Malachi 4

Malachi 4:1

4:1. Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven. With no break in the continuous thought this chapter proceeds to contrast the destiny of the wicked and the righteous with reference to the day of the Lord. The destiny of the wicked is often declared to be fire. Fire was rained on Sodom and Gomorrah. Psalms 11:6 declares: Upon the wicked he shall rain forked lightnings, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. See also Ezekiel 38:22. John declares of the One who cometh after him, that he shall burn the chaff with unquenchable fire, and it is further declared that he shall baptize with fire.

This element is taken as the symbol of suffering. The day referred to by Malachi may refer, finally, to the end of time, but there is a primary reference to the awful judgments that came on the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem. At that time the great mass of the nation was consumed on account of its sins, a million perishing in the siege of Jerusalem according to Josephus.

Malachi 4:2

2. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise. Christ is appropriately called a Sun because he is the Light of the World. He is also our righteousness, redemption and sanctification. Upon those that fear his name he has arisen with healing in his wings. Those of the Jewish nation who feared him, warned by his words, fled from Judea at the time of the Roman destruction and were saved. They are also saved in the great day.

Malachi 4:3

3. And ye shall tread down the wicked. The prophet looks forward to the fearful day of destruction and beholds a vivid picture. The wicked, consumed, shall be as ashes, but the righteous, saved, shall walk over the fields strown with their ashes, unhurt.

Malachi 4:5

5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day. Elijah, the prophet, had been taken up from the earth hundreds of years before Malachi uttered these words; yet he declares that he shall come before the great day of destruction. It is easy for us to understand what is meant. In Mark 9:11-13, our Lord points out the Elijah who had come, one in the spirit and power of Elijah, a great reformer, a stern censor of sin, a man of austere life, not as a “reed shaken with the wind,” or one clad “in soft raiment.” John, the second Elijah, came before the great and dreadful day when the nation was smitten down by the Roman arms, and called upon them to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and warning them to flee from the wrath to come. This second Elijah came and warned them, bade them repent, called upon them to accept Christ; then the Savior offered them salvation; when this was rejected, the long, suffering of God came to an end and the vials of wrath were poured out on a wicked people. The Savior cried, “If thou hadst known in this, the day of thy visitation, the things that make for thy peace!” Again he says: “O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee: how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Now your house is left unto you desolate.” The last call had been made.

Malachi 4:6

6. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, etc. The work of John was the reformation of the nation and its preparation for Christ. He exerted a profound influence and shook the nation to the center. Vast multitudes were baptized by him, and all the early disciples of Christ had been prepared by John. He effected a great work of preparation, and a great spiritual revival. Every such revival destroys hatred, variance, jealousy, coolness or indifference, and fills the heart with a tender love. The effect of John’s work was to make parents love their children and children to love their parents.

True religion promotes domestic affection. False religion destroys it. It made the Canaanite burn his child, or the Hindoo mother to cast hers into the Ganges. The idolater at the shrine of Mammon or Fashion will still sacrifice the child by neglect, by selling out its real interests, or by making it a victim on the altar of vanity. God requires parents to love their children and children to honor their parents. That is the effect of every movement that comes from God; of John’s preaching and of all true preachers of righteousness. Thus closes the Old Testament. These last words point to the New Covenant; to the Messenger to prepare for the King; to the Angel of the Covenant, to the second Elijah, and to the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The gleams of the sunrise are seen upon the hills as the sunset of Old Testament inspiration casts its shadows. AND . 1. “Our lives are naked and open to Him with whom we have to do.” Because the Lord is long-suffering, and suffers the wicked to work their evil deeds for many years with impunity, they often conclude that he may be mocked. The Lord is slow to anger, but his justice does not sleep. The wicked Jews were saved unto the day of wrath. 2. Nor does God forget his promises. Though the Jewish nation tried him by its sins, and deserved destruction, God had covenanted that a Redeemer should come out of Jacob. His promises never fail. In his own time they will surely be fulfilled. The Messenger came at the appointed season; the blessed Savior followed in Mercy; the day of the glorious triumph of the kingdom will surely come. 3. God, in his mercy, sends warning after warning. Prophet after prophet warned the Jews of the wrath to come on account of their sins. Then came the second Elijah, who called them to repentance and pointed them to the Lord. Christ then called them to have life, but “he came to his own and his own received him not.” It was the last call. By rejecting Christ they sealed their own destruction. 4. Nations and men have their day of opportunity. God says, “To-day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” To hearken and obey is life; to refuse, is to perish. The time comes when there is a sting in the memory of lost opportunities; when the last call is ended and when the mourning cry is raised, “The summer is past, the harvest is ended and my soul is not saved.” 5. Everyone should prepare the highway for the King to enter his heart. He should listen to the voice of an Elijah, who bids him repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and then points him to the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” 6. JOHN’S EXAMPLE.–We have no record of John’s daily life, but that of one who, in saintliness of spirit, trod in his steps, is still preserved. St. Anthony, in the deserts of Egypt, was wont to pass whole nights in prayer, and that not once, but often, to the astonishment of men. He ate once a day, after the setting of the sun; his food was bread with salt, his drink nothing but water. Flesh and wine he never tasted.

When he slept, he was content with a rush mat, but mostly he lay on bare ground. He would not anoint himself with oil, saying that it was more fit for young men to be earnest in subduing the body, than to seek things which softened it. The picture may not suit in some particulars, but as a glimpse of the mortified life of the desert, in its best aspect, it may serve to realize that of John, in the loneliness of the rough wilderness of Judea.