“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
Parallel Translations
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“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
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Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
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Your words have been all too strong against Me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say: 'Wherein have we spoken against thee?'
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Malachi 3:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Malachi 2:17 You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in Yahweh’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’
- Isaiah 37:23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
- Romans 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
- Malachi 1:6-8 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘Yahweh’s table is contemptible.’ When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says Yahweh of Armies.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
- Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
- 2 Chronicles 32:14-19 Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? Now therefore don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?” His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God, and against his servant Hezekiah. He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.” They called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city. They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.
- Job 34:7-8 What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water, Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men?
- Job 40:8 Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
- Jeremiah 8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They couldn’t blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says Yahweh.
- Malachi 2:14 Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
- Psalms 10:11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”
- Isaiah 5:19 who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”
- Isaiah 28:14-15 Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’ ”
- Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Here again God expostulates with the Jews on account…
Here again God expostulates with the Jews on account of their impious and wicked blasphemy in saying, that he disappointed his servants, and that he made no difference between good and evil, because he was kind to the unfaithful and the faithful indiscriminately, and also that he overlooked the obedience rendered to him.
He says now that their words grew strong; by which he denotes their insolence, as though he had said, Vous avez gagné le plus haut; for חזק, chezak, is to be strong. He means that such was the waywardness of the Jews that it could not by any means be checked; they were like men whom we see, who when once seized by rage and madness, become so vociferous that they will not listen to any admonitions or sane counsels. At first they murmur and are only heard to whisper; but when they have attained full liberty, they then send forth, as I have said, their furious clamours against heaven. This is the sin which the Prophet now condemns by saying, that the Jews grew strong in crying against God. They again answer and say, In what have we spoken against thee? It appears from these so many repetitions that the hypocrisy, which was united with great effrontery, could not be easily corrected in a people so refractory: it ought indeed to have come to their minds that they had wickedly accused God. But they acknowledge here no fault, “What meanest thou?” as though they wished to arraign the Prophet for having falsely charged them, inasmuch as they were conscious of no wrong.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Prophet condemneth them of double blasphemy against God:…
The Prophet condemneth them of double blasphemy against God: first, in that they said that God had no respect to them that served him, and next, that the wicked were more in his favor than the godly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Mal 3:13 Your words have been stout against me,…
Mal 3:13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken [so much] against thee?
Ver. 13. Your words have been stout against me] Or, re-enforced, or strongly confirmed. Superant me verba vestra, so some have rendered it. By your hard and hateful words you have been too hard for me, as it were. And it is as if God should say, I have given you my best advice to break off your sins, and to bring me my tithes, that I might bless you both with store and honour. But I have lost my labour; I see well, my sweet words are worse than spilt upon you, who are so hardened in your error and blasphemy, that you are still clamouring and casting out odious words against me, Pro 23:8. Verba quid incassum non proficientia perdo? Once before you had set your foul mouths against me, and, like so many wolves (that were wood), you held up your heads and howled out these ugly words, "Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them," Mal 2:17; was it possible that the wit of malice could devise so high a slander? And now you are at it again, creaking like doors that move upon rusty hinges, nay, clattering and blustering out such hellish and hideous blasphemies, as at the hearing whereof it is great wonder if the heavens sweat not, earth gape not, sea roar not, all creatures conspire not to be avenged upon you; as the very stones in the wall of Aphek turned executioners of those blasphemous Syrians, when as, being but ignorant pagans, their tongues might seem no slander.
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your words have been stout against me] Yea, stouter and stouter; your wickedness frets like a canker, and increaseth still to more ungodliness, 2Ti 2:17. Evil men and deceivers grow worse and worse, 2Ti 3:13, as being given up by God, Rom 1:28, acted and agitated by the devil, Eph 2:2, serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit 3:3, which to satisfy is an endless piece of business. Neither let any here say, they were but words that these are charged with, and words are but wind, &c., for words have their weight, and are marvellously provoking. Leviter volant, sed non leviter violant. The fly lightly but they do not outrage lightly. You shall find some, saith Erasmus, that if death be threatened, can despise it; but to be belied they cannot brook, nor from revenge contain themselves. "As a murdering weapon in my bones," saith David, "mine enemies reproach me," Psa 42:10. Desperate speeches and blasphemies that impose upon the Lord anything unbeseeming his majesty, a thing common among the Jews even to this day, he can by no means do away with. See how God stomacheth such proud contumelious language, Psa 73:11; Psa 94:4-11 Zep 1:12 Eze 9:9. See how he punished it in him that bored through his great name, Lev 24:11. Ludovike, commonly called St Lewis, caused the lips of blasphemers to be scared with a hot iron. Philip, the French king, punished this sin with death, yea, though it were committed in a tavern. The very Turks have the Christians’ blaspheming of Christ in execration; and will punish their prisoners sorely when as, through impatience or desperateness, they wound the ears of heaven: yea, the Jews, in their speculations of the causes of the strange success of the affairs of the world, assign the reason of the Turks prevailing so against the Christians to be their blasphemies; and among other scandals and lets of their conversion are all those stout words darted with hellish mouths against God in their hearing, so ordinarily and openly, by the Italians especially, who blaspheme oftener than swear, and murder more often than revile or slander. Andrew Musculus, in his discourse entitled The devil of blasphemy, hath a memorable story of a desperate dice player in Helvetia, A. D. 1553, at a town three miles distant from Lucerna; where, on a Lord’s Day, three wretched fellows were playing at dice under the town wall. One of them, named Ulricus Schraeterus, having lost a great deal of money, swore that, if he lost the next cast, he would fling his dagger at the face of God. He lost it, and, in a rage, threw up his dagger with all his might toward heaven. The dagger vanished in the air, and was seen no more; five drops of blood fell down upon the table where they were playing, which could never be washed out (part of it is still kept in that town for a monument); the blasphemer, to say the best of him, was fetched away presently body and soul by the devil, with such a horrible noise, as frightened the whole town. The other two came to a miserable end shortly after. The truth of this relation is further attested by Job Fincelius and Philip Lonicerus, Theat. Histor. p. 142.
Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?] Chald. What have we multiplied to speak before thee? As if they should say, It is not so much that we have spoken that thou shouldest make such a business of it. Nothing more ordinary with graceless men than to elevate and extenuate; great sins with them are small sins, and small sins no sins; when as every sin should swell like a toad in their eyes, and the abundant hatred thereof in their hearts should make them say all that can be said for the aggravation and detestation of it; since there is as much treason in coining pence as bigger pieces; because the supreme authority is as much violated in the one as in the other. But this sin of theirs was no peccadillo, as appeareth by the following instance:
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Your words; your discourses concerning my providences over you…
Your words; your discourses concerning my providences over you and others, your reasonings, censures, and verdicts passed on your own ways, and on the ways of your God.
Have been stout; proudly justifying yourselves as deserving better usage from God, or insolently arraigning God for his kindness to others, who in your judgment are worse than yourselves, by such words as those Mal 2:17.
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Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? you think you have spoken nothing so proudly and stoutly, and challenge me to tell you wherein, or with what words you have showed such insolence.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Among the people of the Jews at this time,…
Among the people of the Jews at this time, though they all enjoyed the same privileges and advantages, there were men of very different characters (as ever were, and ever will be, in the world and in the church), like Jeremiah's figs, some very good and others very bad, some that plainly appeared to be the children of God and others that as plainly discovered themselves to be the children of the wicked one. There are tares and wheat in the same field, chaff and corn in the same floor; and here we have an account of both.
I. Here is the angry notice God takes of the impudent blasphemous talk of the sinners in Zion and his just resentments of it. Probably there was a club of them that were in league against religion, that set up for wits, and set their wits on work to run it down and ridicule it, and herein strengthened one another's hands. Here is,
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1. An indictment found against them, for treasonable words spoken against the King of kings: Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. They spoke against God, in reflection upon him, in contradiction to him, as their fathers in the wilderness (Psa 78:19); yea, they spoke against God. What he said, and what he designed, they opposed, as if they had been retained of counsel against him and his cause. Their words against God were stout; they came from their pride, and haughtiness, and contempt of God. What they said against God they spoke loudly, as if they cared not who heard them; they were not themselves ashamed to say it, and they desired to propagate their atheistical notions and to infect the minds of others with them. They spoke it boldly, as those that were resolved to stand to it, and were in no fear of being called to an account. They spoke it proudly, and with insolence and disdain, scorning to be under the divine check and government. They strengthened themselves; they would be valiant against the Almighty, Job 15:25.
2. Their plea to this indictment. They said, What have we spoken so much against thee? They deny the words, and put the prophet to prove them; or, if they spoke the words, they did not design them against God, and therefore will not own there was any harm in them; at least they extenuate the matter: What have we spoken so much against thee, so much that there needs all this ado about it? They cannot deny that they have spoken against God, but they make a light matter of it, and wonder it should be taken notice of: "Words" (say they) "are but wind; others have said more and done worse; if we are not so good as we should be, yet we hope we are not so bad as we are represented to be." Note, It is common for sinners that are unconvinced and unhumbled to deny or extenuate the faults they are justly charged with, and to insist upon their own justification, against the reproofs of the word and of their own consciences. But it will be to no purpose.
3. The words themselves which they are charged with. God keeps an account of what men say, as well as of what they do, and will let them know that he does so. We quickly forget what we have said, and are ready to deny what we have said amiss; but God can say, You have said so and so. They had said it as their deliberate judgment.
(1.) That there is nothing to be got in the service of God, thought it is a service that subjects men to labour and sorrow. They said, It is vain to serve God, or, "He is vain that serves God, that is, he labours in vain and to no purpose; he has his labour for his pains, and therefore is a fool for his labour. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, or his observation, that we have observed what he has appointed us to observe?" What mammon, or wealth, have we gained, says the Chaldee, intimating (says Dr. Pocock) that it was for mammon's sake only that they served God, and so indeed not God at all, but mammon. "We have walked mournfully, or in black, with great gravity and great grief, before the Lord of hosts, have afflicted our souls at the times appointed for that purpose, and yet we are never the better." Perhaps this comes in as a reason why they would not trust God to prosper them upon their bringing in the tithes (Mal 3:10); "For," say they, "we have tried him in other things, and have lost by him." This is a very unjust and unreasonable reflection upon the service of God, and we can call witnesses enough to confront the slander. [1.] They would have it thought that they had served God and had kept his ordinances, whereas it was only the external observance of them that they had kept up, while they were perfect strangers to the inward part of the duty, and therefore might say, It is in vain. God says so (Mat 15:9), In vain do those worship me whose hearts are far from me while they draw near with their mouth; but whose fault is that? Not God's, who is the rewarder of those that seek him diligently, but theirs who seek him carelessly. [2.] They insisted much upon it that they had walked mournfully before God, whereas God had required them to serve him with gladness, and to walk cheerfully before him. They by their own superstitions made the service of God a task and drudgery to themselves, and then complained of it as a hard service. The yoke of Christ is easy; it is the yoke of antichrist that is heavy. [3.] They complained that they had got nothing by their religion; they were still in poverty and affliction, and behindhand in the world. This is an old piece of impiety. Job 21:14, Job 21:15, What profit shall we have if we pray unto him? Elihu charges Job with saying something like this. Job 34:9, It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. The enemies of religion do but set up against it the old cavils that have been long since answered and exploded. Perhaps this refers to the errors of the sect of the Sadducees, which was the scandal of the Jewish church in its latter days; they denied a future state, and then said, It is vain to serve God, which has indeed some colour in it, for, if in this life only we had hope in Christ, we were of all men most miserable, Co1 15:19. Note, Those do a great deal of wrong to God's honour who say that religion is either an unprofitable or an unpleasant thing; for the matter is not so: wisdom's ways are pleasantness, and wisdom's gains better than that of fine gold.
(2.) They maintained that wickedness was the way to prosperity, for they had observed that the workers of wickedness were set up in the world, and those that tempted God were delivered, Mal 3:15. The outward prosperity of sinners in their sins, as it has weakened the hands of the godly in their godliness (Psa 73:13), so it has strengthened the hands of the wicked in their wickedness. Note, [1.] Those that work wickedness tempt God by presumptuous sins; they do, as it were, try God, whether he can and will punish them as he has said in his word, and, in effect, challenge him to do his worst, by provoking him in the highest degree. [2.] Those that tempt God by their wicked works are many times both delivered out of the adversity into which they were justly brought and advanced to the prosperity which they were utterly unworthy of. They are not only set up once, but when we thought their day had come to fall, and they were in trouble, they were delivered and set up again; so strangely did Providence seem to smile upon them. [3.] Though it be thus, yet it will not warrant us to call the proud happy. For they may be delivered and set up for a while, but it will appear that God resists them, and that their pride is a preface to their fall; and, if so, they are truly miserable, and it is folly to call them happy, and to bless those whom the Lord abhors. Wait awhile, and you shall see those that work wickedness set up as a mark to the arrows of God's vengeance, and those that tempt God delivered to the tormentors. Judge of things as they will appear shortly, when the doom of these proud sinners (which follows here, Mal 4:1) comes to be executed to the utmost.
II. Here is the gracious notice God takes of the pious talk of the saints in Zion, and the gracious recompence of it. Even in this corrupt and degenerate age, when there was so great a decay, nay, so great a contempt, of serious godliness, there were yet some that retained their integrity and zeal for God; and let us see,
1. How they distinguished themselves, and what their character was; it was the reverse of theirs that spoke so much against God; for, (1.) They feared the Lord - that is the beginning of wisdom and the root of all religion; they reverenced the majesty of God, submitted to his authority, and had a dread of his wrath in all they thought and said; they humbly complied with God, and never spoke any stout words against him. In every age there has been a remnant that feared the Lord, though sometimes but a little remnant. (2.) They thought upon his name; they seriously considered and frequently mediated upon the discoveries God has made of himself in his word and by his providences, and their mediation of him was sweet to them and influenced them. They thought on his name; they consulted the honour of God and aimed at that as their ultimate end in all they did. Note, Those that know the name of God should often think of it and dwell upon it in their thoughts; it is a copious curious subject, and frequent thoughts of it will contribute very much to our communion with God and the stirring up of our devout affections to him. (3.) They spoke often one to another concerning the God they feared, and that name of his which they thought so much of; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, and a good man, out of a good treasure there, will bring forth good things. Those that feared the Lord kept together as those that were company for each other; they spoke kindly and endearingly one to another, for the preserving and promoting of mutual love, that that might not wax cold when iniquity did thus abound. They spoke intelligently and edifyingly to one another, for the increasing and improving of faith and holiness; they spoke one to another in the language of those that fear the Lord and think on his name - the language of Canaan. When profaneness had come to so great a height as to trample upon all that is sacred, then those that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. [1.] Then, when iniquity was bold and barefaced, the people of God took courage, and stirred up themselves, the innocent against the hypocrite, Job 17:8. The worse others are the better we should be; when vice is daring, let not virtue be sneaking. [2.] Then, when religion was reproached and misrepresented, its friends did all they could to support the credit of it and to keep it in countenance. It had been suggested that the ways of God are melancholy unpleasant ways, solitary and sorrowful; and therefore then those that feared God studied to evince the contrary by their cheerfulness in mutual love and converse, that they might put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. [3.] Then, when seducers were busy to deceive and to possess unwary souls with prejudices against religion, those that feared God were industrious to arm themselves and one another against the contagion by mutual instructions, excitements, and encouragements, and to strengthen one another's hands. As evil communication corrupts good minds and manners, so good communication confirms them.
2. How God dignified them, and what further honour and favour he intended for them. Those who spoke stoutly against God, no doubt looked with disdain and displeasure upon those that feared him, hectored and bantered them; but they had little reason to regard that, or be disturbed at it, when God countenanced them.
(1.) He took notice of their pious discourses, and was graciously present at their conferences: The Lord hearkened and heard it, and was well pleased with it. God says (Jer 8:6) that he hearkened and heard what bad men would say, and they spoke not aright; here he hearkened and heard what good men did say, for they spoke aright. Note, The gracious God observes all the gracious words that proceed out of the mouths of his people; they need not desire that men may hear them, and commend them; let them not seek praise from men by them, nor affect to be taken notice of by them; but let it satisfy them that, be the conference ever so private, God sees and hears in secret and will reward openly. When the two disciples, going to Emmaus, were discoursing concerning Christ, he hearkened and heard, and joined himself to them, and made a third, Luk 24:15.
(2.) He kept an account of them: A book of remembrance was written before him. Not that the Eternal Mind needs to be reminded of things by books and writings, but it is an expression after the manner of men, intimating that their pious affections and performances are kept in remembrance as punctually and particularly as if they were written in a book, as if journals were kept of all their conferences. Great kings had books of remembrance written, and read before them, in which were entered all the services done them, when, and by whom, as Est 2:23. God, in like manner, remembers the services of his people, that, in the review of them, he may say, Well done; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. God has a book for the sighs and tears of his mourners (Psa 56:8), much more for the pleadings of his advocates. Never was any good word spoken of God, or for God, from an honest heart, but it was registered, that it might be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, and in no wise lose its reward.
(3.) He promises them a share in his glory hereafter (Mal 3:17): They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. When God utterly cuts off the Jewish church and nation for their infidelity, the remnant among them, that believed his word, and, having waited for the consolation of Israel, welcome him when he comes, shall be admitted into the Christian church, and shall become a peculiar people to God; God will take care of them, that they perish not with those that believe not; but that they be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger against that nation. They shall be my segullah - my peculiar treasure (it is the word used, Exo 19:5), in the day when I make or do what I have said and designed to do; so some read it. These pious ones shall have all the glorious privileges of God's Israel appropriated to them and centering in them; they shall now be his peculiar treasure, when the rest are rejected; they shall now be the vessels of mercy and honour, when the rest are made vessels of wrath and dishonour, vessels in which is no pleasure. This may be applied to all the faithful people of God, and the distinction he will put between them and others in the great day. Note,[1.] The saints are God's jewels; they are highly esteemed by him and are dear to him; they are comely with the comeliness that he puts upon them, and he is pleased to glory in them; they are a royal diadem in his hand, Isa 62:3. He looks upon them as his own proper goods, his choice goods, his treasure, laid up in his cabinet, and the furniture of his closet, Psa 135:4. The rest of the world is but lumber, in comparison with them. [2.] There is a day coming when God will make up his jewels. They shall be gathered up out of the dirt into which they are now thrown, and gathered together from all places to which they are now scattered; he shall send forth his angels to gather his elect, who are his jewels, from the four winds of heaven (Mat 24:31), to gather his jewels into his jewel-house, as the wheat from several fields into the barn. All the saints will then be gathered to Christ, and none but saints, and saints made perfect; then God's jewels will be made up, as stones into a crown, as stars into a constellation. [3.] Those who now own God for theirs, he will then own for his, will publicly confess them before angels and men: "They shall be mine; their sanctification shall be completed, and so they shall be perfectly and entirely mine, without any remaining interests of the world and the flesh." Their relation to God shall be acknowledged, and his property in them. He will separate them from those that are not his, and give them their portion with those that are his; for to them it shall be said, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. They were in doubt, sometimes, whether they were belonging to God or no; but the matter shall then be put out of doubt. God himself will say unto them, You are mine. Now their relation to God is what they are reproached with, but it will then be gloried in; God himself will glory in it.
(4.) He promises them a share in his grace now: I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him. God had promised to own them as his and take them to be with him; but it might be a discouragement to them to think that they had offended God, and that he might justly disown them, and cast them off; but, as to that, he says, "I will spare them; I will not deal with them as they deserve. I will rejoice over them" (so some expound it) "as the bridegroom over his bride," Isa 62:5; Zep 3:17. But the word usually signifies to spare with commiseration and compassion, as a father pities his children, Psa 103:13. Note, [1.] It is our duty to serve God with the disposition of children. We must be his sons, must by a new birth partake of a divine nature, must consent to the covenant of adoption and partake of the spirit of adoption. And we must be his servants; God will not have his children trained up in idleness; they must do him service, and they must do it from a principle of love, with cheerfulness and delight, and as those that are therein serving their own true interest, and this is serving as a son with the father, Phi 2:22. [2.] If we serve God with the disposition of children, he will spare us with the tenderness and compassion of a Father. Even God's children that serve him stand in need of sparing mercy, that mercy to which we owe it that we are not consumed, that mercy which keeps us out of hell. Nehemiah, when he had done much good, yet, knowing there is not a just man on earth, that does good and sins not, and that every sin deserves God's wrath, prays, Lord, spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy; see Neh 13:22. And God, as a Father, will show them this mercy. He will not be extreme to mark what we do amiss, but will make the best of us and our poor performances; he will mitigate the afflictions his children are exercised with, and save them from the ruin they deserve. The father continues to spare the son, and does it with complacency, because he is his own; thus God will spare humble penitents and petitioners, as a man spares his son that serves him, though we do him so little service, nay, though we do him so much disservice.
3. How they will thus be distinguished from the children of this world (Mal 3:18): "Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between sinners and saints, between those that serve God and make conscience of their duty to him and those that serve him not, but put contempt upon his service. You that now speak against God as making no difference between good and bad, and therefore say, It is in vain to serve him (Mal 3:14), you shall be made to see your error; you that would speak for God, but know not what to say as to this, that there seems to be one event to the righteous and to the wicked, and all things come alike to all, will then have the matter set in a true light, and will see, to your everlasting satisfaction, the difference between the righteous and the wicked. Then you shall return, that is, you shall change you mind, and come to a right understanding of the thing." This primarily respects the manifest difference that was made by the divine Providence between the believing Jews and those that persisted in their infidelity, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation, by the Romans. But it is to have its full accomplishment at the second coming of Jesus Christ, and on that great discriminating day when it shall be easy enough to discern between the righteous and the wicked. Note, (1.) All the children of men are either righteous or wicked, either such as serve God or such as serve him not. This is that division of the children of men which will last for ever, and by which their eternal state will be determined; all are going either to heaven or to hell. (2.) In this world it is often hard to discern between the righteous and the wicked. They are mingled together, good fish and bad in the same net. The righteous are so distempered, and the wicked so disguised, that we are often deceived in our opinions concerning both the one and the other. There are many who, we think, serve God, who, having not their hearts right with him, will be found none of his servants; and, on the other hand, many will be found his faithful servants, who, because they followed not with us, did not, as we thought, serve him. But that which especially raised the difficulty here was that the divine Providence seemed to make no difference between the righteous and the wicked; you could not know wicked men by God's frowning upon them, for they commonly prospered in the world, nor righteous men by his smiling upon them, for they were involved with others in the same common calamity. None now knows God's love or hatred by all that is before him, Ecc 9:1. (3.) At the bar of Christ, in the last judgment, it will be easy to discern between the righteous and the wicked; for then every man's character will be both perfected and perfectly discovered, every man will then appear in his true colours, and his disguises will be taken off. Some men's sins indeed go beforehand, and you may now tell who is wicked, but others follow after; however, in the great day, we shall see who was righteous and who wicked. Every man's condition likewise will be both perfected and everlastingly determined; the righteous will then be perfectly happy and the wicked perfectly miserable, without mixture or allay. When the righteous are all set on the right hand of Christ, and invited to come for a blessing, and all the wicked on his left hand, and are told to depart with a curse, then it will be easy to discern between them. As to ourselves, therefore, we are concerned to think among which we shall have our lot, and, as to others, we must judge nothing before the time.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Your words have been stout against me, saith the…
Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord,.... Hard and strong; they bore very hardly upon him, were exceeding impudent and insolent; murmuring at his providence; arraigning his justice and goodness; and despising his word, worship, and ordinances. Aben Ezra says, this is a prophecy concerning the time to come, that is, the times of the Messiah; and so it describes the Jews in his times.
Yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? or "what have we spoken against thee?" as if they were not guilty in any respect, and as if nothing could be proved against them; and as though the Lord did not know what they had said in their hearts, seeing they had not spoken it with their mouths: though the supplement of our translators, "so much", is confirmed by the Targum, which is,
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"and if ye say, how (or in what) have we multiplied speech before thee?''
and so Kimchi observes, that the form in which the Hebrew word is denotes much and frequent speaking: and Abarbinel agrees with him, though he rather thinks it has this sense, "what are we spoken of to thee?" what calumny is this? what accusation do they bring against us to thee? what is it that is reported we say against thee? thus wiping their mouths, as if they were innocent and harmless.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Your words have been stout against me]…
Verse 13. Your words have been stout against me] He speaks here to open infidels and revilers.
What have we spoken] They are ready either to deny the whole, or impudently to maintain and defend what they had spoken!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mal 3:13-15. Your words, &c. — “From this verse…
Mal 3:13-15. Your words, &c. — “From this verse to the end of Mal 4:3, the prophet expostulates with the wicked for their hard speeches; and declares that God will make a fearful distinction between them and the righteous.” — Newcome. Have been stout against me — Your words have been blasphemous, and void of all reverence and duty. Ye have spoken injuriously of me, and have uttered such things as dishonour me. Ye have even arraigned my proceedings, and spoken against them. Yet ye say, What have we spoken, &c. — This is to the same purport as their words in Mal 3:8, and some other foregoing verses. They impudently deny the charge, therefore the prophet renews it against them in the following words; Ye have said — If not with your lips, yet at least in your hearts; It is vain to serve God — We receive no advantage from it, it is of no use to us. That they should talk thus impiously in the times of Zerubbabel, when Malachi uttered these reproofs and exhortations, is not probable; but God, who sees into the hearts of men, saw, lurking in their hearts, the seeds of that impiety which broke out in the following age. And what profit is it — What benefit is it of to us; that we have kept his ordinance — That we have attended upon the institutions of his worship, and have governed our lives according to his laws? And that we have walked mournfully before the Lord — Have humbled ourselves before him with fasting and prayer, sackcloth and ashes. Their beholding the prosperity of the wicked made them conclude, that it was to no purpose to walk according to the laws of God, or to confess their offences and express their sorrow for them. And, or rather, but, or therefore, now we call the proud happy — Those who behave themselves arrogantly against God, the proud contemners of his law. We can now do no less than think them happiest who do not concern themselves about the observance of God’s laws, but live according to their pleasure, and do every thing that their inclination or profit prompts them to do, without any fear of God’s calling them to an account for it. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up — Are the flourishing ones; are raised to prosperity, as buildings are to their height. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered — Yea, they who, one would have supposed, should have wearied out God’s patience with their provocations, who have seemed to act as if they tried to provoke him, even these men escape those dangers and calamities which other men are involved in. Those who spake thus seem to have expected an exact distribution of temporal rewards and punishments to be made to good and bad men in this life.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Your words have been stout against Me - ,…
Your words have been stout against Me - , probably “oppressive to Me,” as it is said, the famine was strong upon the land. And ye have said, “What have we spoken among ourselves against Thee?” Again, the entire unconsciousness of self-ignorance and self-conceit! They had criticized God, and knew it not. “Before, he had said Mal 2:17. ‘Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, and ye said, Wherein have we wearied Him? When ye said, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord’” etc.
Now he repeats this more fully. For the people who returned from Babylon seemed to have a knowledge of God, and to observe the law, and to understand their sin, and to offer sacrifices for sin; to pay tithes, to observe the sabbath, and the rest, commanded in the law of God, and seeing all the nations around them abounding in all things, and that they themselves were in penury, hunger and misery, was scandalized and said, ‘What does it benefit me, that I worship the One True God, abominate idols, and, pricked with the consciousness of sin, walk mournfully before God?’ A topic, which is pursued more largely in Ps. 73.” Only the Psalmist relates his temptations to God, and God’s deliverance of him from them; these adopted them and spake them against God. They claim, for their partial and meagre service, to have fulfilled God’s law, taking to themselves God’s words of Abraham, “he kept My charge” .
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain The Coming of a Day of Judgment which will…
SECTION VI
The Coming of a Day of Judgment which will vindicate the Ways of God, and reward the Righteous and punish the Wicked. Elijah the Prophet
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Mal_3:13 to Mal_4:6
13Your words have been stout [bold] against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 14Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully [gloomily] before [because of Jehovah] the Lord of Hosts? 15And now16 we call the proud happy; yea they that work wickedness are set up; yea,17 they that tempt God are even delivered. 16Then they that feared the Lord spake often18 [ nothing corresponding to often in Hebrew] one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance19 was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. 17And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels20 [or possession]; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18Then shall ye return21 [again], and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
Footnotes:
[16]Mal_3:15.—עַתָּה, a particle of inference, chaps. 1:9, 2:1. (Ewald, 353.)
[17]Mal_3:15.—The second גַם marks a climax. Nordh. 1096.
[18]Mal_3:16.—Spake often. The same word is used in Mal_3:13, and translated, spoken. The word often is not in the Hebrew.
[19]Mal_3:16.—Remembrance (זִכָּרוֹן), found in Exo_28:29; Num_10:10.
[20]Mal_3:17.—סְגֻלָּה, jewels (Exo_19:5; Deu_7:6; Deu_26:18).
[21]Mal_3:18.—Return, שׁוּב, is used here as in 1:4, as an adverb, again (Gen_14:2).
Mal_4:1-6
1For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all [ plural in LXX., Targum, and eighty MSS.] 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. 2But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun [ fem. as in Gen_15:17; Jer_15:9; Nah_3:17] of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up1 [leap for joy] as calves of the stall. 3And 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. 4Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, Which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with [strike out: with] the [as] statutes and judgments [precepts]. 5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet2 before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to [עַל, to or together with] the children [sons], and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Mal_3:13. Your words have been bold against me. Jehovah through the Prophet, now shows the people that their murmuring against Him and his service as unprofitable is unjust. Hengstenberg and Reinke suppose that there is a dialogue between the Prophet and the people, that they reply to the Prophet’s words, and contradict them. Jehovah has said, Prove me now herewith? They reply, The wicked prove God, and are delivered. The Prophet says: They shall call you happy. They answer: And now we call the wicked happy. The Prophet says: Ye have not observed mine ordinances. The people reply: We have observed them. But as this view is too ingenious, and the Niphal is used, They spake one to another, they conversed about God, and as it is analogous to 2:17, Ye have wearied me with your words, we must reject it.
Your words are stout, that is, bold, presumptuous, impudent. We have the substance of them, that it was profitless to serve God, since He was not a righteous God, and that therefore they are to be called happy who sought to secure their earthly well-being, without regard to God. Such hard speeches of ungodly sinners against God never pass the lips of a pious Asaph or Job, not even in the times of sorest trial, and in hours of the deepest darkness. They, though uttering despairing feeling, never draw such conclusions, nor go so far as to renounce God. Some have found the atheism of these sinners in the phrase serve God, instead of serve Jehovah.
Mal_3:14. We have kept his ordinance. We have observed all the prescribed rites. Walked mournfully, to go about in sackcloth, to neglect their appearance in token of fasting, and for the sake of Jehovah. They lay stress upon fasting, whether prescribed or voluntary, which was regarded as more meritorious. They attributed worth to the opus operatum of fasting, a disposition attacked by Isaiah in Isaiah 58., which increased after the Captivity, until it culminated in the fasting twice in the week of the Pharisees. They felt that they had claims upon God, and complained that He did not reward them for it.
Mal_3:15. And now we call the proud happy. In consequence of the supposed uselessness of their piety, and the adversity in which Jehovah suffered them to remain, they, unlike Asaph, offend against the generation of God’s children by speaking thus, and begin to call the haughty sinners happy, as those who have chosen the best part. We must again regard the proud here as in Mal_2:17, as godless sinners in Israel. They must be the same with the proud in Mal_4:1, which Hengstenberg admits refers to sinners in Zion, though here he refers it to the heathen. The heathen are spoken of as the objects of the divine punishment, only when they have harmed God’s people, and never where the sins of his people are rebuked. The people now give the reason why they considered the haughty sinners happy. They appeal to the matter of fact, that, though the wicked have put God to the test by their sins, calling down the vengeance of heaven, yet they have been unpunished, and their condition is therefore to be envied. The two clauses correspond to each other, and are placed in a reciprocal relation to each other by the double yea (גַם).
Mal_3:16. Then they that feared the Lord spake one to another. The prophet now in a narrative form gives the speeches of the godly in contrast with the hard speeches of the ungodly. There were a faithful few who feared God with a holy fear, and who valued his name, who, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, believed that verily there a God judging the earth. The language of the ungodly was the occasion of their speaking together, not, often, as in our version. It was then (אָז) they testified their faith in God. We need not adopt the view of Maurer and Hitzig, that vav. conv. is to be translated that, and begins the quotation of their very words, for this is contrary to usage. We have not the substance of their conversation. Jerome imagines that it was a defense of God’s dealings, which is doubtless correct. They sighed and cried for the abominations of the times (Eze_9:4). Horror took hold of them because of the wicked who forsook God’s law, and they exhorted one another daily not to lose their faith in God, as holy and righteous. Their conduct and words pleased God, and to show the certainty of their reward He is represented as recording their names and good deeds in a book of remembrance, lest He should forget to reward them. Some have found an allusion to the custom of ancient kings keeping books, in which all the most important events of their reigns were recorded, as in Est_6:1-2, but it rests upon a much older and Scriptural idea, that the names and actions of the righteous are written in a book before God (Psa_56:9; Dan_7:10). The Pirke Avoth, a collection of the sayings of the Rabbis, quotes this passage, and the comment of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradjon: “Where two sit together, and there are no words of the law spoken between them, there is the seat of the scorner of whom it is said, ‘He sitteth not in the seat of the scorner;’ but where two sit together, and words of the law are spoken between them, there dwells the Shekinah among them, as it is written, ‘Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.’ ”
Mal_3:17. And they shall be mine, etc. We find the additional promise, They shall be to me a peculiar treasure, not jewels, specifically, as in our version. The accents make סְגֻלָּח (possession), the object of make, but most of the recent commentators, following the LXX., the Targum, and Jerome, regard it as the predicate of, They shall be to me. They shall be my possession in the day with I make, or appoint. In favor of this, we find the same words in Exo_19:5, to which- this verse doubtless refers. “Ye shall be to me a peculiar possession out of all nations,” and also in Deu_7:6 : “The Lord, thy God, hath chosen thee to be to Him a people of possession.” Further, in Mal_3:3, we find the same phrase as here, the day I make, or appoint. In the New Testament, this language is borrowed from the LXX. to represent the relation of believers to God, as in 1Pe_2:9; Eph_1:14; 2Th_2:14; Tit_2:14, where we find a peculiar people, where the same word, περί ποίησιν, is used, as in the Septuagint translation of this passage.
I will spare them—manifest tender compassion to them, as a man spareth not his son merely, but his son, who serveth him, who is filial and obedient. “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Psa_103:13).
Mal_3:18. Then shall ye again discern between. The subject of the verb must be the wicked murmurers, and not, as Henderson thinks, the righteous. The wicked had arraigned God’s Justice, now they shall be forced to acknowledge it in their own punishment. The word שׂוּב in Hebrew is sometimes used as an adverb. It is so regarded here by Köhler, Keil, Gesenius, Henderson, and others. Hengstenberg and Keil find in Mal_3:18 a reference to Exo_11:7, where it is said: “The Lord put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” Köhler understands by it, that the wicked would now stand in a different relation to the question than they did before, that they would, in the future, in consequence of Jehovah’s judgments, recognize that difference. Calvin understands it, “if a different state of things.” We are not to put too much emphasis upon it, nor need we refer it to any special case. The preposition between, seems to be used here as a noun, though not strictly such, in the sense of difference. The time will come, when ye will see the between in relation to the righteous and the wicked, as in Isa_65:13-14 : “Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry. My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall howl for vexation of spirit.”
Mal_4:1. For, behold, the day cometh. In Hebrew, there are but three chapters in Malachi, the third chapter containing twenty-four verses, instead of eighteen, as in our version. Most of the modern Versions begin unnecessarily here a new chapter. The prophet now describes the results of that appointed day, first to the wicked (Malachi 3:19), and then to the righteous, in Malachi 3:20, 24.
Behold, the day cometh! We find similar language in Zep_1:15 : “That day is a day of wrath, Dies lrœ, Dies Illa, and in Joe_2:31, where we find “the great and terrible day of the Lord.” Some have referred the day here spoken of to the destruction of Jerusalem, others to the last great day. While it is to receive its fulfillment in the last day, yet it is capable of more than one fulfillment. It is fulfilled in every coming to judgment. As Wordsworth says: “All God’s judgments are hours, marked on the dial-plate, and struck by the alarum of that great day.” The destruction of Jerusalem was but the fiery and blood-red dawn of that day of days. To the ungodly it will be like a furnace, where the five burns most fiercely, and which scorches and consumes everything which comes near it. They that do wickedly will then be as the dry chaff, which is utterly consumed. Isaiah uses the same figure; Isa_5:21; and Obadiah, Oba_1:18; Zec_12:6; Mat_3:12; Luk_3:17.
That it shall leave, etc. The אֲשֶׁר here is not a relative pronoun, as Maurer and Reinke sup pose, but a conjunction; so Keil, Köhler, and Ewald, so that neither root, nor branch, a proverb, to express utter destruction; not one shall escape.
John the Baptist made this verse the text of his exhortations when he spoke of the axe laid to the root of the tree, and the chaff burnt with unquenchable fire.
Mal_4:2. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise. Jehovah now turns, and directly addresses the righteous, and promises them that the Sun of Righteousness will rise upon them. There has been much difference of opinion as to whether the Sun of Righteousness was to be understood personally of Christ, or whether it is only a genitive of apposition—the sun, which is righteousness, or, righteousness, as a sun. The Fathers, Eusebius, Cyril, Theodoret, the early Protestant commentators, and a majority of modern ones, refer it to Christ, while the Jewish commentators, and Hengstenberg, Keil, Reinke, Köhler, refer it to the consummation of salvation, in which Jehovah’s righteousness reveals itself to the godly. Hengstenberg admits that the interpretation which refers it to Christ is well founded, though he does not find in it a distinct allusion to the person of Christ. Keil, while interpreting it, that righteousness, that is, salvation, is regarded as a sun, yet concedes that the personal view is founded upon a truth, that the coming of Christ brings righteousness. Henderson remarks: “There can be no doubt with respect to the application,” and refers to the passage where Christ is called the light of men, the light of the world, a great light (Isa_9:1), a light to the Gentiles (Isa_49:6), the true light, the day-spring from on high. Moore remarks: “We cannot think that the prophet here meant to predict Christ personally, or, indeed, to look at the ground of this righteousness at all.” We think it safer, from the parallel passages, from exegetical tradition, and from the internal evidence, commending itself to every believing heart, and which has found expression in hymns, and in the recorded religious history of multitudes, to understand this sublime figure not of an abstract righteousness, but of a personal Christ.
Healing in its wings. The beams of this sun are compared to the outstretched wings of a bird, to which they bear some resemblance. The figure is not to be carried out so far as to refer to the swiftness of a bird, or to the protection of her young by the mother bird, but is to be confined simply to healing…Healing or salvation comes to the God-fearing through the wings, or beams of this sun, shining fully upon them. As when the sun returns to the earth in spring time, all nature rejoices in its light and warmth, so the righteous shall be awaked to a new life by the beams of this sun.
And ye shall go forth, and leap as calves. The righteous shall go forth from darkness, and their joy is compared, in a simple and childlike manner, to that of calves, let loose from the stall to go to pasture, who frisk and leap for joy.
Mal_4:3. They shall be ashes. The wicked, who have troubled them, shall be as little regarded by them as the ashes trodden under foot of men.
Mal_4:4. Remember ye the law of Moses. Now follows an exhortation as to the way in which the coming judgment is to be averted. We have here the conclusion of the whole book, and the appropriate sealing up of the Old Testament. There is in it an intimation, that no further communications are to be made. As they had gone away from God’s law, now they must give all diligence to observe and obey it. The Septuagint, it is difficult to see for what reason, has transposed this verse, and placed it at the end of the book, where it is out of place, as it serves as the introduction to the promise of John the Baptist, and the reformation to be wrought by him. Hengstenberg and Reinke suppose the reason of the transposition is to be found in the great importance of the precept, but the more probable reason is, that it was done, as in other cases, to avoid top harsh a sound in the last verse.
Which I commanded him, not whom I commanded, as Ewald, Reinke, and Bunsen. Jehovah calls attention to the divine authority and origin of the law. Moses was but the servant of Jehovah.
Statutes and Judgments. These words are found in the same combination in Deu_4:8, and may be construed as an exegetical definition, belonging to which, or with Köhler, as the predicate, which are statutes and judgments.
Mal_4:5. Behold I will send Elijah the prophet. We have here a repetition of the promise in Mal_3:1 in a more specific form. Behold, I will send Elijah, not the Tishbite, as the Septuagint has it, but Elijah the prophet. But why is John the Baptist here called Elijah? The angel before his birth said unto his father, Zacharias, “And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah.” There were many points of resemblance between Elijah and John. Both prophesied in a time of great unbelief and apostasy from the law; both sought to bring back the people to the piety of their fathers; both prophesied before great and terrible judgments. The historical circumstances in which they lived were remarkably parallel. Ahab reappears in Herod, Jezebel in Herodias The words of Mar_6:20, where he speaks of Herod, fearing John, and did many things, apply without any alteration to Ahab. Their very appearance, the fashion of their dress, and their mode of life, were identical. Bengel says of John: “Even the dress and food of John were in accordance with his teaching and office. The minister of repentance led the same life as penitents themselves should lead.” His mode of life was a sermon de facto on mortification. We may thus clearly see why John should be called in prophecy, which, for the most part, suppresses names, and which throws a thin veil of obscurity over its subjects, Elijah, just as Jesus himself was called David, because he was the son and successor of David (Hos_3:5; Eze_34:23; Eze_37:24; Jer_30:9). The interpretation of this prophecy, that Elijah was to reappear before the coming of the Messiah, has been universally held by the Jews, and the obstinacy with which they have clung to this opinion, received by tradition from their fathers, has been a great hindrance to their receiving Jesus as the Christ. In this interpretation, they have been countenanced by most of the Fathers, as Chrysostom, Origen, Cyril, Theodoret, Theophylact, Jerome, Tertullian, Augustine, who held to two Elijahs of prophecy, the one, John the Baptist, and the other, Elijah in person, who was to reappear, to convert the Jews, and prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord. The Romish commentators, in consequence of this consent of the Fathers, have held it a heresy, or next to a heresy, to reject this interpretation. Some few modern Protestant commentators, as Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, Olshausen, Alford, Stier, and Ryle, have adopted the same view. Alford says: “John the Baptist only partially fulfilled the great prophecy, which announced the real Elias (the words of Malachi will hardly bear any other than a personal meaning) who is to forerun the second and greater coming.”
We have two most important declarations of our Lord’s on the Elijah of Malachi. Speaking of John the Baptist, he said: “This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I will send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. And if ye will receive it, This is Elias, who was to come.” Here our Lord declares that John fulfilled both prophecies in Malachi, and that he was his forerunner. And further, that so obstinate were their foregone conclusions, that Ηe did not expect they would believe it.
In Mat_17:10, “His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the Scribes, that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things, but I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Then understood his disciples, that He spake unto them of John the Baptist.” We would remark, that this conversation was soon after the Transfiguration of our Lord, when Elijah appeared. Sharing the common Jewish opinion, and supposing his residence with our Saviour would be a permanent one, they were perplexed at his disappearance. Their question led our Lord to speak of the prophecy of Malachi, and to place Himself at the time of its utterance, when the coming of Elijah as John was yet future. Hence He uses the future in speaking of John’s agency. Alford infers from the use of the future, that Elijah is yet to reappear, but it can be easily explained in the way which has been done.
Again, the denial of John (Joh_1:21) has been made use of by the few Protestant commentators who have held the view of another Elijah. John did not deny to the deputation from the Sanhedrim, that he was the Elijah of Malachi. This he affirms, when he says, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord;” but that he was Elijah in their sense, Alford finds in, If ye will receive it, a confirmation of his views, but this expression strengthens the exclusive reference to John the Baptist, that it was so plain, that nothing but the most inveterate prejudice prevented their acknowledging it.
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day. This expression, the great and terrible day, is found in Joe_2:31. The day (Mal_3:17; Mal_4:1-5) throughout has the same meaning. It refers especially to the destruction of Jerusalem. When the Lord Jesus came, it was not only to give eternal life to those who received Him, but for judgment upon those who rejected Him. His coming was necessarily followed by the condemnation of the unbelieving. The Gospel is always a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death. But these words have more than one fulfillment. The last and perfect one will be in the last day.
Mal_4:6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children. Some commentators, among whom are Ewald, Maurer, and Henderson, understand this of a restoration of family harmony, but it is better to understand it of a reconciliation between the ungodly, estranged from the piety of their ancestors and their pious forefathers, produced by repentance. Thus the bond of union, which had been broken, will be restored. That such is the meaning is proved by Luk_1:16-17, where “the disobedient to the wisdom, or disposition, of the just,” is substituted, as containing the same sense.
Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. By the earth here is meant, the land of Israel. The word, חֵרֶם, curse, means anything devoted to the Lord, and is sometimes used in a good sense, as in Lev_27:28. More generally, however, in a bad sense, as in Zec_14:11, where it is translated, utter destruction, the ban of extermination.
The close of the Old Testament in Malachi is unspeakably solemn. On its last leaf we find the blessing and the curse, life and death, set before us. As its first page tells us of the sin and curse of our first parents, so its last speaks of the law given by Moses, of sin, and the curse following, mingled with promises of the grace which was to come by Jesus Christ. So on the last page of the New Testament, we read of “plagues written in this book,” but its last words are gracious words: “Surely I come quickly ! Amen. Even so. Come, Lord Jesus ! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Amen.”3
DOCTRINAL AND PRACTICAL
Wordsworth: “The concluding sentence of Malachi is a solemn warning to these latter days. The Holy Spirit knows what is best for us. He warns us of future punishment, in order that we may escape it, and that we may inherit everlasting glory. Knowing the terror of the Lord, he would persuade men. And the character of these latter days, when the Evil One is endeavoring to lure men into his own grasp, and to make them his victims forever, by dissolving God’s attributes into one universal fullness of undiscriminating love; and by endeavoring to persuade them that his justice and holiness are mere ideal theories and visionary phantoms, and that there is no judgment to come, and that the terrors of hell are but a dream, in defiance of the clear words of Him who is the Truth (Mar_9:44; Mat_25:46), shows that there is divine foresight in this warning by Malachi. Let it not be forgotten that the Apostle of love, St. John, ends his Epistle with a warning against idolatry, and that at the close of the Apocalypse, there is a solemn declaration against all who tamper with any words of that book, which speaks in the clearest terms concerning judgment, I heaven, hell, and eternity. May we have grace so to profit by this solemn warning, that we may escape the malediction of those on the left hand at the great day, and inherit the blessing which will be pronounced to those on the right hand by the almighty and everlasting Judge! Now unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen!
Keil: After Malachi, no prophet arose in Israel, until the time was fulfilled, when the Elijah predicted by him appeared in John the Baptist, and immediately afterwards the Lord came to his temple, that is to say, the incarnate Son of God to his own possession, to make all who receive Him children of God. Upon the Mount of Transfiguration, 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, who earnestly prayed, “Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou hast turned their heart back again!” to talk with Jesus of his decease, for a practical testimony 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.
M. Henry on Mal_3:14 : Walked mournfully. They insisted much upon it, that they had walked mournfully before God, whereas God had required them to serve Him with gladness and to walk cheerfully before Him. They by their own superstitions made the service of God a task and drudgery to themselves, and then complained of it as a hard service. The yoke of Christ is easy; it is the yoke of Antichrist that is heavy. They complained that they had got nothing by their religion; they denied a future state, and then said: It is vain to serve God, which has indeed some color in it, for if in this life only we had hope in Christ, we were of all men most miserable.
Note.—Those do a great deal of wrong to God’s honor, who say that religion is either an unprofitable or an unpleasant tiling; for the matter is not so; wisdom’s ways are pleasantness, and wisdom’s gains are better than that of fine gold.
M. Henry on Malachi 4:16. They spake often, etc. Even in that corrupt and degenerate age, there were some that retained their integrity and zeal for God. In every age, there has been a remnant that feared the Lord, though sometimes but a little remnant. They thought upon his name; they seriously considered, and frequently meditated upon the discoveries God had made of Himself, and their meditation of Him was sweet. They consulted the honor of God, and aimed at that as their ultimate end in all they did. They spake often one to another concerning the God they feared, and that name of his, which they thought so much of; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak; and a good man out of the good treasure of his heart will bring forth good things. They that feared the Lord kept together as those that were company for each other; they spake kindly and endearingly one to another, for the preserving and promoting mutual love, that that might not wax cold when iniquity did thus abound. They spake edifyingly to one another, for the increase of faith and holiness; they spake one to another in the language of Canaan; when profaneness was to come to so great a height as to trample upon all that is sacred, then they spake often one to another. The worse others are, the better we should be; when vice is daring, let not virtue be sneaking. They were industrious to arm themselves and one another against the contagion by mutual instructions and encouragements, and to strengthen one another s hands. As evil communications corrupt good minds and manners, so good communications confirm them.
Moore: When the wicked are talking against God, the righteous should talk for Him. Religious conversation is necessary, all the more, for the very reasons that often chill and repress it. When a fire burns low, the coals that are alive should be brought near together, that they may be blown into a flame. So when all is cold and dead, living Christians should draw near and seek the breathings, of the Spirit, and kindle each other by mutual utterance. The words thus and then spoken shall be heard and recorded in heaven.
Doddridge has versified Malachi 4:16, 17:—
The Lord on mortal worms looks down
From his celestial throne;
And when the wicked swarm around,
He well discerns his own.
The chronicles of heaven shall keep
Their words in transcript fair;
In the Redeemer’s book of life,
Their names recorded are.
Wordsworth: Malachi, as successor to Zechariah, discharged a peculiar office. Zechariah is one of the most sublime and impassioned among “the goodly fellowship” of the Prophets. The light of the sunset of prophecy is as brilliant and glorious as its noonday splendors. The prophecy of Zechariah is an impetuous torrent, sweeping along in a violent stream, dashing over rugged rocks, and hurling itself down in headlong cataracts, and carrying everything with it in its foaming flood. In Malachi, it tempers its vehemence in the clear haven of a translucent pool; there it rested in peace for four hundred years, till it flowed forth again in the Gospel.
M. Henry, on Malachi 4. Mal_4:4 : Observe the honorable mention that is made of Moses, the first writer of the Old Testament, in Malachi, the last writer. God calls him Moses, my servant, for the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. See how the penmen of Scripture, though they lived at a great distance of time from each other (it was twelve hundred years from Moses to Malachi) concurred in the same thing, all actuated and guided by one and the same spirit.
Pressel: We meet sometimes in the Old Testament with passages, like flowers among the rocks, which anticipate the New Testament. Of this kind are the few passages in which God is regarded not as Lord but as Father (Deu_32:6; 2Sa_7:14; Psa_89:27; Psa_103:13; Isa_63:16; Jer_31:20; Hos_1:10; Mal_3:17). God appears in them indeed more as the Father of the whole nation, than in a personal relation to individuals. The joyfulness of the sonship of individuals does not attain prominence, and it was not the prevailing consciousness of the whole people; but these few traces of the fatherhood of God disclose the continuity of both Testaments. The relation, which was not possible for the Old Testament Church, the New Covenant has granted us through Jesus Christ, and what the New has thus granted, the Old had already foreshadowed.
Though the prophecy of Malachi, of the coming of the Messiah, of the judgment accompanying it, and of the sending of the forerunner, contains nothing at all which would lead us to suppose that the first coming would find its fulfillment in a second at the end of days, before which time there should happen his rejection by his people, his redeeming work on Golgotha, and the whole history of the spread of his Gospel even to the ends of the earth, yet nothing can be concluded from this against the truth, that this last prophecy of the Old Testament had begun to be fulfilled in the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth; for the occasion and design of this last prophecy had nothing to do with the subsequent events; for God reveals to his faithful people at every stage, and under all relations, only just so much as they need. The Old Testament has sufficiently disclosed the most glorious glimpses into the Messianic future, as special Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, and other books testify, but here the object is only to enforce on the light-minded and scoffing contemporaries of the prophet the ineffaceable difference between the godly and ungodly, and the certainty of the day in which that difference would be revealed to all eyes. It was for this object, that what God communicated to them through his prophets of the coming of the Lord, and the sending of his Forerunner, was exactly what they needed.
Mal_3:16-17. Then they that feared the Lord. What is the frivolity and scorn of the world, when compared with the refuge of the pious in the word of God, in the communion of those like-minded, in prayer, and in a blessed hereafter!
The Lord knoweth them that are his! This Holy Scripture everywhere testifies. Does also the Spirit of God testify it to our spirits?
The names of those who are registered in our church books are not all found in God’s book of remembrance. As it was a great privilege to be numbered among the people of Israel, so it is one now to be numbered in our church books as a Christian; but as then there was a difference between those whose names were in God’s book, and those who were not, so it is still now.
“In thy fair book of life and grace,
O may I find my name,
Recorded in some humble place,
Beneath my Lord, the Lamb.”
This is the highest distinction to which man can attain: all others are but a shadow, when compared with it. It is a distinction most undeserved, and yet promised to the sincere and pious. It excludes all merit, and yet it is a reward of true piety.
Mal_4:1. For behold the day comes!
“That day of wrath ! that dreadful day !
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner’s stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day !”
Mal_4:2 What will the day of the Lord bring to the righteous, according to the promise of the Old Testament? The Sun of righteous ness; salvation under his wings; the joy of freedom; the triumph over the common enemies of the Lord and his people.
Mal_4:4-5 Moses and Elijah must even now go before the Lord: How far have they come to us? Or, Conversion is the turning point, where the Old Covenant ends, and the New begins: the heart begins, and the life must end.
Mal_4:6. He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. How has the Word of God laid upon us the duty of our conversion, and that of our families! Grant me the heavenly joy, that after many a struggle, I may with rapture say, Dearest Father! Here am I, and those whom thou hast given me! No one of them is lost! all are prepared for thy kingdom! That this may be our experience, we must strive by persevering prayer, and it will, when realized, be a matter of heavenly joy. Finally: The last word of the Old Testament is the threatening of the curse; of the New, the prayer, “Even so come, Lord Jesus!” What should we wish our last word to be?
Chrysostom on, Behold the day cometh! Let us then imagine that that day has come, and let each one examine his reflections, and let him suppose that the Judge is already present, and that all things are revealed and published; for we must not only stand there, but also be made manifest. Would you not blush? would you not be beside yourselves? For if now, when the occasion is not yet present, but is merely supposed, and represented to the imagination, we are overwhelmed by our reflections, what shall we do, when that day has come,—when the whole world is present,—when angels and archangels, when crowded myriads, and the hurrying to and fro of all have come; and we are caught up in the clouds, and the gathering together full of terror has come; when trumpet after trumpet shall sound exceeding loud,—when all these have come For even if there were no hell, what a punishment to be thrust out in the midst of such splendor, and to depart dishonored! For if even now, when a king and his retinue make a triumphal entry, the poor, reflecting on their poverty, receive not so much pleasure from the spectacle, as mortification, that they are not admitted to the presence of the king, nor share his favor, what will it be then! Or, do you consider it a light punishment not to be numbered in that company, not to be counted worthy of that unspeakable glory, to be thrust out from that joyful assembly, and from those unutterable blessings? when too, there shall be darkness, and gnashing of teeth, and everlasting chains, and the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched, and tribulation and anguish, and tongues parched like the rich man’s; when we shall beg for mercy, but no one shall hear; when we shall groan and howl because of our torments, and no one shall heed; and look round everywhere, and nowhere shall there be any to comfort us, what shall we say to those in such a condition, what can be more wretched than their souls! what more pitiable! For if we enter a prison, and see the squalid prisoners, some bound and famishing, others shut up in darkness, we weep aloud, we shudder, and avoid imprisonment there, when we are dragged away by force into the very torments of hell, what shall become of us! For these chains are not of iron, but of fire, never to be quenched; nor are our jailers men, whom it is often possible to persuade, but angels, whom we dare not look upon, because they are exceedingly enraged, that we have insulted their Lord. We do not see there, as here, some bringing money, some food others comforting words so that prisoners obtain some mitigation. Everything there is beyond the reach of alleviation. Even if Noah, or Job, or Daniel, should see their own families suffering punishment. they would not dare to relieve them. For natural sympathy is there extinguished. For while it is the case, that righteous parents have wicked children, and righteous children wicked parents, that the pleasure may there be unalloyed, and that those who enjoy the blessings may not lose their fruition from sympathy, even this natural affection, I say, is extinguished, and they share in their Lord’s indignation against their own offspring. For if common men, when they see their children wicked, disinherit them, and cut them off from the family, much more shall the righteous them. Therefore, let no one hope for good things, who has done no good work, though he may have ten thousand righteous ancestors, “for every one shall receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done.” And here I think I will make use of this fear to attack the adulterers, and not them only, but all those who do any wrong thing whatever. Let us ourselves hear therefore these things; if you have the fire of lust, oppose to it that fire, and being extinguished, it will quickly go out. If you are about to utter anything uncharitable, reflect on the gnashing of teeth, and your fear will be a bridle to you; if you wish to steal, hear the Judge commanding and saying, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness,” and you will in this way cast out your lust; if you are a drunkard, and spend your time in debauchery, hear the rich man saying, “Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my parched tongue,” and not obtaining his request, and you will get rid of this passion. If you love luxury, consider the tribulation and anguish there, and you will desire it no more; if you are harsh and cruel, remember those virgins who, because their lamps had gone out, were shut out of the bridal chamber, and you will soon become kind-hearted. Are you slothful? Think of him who hid the talent, and you will become more ardent than fire. Does covetousness of your neighbor’s property consume you? Think of the worm that never dies, and yon will easily get rid of this disease, and will reform all other sins, for He has commanded nothing burdensome or grievous. Why them do his commandments seem grievous to us? From our slothfulness. For as when we are zealous, even those things which seem intolerable will be light and easy, so when we are slothful, the things which are tolerable will appear to us grievous. In view of all this, let us not regard those who live luxuriously, but remember their end; let us not regard the extortioners, but remember their end,—here cares and fears and anguish of soul, and there everlasting chains; let us not regard the lovers of glory, but remember what it begets,—here slavery and hypocrisy, and there intolerable loss, and perpetual burning. For if we would thus reason with ourselves, and continually oppose these and the like things to our wicked lusts, we should speedily cast out the love of the present, and kindle the love of the future. Let us now therefore kindle it, and burn with it. For if the meditation on these things, imperfect as it may be, gives such pleasure, think how much delight a perfect realization will be. Happy, thrice happy, yea, infinitely happy are those who enjoy such blessings, as wretched, thrice wretched are those who suffer their opposite! That we may not be of the latter class, but of the former, let us choose virtue, for in this way we shall obtain these future blessings. God grant that we may all obtain them, through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost together be glory, power, and honor now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen!
Footnotes:
[1]Mal_4:2.—Grow up. פִּשְׁתֶּם, frisk. 70.: σκιρτᾶν (Hab_1:8).
[2]Mal_4:5.—LXX.: ʼΗλίαν τὸν θεσβιτην. The Masora directs that this verse should be repeated after the last verse, so thet the book may not end with a curse.
[3]Aben Ezra, at the close of his Commentary on the Minor Prophets says: “May God soon fulfill the prophecy of Elijah, and hasten his coming!” Rather may we pray that the veil may be taken from the hearts of the Jews, so that they may believe that this prophecy has been fulfilled, that Elias has already come, and that they may with us unite in the prayer, which every believing and loving soul continually prays: Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain He notices the complaint of the Jews that it…
He notices the complaint of the Jews that it is of no profit to serve Jehovah, for that the ungodly proud are happy; and declares He will soon bring the day when it shall be known that He puts an everlasting distinction between the godly and the ungodly.
words . . . stout--Hebrew, "hard"; so "the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (Jde 1:15) [HENDERSON].
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have we spoken--The Hebrew expresses at once their assiduity and habit of speaking against God [VATABLUS]. The niphal form of the verb implies that these things were said, not directly to God, but of God, to one another (Eze 33:20) [MOORE].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. Your words — Who are the persons addressed…
13. Your words — Who are the persons addressed is made clear in Mal_3:14-15, a class of people whose faith was shaken. The prophet may have in mind the same persons whose skepticism is met in Mal_3:1-12.
Stout — Literally, are strong. Compare the colloquial “to be hard on a person.” Their words contain a serious accusation, which casts reflections on the character of Jehovah. Again the prophet places the general accusation at the head, to be expanded in the succeeding verses, and again he makes a question raised in self-defense his starting point (see on Mal_1:2).
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What have we spoken so much — So much should be omitted; literally, what have we conversed, that is, spoken to one another, against Jehovah. It would seem that the complaint was a subject of conversation.
In Mal_3:14-15 the prophet answers the question by reminding them of the contents of their conversations.
Serve God… have kept his ordinance… have walked mournfully — The first is a general statement that they recognized Jehovah as their Lord and Master, the second affirms ready obedience to his will (Zec_3:7), the third refers to acts of penitence and mourning over shortcomings and sins (Joe_2:12). They claim that, so far as they know, they have done all that the law requires. But, they argue, if they have done this they are entitled to the divine blessings. This belief found support in the law (Deu_28:1-14), and it was the popular idea that a righteous and just God must reward the faithful service with prosperity and punish faithlessness with adversity (see on Amo_4:6-11). When these contemporaries of Malachi found that their expectations were not realized, they were seriously perplexed. So far as they could judge, no special benefits came to those who served Jehovah; on the contrary, pious persons were deeply afflicted, while the wicked lived in ease and prosperity.
And now — Introduces the statement of a present fact and experience.
We call the proud happy — The proud are not the heathen, but the arrogant persons within the Jewish community, who have no regard for God and who think that they can get along without him and religion, the very opposite of the humble, God-fearing persons mentioned in Mal_3:16 (compare Psa_19:13-14). These arrogant persons, who, according to the law (Deu_27:15-26; Deu_28:15 ff.), should have been smitten with the curse of God, were enjoying the greatest prosperity and every one considered them perfectly happy and contented (compare Psalms 37).
Are set up — R.V., “built up.” Instead of being destroyed they are built up like a magnificent structure; they flourish in all their undertakings. All this was contrary to the passages quoted from Deuteronomy, as well as to such prophetic utterances as Jer_12:16-17.
Tempt God — The same verb is translated in Mal_3:10 “prove”; here the thought is that they challenge Jehovah through their wickedness (Isa_5:18-19). Persons who do these things surely deserve to be destroyed, but instead, when they do get into difficulties, Jehovah graciously interferes and delivers them. With these experiences in everyday life contradicting the teaching of the past, is it any wonder that the people were perplexed, that grave doubts came into the minds of some? Had they “gone to the sanctuary of God” (Psa_73:17) they might have found relief.
Not the entire community was carried away by these doubts; there were those who possessed a stronger faith, who passed through the same perplexities, but believed that Jehovah was still in the heavens, and that somehow at some time he would reward the faithful and punish the faithless. To these patient saints the prophet turns in Mal_3:16.
Then — When the skeptically inclined had given expression to their misgivings (Mal_3:14-15).
They that feared Jehovah — The God-fearing persons (see on Mal_2:5) are the truly pious, whose faith in Jehovah is not easily shaken.
Spake often one to another — The evidences of skepticism on every hand caused the faithful to join forces and come together frequently for the purpose of strengthening one another’s faith and counteracting the spread of skepticism. What they “spake” is not stated; it is clearly implied, however, that they spoke words of counsel, encouragement, and exhortation, to wait patiently until Jehovah in his own good time would manifest his righteousness. It is not possible to identify the God-fearing persons of Mal_3:16 with the persons who gave expression to their doubts in the language of Mal_3:14-15; two distinct classes are meant. If so, the LXX. reading this or thus in the place of then cannot be considered an improvement over the present Hebrew text; and if it were original, this could not refer backward to Mal_3:14-15, but must point forward to the conversations of the pious, which are not stated. It seems best to retain the present Hebrew text.
Hearkened,… heard — God paid attention to these conversations, and they were so pleasing to him that he determined to make a record of them and of the names of those who continued to fear him.
A book of remembrance — Certainly this is to be understood figuratively; the thought is that Jehovah will remember the conduct of these pious souls until the day of reckoning, when their patience and fidelity will receive suitable reward. The figure may have been suggested by the “book of chronicles” of the Persian court (Est_2:23; Est_6:1; Est_10:2), in which seem to have been recorded the names and deeds of those who merited the royal favor (compare Isa_4:3; Dan_12:1).
For them — For the benefit of them.
Thought upon his name — Better, highly esteemed (Isa_13:17) or honored. For name see on Mal_1:6, and references there.
17a is rendered more literally in R.V., “And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make”; margin, “do this”; literally, And they shall be to me, saith Jehovah of hosts, for the day on which I do, a possession. In the day (R.V.) — Literally, “for the day.” The names of the pious will be preserved (Mal_3:16) for the day of reckoning, so that on that day they may be singled out to receive their reward. Make (R.V.) — Or, do; better, act, that is, in judgment. His inactivity of which the skeptics complain will then cease. A possession (R.V.) — He will acknowledge them as his own, and this acknowledgment will assure them the divine favor and protection (compare Exo_19:5), in the day of reckoning, and will result in their salvation and glorification.
I will spare them — From all suffering and harm, just as a loving father protects his son who has rendered loving and obedient service to him.
A NEW DEFENSE OF JEHOVAH’S JUSTICE, Mal_3:13 to Mal_4:3.
These verses are parallel in thought to Mal_2:17 to Mal_3:12. They also are addressed to a class of doubters (Mal_2:17) whose confidence in Jehovah is shaken by the apparent inequalities of life; the good suffer while the wicked prosper (13-15). They are informed that their complaint is unwarranted, that Jehovah’s eye is over all, and, though at present the lot of the pious may seem hard, Jehovah keeps a record of those who are faithful, and when he appears in his temple (Mal_3:1) he will make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked (16-18). The wicked will be destroyed root and branch (Mal_4:1), while the righteous will be exalted forever (2, 3). In this wise, the prophet argues, Jehovah will prove himself a God of judgment and of justice.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Ch. Mal_3:13 to Mal_4:3 The righteous judgment of God
Ch. Mal_3:13 to Mal_4:3 The righteous judgment of God
13. have been stout] See Mal_2:17. Comp. Job_21:14-15; Judges 15.
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so much] Omit so much here, and often, Mal_3:16. The force of the Hebrew conjugation is “reciprocal” (Gesen.), to speak “together”, or “one with another”. Comp. Psa_119:23; Eze_33:30.
It was not the perplexed questioning of a devout heart (Psalms 73), nor the secret cogitation of an ungodly heart (Psa_14:1), but the open blasphemy of those who “sat in the seat of the scorner” (Psa_1:1).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Your words . . . against me.—Better, your…
(13) Your words . . . against me.—Better, your words put a constraint on me: viz., to prove myself to you to be “the God of judgment.”
Spoken.—Or rather, conversed together. (Comp. Mal_3:16.) They seem to have been in the habit of conversing together, and comparing the promises of God towards them with the then state of affairs. God had promised that they should be a proverb among the nations for blessedness; but, say they, seeing that things are as they are, “we [feel more inclined to] call the proud happy [or blessed].” (See further in Note on Mal_3:15.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 13-18. The impious murmuring of the people is…
Vers. 13-18. The impious murmuring of the people is contrasted with the conduct of those who fear God; and the reward of the pious is set forth.
Your words have been stout against me. Ye have spoken hard words of me (comp. Jud_1:15, where we read of "the hard speeches (sklhrwn) which ungodly sinners have spoken against" God). Some specimens of these speeches are given in answer to the usual sceptical inquiry. They are of the same character as those in Mal_2:17, and imply that the course of this world is not directed by a moral Governor. What have we spoken so much (together) against thee! What have we said against thee in our conversations with one another?
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Vers. 13-18. Hard speeches against God.
Once more God has to bring a charge against his people (ver. 13). Their words were "stout," bold, loud, defiant. Reverence and reticence were both wanting. Once more the plea is entered, "Not guilty." They will not admit that God is justified when he speaketh and clear when he judgeth. So once more God has to unfold the evidence, that their mouths may be stopped and they may be found guilty before God.
I HARD SPEECHES AGAINST GOD.
1. God"s service is unprofitable. They charge God with being an ungenerous Master, who allows them to work hard in order to keep his ordinances and to deny themselves ("walk mournfully"), and yet suffers them to enjoy little or no advantage therefrom. Even the service of God is "vanity and vexation of spirit." This is an old complaint (Job_22:15-17) often repeated. (Ps 73 Isa_58:3, etc.) It reflects on God"s equity as well as generosity, This is seen more clearly in the second charge.
2. The wicked are better off than we are. They seem to be "happy;" they are evidently "set up," established by God"s providence in much prosperity. And though, instead of "proving" God (ver. 10), they "tempt God," they go unpunished, and are delivered from trials which still oppress us. The facts noted form part of the world wide and perplexing problem which has often caused atheists openly to blaspheme and Christians to weep in secret. But if ever the problem tries us, let us learn a lesson from the contrast between the conduct of the ungodly professors here and the godly Asaph. These speak openly to others against God, and thus encourage one another in unbelief. But Asaph (Psa_73:15-17) speaks in secret to God about the question, and God guides him into truth and peace.
II CONCLUSIVE REPLIES TO THEM. Answers to all these hard speeches may be found:
1. In the hollowness of the pretences of these stout speakers against God. They did not really "serve God" or "keep his ordinances." If they walked "mournfully," it was a sign that love, gratitude, gladness, were absent, or the joy of the Lord would have been their strength. Since their heart was far from God, so that he says, "In vain do they worship me", (Mat_15:8, Mat_15:9) no wonder they have to confess, "It is vain to serve God." And whenever we find Christian worship or work bringing little profit to our souls, we may well institute great searchings of heart lest the radical difficulty should be found altogether in our own spiritual state in regard to God. If, however, our hearts condemn us not on this charge, we may see a further answer.
2. In the opposite experiences of those "who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." While the murmurers have been talking to one another against God, another company has conversed together" (ver. 16). (Contrast the two gatherings their spirit, their subjects, their tones.) They can tell a very different tale. They can speak words which God delights to hear and to record. Their experience of the faithfulness of God and the profitableness of his service even in dark days should neutralize the influence of distrustful complainers. Their characters attest their testimony. The confession of a Paul (2Ti_1:12) more than compensates for the desertion of a Demas.
3. In the fact that we have not yet "seen the end of the Lord." God speaks of a future, and bids us wait for that (vers. 17, 18). We have seen the end of the Lord in the case of Job (Jam_5:11) and other tried but triumphant servants of God. We have not yet seen the end of the Lord in that drama of life (sometimes tragical) in which we are taking part. 6, Therefore judge nothing before the time". (1Co_4:5) In our present state of education and probation, "all thing are ours" by possession or by promise. In vers. 16 and 17 we are reminded of a few of our privileges. We have the ear of God, a record with God, communion with God, protection by God, and a high estimate in his sight The ultimate issue (ver. 18) will vindicate the confidence of his servants and silence the murmurs of his foes. (Rom_8:31-39 Jud_1:14, 15)
Vers. 13, 14. Religion delineated and depreciated.
"Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord," etc. In these words we have religion delineated and depreciated.
I PRACTICAL RELIGION DELINEATED. Three expressions are here used to represent it.
1. To serve God. "Ye have said, It is vain to serve God." There is a great difference between serving God and serving man.
(1) In the one case the servant benefits the master, in the other the sole benefit is the servant"s.
(2) In the one the service is estimated by work actually done, in the other by work earnestly purposed.
(3) In the one there is a surrender of freedom; in the other there is the attainment of it. He who engages to serve man must surrender some portion of his liberty; he who serves God alone secures the highest freedom.
2. To keep God"s ordinances. "We have kept his ordinance." This is only a branch of the service, or perhaps the method of doing it. God has ordinances or institutes, some of which are moral, some are ceremonial; the latter may cease to bind, the former are everlastingly in force.
3. To walk mournfully before the Lord. "We have walked mournfully before the Lord." To "walk" before the Lord is religion in perfection, religion in heaven. It implies an abiding consciousness of the Divine presence, and continual progress in the Divine will. Walking "mournfully" characterizes the religion of earth; it is associated with penitence, contrition, etc. The walk of religion is only mournful here.
II PRACTICAL RELIGION DEPRECIATED. "Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance?" Men say this:
1. When religion does not answer their secular expectations. Many take up with religion in these days because of the secular good they expect will accrue from their profession of it; if the good comes not, they think it vain.
2. When they see the truly religious in poverty and affliction. Asaph saw this, and he said, "I have cleansed my heart in vain". (Psa_73:13)
3. When they have taken up religion from selfish motives. A man who takes up with religion for the sake of good will get no good out of it: he will get disappointment and damnation; for "he that seeketh his life shall lose it." No truly religious man has said religion is vain; he feels it to be its own reward the highest reward. For in truth, it is the only service on earth that will not prove vain. Whatever other labour fails, the success of this is ensured ensured by the Word of God, the constitution of mind, and the arrangements of the universe. "Therefore be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding," etc.. D.T. (1Co_15:58)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Mal_3:13; Heb_3:13-19; Heb_4:1-2
7. THE JUDGMENT TO COME
Mal_3:13; Heb_3:13-19; Heb_4:1-2
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This is another charge to the doubters among the pious remnant of Israel, who, seeing the success of the wicked, said it is vain to serve God. Deuteronomy was their Canon, and Deuteronomy said that if men sinned they decayed, if they were righteous they prospered. How different were the facts of experience! The evil men succeeded: the good won no gain by their goodness, nor did their mourning for the sins of their people work any effect. Bitterest of all, they had to congratulate wickedness in high places, and Jehovah Himself suffered it to go unpunished. Such things, says "Malachi," "spake they that feared God to each other"-tempted thereto by the dogmatic form of their religion, and forgetful of all that Jeremiah and the Evangelist of the Exile had taught them of the value of righteous sufferings. Nor does "Malachi" remind them of this. His message is that the Lord remembers them, has their names written before Him, and when the day of His action comes they shall be separated from the wicked and spared. This is simply to transfer the fulfillment of the promise of Deuteronomy to the future and to another dispensation. Prophecy still works within the Law.
The Apocalypse of this last judgment is one of the grandest in all Scripture To the wicked it shall be a terrible fire, root and branch shall they be burned out, but to the righteous a fair morning of God, as when dawn comes to those who have been sick and sleepless through the black night, and its beams bring healing, even as to the popular belief of Israel it was the rays of the morning sun which distilled the dew. They break into life and energy, like young calves leaping from the dark pen into the early sunshine. To this morning landscape a grim figure is added. They shall tread down the wicked and the arrogant like ashes beneath their feet.
"Your words are hard upon Me, saith Jehovah. Ye say, What have we said against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, and What gain is it to us to have kept His charge, or to have walked in funeral garb before Jehovah of Hosts? Even now we have got to congratulate the arrogant; yea, the workers of wickedness are fortified; yea, they tempt God and escape! Such things spake they that fear Jehovah to each other. But Jehovah gave ear and heard, and a book of remembrance {Eze_8:9} was written before Him about those who fear Jehovah, and those who keep in His Name. And they shall be Mine own property, saith Jehovah of Hosts, in the day when I rise to action, and I will spare them even as a man spares his son that serves him. And ye shall once more see the difference between righteous and wicked, between him that serves God and him that does not serve Him."
"For, lo! the day is coming that shall burn like a furnace, and all the overweening and every one that works wickedness shall be as stubble, and the day that is coming shall devour them, saith Jehovah of Hosts, so that there be left them neither root nor branch. But to you that fear My Name the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings, and ye shall go forth and leap {Hab_1:8} like calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be as ashes beneath the soles of your feet, in the day that I begin to do, saith Jehovah of Hosts."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Mal_3:13-18.] Impatient murmuring is most unreasonable; the day is…
CRITICAL NOTES.
Mal_3:13-18.] Impatient murmuring is most unreasonable; the day is coming which will bring to light the distinction between the righteous and the wicked.
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Mal_3:13. Stout] (bold) sig. to bind fast, make firm, and in a bad sense to be hard or obstinate, such as that in Jud_1:15. [Henderson]. Keil gives, to do violence to one, to overpower him (cf. Exo_12:33; 2Sa_24:4). Specimen words are given.
Mal_3:14.] God has no regard to well doing, therefore there is no advantage in serving him (cf. ch. Mal_2:17). His ordinance] Lit. what he requires to be observed, prescribed rites. Mourn.] In black or mournful garb, as a sign of penitence. Voluntary fasting is brought into prominence.
Mal_3:15.] Because God does not reward their works with prosperity, they call proud] sinners happy men, favourites of God when blessed (cf. Psa_73:12). The wicked are set] Lit. built up, i.e. flourish (cf. Jer_12:16-17; Exo_1:21), and though they have tempted God, are delivered.
Mal_3:16. Then] When the wicked were openly talking one with another; so the godly held mutual intercourse, and defended the providence of God. Jehovah noticed their conversations, and wrote them in a book]. A custom borrowed from a Persian king, recording the names and merits of any who deserved well, that they might be rewarded (cf. Est_6:1-2). God keeps a book also (cf. Psa_56:9; Dan_7:10). Before] To lie open before him, and remind him of righteous deeds.
Mal_3:17. Jewels] Lit. private, peculiar property, “expressing the highest estimation of God’s people and their perfect security in the day of judgment.” Spare] (Psa_103:17-18) Contrasted with punishment.
Mal_3:18. Return] to a better mind. Discern] the falseness of your calumny against God’s dealings (cf. Exo_11:7). The day of judgment will change many opinions concerning God’s ways and God’s people.
HOMILETICS
HARD SAYINGS AGAINST GOD.—Mal_3:13-15
The people still murmur against God, and openly declare that there is no profit in serving him, because the righteous have no advantage over the wicked. But this murmuring is unjust, and the coming judgment will make a distinction between those who fear God and those who fear him not. Some of their hard words are given. The common sentiment of the time was that piety brings no reward, and the religious error of the time that observance of outward forms was the service which God should bless.
I. God’s service is falsified. “It is vain to serve God.”
1. This sentiment springs from a wrong estimation of God’s service. It is not a mercenary service. The Jews waited not upon God in love, but in hope of being well paid. Religion is not a bargain, but affection, obedience, and gratitude to God. It is not a mournful but a delightful service. “What profit that we have walked mournfully,” in black and in grief? Fasting, prescribed or voluntary, was considered meritorious, had claims upon God, and when left unrewarded, they complained against God. “Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?”
2. This sentiment is denied by Scripture. Paul seems to give some truth to it when he says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” But from the same person we learn that “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” God himself told the Jews that the meanest act for him would not be left without reward (ch. Mal_1:10). In every sense, “wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are paths of peace.” “Riches and honour are with me; my fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.”
3. This sentiment is contradicted by Christian experience. God’s people have found God’s service their highest happiness and joy. They have tasted that the Lord is good, and that the man who trusts in him is blessed. Whatever be their outward condition, their spiritual experience gives the lie to such an impudent statement concerning God’s service. “Blessed are they that do his commandments.”
II. God’s justice is impugned. Because they met with no reward for their services; because the wicked seemed to prosper rather than the righteous; they openly declared that God’s favourites were proud and ungodly men. The wicked have put God to the test, they reply, calling down vengeance from heaven; but they are built up, and flourish, and though they have tempted God by breaking his laws, yet they are delivered from misfortune. Hence they gave wrong verdicts, and set at nought the decrees of God. “We call the proud happy.” We should not cavil against God’s dealings for many reasons.
1. We cannot read the heart. How do we know who are happy, and who are not happy. Men most prosperous outwardly may be most miserable inwardly. Beneath the splendid show may be “the worm, the canker, and the grief.” And men most afflicted may be most happy. The glare of prosperity should not blind our judgment. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth.”
2. We forget the future. For a time the proud may be happy, but their happiness is shortlived, “only for a season,” and does not satisfy. The wicked may be set up, but they build on a wrong foundation, and great may be their fall. Those who tempt and defy God, may be delivered for the present; but God is often most angry with men when he seems best pleased; sweeps them away when their inward thought is to continue for ever. On earth what a curse, and how uncertain their prosperity! But at the great day, how sudden, complete, and terrible their overthrow! Headlong their fall, without escape, and without hope. “How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.”
DIVINE RECOGNITION OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP.—Mal_3:16-18
The prophet now contrasts the faithful few with the sceptical many. While the ungodly were uttering hard sayings, those who feared God held mutual intercourse, defended God’s dealings, and encouraged one another to love and trust him. A remnant has always been found in the darkest days, whom God has noticed and blessed.
1. The practice they adopted. In character and conduct they stand out in remarkable contrast.
1. They were secretly pious. They “thought upon his name.” The wicked do not think upon God; or if they do, their thoughts concerning him are sinful and vain. The righteous, in contrast, esteem and ever seek to honour the name of God. They meditate upon his perfections, works, and words, and their meditation is sweet.
2. They were personally sincere. They “feared the Lord,” not in slavish terror, but with awe and filial reverence. They were loyal and true in their profession. The root of the matter was in them. Fear was the secret spring, the hidden power of holy life.
3. They openly encouraged one another. So powerful was their piety, that it was revealed in their speech. (a) They spoke openly “one to another,” without fear or shame. (b) They spoke often, to encourage and strengthen one another. Amid the atheism and ungodliness of the times, they mutually talked not about the politics of the nation, but of personal religion and the God they feared.
II. The distinction they gained. Those who disregarded God would ridicule his people. But here is a caution to the wicked, and an encouragement to the godly.
1. God heard their conversation. “The Lord hearkened and heard it.” God was thought to be forgetful, or an idle spectator of events. But not a sigh nor a prayer, not a loyal word nor a feeble meeting, escape his notice.
2. God remembered their works. As earthly monarchs record the deeds and remember the names of their servants, so the King of Heaven keeps a record of his people. The meanest service will not be forgotten. “Write this a memorial in a book.”
3. God spared them on earth. “I will spare them,” in contrast with the doom of the wicked: “as a man spareth his own son,” in tender compassion (Psa_103:17-18). All of mercy, nothing from merit.
4. God will reward them at judgment. In the coming day men will “return” to a right mind, and confess the justice of God. (a) They shall be separated from the wicked. “Discern between the righteous and the wicked.” This not always possible on earth, will be easy at the great day. (b) They will be claimed as peculiar treasure. “They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” They are precious to God, and will be owned and honoured by him. There is a solemn, an eternal distinction between those who serve God and those who serve him not. The reward of God’s servants is the greatest, the highest distinction we can attain. What are all the distinctions of the world to refuge on earth and blessedness in heaven? Follow the example that you may share the honour and happiness of the saints. “Verily, there is a reward for the righteous: verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Mal_3:14. Vain. They themselves are vain and most vain, for two reasons, and in two respects. First, they take themselves to be servers of God. Secondly, they stick in the bark, serve him with the outside only, honour him with the lips, and not with their hearts; they bring vain oblations, empty performances, serve him with formalities which he rejects with scorn as he did the Pharisees’ devotions (Luk_16:15) [Trapp].
Mal_3:15. Proud, happy. A sentiment—
1. At variance with the truth of God. “Thou hast rebuked the proud, who are cursed” (Psa_119:21).
2. Displaying ignorance. How do we know that the proud are happy? Can we read their hearts? (Pro_21:24).
3. Indicative of pride. They boast of their superior intelligence. “We call.” “Pride is increased by ignorance; those assume the most who know the least” [Gay].
Mal_3:16. The Divine jewels. My jewels. It is a strong expression of value. Much in this world even on which God sets high value, though much that he condemns. Something which he distinguishes from all that sparkles and glitters with material lustre—from things which earthly and carnal men have most coveted and idolized. These jewels are scattered here and there, among earthly things; not in a collected state, except in God’s view. By him they are seen as one sacred company and fraternity. Unequal in degrees of purity and lustre, accounted the dross and offscouring of society; but He to whom they belong sees them in a different light; a beam of his radiant light falls on each, and all will see them at last. There will be a collecting, an assembling of them together. The grand act of righteous separation must bring the saints together, that the effect of redemption may be conspicuously displayed. Think of that stupendous knowledge and power which will secure that none of them shall be missing, or will be lost! Not one lost in the vastness of the scene; not one that was even in the utmost obscurity in mortal life; not one in the remotest corner of the earth, or island of the sea. When each sees all, each may wonder at the vigilance, the affectionate care, and the mighty power that will have brought them all together, after preserving them all separately, in infinite variety of circumstances and so many ages. Then, when the jewels are “made up,” he will pronounce, “they are mine.” What triumph to hear it! What congratulation with one another! And what a situation that must be—in place and circumstances, felicity and glory—in which he will assign their abode within the immediate manifestation of his presence! Looking at this prospect, which of us can be content that his soul should be wanting when “the Lord of Hosts” shall “make up his jewels!” Who can bear the thought of being cast among the baser rejected things of creation, and for him to say, “That is not mine; take it away!” [J. Foster].
Mal_3:17. Spare them. If a man spares any one, it will surely be his own son. The very relation pleads for him. He spares them as to exemption. He spares them as to correction. They are afflicted, but have alleviations. He spares them as to exertion. He considers their strength, and will not require of some what he ordains for others. He spares them as to acceptance. Their best actions are imperfect. Their obedience needs pardon. He views all through Christ. He spared not him, that he might spare you. Never forget the kindness of God, and spare not your selves in his cause [Jay].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Mal_3:13-15. Stout words. Rash, undigested, ill-considered speech, is responsible for much of the heart-burning and trouble in the Churches. Expressions which convey the impression that the Lord acts unjustly or unkindly, especially if they fall from the lips of men of known character and experience, are as dangerous as fire-brands among stubble; they are used for blasphemous purposes by the ill-disposed, and the timid and trembling are sure to be cast down thereby, and to find reason for yet deeper distress of soul [Spurgeon].
“Language is the dress of thought” [Johnson].
Mal_3:16-18. Spake often. When the wicked are talking against God, the righteous should talk for him. Religious conversation is necessary, all the more, for the very reasons that chill and repress it. When a fire burns low, the coals that are alive should be brought near together, that they may be blown into a flame. So when all is cold and dead, living Christians should draw near and seek the breathings of the Spirit, and kindle each other by mutual utterance. The words thus and then spoken shall be heard and recorded in heaven [Lange].
“The Chronicles of heaven shall keep
Their words in transcript fair;
In the Redeemer’s book of life
Their names recorded are” [Doddridge].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Mal 3:13 - Mal 3:18; Mal 4:1 - Mal…
Malachi
‘STOUT WORDS,’ AND THEIR CONFUTATION
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Mal 3:13 - Mal 3:18; Mal 4:1 - Mal 4:6.
This passage falls into three parts,-the ‘stout words’ against God which the Prophet sets himself to confute {Mal 3:13 - Mal 3:15}; the prophecy of the day which will show their falsehood {Mal 3:16 - Mal 4:3}; and the closing exhortation and prediction {Mal 4:4 - Mal 4:6}.
I. The returning exiles had not had the prosperity which they had hoped.
So many of them, even of those who had served God, began to let doubts darken their trust, and to listen to the whispers of their own hearts, reinforced by the mutterings of others, and to ask: ‘What is the use of religion? Does it make any difference to a man’s condition?’ Here had they been keeping God’s charge, and going in black garments ‘before the Lord,’ in token of penitence, and no good had come to them, while arrogant neglect of His commandments did not seem to hinder happiness, and ‘they that work wickedness are built up.’ Sinful lives appeared to have a firm foundation, and to rise high and palace-like, while righteous ones were like huts. Goodness seemed to spell ruin.
What was wrong in these ‘stout words’? It was wrong to attach such worth to external acts of devotion, as if these were deserving of reward. It was wrong to suspend the duty of worship on the prosperity resulting from it, and to seek ‘profit’ from ‘keeping his charge.’ Such religion was shallow and selfish, and had the evils of the later Pharisaism in germ in it. It was wrong to yield to the doubts which the apparently unequal distribution of worldly prosperity stirred in their hearts. But the doubts themselves were almost certain to press on Old Testament believers, as well as on Old Testament scoffers, especially under the circumstances of Malachi’s time. The fuller light of Christianity has eased their pressure, but not removed it, and we have all had to face them, both when our own hearts have ached with sorrow and when pondering on the perplexities of this confused world. We look around, and, like the psalmist, see ‘the prosperity of the wicked,’ and, like him, have to confess that our ‘steps had wellnigh slipped’ at the sight. The old, old question is ever starting up. ‘Doth God know?’ The mystery of suffering and the mystery of its distribution, the apparent utter want of connection between righteousness and well-being, are still formidable difficulties in the way of believing in a loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful God, and are stock arguments of the unbeliever and perplexities of humble faith. Never to have felt the force of the difficulty is not so much the sign of steadfast faith as of scant reflection. To yield to it, and still more, to let it drive us to cast religion aside, is not merely folly, but sin. So thinks Malachi.
II. To the stout words of the doubters is opposed the conversation of the godly.
‘Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another,’ nourishing their faith by believing speech with like-minded. The more the truths by which we believe are contradicted, the more should we commune with fellow-believers. Attempts to rob us should make us hold our treasure the faster. Bold avowal of the faith is especially called for when many potent voices deny it. And, whoever does not hear, God hears. Faithful words may seem lost, but they and every faithful act are written in His remembrance and will be recompensed one day. If our names and acts are written there, we may well be content to accept scanty measures of earthly good, and not be ‘envious of the foolish’ in their prosperity.
Malachi’s answer to the doubters leaves all other considerations which might remove the difficulty unmentioned, and fixes on the one, the prophecy of a future which will show that it is not all the same whether a man is good or bad. It was said of an English statesman that he called a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old, and that is what the Prophet does. Christianity has taught us many other ways of meeting the doubters’ difficulty, but the sheet anchor of faith in that storm is the unconquerable assurance that a day comes when the righteousness of providence will be vindicated, and the eternal difference between good and evil manifested in the fates of men. The Prophet is declaring what will be a fact one day, but he does not know when. Probably he never asked himself whether ‘the day of the Lord’ was near or far off, to dawn on earth or to lie beyond mortal life. But this he knew-that God was righteous, and that sometime and somewhere character would settle destiny, and even outwardly it would be good to be good. He first declares this conviction in general terms, and then passes on to a magnificent and terrible picture of that great day.
The promise, which lay at the foundation of Israel’s national existence, included the recognition of it as ‘a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people,’ and Malachi looks forward to that day as the epoch when God will show by His acts how precious the righteous are in His sight. Not the whole Israel, but the righteous among them, are the heirs of the old promise. It is an anticipation of the teaching that ‘they are not all Israel which are of Israel,’ And it bids us look for the fulfilment of every promise of God’s to that great day of the Lord which lies still before us all, when the gulf between the righteous and the wicked shall be solemnly visible, wide, and profound. There have been many ‘days which I make’ in the world’s history, and in a measure each of them has re-established the apparently tottering truth that there is a God who judgeth in the earth, but the day of days is yet to come.
No grander vision of judgment exists than Malachi’s picture of ‘the day,’ lurid, on the one hand, with the fierce flame, before which the wicked are as stubble that crackles for a moment and then is grey ashes, or as a tree in a forest fire, which stands for a little while, a pillar of flame, and then falls with a crash, shaking the woods; and on the otherhand, radiant with the early beams of healing sunshine, in whose sweet morning light the cattle, let out from their pent-up stalls, gambol in glee. But let us not forget while we admire the noble poetry of its form that this is God’s oracle, nor that we have each to settle for ourselves whether that day shall be for us a furnace to destroy or a sun to cheer and enlighten.
We can only note in a sentence the recurrence in Mal 4:1 of the phrases ‘the proud’ and they ‘that work wickedness,’ from Mal 3:15 The end of those whom the world called happy, and who seemed stable and elevated, is to be as stubble before the fire. We must also point out that ‘the sun of righteousness’ means the sun which is righteousness, and is not a designation of the Messiah. Nor can we dwell on the picture of the righteous treading down the wicked, which seems to prolong the previous metaphor of the leaping young cattle. Then shall ‘the upright have dominion over them in the morning.’
III. The final exhortation and promise point backwards and forwards, summing up duty in obedience to the law, and fixing hope on a future reappearance of the leader of the prophets.
Moses and Elijah are the two giant figures which dominate the history of Israel. Law and prophecy are the two forms in which God spoke to the fathers. The former is of perpetual obligation, the latter will flash up again in power on the threshold of the day. Jesus has interpreted this closing word for us. John came ‘in the spirit and power of Elijah,’ and the purpose of his coming was to ‘turn the hearts of the fathers to the children’ {Luk 1:16 - Luk 1:17}; that is, to bring back the devout dispositions of the patriarchs to the existing generations, and so to bring the ‘hearts of the children to their fathers,’ as united with them in devout obedience. If John’s mission had succeeded, the ‘curse’ which smote Israel would have been stayed. God has done all that He can do to keep us from being consumed by the fire of that day. The Incarnation, Life, and Death of Jesus Christ made a day of the Lord which has the twofold character of that in Malachi’s vision, for He is a ‘saviour of life unto life’ or ‘of death unto death,’ and must be one or other to us. But another day of the Lord is still to come, and for each of us it will come burning as a furnace or bright as sunrise. Then the universe shall ‘discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Ways Of God Vindicated
The Ways Of God Vindicated
v. 13. Your words have been stout against Me, salth the Lord, namely, in the murmuring which He has rebuked above. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against Thee? The Lord’s answer through His prophet is,
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v. 14. Ye have said, It is vain to serve God, it does not pay, just as scoffers in our days say; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? with all indications of deep sorrow and mourning over their sins. Their complaint was that it was poor business, that it did not pay.
v. 15. And now we call the proud happy, they had actually reached the stage when they praised the wicked, with their apparent happiness in matters of this world; yea, they that work wickedness are set up, they are the lucky ones, in their opinion; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered, they have no misfortune, they have everything that their heart desires. This is ever the accusation which the backsliders try to bring against the Lord.
v. 16. Then, namely, when the scoffers were making these blasphemous remarks, they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, they made it a practise to encourage one another over against such blasphemous talk; and the Lord hearkened and heard it, He paid attention to their remarks, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name, the subject of their conversations being things which pertained to His glory.
v. 17. And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, the precious people of His inheritance, 1Pe 2:9, in that day when I make up My jewels, when He would impart to them the fulness of His glory; and I will spare them, in manifesting His tender mercies upon them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, ready to show his love and goodness in such an instance.
v. 18. Then shall ye, those who were now grumbling, return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, noting the difference between the two classes, also in the manner in which God dealt with them, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. The time of grace is still at hand, but infidels and scoffers will do well not to delay repentance.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
These verses begin a new section in the book. Here Yahweh is speaking to the people of Israel.
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Your words against me have been strong
Here "strong" stands for "harsh" or "terrible." And "Your words" stands for "What you have said." AT: "What you have said about me is terrible" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)
What have we said among ourselves against you?
The people ask this question in order to claim that they have said nothing against God. This can be expressed as a statement. AT: "We have not said anything among ourselves against you." (See: Rhetorical Question)
What profit is it that we have kept his requirements or walked mournfully before Yahweh of hosts?
The people ask this question among themselves in order to make a statement. AT: "It is useless that we have kept his requirements and walked mournfully before Yahweh of hosts." (See: Rhetorical Question)
walked mournfully before Yahweh of hosts
Here "walk mournfully" stands for "behave in a sorrowful manner," probably in order to indicate sorrow over their sins. (See: Metaphor)
before Yahweh of hosts
Here this expression refers to God being aware of what the people were doing. (See: Metaphor)
we call the arrogant blessed
Here to be called "blessed" stands for being blessed. AT: "we say that the arrogant are blessed" (See: Metaphor)
we call the arrogant blessed
This may be stated in active form. AT: "we say that the arrogant are well off" (See: Active or Passive)
escape
That is, "they escape God's punishment." (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
word
Yahweh
servant
God
profit
walk
arrogant
bless
evildoer
tempt
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:13–4:3 Malachi’s final message contains two distinct but related…
3:13–4:3 Malachi’s final message contains two distinct but related speeches, the first emphasizing service to the Lord (3:13-18) and the second contrasting the fate of the wicked with that of the righteous (4:1-3). Each speech concludes with the messenger formula (see study note on 1:8). The prophet revisits themes from the fourth message (3:1-5) as he reiterates God’s desire for honesty and faithfulness in worship in view of coming judgment on the day of the Lord. If Malachi is a courtroom drama, this last disputation is the sentencing. While wickedness seems to triumph over righteousness and God seems delinquent in judging sin in the community, the coming day of the Lord will vindicate God’s justice as the wicked are separated from the righteous by the fire of God’s judgment.
3:13 You have said terrible things about me: The people had accused God of favoring evildoers and had openly questioned his justice (see 2:17), but the Lord loves justice (Pss 9:16; 37:28).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.