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Malachi Chapter
Four
New King James Version (NKJV)
INTRODUCTION TO MALACHI 4
This
chapter contains an account of the destruction of the wicked Jews, and the
happiness of the righteous by the coming of the Messiah; an exhortation to
regard the law of Moses; and a description of John the Baptist and his work.
The day of Christ's coming, reaching to Jerusalem's destruction, is compared to
a burning oven; the wicked Jews to stubble, whose ruin would be utter and
complete, Malachi 4:1 the
appearance of Christ is signified by the arising of him, the sun of
righteousness; the manner, with healing in his wings; the effects of which are,
going forth in the exercise of grace, and the discharge of duty, and spiritual
growth and triumph over their enemies, in which will lie the happiness of them
that fear God, Malachi 4:2 who are
put in mind of the law of Moses on Horeb, Malachi 4:4 the
sending of John the Baptist under the name of Elijah, before the coming of
Christ is prophesied of, Malachi 4:5 and his
work pointed out, with the end of it, Malachi 4:6.
Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the
day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly
will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the Lord of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch.
YLT
1For, lo, the day hath come,
burning as a furnace, And all the proud, and every wicked doer, have been stubble,
And burnt them hath the day that came, Said Jehovah of Hosts, That there is not
left to them root or branch,
For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven,.... Not the
day of judgment, as Kimchi and other interpreters, both Jewish and Christian,
think; but the day of Christ's coming in his kingdom and power, to take
vengeance on the Jewish nation, which burned like an oven, both figuratively
and literally; when the wrath of God, which is compared to fire, came upon that
people to the uttermost; and when their city and temple were burnt about their
ears, and they were surrounded with fire, as if they had been in a burning
oven: and this being so terrible, as can hardly be conceived and expressed, the
word "behold" is prefixed to it, not only to excite attention, but
horror and terror at so dreadful a calamity; which though future, when the
prophet wrote, was certain:
and all the proud; yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; the proud
Pharisees, that boasted of their own righteousness, trusted in themselves, and
despised others; all workers of iniquity, in private or in public; all
rejecters of Christ, contemners of his Gospel and ordinances, and persecutors
of his people; as well as such who were guilty of the most flagitious crimes,
as sedition, robbery, murder, &c. of which there were notorious instances
during the siege of Jerusalem; these were all like stubble before devouring
fire, weak and easily destroyed:
and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts: which is repeated, to show the certainty of it, and to apply it
to the persons before described:
that it shall leave them neither root nor branch: which
signifies an entire and complete destruction; the city and temple so utterly
destroyed, that not one stone shall be left on another; both magistrates and
subjects shall perish, priests and people, so that there shall be no form of
government, civil nor ecclesiastical; tribes and families lost, they and their
posterity: and so the Targum,
"which
shall not leave them son and nephew:'
and,
indeed, the numbers cut off were so many, and the destruction so general, that
it may be wondered at that any remained: it is a proverbial expression, setting
forth the greatness of the calamity; see Matthew 3:10.
Malachi 4:2 2 But
to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in
His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
YLT
2And risen to you, ye who
fear My name, Hath the sun of righteousness -- and healing in its wings, And ye
have gone forth, and have increased as calves of a stall.
But unto you that fear my name,.... The few that were of
this character among that wicked nation; See Gill on Malachi 3:16,
shall the Sun of righteousness arise; not the Holy
Ghost, who enlightens sinners, convinces of righteousness, and gives joy, peace,
and comfort to the saints, but Christ: and thus it is interpreted of him by the
ancient Jews, in one of their Midrashes or expositionsF1Shemot
Rabba, sect. 31. fol. 134. 2. ; they say, Moses says not they shall be for ever
pledged, that is, the clothes of a neighbour, but until the sun comes, until
the Messiah comes, as it is said, "unto you that fear my name shall the
sun of righteousness arise", &c.; and Philo the JewF2De
Somniis, p. 578. not only observes, that God, figuratively speaking, is the sun;
but the divine "Logos" or Word of God, the image of the heavenly
Being, is called the sun; who, coming to our earthly system, helps the kindred
and followers of virtue, and affords ample refuge and salvation to them;
referring, as it seems; to this passage: indeed, they generally interpret it of
the sun, literally taken, which they suppose, at the end of the world, will
have different effects on good and bad men; they sayF3T. Bab.
Nedarim, fol. 8. 2. & Avoda Zara, fol. 3. 2. ,
"in
the world to come, God will bring the sun out of its sheath, and burn the
wicked; they will be judged by it, and the righteous will be healed by it:'
for
the proof of the former, they produce the words in the first verse of this
chapter, "behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven"; and of
the latter these words, "but unto you that fear my name &c."; and
a very ridiculous notion they have, that Abraham their father had a precious
stone or pearl hanging about his neck, and every sick person that saw it was
healed by it immediately; and, when he departed out of the world, God took it,
and fixed it to the orb of the sun; hence the proverb, the sun rises, and
sickness decreasesF4T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 16. 2. ; and as it is
elsewhere quotedF5Apud Yalkut in loc. , this passage is added to
confirm it, as it is said, "to you that fear my name shall the sun of
righteousness arise with healing in his wings": unless this fable should
be intended to mean, as AbarbinelF6Comment. in Mal. i. 11.
interprets it, that Abraham, while he lived, clearly proved the unity of God
and his perfections; and that, after his death, the same truth was taught by
the wonderful motion of the sun: but, be this as it will, those are undoubtedly
in the right who understand these words figuratively of the Messiah; who is
compared to the "sun", because, as the sun is a luminous body, the
light of the whole world, so is Christ of the world of men, and of the world of
saints; particularly of the Gentiles, often called the world; and of the New
Jerusalem church state, and of the world to come: and as the sun is the
fountain of light, so is Christ the fountain of natural and moral light, as
well as of the light of grace, and of the light of glory: as the sun
communicates light to all the celestial bodies, so Christ to the moon, the
church; to the stars, the ministers of the word; to the morning stars, the
angels: as the sun dispels the darkness of the night, and makes the day, so
Christ dispelled the darkness of the ceremonial law, and made the Gospel day;
and he dispels the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, and makes the day of
grace; and will dispel the darkness of imperfection, and will make the day of
glory; as the sun is a pure, clear, and lucid body, so is Christ, without the
least spot of sin; and so are his people, as they are clothed with his
righteousness: as the sun is a glorious body, so is Christ both his natures,
divine and human; in his office as Mediator; and will be in his second coming:
as the sun is superior to all the celestial bodies, so is Christ to angels and
saints: as the sun is but one, so there is but one Son of God; one Mediator
between God and man; one Saviour and Redeemer; one Lord and Head of the church:
its properties and effects are many; it lays things open and manifest, which
before were hid; communicates heat as well as light; make the earth fruitful;
is very exhilarating; has its risings and settings, and of great duration: so
Christ declares the mind and will of his Father, the hidden mysteries of grace;
lays open the thoughts of men's hearts in conversion; and will at the last day
bring to light the hidden things of darkness: he warms the hearts of his people
with his love, and causes them to burn within them, while they hear his Gospel,
and he makes them fervent in spirit while they serve the Lord; he fills them
with the fruits of righteousness, and with joy unspeakable, and full of glory;
but he is not always seen, is sometimes under a cloud, and withdraws himself;
yet his name is as the sun before the Lord, and wilt abide for ever. He is
called "the sun of righteousness", because of the glory of his
essential righteousness as God; and because of the purity and perfection of his
righteousness as man, which appeared in all his actions, and in the
administration of all his offices; and because of the display of the
righteousness of God in him, in his sufferings and death, in atonement, pardon,
and justification by him; and because he is the author and bringer in of
righteousness to his people, the glory of which outshines all others, is pure
and spotless like the sun, and is everlasting; those who have it are said to be
clothed with the sun, and on such he shines in his beams of divine love, grace,
and mercy, which righteousness sometimes signifies; and his rays of grace
transform men into righteousness and true holiness. The "arising" of
this sun may denote the appearance of Christ in our nature; under the former
dispensation this sun was not risen, it was then night with the world; John the
Baptist was the morning star, the forerunner of it: Christ the sun is now
risen; the dayspring from on high hath visited mankind, and has spread its
light and heat, its benign influences, by the ministration of the Gospel, the
grace of God, which has appeared and shone out, both in Judea, and in the
Gentile world: it may be accommodated to his spiritual appearance: this sun is
sometimes under a cloud, or seems to be set, which occasions trouble, and is
for wise ends, but will and does arise again to them that fear the Lord. The
manner is,
with healing in his wings; by which are meant its
rays and beams, which are to the sun as wings to a bird, by which it swiftly
spreads its light and heat; so we read of the wings of the morning, Psalm 139:9. Christ
came as a physician, to heal the diseases of men; he healed the bodily diseases
of the Jews, and he heals the soul diseases of his people, their sins; which
healing he has procured by his blood and stripes: pardon of sin by the blood of
Christ is meant by healing, which is universal, infallible, and free, Psalm 103:3 it may
denote all that preservation, protection, prosperity, and happiness, inward and
outward, which they that feared the Lord enjoyed through Christ, when the
unbelieving Jews were destroyed; and which is further expressed by what
follows:
and ye shall go forth; not out of the world, or
out of their graves, as some think; but either out of Jerusalem, as the
Christians did a little before its destruction, being warned so to doF7Euseb.
Hist. l. 3. c. 5. , whereby they were preserved from that calamity; or it
intends a going forth with liberty in the exercise of grace and duty, in the
exercise of faith on Christ, love to him, hope in him, repentance, humility,
self-denial, &c.; and in a cheerful obedience to his will; or else walking
on in his ways; having health and strength, with great pleasure and comfort; and,
as Aben Ezra says, by the light of this sun.
And grow up as calves of the stall; such as are fat, being
put up there for that purpose; see Amos 6:4. BochartF8Hierozoic.
par. 1. l. 2. c. 31. col. 303. has proved, from many passages out of the TalmudF9T.
Bab. Gittin, fol. 53. 1. Bava Metzia, fol. 30. 1. Pesachim, fol. 26. 1. Eruvin,
fol. 17. 2. , that the word which the Targum here makes use of, and answers to
that in the Hebrew text, which is rendered "stall", signifies a yoke
or collar, with which oxen or heifers were bound together, while they were
threshing or treading out of corn; so that the calves or heifers here referred
to were such as were not put up in a stall, but were yoked together, and
employed in treading out the corn; now as there was a law that such should not
be muzzled while they were thus employed, but might eat of the corn on the
floor freely and plentifully, Deuteronomy 25:4
these usually grew fat, and so were the choicest and most desirable, to which
the allusion may be here, and in Jeremiah 46:21 Amos 6:4 and are a
fit emblem of saints joined together in holy fellowship, walking together in
all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord; where they get spiritual food
for their souls, and are in thriving circumstances; where they meet with the
corn of heaven, with that corn which makes the young men cheerful, and that
bread which nourishes up to everlasting life. The apostle alludes to the custom
of oxen yoked together, either in ploughing, or in treading out the corn, when
he says, speaking of church fellowship and communion in the ordinances of the
Gospel, "be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers", 2 Corinthians 6:14
for this hinders spiritual edification, as well as the promotion of the glory
of God; but where they are equally yoked, and go hand in hand together in the
work and ways of the Lord, they grow and flourish; they are comfortable in
their souls, and lively in the exercise of grace; and they are the most
thriving Christians, generally speaking, who are in church communion, and most
constantly attend the means of grace, and keep closest to the word and
ordinances: for the metaphor here used is designed to express a spiritual
increase in all grace, and in the knowledge of Christ, and a growing up into
him in all things, through the use of means, the word and ordinances; whereby
saints become fat and flourishing, being fed with the milk of the word, and the
breasts of ordinances, and having fellowship with one another; and, above all,
this spiritual growth is owing to the dews of the grace of God, the shining of
the Sun of righteousness, and the comfortable gales of the south wind of the
Spirit of God, which cause the spices to flow out. The Septuagint version, and
those that follow it, render it, "ye shall leap" or "skip as
calves loosed from bonds"; as such creatures well fed do when at liberty;
and may denote the spiritual joy of the saints upon their being healed, or
because of their secure, safe, and prosperous estate: and so the word is
explained in the TalmudF11T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 4. 1. Nedarim, fol.
8. 2. , they shall delight themselves in it; and where the Rabbins interpret
this and the preceding verse Malachi 4:1 of the
natural sun in the firmament, which will be the hellF12A notion they
elsewhere frequently inculcate, and is not improbable; and which has been of
late advanced and defended by a very learned man of our own country, Mr. Tobias
Swinden, in a Treatise called "An Inquirer into the Nature and Place of
Hell." in the world to come, and which will burn the wicked, and heal the
righteous.
Malachi 4:3 3 You
shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On
the day that I do this,” Says the Lord of hosts.
YLT
3And ye have trodden down
the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I
am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts.
And ye shall tread down the wicked,.... As grapes in the
winepress, as Christ did before them, Isaiah 63:2 and
they by virtue of him; who makes them more than conquerors through himself,
over all their enemies, spiritual and temporal:
for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet; this refers
to the burning of them, Malachi 4:1 and may
be literally understood of their being burnt with the city and temple; when
afterwards, as Grotius observes, the city of Jerusalem being in some measure
rebuilt, and called Aelia, there was a Christian church in it, governed by
bishops, who were converted Jews; and so might be literally said to trample
upon the ashes of the wicked, who had persecuted them in times past, they being
upon the very spot where these men were destroyed by fire:
in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts: or "in
the day which I make"F13ביום אשר אני עשה
"eo die, quem ego facio", Cocceius. ; that is, by the rising of the
sun of righteousness, the Gospel day. The TalmudF14T. Bab.
Roshhashanah, fol. 17. 1. interprets this verse of the bodies of the wicked in
hell, which after twelve months will be consumed, and the wind will scatter
them under the soles of the feet of the righteous.
Malachi 4:4 4 “Remember
the Law of Moses, My servant, Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, With
the statutes and judgments.
YLT
4Remember ye the law of
Moses My servant, That I did command him in Horeb, For all Israel -- statutes
and judgments.
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant,.... Who was
faithful as such in the house of God, in delivering the law to the children of
Israel, which was given him; and who are called upon to remember it, its
precepts and its penalties, which they were apt to forget: and particularly
this exhortation is given now, because no other prophet after Malachi would be
sent unto them, this is what they should have and use as their rule and
directory; and because that Christ, now prophesied of, would be the end of this
law; and this, and the prophets, were to be until the days of John the Baptist,
spoken of in the next verse Malachi 4:5; and
the rather, because in this period of time, between Malachi and the coming of
Christ, the traditions of the elders were invented and obtained, which greatly
set aside the law, and made it of no effect:
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel; for though
the law came by Moses, and is therefore called his, yet God was the author and
efficient cause of it; Moses was only a servant and minister; and this was
given in Horeb, the same with Sinai: these are names of one and the same
mountain, at least of the parts of it; one part of it was called Horeb, from
its being a dry desert and desolate place; and the other Sinai, from its bushes
and brambles. So JeromF15De locis Hebr. fol. 92. E. says,
"Horeb,
the mountain of God, is in the land of Midian, by Mount Sinai, above Arabia in
the wilderness, to which are joined the mountain and wilderness of the
Saracens, called Pharan; but to me it seems the same mountain is called by two
names, sometimes Sinai, and sometimes Horeb;'
see
Exodus 31:18.
Agreeably to which JosephusF16Antiqu. l. 2. c. 12. calls Horeb,
where Moses fed his flock, and saw the vision of the burning bush, Mount Sinai;
and says, it was the highest of the mountains in those parts, very convenient
for pasture, and abounded with excellent herbage. Some sayF17Vid.
Adrichomii Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, p. 122. Well's Geography of the Old
Testament, vol. 2. p. 118. the eastern part of it was called Sinai, and the
western part Horeb; it is very likely they joined together at the bottom of the
mountain, and were the two tops of it. This being mentioned shows, that the
law, strictly taken, and not the prophets, is here designed, for no other was
commanded, ordered, or delivered in Horeb; and that was for all the children of
Israel in successive ages, until the coming of the Messiah, and for them only,
as to the ministration of it by Moses.
With the statutes
and judgments; the laws ceremonial and judicial, which were given to Moses, at
the same time the law of the decalogue was, to be observed by the children of
Israel, and which were shadows of things to come; namely, those of them that
were of a ceremonial nature, and therefore to be remembered and attended to as
leading to Christ, and the things of the Gospel.
Malachi 4:5 5 Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord.
YLT
5Lo, I am sending to you
Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the
fearful.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet,.... Not the
Tishbite, as the Septuagint version wrongly inserts instead of prophet; not
Elijah in person, who lived in the times of Ahab; but John the Baptist, who was
to come in the power and spirit of Elijah, Luke 1:17 between
whom there was a great likeness in their temper and disposition; in their
manner of clothing, and austere way of living; in their courage and integrity
in reproving vice; and in their zeal and usefulness in the cause of God and
true religion; and in their famous piety and holiness of life; and in being both
prophets; see Matthew 11:11 and
that he is intended is clear from Matthew 17:10. It
is a notion of the Jews, as Kimchi and others, that the very Elijah, the same
that lived in the days of Ahab, shall come in person before the coming of their
Messiah they vainly expect, and often speak of difficult things to be left till
Elijah comes and solves them; but for such a notion there is no foundation,
either in this text or elsewhere. And as groundless is that of some of the
ancient Christian fathers, and of the Papists, as Lyra and others, that Elijah
with Enoch will come before the day of judgment, and restore the church of God
ruined by antichrist, which they suppose is meant in the next clause.
Before the coming of the great and, dreadful day of the Lord; that is,
before the coming of Christ the son of David, as the JewsF18T. Bab.
Eruvin, fol. 43. 2. & Gloss. in ib. themselves own; and which is to be
understood, not of the second coming of Christ to judgment, though that is
sometimes called the great day, and will be dreadful to Christless sinners; but
of the first coming of Christ, reaching to the destruction of Jerusalem: John
the Baptist, his forerunner, the Elijah here spoken of, came proclaiming wrath
and terror to impenitent sinners; Christ foretold and denounced ruin and
destruction to the Jewish nation, city, and temple; and the time of Jerusalem's
destruction was a dreadful day indeed, such a time of affliction as had not
been from the creation, Matthew 24:21 and
the Talmud interpretsF19T. Bab. Sabbat, fol 118. 1. this of the
sorrows of the Messiah, or which shall be in the days of the Messiah.
Malachi 4:6 6 And
he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the
children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
YLT
6And he hath turned back the
heart of fathers to sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers, Before I come
and have utterly smitten the land!
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,.... Or
"with" the children, as Kimchi; and Ben Melech observes, that על is put for עם, and so in the
next clause:
and the heart of the children to their fathers; or
"with" their fathers; that is, both fathers and children: the meaning
is, that John the Baptist should be an instrument of converting many of the
Jews, both fathers and children, and bringing them to the knowledge and faith
of the true Messiah; and reconcile them together who were divided by the
schools of Hillell and Shammai, and by the sects of the Sadducees and
Pharisees, and bring them to be of one mind, judgment, and faith, and to have a
hearty love to one another, and the Lord Christ; see Matthew 3:5; see
Gill on Luke 1:17. The
TalmudistsF20Massachet Ediot, c. 8. sect. 7. interpret this of
composing differences, and making peace.
Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse; the land of
Judea; which, because the greater part of the inhabitants of it were not
converted to the Lord, did not believe in the Messiah, but rejected him,
notwithstanding the preaching and testimony of John the Baptist, and the ministry
and miracles of Christ, it was smitten with a curse, was made desolate, and
destroyed by the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Adrian, as instruments doing
what God here threatened he would do; for not the whole earth is intended, as
the Targum and Abarbinel suggest; but only that land, and the people of it, are
intended, to whom the law of Moses was given; and to whom Elias, or John the
Baptist, was to be sent; and to whom he was sent, and did come; and by whom he
was rejected, and also the Messiah he pointed at; for which that country was
smitten with a curse, and remains under it to this day.
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》