Malachi 4

Notes

Ver. 1, 3. The wicked shall be terribly, suddenly, and unavoidably overtaken by God's judgments, both parents and children; while the righteous shall triumph over them. 2. Jesus, the enlightener, quickener and comforter of his people, shall appear in the flesh, and in the gospel, to heal sinners by his word, his blood, and Spirit, of all their spiritual diseases, and to make them beautifully increase in grace and holiness. 5. John Baptist is called Elijah, because like him in his appearances, work, and success. The time of Christ's manifestation is called great, as he made great alteration in the form and ordinances of the church; and dreadful, as by rejecting him the Jews brought on themselves dreadful destruction. 6. The work of John Baptist was to reconcile all their differences, by directing all parties to Christ as the only Saviour, that so the ruin of their nation might be prevented.

Ver. 1. Behold, the day cometh &c. The dawn of this day commenced in the preaching of our Lord, whose words burned as fire upon the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees; it arose higher and burned more fiercely in the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ruin and dispersion of the remnant of the nation; but the completion of the prophesy is still future, as it is finally to burn so as to leave to the unbelieving and impenitent portion of the Jews 'neither root nor branch' to perpetuate their principles. C.

Ver. 2. His wings: 'rays' (Gill). The sanative powers of light and warmth are known to all, and afford a beautiful emblem of the salvation that emanates from Jesus. C.

Ver. 5. Elijah.—interpreted by our Lord to mean John the Baptist, Mat. 11. 14, 17. 12, 13. C.

**Reflections.—**The fire of God's wrath makes fearful work upon obstinate sinners when ripened for it. But great is the joy, light, comfort, vigour, and victories over enemies which believers find in the approaches and discoveries of Christ to their souls. And lasting are the honours of his faithful ministers. If we wish for happiness, or further knowledge of his will, let us adhere strictly to what he has commanded. And never let us complain for want of light as long as we have the oracles of God. The light of divine truth continues constant in the church; but the revelations thereof, and spiritual instructions therein, were and shall be gradually increased as occasion requires. The manifestations of the great God our Saviour are indeed events of vast importance, and the happiness or misery of mankind are deeply concerned therein. But what a marvellous turn may one man, remarkably assisted of God, give to the affairs of churches or nations! And dreadful are the curses, desolations, and miseries which await those sinners that harden themselves against the distinguished means of God's grace.

Concluding Remarks on the Book of Malachi.

Here ends the long and illustrious line of the prophets of the Old Testament, whose writings, were the idea of their inspiration entirely laid aside, would suffice to get them as far above all the philanthropists, patriots, reformers, politicians, and moralists of ancient and modern times, as heaven is elevated above the earth. But this very inspiration is their chief characteristic; and, blessed he God, the evidences of it are so plain, that if there be any that read them in the light of history, and yet deny their inspiration, 'neither would they believe though one should rise from the dead.'

Still the office of the prophets will be very imperfectly understood, if they be considered merely as inspired with a knowledge of futurity. Whoever would duly estimate their character, must view them in all lights, and fairly bring them into comparison with other men living in similar times, and placed in similar circumstances, and seeking after somewhat similar ends. They must be tried by the disinterestedness, simplicity, boldness, and honesty with which they executed their several commissions—by the impartiality with which they delivered their instructions, and dealt their stern rebukes to all ranks and conditions of men—by their patient and willing endurance of neglect, contempt, and persecution—and by the high and holy ends after which they always laboured. That the philosophers of Greece and Rome were generally not the mere authors of opinions and systems, is a fact universally known. They were, almost without exception, the advocates of national reformation, in the most extensive sense. Let us compare them with the prophets. But where shall we begin? Certainly with their ideas of God, the author and end of all things. And what do we find? A few denying the being of any God at all—a few ridiculing the system of polytheism—all, however, conforming to the idolatry of their countrymen—and the wisest of them, with his dying breath, commending an idolatrous sacrifice. And let it be especially remembered, that this conformity arose not from any respect for idolatry—for, generally, the philosophers held it in contempt—but it arose altogether from the love of popular favour, which they would not forfeit, by denouncing superstition, from a cowardly dread of popular displeasure, which they would not encounter by disturbing prejudices, and from their preference of bodily and mental ease to the trouble of attempting even a philosophical reformation. With all this, compare the conduct of the prophets. Do they conform to the idolatry of their country? No! One houseless prophet, a wanderer in the mountains—the tenant of a cave—though he believes himself the last of the worshippers of Jehovah, denounces idolatry in the very presence of his idolatrous king—bound by a higher loyalty to the King of earth and heaven. And to his noble example do all his fellow-prophets adhere. Faithful to the worship of Jehovah, the one living and true God, they omit no opportunity of denouncing idolatry, though under the penalty of imprisonment or at the risk of life. If viewed as philanthropists, a similar superiority will be found on the side of the prophets. The philosophic philanthropist, the professed friend of man—actuated by nothing higher than a worldly motive—will always be found the advocate of a class, among whom he takes refuge from the attacks of opponents, and from whom he draws the reward either of popularity or support. The prophets of the LORD were never the advocates of any mere class. The king and the peasant, the priest and the worshipper, the learned and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, were alike the objects of their exhortations or rebukes. 'Ah! sinful nation! a people laden with iniquity! a seed of evil-doers! children that are corrupters! they have forsaken the LORD.—From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it.' Such is the impartial testimony which the prophets bear against the sins, not of a class, but of a nation—neither inflaming the passions of the many, nor flattering the pride of the few—but honestly and fearlessly pronouncing condemnation upon the common defections of all. But as it has ever been found impossible to separate between the religion, morality, prosperity, and happiness of man, so has it been found impossible to interdict the prophets from a continual reference to the political affairs of their country. Nor is there any view of their character in which they appear to greater advantage than when contrasted with the selfish, ambitious, vacillating, and temporizing politicians of the world. The great political maxim of the prophets was simply this—'The LORD reigneth;' and hence flowed the great practical principle—'whatever is morally wrong can never be politically right.' Upon this principle Samuel addressed himself to Saul; Nathan to David; Elijah to Ahab; Isaiah to Hezekiah; Jeremiah to the king and his princes; Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and Darius; Ezekiel to the wicked counsellors in the city; Jonah to the Ninevites; Micah to Samaria and Jerusalem; Haggai to the governor; and Malachi to both the priests and the people. And in all these efforts no prophet ever sought after power or aggrandizement to himself; but, as a true and genuine patriot, the reformation and glory of his country.

Viewed in strict connection with their inspiration, one of the most striking characteristics of all the prophets is their fulness of Christ. And though Isaiah has come to be distinguished as the evangelical prophet—and the title is no doubt well deserved—yet as a peculiar characteristic, exclusive of all the other prophets, its application is questionable. 'The things that are written of Christ in the Psalms' cannot be exceeded in perspicuous description of his incarnation, sufferings, atonement, and glory—while truly and fully 'to him gave all the prophets witness.' Among these witness-bearers, Malachi, as the last, holds a peculiar place. His spirit looked out upon the dark futurity of above four hundred years, and beheld the bright and glorious 'Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings,' rising upon that world of spiritual corruption and disease by which he was surrounded; and the church of the regenerate, delivered from a body of sin and death, go forth in youthful vigour, and grow into maturity 'as calves of the stall'—clean and healthful as a sacrifice to the LORD; or strong and obedient and laborious as oxen, to 'break up the fallow ground,' and prepare him a glorious harvest.—Mat. 11. 10, 14; Mar. 1. 2, Lu. 1. 17, will be found to be quotations from ch. 3. 1; 4. 6.

THE END OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.