Malachi 3

Malachi 3:1

MESSIAH’S .–Malachi 3:1-6; Malachi 4:1-6. GOLDEN TEXT.–Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.–Malachi 3:1. TIME.–About B. C. 408. PLACE.–Jerusalem. HELPFUL .– Isaiah 40:1-5; Luke 3:1-18; Matthew 3:1-12, Joe 2:28-32; Luke 1:6-79. . LESSON .–1. The King’s Messenger 2. The Coming of the King; 3. The King’s Judgment on the Wicked; 4. The Peace of the Righteous. . Malachi occupies a pre-eminence as the last of the prophets. With him the prophetic vision was sealed until it opened again with Him who was “more than a prophet.” Of him we know nothing personally. He appears simply as “the voice of the Lord.” His name means “messenger, and some have conjectured that it was not the real name of the prophet and have insisted that the real author was Mordecai, or Ezra, or some other leading Jew of the age. The most judicious Bible scholars reject these conjectures as fanciful. As to the object, circumstances and date of the work, Cowles says: “A careful comparison of Malachi with Nehemiah 13:7-31, shows the same flagrant sins as prevailing in each, e. g., intermarriages with foreigners, neglect of tithes, violation of the Sabbath and of religious worship generally. Hence it appears highly probable that Malachi co-operated with Nehemiah in his last reformation, as Isaiah did with Hezekiah, and Jeremiah with Josiah. The civil ruler would greatly need the aid of some earnest and pure-minded prophet in such a work. The precise date of the last visit of Nehemiah to Jerusalem is a question of some historic interest, inasmuch as it is the date of the latest inspired Old Testament history and prophecy. * * * Nehemiah’s first visit was in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, B. C. 444. After twelve years’ stay he returned to Persia in B.

C. 432. The date of the second visit is probably twenty-four years later, or in B. C. 408, though it may have been less. The interval had been long enough for the introduction of grievous abuses, for intermarriages with foreigners, and births from these marriages, and children old enough to speak “according to the language of each people.” While the data do not determine the exact time it is sufficient for all practical purposes. Not far from four hundred years before Christ this last of the long series of inspired prophets united his efforts with those of Nehemiah to call back the apostate people to their forsaken God. At the same time the comforts the devout believers among them with very distinct and precious promises of the conversion of the Gentiles; of the coming of the glorious Lord, “the Messenger of the Covenant,” to his earthly temple; and also of the coming of John the Baptist, designated as the “messenger who shall prepare the Way before the Lord, and as Elijah the prophet” returned once more to the world. 3:1. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. The Savior said (Luke 7:27) of John the Baptist: “This is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee.” Of him also his father, Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” It is not, therefore, an open question whether Malachi speaks of John. As kings were wont in ancient days to send heralds before them, when about to make a royal journey, who not only proclaimed the coming of the king, but commanded that the highways be put in order for his coming, so John was the king’s messenger to go before, announce the coming of the king, and to prepare the way. Not only does the prophet here predict the coming of the Christ, but of the messenger who went before him. John is thus distinguished as the only New Testament character, besides Christ, who is a clear subject of Old Testament prophecy. “When Ibrahim Pasha proposed to visit certain places on Lebanon, the emirs and sheiks sent forth a general proclamation, somewhat in the style of Isaiah’s exhortation, to all the inhabitants, to assemble along the proposed route, and prepare the way before him. The same was done in 1846, when the present sultan visited Brusa. The stones were gathered out, the crooked places straightened, the rough ones made level and smooth.”–The Land and the Book (1:105, 106). “John prepared the way for Christ in this wilderness by preaching repentance, awakening the conscience, manifesting the danger and the evil of sin, showing the need of a Savior, and the value and the possibility of a better life.

John the Baptist still, in each experience, goes before the coming Savior. And we all should prepare the way of the Lord. (1) Fill up the valleys, the sins of omission,–defects of prayer, of faith, of love, of work. (2) Bring down the mountains of pride, sin, selfishness, unbelief, worldliness. (3) Straighten out all crooked places, crooked dealings with others, crooked ways of sin, settle difficulties, confess sins. (4) Smooth the rough places,–the harshness of temper and manner, the little foxes that spoil the vines, the want of courtesy, which mar the beauty of holiness.”–P. And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come. Haggai had spoken of the Savior as the Desire of All Nations, and Malachi names his as the Lord they seek. Already Israel was filled with longing expectation. The “seeking for the Lord” became more and more earnest as the time of his birth approached. At this time the aged Simeon, “waiting for the consolation of Israel,” and “Anna the prophetess,” were examples of a large class of the devout Hebrews. The Lord thus sought, Malachi declares, shall come to his temple. First there will be the messenger and then the Lord. Every one knows how this was fulfilled and how the Savior appeared, taught, and finally entered the most Holy Place of the temple. The messenger of the covenant. The “Lord” is also here called the Messenger of the covenant. The word Messenger means the same as angel. The “Angel of the covenant” is spoken of in various places in the Old Testament (see Exodus 23:20; Exodus 23:23) and has usually been supposed to be the Lord. This Angel of the covenant pardons sin, acts in the name of Jehovah, speaks for him, and is evidently a divine being. As Christ was “before Abraham” and “in the beginning was with God,” there is little doubt that he is “the angel of the covenant,” the divine messenger through whom the covenant was enacted and its blessings guaranteed to man. When he came to earth he came as heaven’s messenger. While here he perfected the New Covenant.

Malachi 3:2

2. But who may abide the day of his coming? As the light of the sun reveals the stains and pollution that may be upon our garments, so the Sun of righteousness reveals the heart with its moral pollution. Who could stand the searching ordeal of his presence and his words? Not the corrupt priesthood, or the self righteous Pharisees, or the Scribes puffed up with their own pedantic knowledge, or the sensual Sadducees. Not the money changers and traders that he scourged from his temple. Only those “shall stand when he appeareth” who were looking for redemption in his name and whose hearts were contrite and broken. He is like refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap. As these refine, remove the dross and impurity, so Christ shall cleanse the heart. The refiner by his fire melts the precious metal, and frees it from the impurities that cling to it. The fuller’s soap whitens. Christ calls for a new and pure heart, and anew and pure life. Those who submit to him, “though their sins are as scarlet, are made as white as snow.”

Malachi 3:3

3. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. In Boulder, Colorado, the writer watched the silver ore as it was heated and melted in the furnace. As the fires became intense the precious metal and the impure earth parted, the refiner watched the process with the closest attention, until he saw by the glow that the right moment had come and then he drew off the silver. He sat as a refiner and watched. So Christ engages in the refining process. He had to send the fires of calamity upon old Israel in order to purify the corrupt sons of Levi and to “purge them as gold and silver.” He separated a cleansed and purged element from the Jewish nation, while the rest were under the baptism of fire. Those who are purified by Christ can make “an offering in righteousness,” not the sacrifices of the Jewish temple, but “their bodies as living sacrifices.”

Malachi 3:4

4. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord. It will then be acceptable as in the old days when Israel was faithful. Malachi declares (chap. 1:7) that they were wont to offer polluted bread on the altar, and blind, lame and sick beasts for sacrifice, while the law required the best. The mean, stingy, dishonest motives that caused such offerings, made the sacrifices an abomination. The pure hearts of Christ’s people will enable them to offer pleasant sacrifices.

Malachi 3:5

5. And I will come near you to judgment. Their various sins are catalogued and denounced: Sorcery, adultery, perjury and oppression. The last sill was shown in injustice to the hireling, the widow, the orphan and the stranger. The Lord has always been on the side of the oppressed. At this time every man who pinches the hireling, compels him to labor for starvation wages, or cheats him out of his dues, has the Lord against him. There will be a terrible reckoning sometime for the oppressors of the earth.

Malachi 3:6

6. I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Of old the Lord had made a covenant in which he had promised that in the seed of Abraham all nations should be blessed. The Lord, hence, did not blot out Israel for its sins, but would keep covenant, and preserve the nation until all was fulfilled.