Malachi 4

Malachi 4:1

B. The Judgment of the Wicked (4:1)The day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the proud and the wicked shall be destroyed, root and branch.

Malachi 4:2

C. The Coming of the Messiah to the Remnant (4:2, 3)The faithful will welcome the Sun of Righteousness, who will arise with healing in His wings. Those who fear God’s name will triumph over their foes like ashes under their feet.

Malachi 4:4

D. Closing Exhortation to Obedience, with Promise of the Coming of Elijah the Prophet (4:4-6)The book closes with an exhortation to remember the Law of Moses and with a promise to send . . . Elijah to Israel before the . . . day of the LORD. He will bring about reform in the lives of the people, making them resemble their godly forefathers. Otherwise God will have to visit the land (or earth) with a curse. In reading Malachi in the synagogue the Jews repeat verse 5 after verse 6 so that the book will not end with a curse. However, as Wolf observes, “This attempt to soften the message does not alter the grim reality.” Since we read the Old Covenant in the fuller light of the New, what better way to end the OT volume of the Believers Bible Commentary than by quoting the last paragraph of Keil and Delitzsch’s devout and scholarly OT commentary, which nicely binds the two together: Law and prophets bore witness of Christ, and Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them. Upon the Mount of Christ’s Transfiguration, therefore, there appeared both Moses, the founder of the law and mediator of the old covenant, and Elijah the prophet, as the restorer of the law in Israel, to talk with Jesus of His decease which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem . . . for a practical testimony to the apostles and to us all, that Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us, to bear our sin and redeem us from the curse of the law, was the beloved Son of the Father, whom we are to hear, that by believing in His name we may become children of God and heirs of everlasting life.