@Mal 4:1-6. GOD'S COMING JUDGMENT: TRIUMPH OF THE GODLY: RETURN TO THE LAW THE BEST PREPARATION FOR JEHOVAH'S COMING: ELIJAH'S PREPARATORY MISSION OF REFORMATION.
1. the day cometh . . . burn--(@Mal 3:2 2Pe 3:7).
Primarily is meant the judgment coming on Jerusalem; but as this will not exhaust the
meaning, without supposing what is inadmissible in Scripture--exaggeration--the final and
full accomplishment, of which the former was the earnest, is the day of general judgment.
This principle of interpretation is not double, but successive fulfilment. The
language is abrupt, "Behold, the day cometh! It burns like a furnace." The
abruptness imparts terrible reality to the picture, as if it suddenly burst on the
prophet's view.
all the proud--in opposition to the cavil above (@Mal 3:15), "now we call
the proud (haughty despisers of God) happy."
stubble--(@Ob 1:18 Mt 3:12). As
Canaan, the inheritance of the Israelites, was prepared for their possession by purging
out the heathen, so judgment on the apostates shall usher in the entrance of the saints
upon the Lord's inheritance, of which Canaan is the type--not heaven, but earth to its
utmost bounds (@Ps 2:8)
purged of all things that offend (@Mt 13:41), which are to be
"gathered out of His kingdom," the scene of the judgment being that also
of the kingdom. The present dispensation is a spiritual kingdom, parenthetical between the
Jews' literal kingdom and its antitype, the coming literal kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
neither root nor branch--proverbial for utter
destruction (@Am 2:9).
2. The effect of the judgment on the righteous, as
contrasted with its effect on the wicked (@Mal 4:1). To the wicked it
shall be as an oven that consumes the stubble (@Mt 6:30); to the righteous it
shall be the advent of the gladdening Sun, not of condemnation, but "of
righteousness"; not destroying, but "healing" (@Jer 23:6).
you that fear my name--The same as those in @Mal 3:16, who confessed God
amidst abounding blasphemy (@Isa 66:5 Mt 10:32).
The spiritual blessings brought by Him are summed up in the two, "righteousness"
(@1Co 1:30) and spiritual
"healing" (@Ps 103:3 Isa 57:19).
Those who walk in the dark now may take comfort in the certainty that they shall walk
hereafter in eternal light (@Isa
50:10).
in his wings--implying the winged swiftness with which
He shall appear (compare "suddenly," @Mal 3:1) for the relief of His
people. The beams of the Sun are His "wings." Compare "wings of the
morning," @Ps 139:9.
The "Sun" gladdening the righteous is suggested by the previous "day"
of terror consuming the wicked. Compare as to Christ, @2Sa
23:4 Ps 84:11 Lu 1:78 Joh 1:9 8:12 Eph 5:14; and in His second coming, @2Pe 1:19. The Church is the moon
reflecting His light (@Re 12:1).
The righteous shall by His righteousness "shine as the Sun in the kingdom of the
Father" (@Mt 13:43).
ye shall go forth--from the straits in which you were, as it
were, held captive. An earnest of this was given in the escape of the Christians to Pella
before the destruction of Jerusalem.
grow up--rather, "leap" as frisking calves [CALVIN]; literally, "spread," "take a wide range."
as calves of the stall--which when set free from the stall
disport with joy (@Ac
8:8 13:52 20:24 Ro 14:17 Ga 5:22 Php 1:4 1Pe 1:8). Especially the godly shall rejoice
at their final deliverance at Christ's second coming (@Isa 61:10).
3. Solving the difficulty (@Mal 3:15) that the wicked
often now prosper. Their prosperity and the adversity of the godly shall soon be reversed.
Yea, the righteous shall be the army attending Christ in His final destruction of the
ungodly (@2Sa
22:43 Ps 49:14 47:3 Mic 7:10 Zec 10:5 1Co 6:2 Re 2:26,27 19:14,15).
ashes--after having been burnt with the fire of judgment (@Mal 4:1).
4. Remember . . . law--"The law and all the
prophets" were to be in force until John (@Mt 11:13), no prophet
intervening after Malachi; therefore they are told, "Remember the law," for in
the absence of living prophets, they were likely to forget it. The office of Christ's
forerunner was to bring them back to the law, which they had too much forgotten, and so
"to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" at His coming (@Lu 1:17). God withheld
prophets for a time that men might seek after Christ with the greater desire [CALVIN]. The history of human advancement is marked by periods of rest,
and again progress. So in Revelation: it is given for a time; then during its suspension
men live on the memories of the past. After Malachi there was a silence of four hundred
years; then a harbinger of light in the wilderness, ushering in the brightest of all the
lights that had been manifested, but short-lived; then eighteen centuries during which we
have been guided by the light which shone in that last manifestation. The silence has been
longer than before, and will be succeeded by a more glorious and awful revelation than
ever. John the Baptist was to "restore" the defaced image of "the
law," so that the original might be recognized when it appeared among men [HINDS]. Just as "Moses" and "Elias" are here connected
with the Lord's coming, so at the transfiguration they converse with Him, implying that
the law and prophets which had prepared His way were now fulfilled in Him.
statutes . . . judgments--ceremonial
"statutes": "judgments" in civil questions at issue. "The
law" refers to morals and religion.
5. I send you Elijah--as a means towards your
"remembering the law" (@Mal 4:4).
the prophet--emphatical; not "the Tishbite"; for it
is in his official, not his personal capacity, that his coming is here predicted. In this
sense, John the Baptist was an Elijah in spirit (@Lu 1:16,17), but not the
literal Elijah; whence when asked, "Art thou Elias?" (@Joh 1:21), He answered,
"I am not." "Art thou that prophet?" "No." This implies that
John, though knowing from the angel's announcement to his father that he was referred to
by @Mal 4:5 (@Lu 1:17), whence he wore the
costume of Elijah, yet knew by inspiration that he did not exhaustively fulfil all
that is included in this prophecy: that there is a further fulfilment (compare Note,
see on Mal 3:1). As Moses in @Mal 4:4 represents the law, so
Elijah represents the prophets. The Jews always understood it of the literal Elijah. Their
saying is, "Messiah must be anointed by Elijah." As there is another
consummating advent of Messiah Himself, so also of His forerunner Elijah; perhaps in
person, as at the transfiguration (@Mt 17:3; compare @Mt 17:11). He in his
appearance at the transfiguration in that body on which death had never passed is the
forerunner of the saints who shall be found alive at the Lord's second coming. @Re 11:3 may refer to the same
witnesses as at the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah; @Re 11:6 identifies the latter
(compare @1Ki 17:1
Jas 5:17). Even after the transfiguration Jesus (@Mt 17:11) speaks of Elijah's
coming "to restore all things" as still future, though He adds that Elijah (in
the person of John the Baptist) is come already in a sense (compare @Ac 3:21). However, the future
forerunner of Messiah at His second coming may be a prophet or number of prophets clothed
with Elijah's power, who, with zealous upholders of "the law" clothed in the
spirit of "Moses," may be the forerunning witnesses alluded to here and in @Re 11:2-12. The words
"before the . . . dreadful day of the Lord," show that John
cannot be exclusively meant; for he came before the day of Christ's coming in grace, not
before His coming in terror, of which last the destruction of Jerusalem was the earnest (@Mal 4:1 Joe 2:31).
6. turn . . . heart of . . . fathers to
. . . children, &c.--Explained by some, that John's preaching should
restore harmony in families. But @Lu 1:16,17 substitutes for
"the heart of the children to the fathers," "the disobedient to the wisdom
of the just," implying that the reconciliation to be effected was that between the
unbelieving disobedient children and the believing ancestors, Jacob, Levi,
"Moses," and "Elijah" (just mentioned) (compare @Mal 1:2 2:4,6 3:3,4).
The threat here is that, if this restoration were not effected, Messiah's coming would
prove "a curse" to the "earth," not a blessing. It proved so to guilty
Jerusalem and the "earth," that is, the land of Judea when it rejected
Messiah at His first advent, though He brought blessings (@Ge 12:3) to those who accepted
Him (@Joh 1:11-13).
Many were delivered from the common destruction of the nation through John's preaching (@Ro 9:29 11:5). It will
prove so to the disobedient at His second advent, though He comes to be glorified in His
saints (@2Th 1:6-10).
curse--Hebrew, Cherem, "a ban"; the fearful
term applied by the Jews to the extermination of the guilty Canaanites. Under this ban
Judea has long lain. Similar is the awful curse on all of Gentile churches who love not
the Lord Jesus now (@1Co
16:22). For if God spare not the natural branches, the Jews, much less will He spare
unbelieving professors of the Gentiles (@Ro 11:20,21). It is deeply
suggestive that the last utterance from heaven for four hundred years before Messiah was
the awful word "curse." Messiah's first word on the mount was
"Blessed" (@Mt 5:3).
The law speaks wrath; the Gospel, blessing. Judea is now under the "curse"
because it rejects Messiah; when the spirit of Elijah, or a literal Elijah, shall bring
the Jewish children back to the Hope of their "fathers," blessing shall be
theirs, whereas the apostate "earth" shall be "smitten with the curse"
previous to the coming restoration of all things (@Zec 12:13,14).
May the writer of this Commentary and his readers have grace "to take heed to the sure word of prophecy as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn!" To the triune Jehovah be all glory ascribed for ever!