the future, tense throughout this verse. "My Name is great," etc. This gives an actual preset comparison of the fear of God’s Name among Gentiles and among Jews, to the manifest disadvantage of the Jew. God found a devoutness, earnestness, and sincerity outside his own people, which wholly put to shame their indifference, formality, and time serving. This suggestion is in the line of Malachi’s teaching, whereas a description of future religious conditions seems to introduce a new subject. Dean Plumptre says, "It was given to the last of the prophets to proclaim, with an entirely new distinctness, not only as Isaiah had done, the accession of Gentile proselytes to the worship and faith of Israel, but the acceptance of their worship wherever it might be offered." The Gentile religion in the mind of the prophet was probably that of Zoroaster, the purest form that Gentile religion has ever taken. I. THE BASIS OF THE WORSHIP. The prophet must not be regarded as giving a complete account of the universal worship. He deals with it only in view of his immediate object, and to point his appeal to the unfaithful and time-serving priests. He brings out three points. 1. One characteristic of the universal worship is reverence for the Divine Name. "My Name is great among the Gentiles," No religion can ever fit to the needs of men which does not at least seem to honour the Divine Name. This is our first test of every religion. 2. Another is the demand for prayer. "Incense is offered." Every true religion provides communion with God, and gives man hope in prayer. "When we have learned by experience the unutterable value of prayer, then shall theism become a religion fit for humanity." 3. Another is sincerity shown in purity of offerings. Our Lord expressed the universal worship in a sentence, when he said," The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." II. THE OF THE WORSHIP. It reproaches all who fail to meet these primal conditions, whatever their historical standing might be. It reproached the Jewish priests of Malachi’s time, for they were dishonouring the Name, putting routine for prayer, and making unworthy and impure offerings which revealed their insincerity.—R.T. Malachi 1:13 Religion a weariness. "Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it!" It is clearly a bad sign when the people find the worship of God to be a weariness; but it is a much worse sign when the ministers of religion both feel the worship to be a weariness, and show that they feel it to be such. I. IN THE NATURE OF THINGS WORSHIP SHOULD NOT BE A . 1. Take it as the proper and fitting expression of the creature’s dependence on his Creator. It ought to be full of the joy of thankfulness. 2. Take it as the natural impulse of the sinner’s love to his Saviour. Man fallen should feel a joy in worship even beyond that of man unfallen. The song of the redeemed is an altogether nobler song than the innocent can ever sing. And religious worship, kept within the lines of Divine claims, never need be a weariness. It is religion with the multiplied added demands of men that is in danger of proving a weariness. No reasonable man could say that Mosaism was a weariness, so far as it was a Divine institution. But every man could say that Rabbinism was a weariness; for it laded men with burdens too grievous to be borne. Spiritual religion is always simplifying worship. As spirituality fails, exacting demands are increased, and religion tends to become a weariness. II. THROUGH THE MOODS OF MEN WORSHIP BECOMES A . What the priests of earlier times had done gladly and joyfully, the priests of Malachi’s time dragged through. The joy of Levites in their work is expressed in the Korahite psalms (Psalm42:84, etc.), which are full of longings for restoration to the temple service. There was no difference in the worship. The difference was in the moods of the men. Their spiritual life was low. They had no personal joy in God, so they could have no joy in the routine of God’s worship. The sadness of the restored Judaism of the exiles was that, to so large an extent, it was the restoration of the Jewish formalities, without the restoration of that spiritual life which would have vitalized the formalities. And still the weariness men feel at the length of Christian services, etc; is the revelation of their wrong mood; of their lost personal joy in God their Saviour.—R.T. Malachi 1:14 The great and dreadful Name. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Malachi 2:1-4 § 4. For these derelictions of duty the priests are threatened with punishment. Malachi 2:1 This commandment. The threat or announcement is called a commandment, because God ordains it and imposes its execution on certain instruments. (For the expression, camp. Leviticus 25:21.) The threat is contained in Malachi 2:2, Malachi 2:3. Malachi 2:2 I will even send a curse; Revised Version, then will I send the curse. St. Jerome, regarding the temporal effect of the curse, translates, egestatem "scarcity" (comp. Deuteronomy 27:15-26; Deuteronomy 28:15, etc.). I will curse your blessings. The blessings which as priests they had to pronounce upon the people (Leviticus 9:22, 23; Numbers 6:23-27). These God would not ratify, but would turn them into curses, and thus punish the people who connived at and imitated the iniquities of the priests. Or the expression may refer to the material benefits promised by God to the Israelites on their obedience. But as the announcement is made specially to the priests, this explanation seems less probable. I have cursed them already. The curse has already begun to work. Dr. S. Cox (’Bible Educator,’ 3.67, etc.) points out here an allusion to Nehemiah 13:1, Nehemiah 13:2, wherein it is recorded that they reed from the Book of Moses how that the Moabites "hired Balsam against them that he should curse them; howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing." Malachi, who, as he thinks, was present on this occasion, may have been deeply impressed by these words; and it is probable that we hear an echo of them in the threat of verse 2. "That of old God had turned a curse into a blessing, may have suggested the menace that he would now turn a blessing into a curse." Malachi 2:3 I will corrupt your seed. Henderson, "I will rebuke the seed to your hurt." God would mar the promise of their crops; but, as the priests did not concern themselves with agriculture, such a threat would have had no particular application to them. It is best, therefore, to take the pointing of some of the versions, and to translate, I will rebuke your arm; i.e. I will take from you the power of performing, or, I will neutralize your official duties, the arm being the instrument of labour, offering, and blessing. Others consider the threat to be that they should be deprived of their allotted portion of the sacrifice—the breast and shoulder (Leviticus 7:31, 32), or the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the maw (Deuteronomy 18:3). Septuagint, Ἀφορίζωὑμῖντὸνὦμον, "I take from you the shoulder;" Vulgate, Ego projiciam vobis brachium. Orelli takes "seed" in the sense of posterity, seeing here a reversal of such promises as Jeremiah 33:18, Jeremiah 33:22. Spread dung upon your faces. God will deliver them over to shameful treatment, which shall cover them with contempt. The idea is derived from the filth left in the courts by the victims (see the following clause). Your solemn feasts (chaggim); ie. the animals slain at the sacrificial feasts. God calls them "your," not "my," because they were not celebrated really in his honor, but after their own self-will and pleasure. The dung of the sacrificial animals was by the Law carried forth and bunted without the camp (Exodus 29:14; Le Exodus 4:12; Exodus 16:27). One shall take you away with it. They shall be treated as filth, and cast away in some foul spot. Malachi 2:4 Ye shall know. My threats are not vain; this ye shall experience and be forced to acknowledge. This commandment is the purpose and threat, as in Malachi 2:1 (where see note). That my covenant might be with Levi; i.e. that my covenant with Levi might remain firm. The covenant with Levi was the election of that tribe to be the ministers of the sanctuary. There is here a special allusion to the blessing pronounced on Phinehas for his conduct in the matter of Zimri (Numbers 25:12, Numbers 25:13). This election is called "a covenant," because, while conferring certain privileges, it involved certain duties. The difficulty in this interpretation is that the verb used here (hayah) does not mean "to remain," "to continue," but only "to be, to exist." Hence many critics take "the commandment" as the subject, translating. "That it (my purpose) may be my covenant with Levi, i.e. that as God observed the covenant made with the tribe of Levi in old time, so for the future this commandment and threat will be as vigorously observed and take the place of the old covenant. This explanation is too involved and refined to be acceptable. It is easiest to translate, with Henderson and Reinke, "Because my covenant was with Levi," and to understand God as implying that he warned and punished the priests, because he willed that the covenant with Levi should hold good, and he thus desired to have a body of priests who would keep their vows and maintain the true priestly character. What that character is he procoeds to unfold. Malachi 2:5-9 § 5. In contrast with these evil ministers, the character of the true priest is sketched, and thus the faults of the former are shown in darker colours. Malachi 2:5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; rather, with him was life and peace. This is one side of the covenant, that which God gave—the blessing of life, abundance, prosperity, and secure and undisturbed enjoyment of these, in the everlasting priesthood, in agreement with the promise to Phinehas (Numbers 25:12; comp. Deuteronomy 33:8-11). I gave them to him for the fear, etc. I gave him life and peace. The pronominal suffix "them" is not expressed in the Greek and Latin Versions, and is absent from many Hebrew manuscripts, which read, "I gave him fear." So the Vulgate, Dedi eis timorem et timuit me; Septuagint, Εδωκααὐτῷἐνφόβῳφοβεῖσθαίμε, "I gave him the fear of me." This expresses man’s part in the covenant: God gave him certain blessings on condition that he feared, reverenced, worshipped, and obeyed the Lord. The last part of the verse as now read is more simply explained, "and (my covenant with him was, or, I gave him) fear, and he did fear me." God’s gifts were life and peace. Levi’s part was fear of God: this he performed. The ideal priest observed all the duties of piety and reverence, and therefore in his case the covenant stood firm and was duly carried out. Malachi 2:6 The law (teaching) of truth was in his mouth. All his teaching rested on those truths which were enshrined in the Divine Law (Deuteronomy 31:10-13; Deuteronomy 33:10). Iniquity; unfair decision. Neither false doctrine nor perverse judgment was found in him (Deuteronomy 17:8-10; Deuteronomy 19:17). Walked with me. Not only his teaching was true, but his life was pure and good; he was the friend of God, living as always in his presence, in peace and uprightness. So Enoch and Noah are said to have "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9). Did turn many away from iniquity. The faithful discharge of duties and the holy life and teaching of the good priest led many sinners to repentance and amendment. Malachi 2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge. It was the priest’s duty to study the Law and to teach it faithfully, as it is said of Aaron, in Ecclesiasticus 45:17, "He gave unto him his commandments, and authority in the statutes of judgments, that he should teach Jacob the testimonies, and inform Israel in his laws." The law, here and verses 6, 8, means system of teaching, or the torah. At his month. The priest was the appointed interpreter of the Law (see Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 17:9-11; Deuteronomy 33:10; and the note on Haggai 2:11). He is the messenger of the Lord. He announces God’s will to men, explaining the Law to meet the varied circumstances which occur in daily life; he intervenes between God and man, offering man’s worship to the Lord. So Haggai (Haggai 1:13) is called "the Lord’s messenger," or angel. Some see here an allusion to Malachi’s own name or office (see Introduction, § II.; comp. Deuteronomy 21:5; 2 Chronicles 17:9). Malachi 2:8 But ye are departed out of the way. The priests of this time had far declined from the high ideal set forth in Malachi 2:6, Malachi 2:7, the "way" in which God would have had them to walk. Ye have caused many to stumble at (in) the law. By their example and teaching they had made the Law a stumbling block, causing many to err, while they fancied they were not infringing God’s commandments. Septuagint, Ἠσθενήσατεπολλοὺςἐννόμῳ, "Ye made many weak [equivalent to ἠσθενώσατε] in the Law." Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi (see Malachi 2:5). They broke their part of the covenant, therefore Jehovah held himself no longer bound by it. They did not pay him due reverence and obedience; he withdrew the blessings promised to Levi, as threatened (Malachi 2:2). Malachi 2:9 Contemptible. The glory of the priesthood and the honour that belonged to it (Ecclesiasticus 45:7, etc.) were now turned into disgrace and contempt, when men compared the actual with the ideal. "Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Samuel 2:30). Have been partial in the law; Revised Version, have had respect of persons in the law; or, in your teaching, as Malachi 2:6, Malachi 2:8. The prophet names one special sin of the priests, and that the most flagrant—perversion of judgment, partiality in the administration of the Law. The same complaint is found in Micah 3:11. Malachi 2:10-16 Part II. OF PRIESTS AND PEOPLE FOR ALIEN AND FOR . Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one Father? In proceeding to his new subject, the violations of the law of marriage, the prophet pursues his habitual method. He starts with a general principle, here assuming an interrogative form, and on it builds his rebuke. The priests were guilty, if not of profane marriages, at any rate of sinful neglect in not warning the people against them. Many take the "one father" to be Abraham (Isaiah 51:2), and it is no objection to this view that he was also the progenitor of Ishmaelites, Edomites, etc; because there was at this time no question about marriage with these nations, but with Canaanites, Moabites, Egyptians, and so on. But the parallelism with the following clause shows that by the Father is meant Almighty God (comp. Malachi 1:6; Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16). Hath not one God created us? Hath not God taken us as his peculiar people, so as to call us his sons and his firstborn (comp. Exodus 4:22, Exodus 4:23; Deuteronomy 32:18; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 3:19)? Of course, God created all men; but the Jews alone recognized him as Creator. The prophet’s proposition is that all Israelites were spiritual brothers and sisters, equally loved and chosen by God. From this he argues that in sinning against one another, they offended their common Father, and broke the family compact. Deal treacherously. Act faithlessly against one another. He does not yet say in what this treachery consists, but adds, by profaning the covenant of our fathers. He unites himself with them, because he suffered in their sin. They violated the covenant by which God chose them to be his peculiar people and placed himself in mysterious relation to them, on condition that they should keep themselves aloof from the evil nations around them, and avoid all connection with them and their practices. By intermarriages with the heathen, they profaned this covenant. This evil was one which Ezra had done his best to eradicate, using most stringent measures for its suppression (Ezra 9:1-15; Ezra 10:1-44.); Nehemiah, too, contended against those who had contracted these marriages, when he found on his return to Jerusalem many such transgressors (Nehemiah 13:23-28); and now the prophet lifts up his voice in the cause of purity and obedience. The warning against throe mixed unions is found in Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3; Joshua 23:12, 18. Malachi 2:11 Judah, the whole nation, is guilty of this crime, has broken her promised faith. The special sin, mixed marriages, is named at the end of the verse. In Israel and in Jerusalem. The mention of Israel, the sacred covenant name, is meant to make the contrast between profession and practice more marked. But some critics would hero cancel the word "Israel," as being a clerical error (see note, Zechariah 1:19). Jerusalem is named as the centre of the theocracy, which gave its tone to the-people. For Judah hath profaned the holiness (sanctuary) of the Lord, which he loved (loveth); Septuagint, ἘβεβήλωσενἸούδαςτὰἅγιαΚυρίουἐνοἷςἠγάπησε, "Judah profaned the holy things of the Lord in which he delighted." Many consider that by the "sanctuary" is meant the temple, into which these heathen wives had penetrated, either led by curiosity or introduced by their profane husbands. But we have no knowledge that this was the case. It is better to take "the sanctuary," or that which is holy unto the Lord, to be the chosen nation itself, the community beloved by God, which was holy by election and profession, even as Christians are commonly called saints in the Epistles. (For the term as applied to the Israelites, see Exodus 19:6; Exodus 22:31; Leviticus 11:44; Exodus 19:2; comp. Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 13:29.) The daughter of a strange god. A woman who is an idolatress, who adhered to a foreign deity (Jeremiah 2:27), as the Israelites are called "sons of Jehovah," as joined to him in communion (Deuteronomy 14:1; Proverbs 14:26). The LXX. omits the point of the charge, rendering, καὶἐπετήδευσενεἰςθεοὺςἀλλοτρίους, "and followed after strange gods." Malachi 2:12 Will cut off. The Hebrew is an imprecation, "May the Lord cut off" (Deuteronomy 7:2, Deuteronomy 7:3). It implies that the transgressor shall be deprived of his position as one of the covenant people, and shall leave no one to maintain his name and family. The man. Others render, "unto the man," making the following words the direct object of the verb. The master and the scholar; so the Vulgate, magistrum et discipulum; literally, the watcher and the answerer, i.e. the watchman and the inhabitants of the city; the LXX; reading somewhat differently, has, ἕωςκαὶταπεινωθῇἐκσκηνωμάτωνἸακώβ, "until he be brought low from the tents of Jacob," meaning, until he repent and return humbly to obedience. In this case the term "cut off" must be taken in some milder sense than "exterminate." The present text, however, seems to be a kind of alliterative proverbial saying to express totality, everybody; though whence it arose, and what is its exact signification, are matters of great uncertainty. Some take the phrase to mean," every waking and speaking person," i.e. every living soul. The English and Latin Versions proceed on the assumption (which Pusey denies) that the first verb can be taken actively, "he that awakeneth," the teacher being so called as stimulating the scholar, who is named "the answerer." The Targum and Syriac explain it by "son and son’s son." Of the various suggestions offered, the most probable is that it is a military phrase derived from the challenge of the sentinels and the answer thereto, which in time came to de. note the whole inhabitants of a camp or city. The tabernacles. The dwellings. Or the word, as Dr. Cox supposes, may belong to the original saying, and have come down from the remote period when the Israelites lived in tents. And him that offereth an offering (michchah) unto the Lord of hosts. The same punishment shall fall on one who offers even an oblation of meal for men who are guilty of this sin. This sin would appertain specially to the priests. Or we may take the clause in a general sense. God will cut off every such transgressor, even if he try to propitiate the Lord by making an offering before trim (Ecclesiasticus 35:12. [32]), "Do not think to corrupt with gifts; for such he will not receive: and trust not to unrighteous sacrifices; for the Lord is Judge, and with him is no respect of persons." Malachi 2:13 Not only did they marry heathen females, but they divorced their own legitimate wives to facilitate such unholy alliances. This have ye done again; this again ye do. Here is another and a further offence. Others take "again" in the sense of "a second time," referring to the fact that Ezra had effected a reform in this matter, but the people had relapsed into the same sin. But the first explanation is preferable. Septuagint, καὶταῦτα, ἂἐμίσουνἐποιεῖτε, "and this which I hated ye did." Covering (ye cover) the altar of the Lord with tears. The prophet, as before (verse 10), does not at once declare what this fresh outrage is, but intimates its nature. The picture he exhibits is that of a multitude of repudiated wives coming to the temple with weeping and lamentation, and laying their cause before the Lord. Insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more. This cruel and wicked conduct raised a barrier between them and God, so that he regarded with favour no offering of theirs. Malachi 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Here is the usual sceptical objection, as in Malachi 1:6, Malachi 1:7. The people will not acknowledge their guiltiness, and ask, "Why is God displeased with us? why are our offerings not acceptable?" The prophet replies, Because the Lord hath been witness, etc. The sin is now disclosed. Their marriages had been made before God; he who first instituted matrimony (Genesis 2:24) was a witness of the contract and gave it his sanction (comp. Genesis 31:50). The wife of thy youth. Whom thou didst marry when thine affections were pure and fresh, and for whom thy love was strong and simple (Proverbs 5:18). Against whom thou hast dealt treacherously; Septuagint, "whom thou hast deserted." This wife of thine thou hast betrayed, breaking faith with her by repudiating her. The wife of thy covenant. With whom thou didst make a solemn vow and covenant, to violate which is a monstrous crime. We have very little information respecting the religious ceremonies connected with a Jewish wedding. The previous espousal was a formal proceeding, conducted by friends and parents, and confirmed by oaths. The actual marriage seems to have been accompanied by certain solemn promises and blessings (see Proverbs 2:17; Ezekiel 16:8; Genesis 24:60; Rth 4:11, Rth 4:12; Tobit 7:13; Smith, ’Dict. of Bible’). Malachi 2:15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. The passage has always been a crux, and has received many interpretations. The Anglican rendering (which, however, is probably not correct) is thus explained: God made at first one man and one woman, to show the oneness of marriage, and God gave man the breath of life and the residue to the woman; he made them both equally living souls; therefore divorce was never contemplated in the first institution of marriage. Others take "one" to mean Abraham, and explain: Abraham did not do so, i.e. did not repudiate his legitimate wife, though barren; and he had a share of the spirit of right, or he had excellence of spirit. But these are very forced interpretations, and do not occur naturally from a consideration of the words. The Hebrew may be translated more satisfactorily, Not any one has done so who has a remnant of the spirit (ruach)." No one acts as you have done who has in him any of that Divine life which God at first breathed into man; in other words, no man of conscience and virtue has ever thus divorced his wife. The reading of the Septuagint varies here, the Vatican manuscript giving, Οὐκαλὸνἐποίησε; "Did he not well?" and the Alexandrian, οὐκἄλλοςἐποίησε: but both seem to imply an interpretation such as we have just given. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Why did one act in this way? was it that he might have godly children? Surely not. No one would divorce his lawful Hebrew wife, and marry an idolatress, who wished to leave a holy posterity behind him. Many commentators, thinking that Abraham is here meant, and that the prophet is meeting an objection which might be founded upon his action with regard to Hagar, translate, "And what did the one? He was seeking a godly seed." Abraham at Sarah’s request took Hagar to wife, in order to have the promised seed; he dismissed her in order to carry out the purpose of God in confining the promise to Isaac. Therefore his conduct is no support for those who repudiate their own wives and marry strange women, not to raise up children for God, but to satisfy their carnal lusts. It is difficult, however, to see how the prophet’s hearers could have understood the allusion without further explanation. As Ribera pithily observes (quoted by Knabenbauer), "Neque ita clare ex re allata designatur (Abraham), ut non potius divinatione quam explicatione opus sit ad eum eruendum." It may also be remarked that the reference to the patriarch would not have been altogether successful, if the auditors remembered the Keturahites, who, though sprung from Abraham, were not "a godly seed." The LXX. has, Καὶεἴπατε, τίἄλλοἢσπέρμαζητεῖὁΘεός; "And ye said, What else than seed doth God seek?" as if the increase of population, from whatever source, was the only object required. This may have been one thought of the people, but it can hardly be got out of the present Hebrew text. Take heed to your spirit. Beware lest ye lose the spirit which God has given you. By acting thus contrary to conscience and the light vouchsafed to them, they ran the risk of being deprived altogether of this heavenly guide, and losing all distinction between right and wrong. Malachi 2:16 He hateth putting away. This is another reason against divorce: God hates it. It is contrary to his original institution, and was only allowed for the hardness of men’s hearts (see Deuteronomy 24:1, etc.; Matthew 19:3-9). Septuagint, "If thou hate her and dismiss her," etc.; Vulgate, "If thou hate her, put her away," which seems to encourage divorce, whereas in the context divorce is strongly condemned. Hence Jerome considers these words to be spoken by the Jews, quoting in their defence Moses’ precept. Others think that they are ironical—Put her away, if you please; but you must bear the consequences. For one covereth violence with his garment. He who thus divorces his wife shows himself openly to all beholders as an iniquitous man. So the clause is better rendered, And one (who does so) covereth his garment with violence, or, violence covereth his garment. Iniquity attaches itself to him plainly, encircling and enfolding him; the clothing of iniquity is the mark of the foul soul within. The notion of "garment" being here used figuratively for wife (as Hitzig supposes) is without proof. Such a metaphor is certainly unknown to Hebrew literature, though there is something like it in Arabic, "Wives are your attire, and ye are theirs" (Koran). Bishop Wordsworth considers that the phrase in the text refers to the custom of the bridegroom in espousals casting the skirt of his garment over her who was betrothed to him (see Rth 3:9). So the idea would be, "Ye cast your skirt over iniquity, and betroth violence to yourselves for a bride." But this seems somewhat forced. Take heed … treacherously. A repetition of the warning in Malachi 2:15. Verse 2:17-4:6 Part III. THE DAY OF THE LORD. Verse 2:17-3:6 § 1. The faithless people, disheartened by present circumstances, doubted God’s providence, and disbelieved his promises; but the prophet announces the coming of the Lord to judgment, preceded by his messenger. He shall refine his people and exterminate sinners. Malachi 2:17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. This is the introduction to the new section. The prophet makes his charge. The faithless multitude have, as it were, worn out God’s patience by their murmuring and discontent. Because their expectations of prosperity and glory were not at once fulfilled, they called in question God’s justice and holiness, and even the future judgment. The LXX. connects this verse with the preceding, ΚαὶοὐμὴἐγκαταλίπητεοἱπαροξύναντεςτὸνΘεὸνἐντοῖςλόγοιςὑμῶν "And forsake them not, ye who provoked God with your words" But it is best to take this as the beginning of a new subject. Yet ye say. This is the usual sceptical objection. Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord. They complain that, though they are (Jolt’s peculiar people, they are left in low estate, while the heathen, men that "do evil," are happy and prosperous (comp. Psalms 37:1-40; Psalms 73:1-28.). He delighteth in them. They choose to consider that the worldly prosperity of the heathen is a sign of God’s special favour, or else that he acts unjustly. Where is the God of judgment? (Isaiah 30:18). Why does not God perform his promises to Israel, and execute vengeance on the enemy? Malachi 2:2 Our blessings cursed. The cursing of blessings is a "strange work" to the blessed God, "the Father of mercies," who rather delights to turn curses into blessings. We may note— I. THE CAUSES OF THIS CURSE. It may be traced to two things. 1. A disregard of the great end of life, "to glorify God." The motto of every creature, and especially of every redeemed sinner, should be that of Ignatius Loyola in its best sense, "Ad majorem gloriam Dei." No grander object can be sought. To fail in the endeavour to "give unto the Lord the glory due unto his Name" is to begin to lose "the promise" which godliness gives of both worlds. It empties our "blessings" of their true blessedness, and begins to corrupt them with a curse like— "The little pitted speck in garnered fruit, That rotting inward slowly moulders all," 2. Neglect of God’s appeals and warnings. He remonstrates, as he did again and again with the Jews, by his prophets. But if we neither hear nor heed, and will not lay these warnings to heart, the corrupting process goes on, the curse is ripening, "the rod hath blossomed; pride bath budded" (cf. Jeremiah 6:16-20; Zechariah 1:3-6; Zechariah 7:11-14). The remedies being cast aside, the disease holds on its course till "the whole head is sick," etc. (Isaiah 1:5, Isaiah 1:6). It is natural to God to sweeten the bitter waters of life and to neutralize its poisons (2 Kings 2:19-22; 2 Kings 4:38 41). But sin reverses these miracles of mercy, and constrains God to turn our water into blood, our food into poison, to curse our blessings. II. THE SIGNS OF THIS CURSE. It may manifest itself in various ways; e.g.: 1. Withholding the gifts which God delights to bestow (Amos 4:6-9; Haggai 1:9; Malachi 3:10. scarcity implied). 2. Withholding the power to enjoy the gifts which God does bestow. It may be the food of a wealthy invalid (Ecclesiastes 6:1, Ecclesiastes 6:2) or the money of a miser haunted by fear of the workhouse (Job 20:22). The loss may be in the spiritual sphere—the power of receiving impressions of truth and duty may have been "taken away" (Matthew 13:12-15), because sinned away. The talents of an ungodly minister may be rather a curse than a blessing to him and to his flock, just as the blessings pronounced in words by these ungodly priests (Numbers 6:22-26) may have become practically curses to the people. 3. Blessings themselves may be turned into curses. Illust.: The high wages of the working classes in recent years, and the general prosperity of the country, leading to a great increase of extravagance, self-indulgence, and intemperance. The blessing of enjoying free will and the power of self-guidance and control may become a most terrible curse when we "lean on our own understanding" and pursue "a way which seemeth fight" in our eyes, but the end whereof is death (Proverbs 14:12; Psalms 81:11, Psalms 81:12). Our highest privileges may thus become curses to us, as were the Christian profession of Ananias and the apostleship of Judas. Even Christ may become "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" (1 Peter 2:6-8; John 9:40), and his ministers "a savour from death unto death" (2 Corinthians 2:16). As John Howe says, "When the gospel becomes deadly to a man, that is a most terrible sort of death; to die by a gospel plague is a most terrible way of dying." Malachi 2:6, Malachi 2:7 The qualifications and objects of Christian ministers. Aaron and the original priests of the house of Levi are here held up as a pattern to their degenerate descendants. Reference is made to the higher departments of the priest’s work, for teaching is a nobler work than sacrificing, even according to a divinely appointed and typical ritual. Allusions to this work of teaching by priests or Levites may be found in Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10; 2 Chronicles 15:8; 2 Chronicles 17:8, 2 Chronicles 17:9; Nehemiah 8:9; Micah 311, etc. This work, being common to Jewish priests and Christian ministers, makes the application we have given to the words quite legitimate. We are reminded of the following qualifications and aims essential for a minister of Christ. I. A MESSAGE FROM GOD. "He is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." We are sent to the world by our Divine Master with definite instructions. There is a "glorious gospel of the blessed God committed to our trust." That gospel embodies the doctrines of "the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" If we have no definite gospel to preach, for which we are willing to contend, to suffer, and if needs be to die, we had better hold our peace, for we are not "messengers of the Lord of hosts." "Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings ready?" (2 Samuel 18:22); "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied" (Jeremiah 23:21). A self-styled ambassador, with no instructions from his monarch, would be an object hardly less pitiable and contemptible than a speaker arrogating the position of Christ’s minister, but quite uncertain as to what to speak in Christ’s Name. The burden of our message is not, "Thus I think;" but, "Thus saith the Lord;" "Hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches." Christ bids us to teach men "to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." When men gather around us they should be able to say, "Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God." We are thus reminded of the need of: 1. Careful study of the Law of God, like Ezra (Ezra 7:6, Ezra 7:10), Daniel (Daniel 9:2), Timothy (1 Timothy 4:13). We must be scribes "instructed unto the kingdom of heaven," lest we should misread and misunderstand our message. 2. Of close communion with God; for errors that arise from sources that are spiritual may be more dangerous than those that are merely intellectual (see John 3:20; John 5:44; John 7:17; John 8:43; John 12:42, John 12:43; Hebrews 3:12). II. IN IT. We learn this from: 1. The unalterable claims of truth (verse 6). All truth has the authority of a law. We must be prepared to teach others and to learn for ourselves that rather than deny God by a lie in business or any sphere of life, it would be better to be burned alive. A martyr’s spirit is essential to a minister’s character. If this is true of us, we may urge the same on our hearers, for there are no two standards of morality, one for the clergy the other for the laity. All are required to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and therefore never to "hold down the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). The urgent duty of fidelity on the part of Christ’s ministers is seen further because of: 2. Our responsibility as "stewards of the mysteries of God." So far as those "mysteries," first revealed to the world by inspired apostles, are understood by us, we are stewards of them. And "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:1, 1 Corinthians 4:2). We are to "keep knowledge" for those who at any time may "seek the law" at our mouths. If others teach "another gospel" which may be more popular and acceptable, we are to decline popularity, "not as pleasing men, but God which trieth the heart." "For if I pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ" (see Jeremiah 23:28, Jeremiah 23:29; 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18:l, 2; Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). 3. Our relation to the souls of our hearers. Their object should be to seek God’s law from our lips that they may do it, and ours to turn them from iniquity. Our one object should be to declare the whole counsel of God so clearly, faithfully, and affectionately, that, whether men will hear or forbear, we shall be free from the blood of all Elihu’s words are an excellent motto for a preacher (Job 33:3). The words, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue," suggest solemn thoughts as to fidelity on the part of preachers. What need of care, both in public and private, .in dealing with "seeking" souls, to point them direct to Christ, and not to any ceremonies or sacraments (Acts 20:20, Acts 20:21; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5), lest at some critical point in their spiritual history our lips should tail to impart the "knowledge," "the law," the message from the Lord of hosts which they need, and they should be directed along a wrong track rather than in "the way everlasting." The sin of unfaithfulness is exposed in verses 8, 9. Ministers may be "partial in the Law," e.g. winking at follies and sins fashionable among the rich, while severely condemning the sins of the poor, etc. But fidelity needs to be combined with discrimination. "For as all men cannot dive and fetch precious stones from the deep, but he that is cunning and hath the art of it; so not all, but the wise can either teach or conceive the deep mysteries. First, children must be taught letters, then syllables, after words, then construction, and after all the matter." III. A LIFE IN HARMONY WITH IT. "He walked with me in peace and equity." These words remind us of the essential elements of a truly consistent Christian life. There must be righteousness with God, bringing after it peace with God. This righteousness is twofold. 1. A justification, which makes us "accepted in the Beloved," and gives peace with God (Romans 5:1; Ephesians 1:6). 2. A right state of heart, a conscious integrity of purpose, which ensures our being "accepted of him," well pleasing to him, and which brings with it a still deeper and purer peace (Isaiah 48:18; Romans 14:17, Romans 14:18). God desires that we should live in his perfect peace and favour in order that we "might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life." Such peace and equity toward God will ensure the same blessings in relation to our fellow men. This consistency of conduct is especially needed in the ministers of Christ. They must maintain this character in their homes (1 Timothy 3:2-5), in the Church (1 Peter 5:3), and in the world (1 Timothy 3:7). The guilt and shame of inconsistent lives is exposed in verses 8, 9, and is illustrated by the history of Eli’s sons; 1 Samuel 2:30 being fulfilled in them, and in these priests ("I have made you contemptible." They had said in their hearts, "The table of the Lord is contemptible;" so God would requite them "measure for measure"), and in all unfaithful ministers; who will be despised by the people they seek to conciliate and please. IV. ZEAL FOR THE OF IT. By faithfully discharging the duties of his calling, Levi, i.e. the priesthood, "did turn many away from iniquity." In doing so he did nothing more than what the standing and vocation of the priest required. The knowledge communicated to the mind was to be imparted by the lips. Without zeal for the reception of the message, and love that seeks the salvation of souls by means of it, the knowledge and "the tongues" of preachers profit nothing. The charge given to Paul (Acts 26:18) and to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:5) applies to every "good minister of Jesus Christ." We are appointed as witnesses for God; as labourers together with God; as ambassadors to promote reconciliation with God. We are ministers of the good tidings of Christ; soldiers of Christ (to overcome men’s" evil "by Christ’s" good"). We are lights ("the lamp that burneth and shineth," John 5:35) to light men to Jesus Christ. We are fishers of men, that we may secure them for Christ; under-shepherds of souls, that we may keep them; watchmen, that we may warn them. Mediately we may be said to be saviours of souls (James 5:19, James 5:20). So earnest should we be to secure this end, that our hearers should be able to say of us, as a plain woman did of Robert McCheyne of Dundee, "He seemed as though he were almost dyin’ to have you converted." Such a ministry will secure its object (1 Timothy 4:12-16). A painful contrast is suggested between this ideal of the ministry and our attainments in attempting to reach it. We should learn humility and be melted into penitence. For God holds us responsible for what we might have been and might have done after all that he has done for us—a truth we are reminded of by God’s appeal in Isaiah 5:4. But the lofty standard held out before us may also stimulate us to "forget the things that are behind," etc; and to make the aims of the Christ-like Apostle Paul our own (1 Corinthians 9:16-22; Colossians 1:28, Colossians 1:29). Malachi 2:10-16 The sin of conjugal unfaithfulness. We here use the term "unfaithfulness" in its widest sense, extending far beyond the sin of unchastity. We note— I. TO GOD IS THE ROOT SIN OF ALL OTHER FORMS OF . The sins denounced in the earlier verses of this book are quite sufficient to account for the criminality here exposed. Those who profane the "covenant" and the "holiness" of God in their hearts, and who do not seek "to give glory" to his Name (Malachi 2:2), are easily betrayed into glaring acts of wrong against the nearest and dearest on earth. "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways," and those ways are all downward ways. The first sin of Adam and Eve led to mutual recrimination. Disobedience towards the heavenly Father paves the way for discord in the earthly home. "Therefore take heed to your spirit" (Malachi 2:16). II. THIS SHOWED ITSELF IN TWO FORMS. 1. In unlawful marriages. (Malachi 2:11.) This was a proof of unfaithfulness both to the national covenant (Ezra 9:10-12) and to God’s purpose in marriage. Similar unfaithfulness shows itself under the Christian covenant when such precepts as 1 Corinthians 7:39 ("only in the Lord") and 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 are set at naught. For a Christian to marry an enemy of Christ, "a covetous person who is an idolater," or a slave of "the god of this world," is a breach of the sanctity of marriage. It tends to degrade it into a carnal union; it certainly grossly neglects its object as a spiritual bond, in which all material considerations are to be held as subordinate to that "great mystery," typical of the Divine union of Christ and his Church. By such sin a professed disciple of Christ virtually cuts himself off from the commonwealth of the saints, that he may join the congregation of the aliens. He thus exposes himself to the judgment of God, who will be impartial in his treatment of all classes, of those that lead into sin and those that are led (2 Corinthians 6:12; Job 12:16), and who will accept no "offering," no outward service, that might be regarded as a blind to the eyes of the Judge, presented by a man who sought thus to compound for his sin (Proverbs 21:27; Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 1:13-17; Amos 5:21-24). 2. In ill treatment of their lawful wives. This is the second form of unfaithfulness, and reminds us that "the way of sin is downhill, and one violation of the covenant is an inlet to another" (M. Henry). Unfaithfulness to the marriage vow in any form (unkindness or neglect as well as adultery or divorce) is here condemned by the following considerations. (1) Religious services are marred by moral delinquencies (2 Corinthians 6:13). It is a terrible thing to send any soul weeping in its prayer to God, and really, if not intentionally, appealing to him for avengement. How much worse if that soul should be the partner of thy life! God seeks songs, not groans, in our services. He desires unity in the home, "that your prayers be not hindered" (1 Peter 3:7). How, then, must he regard the prayers of a wife deprecating the unkindness of her husband! (2) God was a witness of every word and vow at the marriage ceremony. Through the following years he notes how those promises are kept. He is still a witness of every act of wrong on the part of either husband or wife. And he is "the avenger of all such" (1 Thessalonians 4:6). (3) The tender relations cruelly violated. Aggravations of this sin are suggested by each of the terms, "companion," "wife of thy youth," "wife of thy covenant." (4) God’s design in marriage (2 Corinthians 6:15). Polygamy is fatal to godly family life and training, and discord most perilous to it. (5) The infectious influence of sins. If we deal treacherously against our "brother" (2 Corinthians 6:10), we tempt him to act in a similar way. This is applicable to the influence of an unfaithful husband on his wife, or on other husbands or on the unmarried whom by his example he may debauch and destroy. The master and the scholar, the blind leader of the blind,—all shall fall into the ditch. (6) The Divine hatred which such sins incur (2 Corinthians 6:16). There are several things which we are expressly told in Scripture God hates (cf. Deuteronomy 12:31; Deuteronomy 16:22; Proverbs 6:16-19; Proverbs 8:13; Isaiah 61:8; Jeremiah 44:4). Among these things divorce and every other form of conjugal treachery and unfaithfulness are included. Men may make light of many of these sins, may patronize the criminals, and deride their censors. But see Luke 16:14, Luke 16:15, and the lesson it suggests. What God hates may we dread, and seek never to be unjust in the least, lest we be unjust also in much! Malachi 2:10 The brotherhood of men. "Liberty, equality, fraternity," are Divine ideas, though men have sometimes striven to embody them in crude or even repulsive and brutal forms. Men are equals, inasmuch as they are all the creatures of the one God who created them. The revelation of that Creator as "the Father of spirits" constitutes those created spirits into a brotherhood. From this fraternal relation the claim to liberty and more than liberty follows. I. SOUND ETHICS MUST BE BASED ON A TRUE . Our relations to men depend on our relation to God. Our treatment of them will vary with our conceptions of those relations. False views of God are fatal to consistent conduct towards our brethren. And though our ethics may be partially true, they will be practically powerless unless supported by "the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness." Hence the practical impotence of heathen ethics, whether those of Socrates or of Confucius. We must recgonize such truths as these: that we are creatures of the one God, "in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways;" that we are pensioners on his bounty; that we are sinners dependent on his mercy; and that, nevertheless, we are children entitled to claim our place in his family. We shall then recognize that we are bound to treat all our fellow creatures as members of the same family, sharing with us in the same bounty and mercy of the Father of all, "who willeth that all men should be saved." Jesus Christ, in whom that will is revealed, is the bond of unity, for "the Head of every man is Christ." II. THERE IS A " OF OUR FATHERS" MORE THAN THAT WHICH GOD MADE WITH THE JEWS. We can trace it back beyond Moses or Abraham to "our first father;" "for God hath made of one blood all nations of men;" "for we are also his offspring." The terms of this covenant are found in "the law written in our hearts." Hence moral law and Divine retribution are found beyond the limits of an inspired revelation. We see in the Bible illustrations of God’s judgments denounced on: 1. The sins of the Hebrews against their own brethren; e.g. the re-enslavement of the freedmen (Jeremiah 34:1-22.). 2. The crimes of Hebrews towards strangers, though they were heathens; e.g. Saul’s massacre of the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:1-22.), Zedekiah’s perjury against Nebuchadnezzar (2 Chronicles 36:13). 3. The outrages of heathens upon their brother heathens, as when the King of Moab "burned the bones of the King of Edom into lime" (Amos 2:1). III. A SIN AGAINST A BROTHER IS A SIN AGAINST GOD, WHO MADE HIM A BROTHER. The warning of 1 Corinthians 8:12 is applicable beyond the limits of the Christian Church. It was a fearful prediction that "the brother shall betray the brother to death." Give to the term "brother" its Divine significance, and every act of treachery or unfaithfulness is seen to be odious to the Father of all Hence the claims of truth towards our "neighbour, for we are members one of another;" of "all good fidelity" on the part of servants towards masters, "that they may adorn the doctrine of God;" of standing to our word, though it may be to our own hurt, that we may stand in the holy place of the Lord; of loving our enemies, that we may be children of our Father who is in heaven. IV. THE OF GOD IS ONE GREAT MOTIVE FOR THE RIGHT OF HIS . Cruelty, tyranny, slavery, and every form of social wrong would then he banished from the family of God, the brotherhood of men. War would be as intolerable as fighting in the family circle. Punishment of offending brothers would only be inflicted under a grave sense of our responsibility towards their Father and ours. Practical benevolence would be inspired by God s love to us (1 John 3:17). And as Abraham interceded for the preservation of the heathen Sodomites, so should we, by prayers and labours, seek the salvation of the whole nature ("spirit end soul and body," 1 Thessalonians 5:28) of those children of God who are still lost to the Father’s home. Notice, in conclusion, how the fuller revelation of the Fatherhood of God in Jesus Christ, and our adoption in him, gives power and pathos to all the truths we have mentioned and the motives to brotherly kindness we have enforced (1 John 4:9-11). The knowledge of such a Father should inspire our hearts with the most tender compassion towards our brethren who know him not. BY R. TUCK Malachi 2:2 The cursing of our blessings. The direct address of this verse is to the priestly classy whose irreverence and indifference were so clearly shown in their offering the people’s unworthy sacrifices, without attempting to reprove them, or endeavouring to awaken them to worthier and more spiritual views of sacrifice. When the ministry has become a fountain and a support of religious negligence and formality, the nation is placed in extreme peril, and severe providential dealings for the national and the priestly humiliation may be expected. The Divine threatening here is, "I will curse your blessings." This may mean either of three things; it may, quite possibly, include all three. It may mean, "I will turn the gifts of the people into curses." Or, "I will make the harvest of your work in the fields a failure and a curse instead of a blessing." Or, "I will make the blessing which you priests pronounce upon the people prove a curse to them." It should, however, be noticed that we now use the term "curse" with a connotation which is much more severe than that of Malachi. Our word "denunciation" would better fit the prophet’s meaning. I. TURNING THE PEOPLE’S GIFTS INTO CURSES. The priests received tithes, portions of the sacrifices, and offerings. God’s judgment on the irreverent priests would come in limitation of tithes, disease from eating of the sick beasts offered as sacrifices, and the worthlessness of the offerings; for he who could give a mean thing to God would be sure to give mean things to his servants. Let God withdraw his added blessing, and our very "good things" fail to do us good. The psalmist recognizes this by praying that God would curse the blessings of his enemies (see Psalms 69:22). This is the permanent truth for all the ages, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." Illustrate by the "little book" of Revelation, which was sweet to the taste, but bitter to the soul. II. TURNING THE HARVEST OF TOIL INTO A CURSE. (Verse 3.) What a blessing the harvest of the fields is, let the Harvest Home testify. These priests and Levites were compelled to go to their homes, and try and gain a living by the tillage of their land. But the judgment of God on irreverence and indifference would follow them there, and make their harvest a "heap." They would find that, whatever they touched, there was no Divine blessing on their work. III. TURNING THE OF THE PEOPLE INTO A CURSE. The words of the priestly blessing are given in Numbers 6:23-27. It is the deepest view of this Divine threatening to see it to mean this—The blessings which you, negligent and irreverent priests, pronounce in your formal way shall break in curses upon the heads of the people.—R.T. Malachi 2:4 Judgments recalling covenant obligations. Malachi 2:8 gives the great feature of God’s judgment, first as a fact, and then by a figure. The Levites might shirk their temple duties, and go off to their fields; but God’s hand would be upon them there; he would "corrupt" the seed they sowed, so that their harvest Would be a failure. And so they would stand before the people impoverished, disgraced, and contemptible; with the stamp of failure on everything they touched. A recent account of the ceremony connected with the recovery of a Brahmin who had broken his caste explains the Eastern custom indicated in this verse. One part of the ceremony was the plastering of his entire body, except his eyes, with filth; he was then plunged into the river, and when the filth was washed away, the man was restored. The idea of Mal 2:4 is that this Divine judgment on unfaithful Levi must take the place of the Covenant of life and peace which God had made with Levi, and would gladly have kept with his descendants. "I gave to Levi (that is, to you, the priestly tribe) a pledge of favour; but you have forfeited it, and it is now therefore turned into a threat of reprobation for your sins. No longer a covenant of peace, but of woe." I. IS GOD’S STRANGE WORK. It has not been sufficiently noticed, that God never threatens without indication of deep feeling of regret that he should be compelled to threaten. This may be illustrated from every part of Scripture, and especially in Divine dealings with the antediluvians, the Sodomites, the Israelites, and the Ninevites The keynote is given in this exclamation, "Have I any pleasure at all in the death of the wicked?" God is most unworthily misrepresented when he is thought of as punishing in a spirit of coldness and indifference. To judge and afflict is holiest pain to him. II. IS GOD’S WORK. Punishment belongs to moral discipline. It is an essential feature of it. It is part of all paternity. It is involved in the trust of childhood. God could not be his own Divine self if he did not punish. To let sin go would be unworthy of God. Father or King, he must be severe on wrong doers. III. OF IS GOD’S WORK. God always threatens before punishing. Threatening recalls obligations. Recalling obligations sets conduct in contrast with duty, and bumbles us in the dust. Nothing bows us into penitence like seeing before us what we pledged ourselves to be, and being forced to place beside it what we are.—R.T. Malachi 2:5, Malachi 2:6 The double future of a Jehovah covenant. The covenant was made with the tribe of Levi; and the precise terms here referred to occur in the renewal of covenant with Phinehas, "Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood" (Numbers 25:12, Numbers 25:13). A covenant is a mutual engagement entered into by two parties. Each party takes pledges; and each is exonerated from keeping his pledge if the other party breaks his. Too often the Divine covenant is treated as if it only involved God’s putting himself under pledge of service to us. The truth needs to be emphasized that the covenant includes our pledge of faithful service to him. And this is true of the new covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. I. JEHOVAH’S PLEDGE TO LEVI. "My covenant was with him of life and peace," There is some reason for thinking that, before the Sinaitic revelation was made, the tribe of Levi provided the moral and religious teachers of the Israelites. They were designated for the special work of the priesthood, but the Divine covenant took a special shape in consequence of the loyalty and zeal of the Levites in the matter of the golden calf; and of Phinehas in vindicating the Divine claim to moral purity. God pledged two things: (1) "life," or permanence; and (2) "peace" or prosperity. Security that the honour and usefulness of the position should be quietly maintained. There is a Divine side to every covenant. God condescends to pledge himself to men. He promises his providings, preservings, guidings, redeemings, sanctifyings. In the new covenant, in the hands of the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, all the old terms of covenant are renewed, and the special pledge of salvation from sin is added. He who has begun a good work in us is pledged to perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ. II. LEVI’S PLEDGE TO JEHOVAH. This side of covenant seldom receives sufficient attention. The Levites gave themselves to Jehovah’s service; they pledged themselves to devote their lives to the services of his sanctuary, the teaching of his truth, and the upholding of his honour. So far as the early Levites were typified in Phinehas, they kept their pledge. Their personal characters honoured the covenant (Malachi 2:6). Their steadfastness in duty, their cherished sense of right, and their active ministry against all iniquity, maintained the pledge of the covenant. Then how striking is the contrast suggested between the Levites of the early times and the Levites of Malachi’s days! Their broken pledge meant that God was relieved of all obligation to keep his pledge to them.—R.T. Malachi 2:6 The active influence of the steadfast man. Levi is taken as the type of such a man. The man who walks with God in peace and equity cannot fair to exert a strong personal influence. He will "turn many from iniquity." The point of this sentence is that active influence for good is exerted by passive goodness. Men are powers by being established characters. Steadfastness is ministry. If it be so, then there are more workers for God than come into usual calculation. Priests and clergy have their power in what they are-in cultured, sanctified character—quite as truly as in Divine endowments and in trained efficiencies. I. THE MAN EXERTS ACTIVE POWER OF . He need utter no word; his steadfast goodness speaks loudly enough. There is no reproach comes to the evil liver like the simple presence of the good liver. Nothing shamed into silence the foulness of old prison scenes like the simple presence of the saintly Mrs. Fry. And in sublimer ways the truth is illustrated in the case of our Lord. The devils that possessed men felt the reproach of his simple presence, and cried out in their alarm. Every one of us who stands firm to righteousness and equity is actively reproving the unsteadiness and evil that are daily around us. II. THE MAN EXERTS THE ACTIVE POWER OF EXAMPLE. The imitative faculty of man is more influential than we are wont to think. Everybody is disposed to make models. And all persons are materially helped by having high models of virtue in their spheres. Every individual has a sphere of influence. Within that sphere his example is an active power. We are all ideals to some one. Then "what manner of persons ought we to be?" III. THE MAN EXERTS A POWER ON MEN’S WILLS. To see a man who can stand fast to righteousness actually strengthens the decision and resolve of others. In it is the mastery of the tempter’s lie that we cannot hope to be good. Our wills are weakened by the fear that goodness is unattainable, and it is of no use to try to be good. Every steadfast man proves that man can will the Roost and do it, and that God stands by such a man in his resolve. IV. THE MAN EXERTS A SAVING . He "turns men from iniquity." He cannot leave wrong doers alone. If the priests of Malachi’s time had been steadfast men, they would soon have turned the worshippers from the. iniquity of bringing the lame and sick for sacrifice.—R.T. Malachi 2:7 Reasonable expectations of God’s ministers. "The priest’s lips should keel knowledge." The ideal priest is here characterized, not by ceremonial exactitude, but by moral integrity. Sacrificing is not so essential as religious knowledge, sound learning, and wholesome teaching. The proper expectation of God’s ministers is that they will tell God’s will to the people, not only because they know it, but even more because they keep it. In our religious teachers we look for adequacy of knowledge, and adequacy of experience. I. OF . In some countries, and in some ages, the sacred ministry has been the chief source of secular knowledge for the people. That is not the case now, and in civilized countries. But still God’s ministers need to be abreast, and to keep abreast, of all that is thought and known in their day, because to them is entrusted the work of conserving the Divine element in all knowledge, and the Divine relation to everything discovered. Unless ministers have adequate knowledge, they occupy a lower plane than the secular teachers, and fail to influence the higher range of students with Divine claims, truths, and principles. To put it in another way—The ministry must be on the level of the people if it is to sympathize with them; but the ministry must be in intelligence and knowledge above the people, if it is to lift the people to higher things, Two points may be illustrated. 1. The ministers should gain knowledge as men can gain it. 2. The ministers should gain knowledge as spiritual men only can gain it. It is that spiritually acquired knowledge that is the minister’s true efficiency; and more especially that spiritual knowledge as it relates to the mysteries of the sacred Word. II. OF . There is book knowledge, and there is experimental knowledge. It may be argued that for the common, everyday relations and duties of life, experience is a more valuable and practical teacher than books can be. It is certainly true that, for the ministry, experience is the essential thing. A man can only speak with power when "he has tasted and handled and felt the good word of life." The people have confidence in the teacher who has been taught of God in the discipline of life. What needs to be pointed out is that these two adequacies are not antagonistic, In their harmonious culture lies the true power.—R.T. Malachi 2:10 Unfaithfulness to God involves injury to our brethren. This verse begins a new subject, and it might have headed a new chapter. Answering to the indifference shown in regard to Divine worship was an indifference in regard to moral and family relations. Loose worship and loose social morality usually go together. Let men become careless about God’s claims, and they will be found careless about marriage relations, and will lightly do wrong by the wives of their youth, in the mastery of their self-indulgence. Ezra and Nehemiah had to deal very sternly with the social evils arising from the ready divorce of Jewish wives for the sake of heathen wives. Malachi begins his expostulations on this matter by putting the people in mind that they owned one God and Father, in opposition to the idols of the heathen, and therefore should deal with one another as brethren. By the marriages with strangers they were dealing falsely and injuriously with their brethren and countrymen, by ill treating their daughters whom they had taken in marriage. I. GOD’S BREAKS IT FOE OTHERS. Illustrate by the case of the golden calf. Those who took no part in the sin had to take part in the penalty. It is the bitterness of all wrong doing that we can never keep its consequences to ourselves. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge." II. TO GOD MAKES INJURY TO OUR BROTHER BY BEING A BAD EXAMPLE. Every man is bound to help his brother to be good. It is often shown that every man is bound to aid his brother in distress. It is not so often shown that every man has a claim on his brother, that he should help him to goodness. If a man does wrong, is unfaithful to God, he actually injures his brother by depriving him of his rights in his good example. Constantly we find wrong doing excused by examples of wrong doing. Sinners defraud their neighbours of their rights. III. TO GOD MAY LEAD TO ACTS OF INJURY TO OUR . The man who is strong enough to oppose God is usually masterful enough to injure his fellow. He who does not regard God is not likely to regard man. The love of God carries the love of man; the revolt against God is sure to involve the loosening of humanities.—R.T. Malachi 2:11 Worship spoiled by the tears of the injured. The divorced and abandoned wives went to the courts of the temple "with tears, with weeping, and with crying." "Their wail of lamentation mingled with the prayers and hymns of the sacrificing priests. How could the Lord ’regard the offering any more, or accept it at their hands,’ when attended by such accompaniments?" The point forced on attention is this: Here were men bringing their sacrifices, and offering their prayers for God’s blessing. And at the same time, here were the injured women praying against their prayers, and pleading that their worship should not be accepted. The tears were spoiling the worship. There is scarcely a thought more solemn and searching than the thought that few, if any, of our prayers go up to God unqualified and unchecked. We pray for, something prays against, and God withholds the blessing because the balance is in favour of the "against." I. WE MAY PRAY AGAINST OUR OWN PRAYERS. It is said of St. Augustine that for some time he prayed," Lord, convert me, but not yet." That was himself praying against himself. When duty prays one way and heart another; when we are not quite sure whether we want what we ask for; and when we are careless about receiving the answer,—we really pray against our own prayers. God may see our real prayer to be something quite other than our words. II. OTHERS MAY BE PRAYING AGAINST OUR PRAYERS. This may be done unreasonably, and then God makes the prayer against strengthen the prayer for. Or it may be done reasonably, as when the cry of the widow, the fatherless, the divorced wife, the sweated workman, or the neglected sufferer, goes up to God against us. It would be well sometimes to ask ourselves whether there can be anything praying against our prayers.—R.T. Malachi 2:15 God served by our meeting family obligations. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ 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 3:2 Who may abide the day of his comings? They had expected him to come and judge the heathen; the prophet warns them that they themselves shall be first judged (comp. Amos 5:18). "Malachi, like John the Baptist, sees the future Judge in the present Saviour" (Wordsworth); Joe 2:11. Who shall stand! Who can stand up under the burden of this judgment? The Vulgate Version, Quis stabit ad videndum eum? points to the brightness of his presence, which eye of man cannot endure. Like a refiner’s fire, which separates the precious metal from the refuse. So the Lord at his coming shall sever the good among men from the evil (Isaiah 1:25; Jeremiah 6:29; Zechariah 13:9). Like fullers’ soap; Septuagint, ὡςποιὰπλυνόντων, "as the grass of washers;" Vulgate, quasi herba fullonum, What is to be understood exactly by the "soap" (borith), washing herb, is not known. Probably the ashes of some plant yielding a lye, like carbonate of soda, are meant. Such plants are met with on the shores of the Mediterranean and Dead Seas, and at this day large quantities of alkalies are extracted from them and exported in different directions. The Lord shall wash away all that is filthy (comp. Matthew 3:10, Matthew 3:12). Malachi 3:3 He shall sit. As a judge. The prophet confines himself to the first of the two images presented in the preceding verse. The sons of Levi. Especially the priests, who ought to set an example, and teach holiness and obedience. Thus judgment should begin at the house of God (Ezekiel 9:6; 1 Peter 4:17). The purifying consists not only in exterminating the evil, but also in correcting and improving all who are not wholly incorrigible. We may call to mind Christ’s purging of the temple, and his denunciations of the teaching body among the Jews, and see herein his way of trying his ministers in all ages, that they may shine like lights in the world, and adorn the doctrine of God in all things. That they may offer (and they shall be offering) unto the Lord an offering (minchah) in righteousness. The pure sacrifice shall then be offered with a pure heart. As firstfruits of this improved condition, we read in Acts 6:7, "A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." Malachi 3:4 The offering of Judah and Jerusalem. When the purification has taken place, and the priests offer pure worship, then the sacrifices of the whole nation will be acceptable. Judah and Jerusalem represent the kingdom of the Messiah; for salvation is of the Jews, and the gospel was first preached at Jerusalem. As in former (ancient) years. As in the days of Moses, David, and Solomon, or still earlier in the case of Abel, noah, Abraham, and the patriarchs. (See the account of the ideal priesthood, Malachi 2:5, etc.) The prophet does not necessarily expect that the Mosaic ritual is to last forever and to be maintained throughout the world, but he employs the terms with which the Jewish people were conversant to express the worship of the new covenant (comp. Malachi 1:11, and note there). Malachi 3:5 I will come near to you to judgment. They had asked, "Where is the God of judgment?" (Malachi 2:17). He tells them that his judgment shall extend beyond the Levites even unto all the people; they will then see whether, as they supposed, the evil went unpunished. The announcement applies especially to the circumstances of Malachi’s time, though, of course, it has an extended reference. Swift witness. God’s judgments fall swiftly and unexpectedly; and when they fall the sinner is at once convicted, and no con-comment, excuse, or subterfuge is possible. "How terrible is that judgment," says St. Jerome, "where God is at once Witness and Judge!" Sorcerers; τὰςφαρμακούς; maleficis (Vulgate); see Exodus 7:11; Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:10. The Jews had grown familiar with magical arts during the Captivity; that they practised them later we learn from Acts 8:9; Acts 13:6. Adulterers. They who were ready to marry heathen wives would not be likely to be restrained by any law from gratifying their passions, False swearers; Septuagint, "those who swear falsely by my name," which is from Zechariah 5:4 (comp. Leviticus 19:12; and see note on Zechariah 5:3). Oppress the hireling. Defraud him of his just wages (see Deuteronomy 24:14, Deuteronomy 24:15; James 5:4). The widow, and the fatherless (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:17). Turn aside (bow down) the stranger; Septuagint, "pervert the judgment of the stranger;" Vulgate, opprimunt peregrinum (Exodus 22:21; Deuteronomy 27:19; Amos 5:12). And fear not me. This was the root of all the evil. Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not; or, Jehovah, I change not. This is to show that God performs his promises, and effectually disposes of the allegation in Malachi 2:17, that he put no difference between the evil and the good. The great principles of right and wrong never alter; they are as everlasting as he who gave them. God here speaks of himself by his covenant name, which expresses his eternal independent being, "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Because God’s eternal purpose stands good, and his "gifts and calling are without repentance" (Romans 11:29), therefore the Israelites are indeed chastised and corrected, but not wholly consumed; they have a place and a nation, and the great promises made to their foregathers will all be fulfilled in due time (Jeremiah 30:11; Micah 7:20). He calls them "sons of Jacob," to remind them of the covenant made with their great ancestor, which was the portion of all true Israelites (comp. Jeremiah 33:20, Jeremiah 33:21). Orelli would read, "Ye have not made an end," i.e. of your sins; so virtually the Septuagint, which joins this clause to the following verse. But the present text is most probably correct. Malachi 3:7-12 § 2. God indeed is faithful to his promises, but the people’s own conduct has occasioned the withholding of favours: they have been shamefully negligent in the matter of tithes and offerings; let them amend their practice, and they shall be blessed. Malachi 3:7 Ye are gone away (have turned aside) from mine ordinances. Disobedience was no new offence; they had always from early days been persistent in wickedness; and if the performance of God’s sure promise was delayed, this was because they had not fulfilled the conditions on which rested its accomplishment. Return: unto me, and I will return unto you (Zechariah 1:3, where see note). Man must cooperate with God’s preventing grace, and then God gives him further grace unto repentance and amendment. Here, if the people followed the preaching of the prophets and obeyed the promptings of the Holy Spirit, God promises to bless and save them. Wherein shall we return? Here is the Pharisaical spirit, as in Malachi 1:6, etc. They do not acknowledge their offence; they consider that they are righteous and need no repentance. Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? The prophet shows the people how they have departed from God, in not keeping even the outward observances of religion. The word translated "rob," defraud, found also in Proverbs 22:23, etc; is rendered in the Septuagint, πτερνιεῖ, "trip up," "supplant;" Vulgate, si affliget homo Deum, or, as St. Jerome first translated, "si affiget homo Deum," and referred the words to the crucifixion of our Lord. In tithes and offerings. These were due to the Lord, and therefore in withholding them they were defrauding not man but God. (For tithe, see Leviticus 27:30, etc.; Numbers 18:21. See the complaint of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 13:10-12.) The "offering" meant is the heave offering, the breast and shoulder of the peace offering, which were the priests’ portion (Exodus 29:27; Le Exodus 7:14, 32-34; comp. Nehemiah 10:37-39). Malachi 3:9 Ye are cursed with a (the) curse. The effect of the curse was scarcity and barrenness, as we see from Malachi 3:10-12 (comp. Malachi 2:2; Haggai 1:6). The Vulgate assumes the result: In penuria vos maledicti estis. The next clause given the reason of the curse. This whole nation. Not individuals only, but the whole nation (he does not any longer call them God’s people) were implicated in this sin. The LXX; reading differently, has, "The year is ended, and ye have brought," etc. Malachi 3:10 All the tithes; the whole tithe—not merely a portion of it. God is not served with partial service. The storehouse. The tithes were brought to the temple, and laid up in the chambers built to receive them (see Nehemiah 10:38, Nehemiah 10:39; Nehemiah 13:5, Nehemiah 13:12, Nehemiah 13:13; 2 Chronicles 31:11, 2 Chronicles 31:12). That there may be meat in mine house. That they who minister about holy things may live of the things of the temple (1 Corinthians 9:13; Numbers 18:21). Prove me now herewith. Do your part, perform your duties, and then see if I will not reward your obedience. Open you the windows of heaven. The expression implies net only the removal of drought by copious showers of rain, but the diffusion of heavenly blessing in large abundance. That there shall not be room enough to receive it; or, unto superabundance; Vulgate, usque ad abundantiam; Septuagint, ἕωςτοῦἱκανωθῆναι, "until it suffice;" Syriac, "until ye say, It is enough." The Authorized Version retains the negation in the sentence, and perhaps comes nearest to the meaning of the original (comp. Luke 12:17, Luke 12:18). Malachi 3:11 The devourer. The locust (see Introduction to Joel, § 1.). God would not only give a fruitful season, so that the crops sprang up well, but would guard them from everything that could injure them before they were gathered in. Septuagint, διαστελῶὑμῖνεἰςβρῶσιν, which perhaps means, as Schleusner thinks, "I will give a charge unto consumption for your good," though Jerome renders, "dividam vobis cibos." Malachi 3:12 Shall call you blessed; or, happy, as Malachi 3:15 (comp. Deuteronomy 33:29; Zechariah 8:13, Zechariah 8:23). A delightsome land; γῆθελητή; literally, a land of good pleasure—a land in which God is well pleased (comp. Isaiah 62:4; Jeremiah 3:19). Malachi 3:13-18 § 3. The impious murmuring of the people is contrasted with the conduct of those who fear God; and the reward of the pious is set forth. Malachi 3:13 Your words have been stout against me. Ye have spoken hard words of me (comp. Jude 1:15, where we read of "the hard speeches (σκληρῶν) which ungodly sinners have spoken against" God). Some specimens of these speeches are given in answer to the usual sceptical inquiry. They are of the same character as those in Malachi 2:17, and imply that the course of this world is not directed by a moral Governor. What have we spoken so much (together) against thee! What have we said against thee in our conversations with one another? Malachi 3:14 It is vain. It brings no acknowledgment or reward. The Latin and Greek Versions have, "He is vain who serveth God." Have kept his ordinance (charge). Have done what he ordered. They are either wilfully deceiving themselves and others by pretending an obedience which they never really paid; or they think that the outward observance of certain legal requirements is all that is required. Some think that an interval of time separates this from the last section, and that meanwhile they had made some efforts at improvement, expecting, how. ever, immediate results in added blessings; and as these did not come as quickly as they hoped, they relapsed into their old distrust. Have walked mournfully; i.e. in mourning apparel, as if fasting and mourning for sin (Psalms 35:13, Psalms 35:14; Job 30:28). Septuagint, "Why went we as suppliants (ἱκέται)?" Before the Lord. Out of reverence and awe of Jehovah. They attributed a certain virtue to voluntary fasts, without any consideration of the spirit in which they were observed (see the reproof of such formal observances in Isaiah 58:4, etc.). Malachi 3:15 We call the proud happy. This is still the speech of the murmurers. We, they say, do not reckon the humble and meek blessed; we consider that the only blessed ones are the arrogant heathen, or free thinkers, who meet with prosperity and happiness in this world. For the "proud," the LXX. has, ἀλλοτρίους, "strangers," which, doubtless, gives the meaning (comp. Isaiah 13:11). Are set up; literally, are built up—have wealth and families, and leave a name behind them (Psalms 17:14; see in the original, Genesis 16:2; Genesis 30:3; and comp. Exodus 1:21; Jeremiah 12:16, where the phrase, "being built," includes all temporal prosperity). They that tempt God are even delivered; they tempt God, and are delivered (Malachi 3:10). They try and provoke God by their impiety, and yet escape punishment. Septuagint, ἈντέστησαντῷΘεῷκαὶἐσώθησαν, "They resist God, and yet are safe." Malachi 3:16 With these impious murmurers the prophet contrasts those who fear God, as above (Malachi 2:5-7) he set the picture of the true priest in opposition to his delineation of the evil ministers. Then. When the impious made the above infidel remarks, the pious spake often, conversed together. What they said is not repeated, but it was language well pleasing unto God, who deigned to listen to their words, and to console them by announcing the future destiny of the good and the evil. They may have argued with these impious talkers, and warned others against them; or they may have expostulated as Jeremiah 12:1, but yet with full faith that what God does is always good; and this sentiment was all the harder to cherish because they lived under a system of temporal rewards and punishments. The Septuagint and Syriac have, "These things spake they that feared the Lord," as if the two preceding verses reported the words of the pious. Some Fathers and commentators have taken the same view. But it is difficult to conceive such words coming from the mouth of those who fear God; unless they are so called ironically. But this is inadmissible, as we see that in the present verse they are represented in their true character, and such a sudden change from irony to actuality is unnatural and quite opposed to the prophet’s usual manner. A book of remembrance was written before him. The hook represents God’s providence and omniscience, his ever-wakeful care, his unfailing knowledge. "Are not these things noted in thy book?" says the psalmist (Psalms 56:8); and when the dead were judged, Daniel saw that the books were opened (Daniel 7:10). The idea is taken from the national records wherein were noted events of importance, such as we find in the cuneiform inscriptions. This book was to lie, as it were, always before the eyes of the Lord, to remind him of the pious. Rosenmuller compares the proverbial saying, ΕγράφηἐνΔιὸςδέλτοις, "It is written on the tablets of Zeus" on which Erasmus comments in his ’Adagia,’ under the title "Fides et Gravitas." For them that feared the Lord. For their benefit, to preserve their name forever. Thought upon his Name. Prized his Name, regarded it with awe. Septuagint, ἐυλαβουμένοιςτὸὅνομααὐτοῦ, " who reverenced his Name." Malachi 3:17 They shall be mine, etc. This is better rendered, in accordance with the Septuagint and Vulgate, "They shall be to me, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day which I am preparing, a peculiar treasure." This day of the Lord is the day of judgment, which God is always preparing by his visitation of nations and individuals. Then shall the righteous be to God a peculiar treasure (segullah), that which he prizes as his special possession (see Exodus 19:5, whence the expression is derived; and comp. Deuteronomy 7:6: Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18; Psalms 135:4). I will spare them; i.e. when I punish sinners. They are spared on two grounds, because they are his sons, and because they serve him like obedient children (Psalms 103:13). Septuagint, αἱρετιῶαὐτούς, "I will choose them." Malachi 3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern; or, ye shall again discern. They had already had many opportunities, both in the history of the nation and the life of individuals, of observing the different treatment of the godly and of sinners; but in the day of the Lord they should have a more plain and convincing proof of God’s moral government (comp. Exodus 11:7; Wis. 5:1-5); "So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Psalms 58:11). Malachi 3:2 The manifestation of Christ a testing time to all. We may apply this truth— I. TO CHRIST’S FIRST TO THE WORLD. This truth was foreseen by Simeon (Luke 2:34, Luke 2:35). And when Jesus entered on his public ministry, his preaching and his very presence served as a testing time to all. 1. His teaching was a process of sifting (Matthew 3:12). Socrates used to go about Athens testing and refining men’s ideas, and in his own unrivalled method extracting the few grains of gold from the mass of rubbish in young men’s minds. Our Lord did a more valuable service, testing men’s hearts rather than their heads, their characters rather than their opinions. Illust.: Nicodemus, tested, convicted of ignorance, but ultimately refined. Others when convicted were offended and repelled; e.g. Matthew 15:12-14; John 6:25-66; John 8:33-59. So severe was this testing process that Christ pronounced a special blessing on all who stood it (Luke 7:23). Yet Christ’s teaching held out the door of mercy to all. He showed to the world that in the midst of the dross of some of the foulest lives there were grains of gold, gems of Divinity, which his purifying power could disengage. Sinful men and women "loved much," because through his words they learned that they had been much forgiven. 2. The purity of his life made his very presence like the flame of a refiner’s fire. Men could not be much with him without being either attracted and purified or repelled and made worse; e.g. the Gadarenes, the chief priests, Judas. On the other hand we note Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman, file "sinner" (Luke 7:37), the eleven apostles. This testing process took effect especially among the religious people of that day (John 8:3). Judgment began at the house of God. Some priests believed in him; few, if any, confessed him. Of most he had to say Matthew 21:31; and see Matthew 21:44, Matthew 21:45. II. TO THE OF CHRIST TO THE SOUL OF A MAN. It was not the mere fact of Christ having come to the world and being seen that made him like a refiner’s fire; it was when he came home to men’s hearts and was manifested to their consciences that the real testing began. In this sense Christ still comes to our homes and appears to our hearts. Of this manifestation we remark: 1. We naturally dread it. John 1:26 is too often true. Many shun that manifestation. They put up the shutters and close every chink, "lest the light," etc. (2 Corinthians 4:4). Thus they can tolerate secret sins of which they would be ashamed "in the light of his countenance." Imagine that we were living in the same house as Jesus Christ, that he noticed every act and word, and that we knew he was acquainted with our thoughts as well. How could we bear it? Should we not at times be constrained to cry out, in distress, if not in defiance, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord"? But alas! we often do not realize "the real presence" of the invisible Christ. When we do, our feelings will be those of guilty Adam or at least of righteous Job. 2. Yet we ought to desire it. Foreverything depends on our knowing ourselves as sinners, and Christ as our Saviour. This should make us very anxious that when Christ reveals himself it may be not simply as the light of God, but as the fire of God. Light merely reveals. Illust.: morning light dawning on the horrors of yesterday’s battlefield. But fire may purify, and Christ is like a refiner’s fire. The two figures of the text are suggestive. "Two sorts of material for cleansing are mentioned: the one severe, where the baser materials are in worked with the rich ore; the other mild, where the defilement is easily separable." (1) He is like a refiner’s fire. Illust.: Zacchaeus "purged from his old sins" by Christ, who not only came to his home, but appeared, manifested himself in his heart. Like the flame of the fiery furnace, the fire of the Lord’s holy love consumed the bonds of sin, but the man himself stood upright and walked at liberty. This refining process may be a very severe one to us. But the refining fire is himself the Refiner. He knows the ore he has to deal with. We can calmly leave him to select every step in the process. We know that he is working towards an end which is, or ought to be, very dear to us—our own sanctification (Psalms 79:9). (2) He is like fuller’s soap. This is a milder process. Yet even this may imply some rough treatment like treading, beating, hammering with mallets. Linen after cleansing may show how much dirt there was in it before. So Christ’s purifying power may show us how many secret sins there were ingrained in the very essence of our hearts. The discovery may prompt to confession and to prayer (Psalms 51:1-10), which will be met by the promise, Isaiah 1:18. Christ is no mere reformer or disciplinarian. He himself is the fire; his blood is the cleansing fountain; his Spirit is the source of our sanctification. Our supreme desire should be that Christ should be manifested to our souls now as the purifying fire of that holy God who, because he changeth not, doth not consume us (Isaiah 1:6). For otherwise he will for the same reason (Isaiah 1:5, Isaiah 1:6, "For I change not") consume us at last. III. TO THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. In this prophecy, as Augustine says, "the first and second advents of Christ are brought together." Malachi sees the great white throne in the background (Malachi 4:1). The result of that coming to us will depend on his treatment of us and our treatment of him now (2 Timothy 1:18). Malachi 3:6 The twofold aspect of the unchangeableness of God. Three truths are taught here. I. THAT GOD IS . 1. His nature is a pledge of it. Being absolutely perfect, any change of nature must be for the worse. The "light" (1 John 1:5) would be dimmed; any "variation" would cause "a shadow that is cast by turning" (James 1:17, Revised Version). He is "Alpha and Omega," and not an intervening letter can be displaced; not a "jot or tittle" can pass away. 2. His Name declares it. Whether we interpret the Divine Name, "I am that I am," or "I will be that I will be," unchangeableness is implied. He "is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty." He has emotions, but these are not the capricious feelings of a changeable creature; e.g. contrast the wrath of God and that of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:1-49. and 3. He revokes promises or reverses threats; but he "cannot lie" (Titus 1:2; cf. Numbers 23:19). The strongest assurance of this truth is found in the revelation of the Divine Name in Jesus Christ, who through successive ages is proving himself to be "the same yesterday, today, and forever." II. THAT THIS OF GOD IS THE GROUND OF HOPE FOR THE GUILTY. For God hath an "eternal purpose, which he hath purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." And he says, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." That eternal purpose included his dealings with the elect race of the old covenant. In spite of their many sins, he wrought out his gracious purposes respecting them (cf. Leviticus 26:42-45; Deuteronomy 7:7, Deuteronomy 7:8). And still God remembers the land and the people (Zechariah 14:10, Zechariah 14:11; Romans 11:25-29). The same unchangeableness brings hope to all of us who have been invited and have been led to trust in our Saviour-God, "who hath saved us," etc. (2 Timothy 1:9). Those unalterable purposes include our purification (cf. Daniel 2:3, Daniel 2:4). For that end Christ gave himself for us (Ephesians 5:26; Titus 2:14), and towards that end God is ever working. Well may we marvel at the everlasting mercy and the unchanging faithfulness of God (Lamentations 3:22, Lamentations 3:23). The immutability of God is the sheet anchor of our souls when the storm of guilt and fear threatens our destruction. It was a high eulogy on a Roman commander in a time of national peril that he had not despaired of the republic. It is to the glory of God that he does not despair of us sinners, in spite of our inherited and inveterate sinfulness (Daniel 2:7), but "waits, that he may be gracious," etc. (Isaiah 30:18), and seeks to overcome our evil by his unchangeable good. III. THAT THIS HOPE FOR THE GUILTY IS A PLEDGE OF THE OF THE . This is seen by the connection of Dan 2:5 and Daniel 2:6. The unchangeableness of God requires that "the transgressors shall be destroyed together" (Psalms 37:38-40). "There needs no scire facias - a writ calling one to show cause, to revive God’s judgment; for it is never antiquated or out of date; but against those that go on in their trespasses, the curse of his Law still remains in full force, power, and virtue" (M. Henry); cf. Ecclesiastes 8:11. But judgment deferred is not forgotten (2 Peter 3:8, 2 Peter 3:9). If judgment is to be escaped, men must change, for God cannot (see the argument in Ezekiel 18:1-30; and cf. John 3:7). Learn: 1. The blessedness of being in unalterable unity with the unchangeable God. For this a reconciliation and a regeneration are provided by God himself (2 Corinthians 5:17-21; James 1:18). And then "if God be for us, who can be against us?" Changes in our circumstances need little affect us. Eden was no Paradise to Adam without God; the fiery furnace was no terror to Shadrach with God. 2. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." For the unchangeable holiness of God is a consuming fire, which must destroy us in our sins if it does not separate us from them. Malachi 3:7-10 The sin of robbing God. The special form of sin which is hare denounced (robbing God of tithes and offerings) is only one manifestation of a sin which is older than the law of tithes, and which survives in all nations to the present day. Observe— I. THE NATURE OF THIS SIN. It is an ancient and an inveterate sin. The secret of it is alienation of heart from God (Malachi 3:7). It is due to God, our Creator, Benefactor, Redeemer, that we make his will the law of our life, and therefore that we present ourselves a living sacrifice, according to the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. If we fail to do so, it must be either because we do not acknowledge the claims which God makes on us, or, acknowledging them, we yet deliberately withhold them. In the first case, we give the lie to God; in the second, we rob God. (Terrible alternative for every neglecter of God and Christ.) If it is robbery to withhold our hearts, ourselves, from God, it must be also to withhold anything from him. For what is there of which we can say, "This is not God’s property; it is no part of his estate; we can do what we like with this"? It required no law of tithes to assert God’s proprietorship and our stewardship. Cain robbed God when he withheld the offering which God would have accepted, or the spirit of dependence and faith without which even the right offering could not have been received. The withholding of a right spirit from God paves the way for other acts of robbery. The principle of tithes precedes and survives the law of tithes (Proverbs 3:9, Proverbs 3:10; Proverbs 11:24, Proverbs 11:25; 2 Corinthians 8:12; 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, etc.). The precept, "Render unto God the things that are God’s," applies to things as spiritual as souls and as material as silver. If we are not proprietors but stewards, our one duty in regard to every talent we are entrusted with should be, "How will the Divine Proprietor wish me to use it?" If through selfishness or criminal carelessness we use it in a way which does not bring to God the honour that be has a right to expect, we are guilty of robbing God. "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his Name." II. IT IS A SIN WINCH MEN ARE HARD TO BE OF. 1. In Malachi 3:7 we find a reproof and an appeal which should awaken great searchings of heart: "Lord, is it I?" (Lamentations 3:40, Lamentations 3:41). But we may be so self-righteous or ignorant as to evade such general appeals as quite irrelevant. So the net must be drawn tighter; the indictment must be made more definite. 2. So the charge of robbing God is suggested. "Will a man rob God?" The very aversion we feel at the thought of being robbed (for we would rather give away or throw away our property than be cheated of it) should prompt the inquiry, "Is it possible that I may be robbing God?" e.g. of the reverence and godly fear due to the Almighty, as though we could disregard him and dare him to do his worst. Or of the gratitude and dependence he deserves as our Father, our Redeemer, as though we could to a considerable extent dispense with him during life, and then "make it up" at the last. Whose conscience could not convince him that in these or other ways he had been often guilty of robbing God? Yet so hard are men to be convinced of the sin, that to God’s question and his direct charge there comes the glib reply, "Wherein have we robbed thee?" 3. Thus God is compelled to lay his finger on one most glaring act of robbery: "In tithes and offerings." Some of the offerings were less rigidly regulated by law than tithes, as is the case with the offerings of Christians for the kingdom of Christ and the claims of benevolence. But we may be guilty of robbing God "in offerings." (1) By grudging giving. If we do not "freely give," we withhold from God the right spirit, without which gifts cannot be acceptable. We act as if, though God had a right to demand our money, he had no right to expect the cheerful acknowledgment, "Of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14; Matthew 10:8; 2 Corinthians 9:7). (2) By scanty giving. For there is an amount, some proportion of all we are entrusted with, which it is "meet" to give. To "withhold more than is meet" is to rob God. If a man gives not "according to that he hath," but as though God had entrusted him with much less, his offerings are not accepted by God. A steward of God (as every one is) is bound conscientiously to consider what proportion of all he receives he should set apart for giving to religious and benevolent objects, so that he may honour the Lord "with the firstfruits of all his increase." The Jewish laws of tithes and offering may aid him in the estimate. No rule can be laid down for one another, but the Christian steward may fairly start with the presumption that the scale of liberality has not been lowered in the kingdom of Christ, with all its privileges and motives so far in advance of the Jewish theocracy. Lest we should be guilty of robbing God, we should purpose in our heart to devote so much and no less, as God may prosper us. The cheerful, systematic dedication of a liberal proportion of our property to the service of God will preserve us from robbing God. We shall give not as small a proportion as we dare to offer, but as large a proportion as love and conscience in council will justify. Special circumstances may call for special sacrifices; but we shall form, as a first charge on our income, a sacred fund set apart for offerings to God. The experience of those who act on these Divine principles of giving may assure all that they will thus realize, as probably they may never have done before, the truth of our Lord’s words, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." III. IT IS A SIN WHICH SHUTS THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN. The excuse which is generally urged for that parsimonious giving which is a robbery of God is, "I can’t afford it." This may arise from a criminal ignorance of the claims of God and our relations to him, or from a feeble faith on the part of those who yet acknowledge themselves to be his stewards. The guilt of the former has been exposed; the fear of the latter is here met by God’s own challenge, "Prove me now herewith;" "Have faith in God;" "Honour the Lord with thy substance;" "Seek first the kingdom of God;" and then see if God is not faithful to all his promises in regard to both temporal and spiritual blessings. Men may complain of hard times, and may want prosperity to precede liberality. "No," says God to these suffering Jews and to scanty Christian givers who may be in adversity, "honour me first by obedience and cheerful trust, and see if prosperous times will not come then." Illust.: widow (1 Kings 17:13); poor Macedonians (2 Corinthians 8:1-4). Bad times may be the result of past unfaithfulness on the part of God’s servants. You may be reaping sparingly because you have sown sparingly. Try the opposite plan. Now the windows of heaven are closed against ourselves by our own sins. God will open those windows as soon as we honour, obey, and trust. He can surpass our hopes and thoughts (Ephesians 3:20). His spiritual blessings will only be limited by our capacity for receiving them. Illust.: 2 Kings 4:6; 2 Kings 13:18, 2 Kings 13:19. And with these best of blessings all temporal blessings that will be good for us will be added (2 Kings 13:11; Matthew 6:33), and showers of blessing on our hearts and homes will descend through the windows of heaven once closed on God’s dishonest servants, now opened to his faithful stewards. Malachi 3:13-18 Hard speeches against God. Once more God has to bring a charge against his people (Malachi 3:13). Their words were "stout," bold, loud, defiant. Reverence and reticence were both wanting. Once more the plea is entered, "Not guilty." They will not admit that God is justified when he speaketh and clear when he judgeth. So once more God has to unfold the evidence, that their mouths may be stopped and they may be found guilty before God. I. HARD AGAINST GOD. 1. God’s service is unprofitable. They charge God with being an ungenerous Master, who allows them to work hard in order to keep his ordinances and to deny themselves ("walk mournfully"), and yet suffers them to enjoy little or no advantage therefrom. Even the service of God is "vanity and vexation of spirit." This is an old complaint (Job 22:15-17) often repeated (Psalms 73:1-28.; Isaiah 58:3, etc.). It reflects on God’s equity as well as generosity, This is seen more clearly in the second charge. 2. The wicked are better off than we are. They seem to be "happy;" they are evidently "set up," established by God’s providence in much prosperity. And though, instead of "proving" God (Malachi 3:10), they "tempt God," they go unpunished, and are delivered from trials which still oppress us. The facts noted form part of the world wide and perplexing problem which has often caused atheists openly to blaspheme and Christians to weep in secret. But if ever the problem tries us, let us learn a lesson from the contrast between the conduct of the ungodly professors here and the godly Asaph. These speak openly to others against God, and thus encourage one another in unbelief. But Asaph (Psalms 73:15-17) speaks in secret to God about the question, and God guides him into truth and peace. II. REPLIES TO THEM. Answers to all these hard speeches may be found: 1. In the hollowness of the pretences of these stout speakers against God. They did not really "serve God" or "keep his ordinances." If they walked "mournfully," it was a sign that love, gratitude, gladness, were absent, or the joy of the Lord would have been their strength. Since their heart was far from God, so that he says, "In vain do they worship me" (Matthew 15:8, Matthew 15:9), no wonder they have to confess, "It is vain to serve God." And whenever we find Christian worship or work bringing little profit to our souls, we may well institute great searchings of heart lest the radical difficulty should be found altogether in our own spiritual state in regard to God. If, however, our hearts condemn us not on this charge, we may see a further answer. 2. In the opposite experiences of those "who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." While the murmurers have been talking to one another against God, another company has conversed together" (Malachi 3:16). (Contrast the two gatherings—their spirit, their subjects, their tones.) They can tell a very different tale. They can speak words which God delights to hear and to record. Their experience of the faithfulness of God and the profitableness of his service even in dark days should neutralize the influence of distrustful complainers. Their characters attest their testimony. The confession of a Paul (2 Timothy 1:12) more than compensates for the desertion of a Demas. 3. In the fact that we have not yet "seen the end of the Lord." God speaks of a future, and bids us wait for that (Malachi 3:17, Malachi 3:18). We have seen the end of the Lord in the case of Job (James 5:11) and other tried but triumphant servants of God. We have not yet seen the end of the Lord in that drama of life (sometimes tragical) in which we are taking part. 6, Therefore judge nothing before the time" (1 Corinthians 4:5). In our present state of education and probation, "all thing are ours" by possession or by promise. In verses 16 and 17 we are reminded of a few of our privileges. We have the ear of God, a record with God, communion with God, protection by God, and a high estimate in his sight The ultimate issue (verse 18) will vindicate the confidence of his servants and silence the murmurs of his foes (Romans 8:31-39; Jud Romans 1:14, Romans 1:15). Malachi 3:16 Christian converse. "Then," etc. When? When ungodliness was rampant (Malachi 3:13-15). As an excess of carbonic acid in the air makes the lamps in a mine burn dimly, so the atmosphere of prevailing ungodliness makes it hard to maintain a brightly burning piety. Christian converse is one means of sustaining a bright and vigorous godliness "in this present evil world," especially when the evil is more than usually "present" and pressing upon us. (1) The servants of God conversing; (2) God listening and approving. I. THE OF GOD . The description of them, "They that feared the Lord," reminds us of the godly jealousy they cherished for the honour of God, like Noah, Nehemiah, and other servants of God in a corrupt age. Such fear is a source of purity (Psalms 19:9; Proverbs 14:27), and a safeguard in the most ungodly days (Isaiah 8:13, Isaiah 8:14). Fearing God, they think much on his Name so deeply dishonoured in their midst; and they do so because (as the term implies) "they highly esteemed his Name." They feel the danger of spiritual contagion and disease (Matthew 24:12). Lest their love should cool or their faith should fail, they conversed one with another. While the ungodly were uttering "stout" words against God (verse 13), they were speaking warm words on his behalf. Learn: 1. Charting circumstances may call for new means of grace. E.g. the meetings of the sons of the prophets and traces of public religious services (2 Kings 4:23) in the dark days of Elijah and Elisha. The institution of synagogue worship in the Captivity. The secret services of the catacombs. The gatherings in woods or on moors of Covenanters, Nonconformists, and the martyr Church of Madagascar. "The word of the Lord was precious in those days," 2. Private Christian communion may do much to supplement or to supply more public means of grace. From public Church fellowship the godly could gain little in the days of Malachi. There was neither purity nor unity (Malachi 2:10, Malachi 2:11). In such circumstances all the more need for godly converse. "When the fire bums low, the coals that are alive should be brought together, that they may be blown into a flame." Illust.: Jonathan and David (1 Samuel 23:16-18); Jeremiah and Baruch (Jeremiah 45:1-5); Paul in prison and his friends "which have been a comfort unto me" (Colossians 4:11; cf. Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:24, Hebrews 10:25). Such. converse is enjoined in the family (Deuteronomy 6:6-8) and among believers (Ephesians 5:19). But to be a means of grace, it needs to be natural and spontaneous. "But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like water after summer showers, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers." The spirit of it may be seen in Psalms 34:1-3, Psalms 34:11; Psalms 66:16. II. GOD AND . 1. "The Lord hearkened, and heard." It is a solemn truth that God listens to everything we say (Numbers 12:2; Jeremiah 8:6; Psalms 139:4). Here this truth wears a cheerful face. As illustrations: Two Christians encouraging one another in God; Christ in their midst (Matthew 18:20; Luke 24:13-31). A Christian man on a lonely walk, courteously conversing with a stranger, and seeking to commend Christ to him. The stranger may go away to pray or to scoff. But that is not all. God hearkened and heard and noted the good deed done in his name. God listens with pleasure to all we say for him as well as to him. 2. "And a book of remembrance," etc. Older than the chronicles of the kings of Persia (Esther 6:1) or of Israel is the book of remembrance of the Divine King (Psalms 56:8). "Never was any good word spoken of God or for God from an honest heart, but it was registered, that it might be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, and in no wise lose its reward." That reward is referred to in Psalms 66:17. LESSON. (Colossians 4:6.) Supposing a Christian’s talk for one day were taken down verbatim, what proportion of it could be entered in God’s book of remembrance as "good to the use of edifying" (Ephesians 4:29), and of any service in the great day of account (Matthew 12:37)? Malachi 3:17 The Divine Proprietor and his peculiar treasure. We adopt, as a more accurate translation, the rendering, "And they shall be to me, saith Jehovah, in the day that I am preparing, a peculiar treasure," etc; and thus learn— I. THAT THE OF GOD ARE HIS . It is a joy to know that in such a world as this there is anything which God can regard as his own peculiar treasure. For sin is here. The serpent’s trail is found in every earthly paradise. "The works of the devil" have done much to dim the glory and mar the beauty of the works of God. True, his material works are as attractive as ever (Psalms 104:31). But a moral Being cannot find his peculiar treasure in material works. Of what value are the precious metals and the rare gems of earth to God? If they cannot satisfy the hunger of the created spirit, how can they be a special treasure to the Spirit that created all (Job 36:19)? It was a man who was first called "the friend of God" (James 2:23). It was to a nation that the promise was first given, "ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine" (Exodus 19:5). Though the heavens are not pure in his sight, and he charges the angels with folly, yet he can find a peculiar treasure in sinful souls that fear and love him, that think upon his Name, and nurture in one another’s hearts the elements of, Divine life. While the whole Church of God is his treasure, every individual is an object of special regard and value. God says, "I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight." Every believer may appropriate the love and sacrifice of Christ, "who loved me, and gave himself for me." So that each individual in the universal Church may be regarded as a jewel in the Divine treasury. They are God’s "hidden ones," but not overlooked; scattered, but not lost; the world knoweth them not, but "the Lord knoweth them that are his." Apply to different classes; e.g. godly children; the obscure poor; uneducated saints ("rough diamonds"); the donors of widow’s mites to the Master’s service; an Abijah in the house of Jeroboam;—all are jewels in God’s treasury of redeemed souls. II. THAT THEY SHALL BE TREATED WITH CARE. "The day" which Jehovah was preparing may represent all the various troubles and dangers which may await both the righteous and the ungodly. We may apply the term: 1. To days of trial in this life. We do not expect exemption from all trials. But we may expect two things. (1) Spiritual safety in spite of our trials (1 Corinthians 10:13). Nay, more, our trials will work for us "experience" (δοκιμήν, "probation," a state in which we have stood the test, and are the stronger and therefore the safer for having done so). We shall still be God’s; "mine, saith the Lord." The great robber of God and murderer of souls shall fail to pluck us out of the mightier Shepherd’s hands (John 10:27, John 10:28). (2) Providential discrimination (Malachi 3:18) and alleviation. God will "spare them as a man," (see next sketch). Illus.: Ebed-melech (Jeremiah 39:16-18); Baruch (Jeremiah 45:5); the Christians escaping to Pella before the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15-20; Psalms 34:19). 2. To the day of death. But "death is yours;" and cannot "separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The day of death is the day of promotion, when, in an especial sense, we become a peculiar treasure because redeemed from all iniquity and purified for all eternity unto all good works (Titus 2:14). 3. The day of judgment. (Matthew 13:41-43; Matthew 25:34.) Who will not claim his offered place among the peculiar treasures of God? Who can bear the thought of hearing from the Judge in that day, "I never knew you; that is no part of my treasure; take it away"? Malachi 3:17 God’s dealings with his servants and with his own beloved Son. "I win spare them," etc. These words suggest a comparison and a contrast, and lessons therefrom. I. GOD’S PROMISE TO HIS . These words are one of the "exceeding great and precious promises" on which we, the children of the kingdom, may rest. Loving protection is promised us by the great Father on the ground of our filial relationship ("his own son"), and as a reward of filial duty ("that serveth him"). Such is the assurance given to the adopted children of God. But now notice— II. GOD’S WITH HIS OWN BELOVED SON. Contrast Malachi 3:17 with Romans 8:32. There is one in the universe who is God’s Son, not by adoption, but by nature and likeness. He is "his own Son;" his "only begotten Son" (where we lay the emphasis on "only" not on "begotten"). He stands in a relation to God which none other could occupy. None other is "the Brightness of his glory," etc. The universe knows only one incarnate God. And he was a Son "who served him." (John 6:38; John 8:29). How well beloved he was a voice from heaven twice declared (see John 3:35, etc.). The love of Mordecai to his adopted Esther, of David to his worthless Absalom, and of Jacob to his dutiful Joseph, are conspicuous examples of earthly paternal love. But who can measure or imagine the love of God to his own sinless Son Jesus Christ? Surely such a Father will not permit such a Son to suffer. Surely he shall be anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. A cloud shall never sit on his brow; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. But no. He "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." His love to his sinful children made him willing to sacrifice his sinless Son (Hebrews 2:10). The Father’s sacrifice in allowing Christ to suffer and die must be remembered if we would interpret the words, "God so loved the world," etc. (John 3:16). In reading the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Mark 12:1-9), we may have felt some surprise that the father should expose his beloved son to the treachery and cruelty of such wicked men. The reason is explained: "They will reverence my son." But the Divine Father knew what treatment his Son would receive among "his own;" yet "he spared him not." He knew what "travail of soul" would come on him when "the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all;" yet "he spared him not." This contrast between what we might have expected and what we have seen in the experience of Jesus Christ, God’s sinless Son, teaches us: 1. The reality of the atonement (Romans 3:25, Romans 3:26; 2 Corinthians 5:21). 2. The intensity of God’s love to sinners (1 John 4:9, 1 John 4:10). 3. The fuller blessings of salvation which God will give to reconciled sinners (Romans 5:10; Romans 8:32). 4. The discipline and self-sacrifice which the saved children of God may be called to pass through if, like their Master, they seek "by all means" to "save some." The promise of protection (verse 17) will not debar us from the privilege of self-denial (Matthew 10:24, Matthew 10:25). BY R. TUCK 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. The heralds pass on before, ordering the removal of every obstacle, making level and safe the roadway, and proclaiming with sound of trumpet the speedy coming of the great king. If John was the Lord’s herald or messenger, he certainly was a very strange one. There was nothing whatever about him that suggested the herald; no gay clothing, no bannered trumpet. He did not hurry through the land, proclaiming his message in every market place. He tarried by the banks of the Jordan, a quiet man, dressed only in cheap camel’s hair garments, and satisfied with a leather thong for a girdle. The mission entrusted to him was distinctly and only a mission of preparation. But that work was complete in itself, and of the utmost importance in relation to the after work of the Redeemer. The subject suggested is the mission of those who effect no results, but only prepare the way for those who achieve results. I. WORK IS . The secret of the failure of many enterprises that looked hopeful is found in the fact that they were not efficiently prepared for. The Reformers before the Reformation were preparers of the Reformation. A building depends upon the skill with which the lines for its walls are dug, and the concrete foundations laid. David did an invaluable work when he gathered the material for the temple which he might not build. Two things may be, opened out. 1. The man prepared for can never do the preparer’s work. He is not fitted for it. And yet he is wholly dependent on that preparer’s faithfulness. With reverence we may say that our Lord could not do John’s work, yet John’s work must come before his. 2. Material preparations often precede spiritual missions. There is a removing of obstructions, a mastering of difficulties, and a smoothing of roads, which must precede the free exertion of moral and spiritual influences. II. WORK IS REALLY WORK. It always is relative to the man who does the preparations. It does not seem to be when we are judging the whole work. A man does his life work well who just completes the preparations entrusted to him. But there is no encouragement of manifest results; and men entrusted with preparation work have to be men of faith.—R.T. Malachi 3:1 The unexpectedness of the advent. "Shall suddenly come" Two messengers are spoken of in this verse. John, the messenger, prepares the way for Jesus; and Jesus, the Messenger, prepares the way for God. Each was a sent and commissioned one. The coming to the temple is a figure of speech, and means coming to the people, not our Lord’s actually entering into the temple. The people of Israel were the temple of the Lord, and of that true temple the material building was a sign. The point indicated in the expression of the text is that Messiah came with surprising suddenness upon the preparing work of John the Baptist. Only some six months of heralding when the King came. The suddenness may be illustrated along three lines. I. THERE WAS GENERAL OF MESSIAH. But it was general and vague, and in no way definite and precise. It anticipated the coming of some great One, but when he was coming, or for what he was coming, none seemed quite to know. So when he did come everybody was surprised. They did not think of his coming then, or in that particular way. Stapfer says that "the expectation of Messiah was visionary indeed. It was confused, capricious, fantastic, and at the same time precise and minute in detail, just like a dream. The very name he was to bear was doubtful." II. THERE WAS GENERAL MESSIAH. We are familiar with the idea of his delivering Israel from the Roman yoke, and restoring the kingdom of David, but this was quite the most sober form of the delusion of the age. Extravagant ideas so occupied men’s minds that they could give no room to the idea of a spiritual Saviour from sin. Misconceiving the images under which Christ’s coming had been foreshadowed, the people were expecting an earthly deliverer, a champion who would free them from foreign bondage, and they would gladly have spread their garments, waved their palm branches, and shouted their hosannas, if he had come to them as a conquering King. John broke into their delusions by his demand of repentance. Jesus broke into them still further by his ministry to sufferers and sinners. Suddenness and surprise characterized his going to and fro among the people, healing the sufferers and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Suddenness was needed to awaken them out of their delusions. The world had to be startled into thought. III. THERE WAS GENERAL FOR MESSIAH. The servants had not put the house ready for the Master. The priests had not. The scribes had not. Those who had prepared themselves were private persons who had very little influence on society. The unpreparedness is typified in this, "There was no room for him in the inn." His coming was not sudden to Simeon and Anna, because they were prepared through the revealed Word.—R.T. Malachi 3:2 The severe side of Messiah’s mission. "Like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap." It is usually shown that the triumphant side of Messiah’s mission wholly occupied the mind of the Jews, and that consequently the stern, judgment side needed to be presented vigorously. But some recent accounts of the actual condition of Jewish thought in the first century suggest that the fears of Messiah’s time were so extravagant that they needed to be corrected and qualified. The stern things of the Gospels are mild and reasonable when compared with the extravagant fears of the people. "The people looked forward with dread to the coming of the Messianic era. They were afraid of seeing the war of Gog and Magog, which the scribes predicted as its precursor. They looked for fearful calamities. Rabbi Eliezar ben Abena said, ’When ye shall see nations rising up one against the other, then look for Messiah to follow. In the weeks of years in which the Son of David shall come, there will be in the first year abundance of rain upon one city, and drought upon another. In the second year the arrows of famine will go abroad. In the third there will be a great famine, and men, women, and children will die, as well as the saints and the rich; and there will be a judgment of forgetfulness upon those that study the Law. In the fourth there will be abundance for some and barrenness for others. In the fifth a great abundance; and they shall eat, drink, and rejoice, and the Law shall he again held in honour, among those who teach it. In the sixth year voices will be heard. In the seventh wars will break out, and at the end of the seventh the Son of David will appear’" It was as necessary to correct these delusions as those which pictured a triumphant earthly conqueror. The severity must be fully recognized as a moral, not material, severity. I. MESSIAH WORKS TO REVEAL EVIL. This his very presence does. Put a foul thing beside a pure thing, and the pure thing shows and intensifies the foulness. Let God show, in a man’s human life among men, what he requires and what he can accept, and wherever that man goes he is sure to bring evil to light. Christ is doing that work still. II. MESSIAH WORKS TO PUNISH EVIL. "All judgment is committed unto the Son" But the sphere of the punishment is moral and spiritual. Christ never asked the secular arm to carry out his condemnations. III. MESSIAH WORKS TO DELIVER FROM EVIL. This is indicated in his work as Refiner. He is getting the metal freed from the dross. Much of our evil is not us, only attached to us, blended with us, a bondage of us. IV. MESSIAH WORKS TO CLEANSE FROM EVIL. This is indicated in the soap figure. The evil is conceived of as in us, and as having to be got out by the severe processes of the fuller, or washer, by pounding.—R.T. Malachi 3:3 Messiah as a Refiner. Moses gives Messiah the Leader, who should permanently take his place. Isaiah gives us Messiah the Sufferer, Conqueror, and Comforter, matching the condition of Israel as suffering and exiled. Daniel gives us Messiah the Prince, matching the condition of the people as anticipating the restoration of their kingdom. Malachi gives Messiah the Refiner, matching the condition of the people as in a state of moral and religious degradation. It is important to note the many sidedness of Christ’s adaptation to human needs. This aspect of Christ as the Refiner is one that is suited to every age. Men make grave objections to the doctrine of human depravity, and yet all history declares, as with one united voice, that man has never yet been able to keep anything clean. Let him touch anything, and he brings in the stain. 1. Take the sphere of man’s thinking. It is constantly observed that the followers of all great philosophers and teachers and thought leaders always complicate and deteriorate their systems. They bring in the dirt and the dross. 2. Take the sphere of man’s religion. All the world over, and all the ages through, you may see man recalled to pure principles, and soon losing them again under the accumulating and debasing dross of ceremonies and superstitions. 3. Take the sphere of man’s social relations. Self-interest has always proved to be the dross that gathers on and spoils the most perfect social schemes man has ever devised. 4. Take the sphere of man’s personal life. The noblest ideals are unattained, for the dross of self-indulgence soon gathers, and in middle life men are content with low attainments. Getting the dross away is the great Refiner’s work in every age and sphere. I. GOOD SILVER MIXED WITH DROSS. There is a compliment in speaking of God’s people as "silver," for silver is worth refining. It is a genuine and valuable metal. For mixture with dross see how lead, silver, and gold are found in the ore, surrounded with that which is comparatively worthless. Humanity is thus represented. It is not as God made it; it has become mixed. There is dross of heresy, vice, crime, etc. II. GOOD SILVER FREED FROM DROSS. The result of renewed processes; always involving suffering for the refined, and anxiety for the Refiner. Silver has to go through the process seven times. The issue is the purity of the metal, by getting the dross perfectly away. Nothing can be usefully done with the metal while the dross still clings to it. Conclude by showing that Messiah did (1) the work of his age; (2) and does the work of this age. He did his own work as Refiner then; he does God’s refining work now.—R.T. Malachi 3:4 The pleasantness of religious offerings. The idea of offerings being pleasant to God reminds one of Noah’s sacrifice on the cleansed and restored earth: "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour." The opposite sentiment, God finding man’s offerings unpleasant, and even offensive, reminds of Isaiah’s opening reproaches, uttered in God’s name: "Incense is an abomination unto me .... Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them" The carelessness of the Levites in the time of Malachi had been making the offerings an offence to God. It was evident enough that they were routine and formality. One sign, and the first sign, of spiritual purification would be that the public sacrifices and services would take a new and acceptable tone. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/pulpit-commentary/ Malachi 4:1-3 4. The final separation of the evil and the good at the day of judgment. 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 1:1-6:8; 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 4:2 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 4:3 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 4:4-6 § 5. Concluding admonition to remember the Law, lest they should be liable to the curse. In order to avert this, the Lord, before his coming, would send Elijah to promote a change of heart in the nation. 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 4:5 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 Ecclesiasticus 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. But when they found Malachi speaking of the reappearance of "Elijah the prophet," who, as they were well aware, had never died, of whose connection with the coming Messenger they had never heard, they could not avoid the conclusion to which they came, viz. that before the great day of judgment Elias should again visit the earth in person. This prophecy concerns the very last days, and intimates that before the final consummation, when iniquity shall abound, God will send this great and faithful preacher of repentance, whose mission shall have such effects that the purpose of God for the salvation of Israel shall be accomplished. We may therefore assume that in the gospel the appellation "Elias" stands both for John and for Elijah himself; for the messenger who prepared the way for Christ’s first advent, and for the prophet who was to convert the Israelites before the judgment day; for him who came in spirit and power, and him who shall come in bodily presence. The great and dreadful day. The day of final judgment. No other crisis could be named in such terms (see Joe 2:31, whence the words are taken). Malachi 4:6 He shall turn, etc.; i.e; taking the preposition, rendered "to," in the sense of "with," he shall convert one and all, fathers and children, young and old, unto the Lord. Or, in agreement with the versions, he shall bring back the Jews then living to the faith of their ancestors, who rejoiced to see the day of Christ (John 8:56); and then the patriarchs, who for their unbelief had disowned them, shall recognize them as true Israelites, true children of Abraham. Others explain—He shall unite the Jews who are our fathers in the faith to us Christians who are their children (see Luke 1:17, where the angel Gabriel quotes part of the passage, and applies it to John the Baptist). The heart. Here not the seat of the intellectual powers, but of love and confidence, which lead to union and concord. Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse; or, smite the land with the ban. This is an allusion to the ban threatened in the Law, which involved extermination (see Leviticus 27:29; Deuteronomy 13:16, Deuteronomy 13:17; Deuteronomy 20:16, Deuteronomy 20:17). So Elijah shall come and preach repentance, as the Baptist did at Christ’s first coming; and unless the Jews listen to him and turn to Christ, they shall be destroyed, shall share in that eternal anathema which shall fall on the ungodly at the day of judgment. 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 4:4-6 The sufficiency of God’s successive revelations. The introduction of the appeal in Malachi 4:4 between the predictions and promises of Mal 4:2, Malachi 4:3 and Malachi 4:5, Malachi 4:6 has at first sight an appearance of abruptness. The promise of Mal 4:5 lay in the indefinite, and as we know the distant, future. Malachi proved to be the last of the prophets of the old covenant. In the long interval between Malachi and John the Baptist there were times when Israel looked and longed for a new prophet to arise (1 Macc. 9:27; 14:41). though sometimes this was only for the purpose of settling very unimportant questions (e.g. 1 Macc. 4:41-46). But all the while they had in their hands a revelation from God that was amply sufficient for their present guidance, and the right use of which would prepare them for further blessings and preserve them from wrath to come. We are thus reminded of the truth of the sufficiency of God’s revelations for those to whom they are granted. We may apply this truth— I. TO GOD’S . The declarations of God’s truth and of his will to Adam and the patriarchs were less definite than when "the Law came in beside" (Romans 5:14, Romans 5:20). But though in one sense "exceeding broad" as compared with the multifarious laws of Moses, they were sufficient to produce a conviction of sin (e.g. Genesis 4:7; Genesis 42:21, Genesis 42:22, etc.), and therefore of the need of forgiveness, and to enable men to walk with God (Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9). So is it with the heathen (Romans 1:20; Romans 2:14, Romans 2:15). The revelations through the worlds of matter and of mind are sufficient as a rule of life, though not as a means of full salvation (comp. Acts 10:35, "acceptable" (δεκτὸς) and Acts 4:12). II. TO THE LAW OF MOSES. This answered all needful questions as to the character and the will of God. Moses, the first writer in the Bible, and his Law are honourably mentioned by the last writer, this fact supplying one out of many testimonies to the unity of the Bible. Similar witness to the value and the sufficiency of the Law of Moses "for the time then present" is borne by Christ. The prophets came not to supersede but to expound the Law, to bring out the fulness of its morality, and to apply its fundamental teachings to the changing scenes of national life (Isaiah 8:20; Jeremiah 34:12-14, etc.). Moses and the prophets "received not the promise" (Hebrews 11:32, Hebrews 11:39), yet Christ could say, "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). III. TO THE . Upon us "the ends of the ages are come" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Yet there is an eternity beyond. We cannot believe that God has spoken his last word to the sons of men. Now we know in part. There are treasures of wisdom and knowledge still hidden in Christ. At times we long to have fuller access to them. We should be thankful if some infallible living teacher could expound to us "the book," or guide us in the path of duty. But we find ourselves between two great epochs, the first advent and the second. We live in what a distinguished writer has called one of the great "pauses" of the world. "Miracles have ceased. Prophecy has ceased. The Son of God is ascended. Apostles are no longer hare to apply infallible judgment to each new circumstance as it arises, as St. Paul did to the state of the Corinthian Church." The written Word must be our appeal, and the Divine Spirit, leading each believer into the truth, must be our Interpreter. He may show us fresh truths in the old familiar Word, just as Christians after the destruction of Jerusalem saw further and fuller meaning in our Lord’s predictions of his second coming. But the revelations of doctrine and duty in that written Word are all we now need, and all we have a right to expect. If there are future revelations, they are among "the secret things" that "belong unto the Lord our God;" it is "those things that are revealed" which "belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words" of God’s Law (Deuteronomy 29:29). Then we may expect to "see greater things than these" (Matthew 13:12). As the Old Testament closes with promises of larger blessings (Acts 4:5, Acts 4:6), so does the New Testament (Revelation 21:1-7, Revelation 21:9-27; Revelation 22:1-5). We know that a glorious future awaits the sons of God (1 John 3:1, 1 John 3:2). Yet in the midst of the most glowing promises occur awful threats. Here we read of "the great and dreadful day of the Lord" and "the curse." In the New Testament we find, embedded in its final chapters, such words as Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11, Revelation 22:15, Revelation 22:18, Revelation 22:19 (like traces of a past volcanic eruption and warnings of a future one amidst the flowers and foliage of some sun lit mountain). These warnings emphatically bid us "remember the Law," take heed to that gospel of Christ which comes to us with all the authority of a law (Acts 17:30; 1 John 3:23), and is all that we need for salvation. The Jews, who would be wiser than the prophet, insert the fifth verse again, and read it a second time, because Malachi ends so awfully. But the Creator of men’s hearts knew best how to reach the hearts he had created. In a somewhat similar way some Christians would not end God’s present revelation where he ends it. In Christ’s description of "the last day" which is revealed to us, they would, as it were, after Matthew 25:46, read again Matthew 25:34, and apply it to all. They would interpolate their own speculations of what God may do among the revelations of what God would have us to do. Instead of pursuing such a perilous path, we bid men "remember." We point them back to the only and unchangeable Saviour and the unalterable gospel (John 3:18, John 3:36; Galatians 1:8, Galatians 1:9), which is all that we need for salvation, and "whereunto we do well that we take heed,: etc. (2 Peter 1:19). BY R. TUCK 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 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 (1) the intellectual world, or (2) the moral world, or (3) the social world, then there will surely be abounding error, moral mischiefs, spiritual depression, and vital disease. 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 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 4:4 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 (1) the best teacher; and (2) our best and constant revealer of the need of teaching.—R.T. Malachi 4:5 The mission of the second Elijah. There is no reason for doubting that John the Baptist is referred to. Our Lord’s allusions to John as fulfilling this prophecy should suffice to settle the question. There need be no difficulty in admitting John to be the second Elijah, if we apprehend the figurative and poetical character of the prophetical Scriptures. One who would do for his age a similar work to that which was done by Elijah for his age would, in Scripture, be called an Elijah. There is no occasion whatever for imagining that any miraculous reappearance of Elijah was in the mind of Malachi, or a part of his prophetic message. The Jews overpressed a literal interpretation, and to this day they earnestly pray for the coming of Elias, which, they assume, will immediately precede the appearance of Messiah. Dean Stanley says, "Elijah was the prophet for whose return in later years his countrymen have looked with most eager hope It was a fixed belief of the Jews that he had appeared again and again, as an Arabian merchant, to wise and good rabbis, at their prayers or on their journeys. A seat is still placed for him to superintend the circumcision of the Jewish children. Passover after Passover the Jews of our own day place the paschal cup on the table, and set the door wide open, believing that that is the moment when Elijah will reappear. When goods are found, and no owner comes; when difficulties arise, and no solution appears, the answer is, ’ Put them by till Elijah comes.’" Twice in her season of decay, The fallen Church hath felt Elijah’s eye, Dart from the wild its piercing ray,... The herald star, Whose torch afar Shadows and boding night birds fly." (Keble.) Matthew Henry, in a few skilful sentences, suggests the likenesses and the contrasts of the two Elijahs. "Elijah was a man of great austerity and mortification, zealous for God, bold in reproving sin, and active to reduce an apostate people to God and their duty. John the Baptist was animated by the same spirit and power, and preached repentance and reformation, as Elias had done; and all held him for a prophet, as they did Elijah in his day, and that his baptism was from heaven, and not of men." Rabbi Eliezer closes a curious chapter on repentance with these words: "And Israel will not make great repentance till Elijah—his memory for blessing!—come." For fair comparison of the two Elijahs, it is necessary to make careful comparison of the times to which they were sent, noticing the essential sameness underneath the manifest differences. Rabbinism had really driven the spiritual religion of Jehovah from the land in John’s days, just as the Astarte form of Baalism had driven the Jehovah worship from Israel in the days of Elijah. The two men may be compared in relation to— I. THEIR PERSONS. In each case there was an arresting personal appearance, and an unusual power of personal impression. In each case we have a man markedly different from surrounding men. This is noticeable in the dress, but more in the men themselves. And their mission largely lay in their personnel. Men minister for God in what they are in figure, countenance, and impression. II. THEIR HABITS. Both were wilderness men, whose very food was a reproach of prevailing luxury. Their indifference to personal pleasure declared their absorption in their work for God. III. THEIR . Both were sent to be forerunners of a coming God, in grace, to his people. Both were sent to call the people to repentance. Turning—turning the people to God, was the work of both. Both had to make the same abrupt demand. IV. THEIR SPIRIT. Both were absolutely loyal to Jehovah. Both were perfectly fearless of all consequences in doing their work. Both were stern in their tone, and saw the sterner side of truth. Both were humanly weak in times of unexpected strain. V. THEIR . That characterizes the work of all who have preparing work to do. Neither Elijah nor John could count up results. To both life work might seem a failure. To Elijah, in a mood of depression, it did. But no life is incomplete that is but a piece of a whole, if, as a piece, it is complete. That is a comforting truth for the two Elijahs, and for us who now may have but pieces of work given us to do.—R.T. Malachi 4:5, Malachi 4:6 The day of Divine manifestation. The margin of the Revised Version gives the rendering with, as preferable to to, in the clause, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children," etc. Then the reference is to the work and influence of the second Elijah on all classes of society, on the hearts of both fathers and children. Keil, however, suggests a more difficult, yet more likely, explanation of the verse, "The fathers are rather the ancestors of the Israelitish nation, the patriarchs, and generally the pious forefathers .... The sons, or children, are the degenerate descendants of Malachi’s own time and the succeeding ages." The Messiah is designed to be the bond of union for them all. What arrests attention in these closing verses of the Old Testament canon is that the stern side of Messiah’s mission gains exclusive prominence. That sterner side specially interested the judgment prophets of Israel’s degenerate days. And it was more particularly suitable for Malachi, because the very form of evil that was to hinder Messiah was beginning in his day. Malachi saw rabbinism taking root. I. THE OF MESSIAH’S DAY FOR THE JEWISH NATION. All days of God, all Divine manifestations, are necessarily two sided. They are dealings with moral beings, and their results must depend on the response of the moral beings. Every day of God must be a "’savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.’ What the coming of Christ was to Simeon and Anna, to the disciples, and to the Church of all the ages, we are constantly dwelling on. That is the bright and sunny side of Messiah’s mission. But we may ask—What was Messiah’s coming to the officials of the Mosaic religion, and for the Jewish nation that rejected him, under the leading of those officials? It was their last opportunity, their final testing. It proved them to be beyond moral recovery. It removed the last check, and their woe came. Their house was left unto them desolate." II. THE OF CHRIST’S DAY FOR THE SELF-WILLED IN EVERY AGE. For Christ’s test of the Jewish nation did but illustrate the test that he is, wherever and whenever he comes. Men reject him still at a peril which they seldom recognize. There is the stern side to a preached gospel. Christ proclaimed as Saviour makes forevery man a new and overwhelming condition for the testing of the judgment day.—R.T. BY D. THOMAS 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. (1) Painfully; by fire. They shall writhe in the scorching flames of moral remorse and awful forebodings. (2) Completely. "Shall leave them neither root nor branch." To destroy them root and branch may not mean the extinction of their existence, hut the extinction of all that makes existence tolerable or worth having. This day of retributiun is really going on now, but it is only in dawn; the full noon is In the centuries to come. 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: (1) Throws his beams over the whole heavens. (2) Reveals all objects in their true aspects and proportions. (3) Quickens all into life and beauty. (4) Is the centre, holding the whole system in order. 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: (1) In relation to itself. All its powers, passions, and impulses are lightly adjusted. (2) In relation to the universe. It renders to others what it would have that others should render unto it. (3) In relation to God. The best Being it loves the most; the greatest Being it reverences the most; the kindest Being it thanks the most. 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.