MALACHI 4
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2002 James Melough
4:1. “For, behold,
the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all
that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch.”
The “day” mentioned here is that of the Lord’s
second advent, when He, coming as King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Lion
of Judah rather than as the Lamb, will execute judgment as declared in Mt
25:31-46, the result of that judgment being that the unbelievers “shall go
away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
Their being left with “neither root nor branch”
means that these wicked will leave neither ancestor nor descendant to carry on
their evil work, for their banishment into hell will leave only believers on
the earth as the Millennium begins. It is necessary to note, however, that the
children who will be born in the Millennium will be unbelievers in need of
redemption, as is every one born into this world.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary draws
attention to the fact that as Canaan was prepared for Israel originally by the
potential expulsion of every Canaanite, so here we see the millennial earth
purged of every unbeliever prior to the entry of the believers of the
Tribulation era.
4:2. “But unto you
that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his
wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.”
Very different will be the lot of the believers following Christ’s
judgment of the nations, for they, His sheep, will hear His gracious
invitation, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world,Mt 25:34, and they will remain on the earth to enjoy millennial blessings,
their bliss continuing eternally when this present world will have been
replaced with a new heavens and a new earth, Re 21:1.
As has been noted already, this “fear” is the reverential awe of God impelled
by adoring wonder.
“the Sun of righteousness” is taken by some to refer to the beneficial effects
of righteousness, but since the Lord Jesus Christ is the personification of
righteousness there doesn’t seem to be any strong reason not to apply the
description to Him.
“... with healing in His wings” has reference to the healing transformation
that will be experienced by every one and every thing on earth in the
Millennium, see Isa 35.
The going forth is usually understood as being the passing of the saved out of
the Tribulation into the enjoyment of millennial blessings; and their growing
up “as calves of the stall” is saying that their passage will be accompanied
by the exuberant joy exhibited by young calves released from the stall as they
cavort on their way to pasture where they will grow fat, a figure of the
prosperity of the redeemed in the Millennium.
4:3. “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under
the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of
hosts.”
The language appears to be metaphoric, for if we have been right in
taking this to be at Christ’s second advent, every unbeliever will have been
banished into hell, so that there will be none for the believers to “tread
down,” i.e., destroy or control. If the reference is to what will be after the
Millennium begins, then this is declaring that those who will be born during
those thousand years will either become believers, or will be permitted to
live only as long as the rebellion, which is in the heart of every sinner,
remains covert.
4:4. “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and
judgments.”
The law of Moses is generally taken to mean the Ten Commandments; the
statutes, the ordinances governing their worship; and the judgments, the laws
governing their social lives.
The Levitical order of worship will be universal in the Millennium, and it
was, in fact, for this very reason that there were two separate orders for the
Church, one Jewish and the other Gentile, in the period from 32 till 70 AD,
see Ac 15:19-29; 21:20-26. The offer of the millennial kingdom made by John
the Baptist, by the Lord Himself, and by the Apostles after His ascension, was
a bona fide offer. Israel could have had the kingdom then had she but repented
and trusted in Christ as her Savior Messiah, and it was with a view to the
inauguration of the kingdom right then that the Levitical order was preserved
by the Jewish believers.
God, however, foreknowing Israel’s rejection of the King and therefore of the
kingdom, instituted a separate order for the Gentiles, that order becoming
universal for this present Church age following the dissolution of Jewish
autonomy in AD 70, which ended the Jewish order until the Millennium.
It is interesting to note that those 38 years between 32 and 70 AD were a
virtual duplication of another 38 year period in Israel’s history, the earlier
being a foreshadowing of the latter. After two years in the desert, following
their deliverance from Egypt, Israel was invited to enter Canaan, but
following the discouraging report of ten of the twelve men sent to reconnoiter
the land, they refused to go in, with the result that when they then had a
change of heart, God refused to allow them to enter, and turned them back to
wander and die in the desert, during which time a new generation, their
children grew up, and possessed what their foolish fathers had rejected, see
Nu 13-14.
Few will have difficulty seeing the typological significance of this incident
in Israel’s history; nor will many have trouble seeing in it a symbolic
warning against refusing to accept God’s gift of eternal life when it is first
offered, His warning being, “My spirit shall not always strive with man,” Ge
6:3, and again, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy,” Pr 29:1.
4:5. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:”
There has been much needless misunderstanding of this verse, some
insisting that the reference is to an actual return of Elijah; but the Lord
Himself refuted that error when He explained to the disciples that John the
Baptist, ministering in the spirit and power of Elijah, was His (Christ’s)
foretold forerunner, see Mt 17:10-13; and as it was not a literal Elijah who
was the forerunner then, neither is there any reason to believe that it will
be he who will be Christ’s forerunner in the Tribulation era. It will be
another, also ministering in the same spirit and power as that which imbued
Elijah.
The “day of the Lord” is that long period which will begin following the
rapture of the Church, and that will end with the destruction of the present
heavens and earth prior to the bringing in of the new heavens and earth. It
will be “great and dreadful” because of the awful judgments that will
devastate the earth in the Great Tribulation.
Horeb, incidentally, is the original name for Mount Sinai.
4:6. “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers
to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse.”
This is the same language as is used of John the Baptist in Lk 1:17, “And he
shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias (Elijah), to turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of
the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
The “he” is the one who will be the Lord’s forerunner in the Tribulation era,
and as noted above, he will be neither Elijah, nor John the Baptist, but one
ministering in the same spirit and power as they. He will be a powerful
witness for God.
Another event that will undoubtedly have a profound effect on the
Tribulation-age world will be the rapture of the Church, followed by the
conversion of 144,000 Jews who will be the nucleus of a new corporate witness
on the earth. Add to these the terrible judgments that will devastate the
earth in the Great Tribulation (the final three and a half years of that
seven-year era), and you have another potent witness to convince men that
there is a God.
Many things in this generation have combined to erode family values and ties:
divorce, single parent mothers, rejection of parental control, prohibition of
corporal punishment, drugs and alcohol, illicit sex, lack of belief in God and
the Scriptures, abandonment of moral values, to name but a few. When, however,
account is taken of the witnesses discussed above, it isn’t difficult to
understand why the fear of utter destruction will lead many in that day to
listen to the Gospel, repent, and be saved. There will indeed be many family
reconciliations as parents and children are first reconciled to God through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The destruction resulting from the
Tribulation judgments will strike fear into men’s hearts, fear that their
world is about to be totally destroyed, and they with it. The demonstration of
God’s power and righteous wrath will accomplish then what loving entreaty has
failed to do.
The ominous threat of judgment which closes the Old Testament is virtually
God’s last warning to rebel Israel and the equally rebellious Gentiles. With
this last word, God’s prophetic clock has as it were stopped ticking. The
Church age has come in as a two-thousand year parenthesis in the continuity of
His dealings with His ancient people Israel; but every sign points to the
imminence of the Church’s rapture from the earth to heaven, after which God’s
clock will start to tick again, with the earth’s stage set exactly as it was
when the clock stopped. Rome revived as a ten-kingdom coalition of nations
(the European Union) will rule again. Israel will be back in the land again
after her long Diaspora, just as she was returned two thousand years ago after
the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. As the Roman sought to destroy her
then, so will he seek to destroy her again in the Tribulation. But nothing can
thwart God’s purposes. With a remnant of Israel and of the nations brought to
repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the Tribulation
judgments, He Himself will come again, not as the Lamb to die for the
remission of sin, but as the mighty Lion of Judah to destroy His foes,
establish His millennial kingdom, and lead that believing remnant of Israel
and of the nations into the blessings of that kingdom, blessings forfeited for
two thousand years by man’s rebellion!
Malachi’s prophecy closes with God’s threat, “lest I come and smite the earth
with a curse.” The fulfillment of that threat has been rendered impossible by
the Lord Jesus Christ’s willingness to have it fulfilled against Him at
Calvary when He hung on the cross as guilty man’s Representative, bearing
man’s sin, and thereby being Himself made a curse, as it is written, “Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree,” Gal 3:13.
The response of every redeemed heart is recorded in 2 Cor 9:15, “Thanks ye
unto God for his unspeakable gift.”
I can think of no better way to conclude this series of studies on the Minor
Prophets than by repeating the words which close the book of Revelation, “He
which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so,
come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”