2 But unto you that fear H3373 my name H8034 shall the Sun H8121 of righteousness H6666 arise H2224 with healing H4832 in his wings; H3671 and ye shall go forth, H3318 and grow up H6335 as calves H5695 of the stall. H4770
For G1063 ye were G2258 sometimes G4218 darkness, G4655 but G1161 now G3568 are ye light G5457 in G1722 the Lord: G2962 walk G4043 as G5613 children G5043 of light: G5457 (For G1063 the fruit G2590 of the Spirit G4151 is in G1722 all G3956 goodness G19 and G2532 righteousness G1343 and G2532 truth;) G225 Proving G1381 what G5101 is G2076 acceptable G2101 unto the Lord. G2962 And G2532 have G4790 no G3361 fellowship G4790 with the unfruitful G175 works G2041 of darkness, G4655 but G1161 rather G3123 G2532 reprove G1651 them. For G1063 it is G2076 a shame G149 even G2532 to speak G3004 of those things G2931 which are done G1096 of G5259 them G846 in secret. G2931 But G1161 all things G3956 that are reproved G1651 are made manifest G5319 by G5259 the light: G5457 for G1063 whatsoever G3956 doth make manifest G5319 is G2076 light. G5457 Wherefore G1352 he saith, G3004 Awake thou G1453 that sleepest, G2518 and G2532 arise G450 from G1537 the dead, G3498 and G2532 Christ G5547 shall give G2017 thee G4671 light. G2017
Every G3956 branch G2814 in G1722 me G1698 that G846 beareth G5342 not G3361 fruit G2590 he taketh away: G142 and G2532 every G3956 branch that beareth G5342 fruit, G2590 he purgeth G2508 it, G846 that G2443 it may bring forth G5342 more G4119 fruit. G2590 Now G2235 ye G5210 are G2075 clean G2513 through G1223 the word G3056 which G3739 I have spoken G2980 unto you. G5213 Abide G3306 in G1722 me, G1698 and I G2504 in G1722 you. G5213 As G2531 the branch G2814 cannot G3756 G1410 bear G5342 fruit G2590 of G575 itself, G1438 except G3362 it abide G3306 in G1722 the vine; G288 no more G3761 G3779 can ye, G5210 except G3362 ye abide G3306 in G1722 me. G1698 I G1473 am G1510 the vine, G288 ye G5210 are the branches: G2814 He that abideth G3306 in G1722 me, G1698 and I G2504 in G1722 him, G846 the same G3778 bringeth forth G5342 much G4183 fruit: G2590 for G3754 without G5565 me G1700 ye can G1410 do G4160 nothing. G3756 G3762
Then G3767 Jesus G2424 said G2036 unto them, G846 Yet G2089 a little G3398 while G5550 is G2076 the light G5457 with G3326 you. G5216 Walk G4043 while G2193 ye have G2192 the light, G5457 lest G3363 darkness G4653 come upon G2638 you: G5209 for G2532 he that walketh G4043 in G1722 darkness G4653 knoweth G1492 not G3756 whither G4226 he goeth. G5217 While G2193 ye have G2192 light, G5457 believe G4100 in G1519 the light, G5457 that G2443 ye may be G1096 the children G5207 of light. G5457 These things G5023 spake G2980 Jesus, G2424 and departed, G565 and G2532 did hide himself G2928 from G575 them. G846
The righteous H6662 shall flourish H6524 like the palm tree: H8558 he shall grow H7685 like a cedar H730 in Lebanon. H3844 Those that be planted H8362 in the house H1004 of the LORD H3068 shall flourish H6524 in the courts H2691 of our God. H430 They shall still bring forth fruit H5107 in old age; H7872 they shall be fat H1879 and flourishing; H7488
That thou mayest say H559 to the prisoners, H631 Go forth; H3318 to them that are in darkness, H2822 Shew H1540 yourselves. They shall feed H7462 in the ways, H1870 and their pastures H4830 shall be in all high places. H8205 They shall not hunger H7456 nor thirst; H6770 neither shall the heat H8273 nor sun H8121 smite H5221 them: for he that hath mercy H7355 on them shall lead H5090 them, even by the springs H4002 of water H4325 shall he guide H5095 them.
For ye shall go out H3318 with joy, H8057 and be led forth H2986 with peace: H7965 the mountains H2022 and the hills H1389 shall break forth H6476 before H6440 you into singing, H7440 and all the trees H6086 of the field H7704 shall clap H4222 their hands. H3709 Instead of the thorn H5285 shall come up H5927 the fir tree, H1265 and instead of the brier H5636 shall come up H5927 the myrtle tree: H1918 and it shall be to the LORD H3068 for a name, H8034 for an everlasting H5769 sign H226 that shall not be cut off. H3772
I have seen H7200 his ways, H1870 and will heal H7495 him: I will lead H5148 him also, and restore H7999 comforts H5150 unto him and to his mourners. H57 I create H1254 the fruit H5108 of the lips; H8193 Peace, H7965 peace H7965 to him that is far off, H7350 and to him that is near, H7138 saith H559 the LORD; H3068 and I will heal H7495 him.
Arise, H6965 shine; H215 for thy light H216 is come, H935 and the glory H3519 of the LORD H3068 is risen H2224 upon thee. For, behold, the darkness H2822 shall cover H3680 the earth, H776 and gross darkness H6205 the people: H3816 but the LORD H3068 shall arise H2224 upon thee, and his glory H3519 shall be seen H7200 upon thee. And the Gentiles H1471 shall come H1980 to thy light, H216 and kings H4428 to the brightness H5051 of thy rising. H2225
Thus saith H559 the LORD, H3068 The heaven H8064 is my throne, H3678 and the earth H776 is my footstool: H7272 H1916 where is the house H1004 that ye build H1129 unto me? and where is the place H4725 of my rest? H4496 For all those things hath mine hand H3027 made, H6213 and all those things have been, saith H5002 the LORD: H3068 but to this man will I look, H5027 even to him that is poor H6041 and of a contrite H5223 spirit, H7307 and trembleth H2730 at my word. H1697
They shall come H935 with weeping, H1065 and with supplications H8469 will I lead H2986 them: I will cause them to walk H3212 by the rivers H5158 of waters H4325 in a straight H3477 way, H1870 wherein they shall not stumble: H3782 for I am a father H1 to Israel, H3478 and Ephraim H669 is my firstborn. H1060 Hear H8085 the word H1697 of the LORD, H3068 O ye nations, H1471 and declare H5046 it in the isles H339 afar off, H4801 and say, H559 He that scattered H2219 Israel H3478 will gather H6908 him, and keep H8104 him, as a shepherd H7462 doth his flock. H5739 For the LORD H3068 hath redeemed H6299 Jacob, H3290 and ransomed H1350 him from the hand H3027 of him that was stronger H2389 than he. Therefore they shall come H935 and sing H7442 in the height H4791 of Zion, H6726 and shall flow together H5102 to the goodness H2898 of the LORD, H3068 for wheat, H1715 and for wine, H8492 and for oil, H3323 and for the young H1121 of the flock H6629 and of the herd: H1241 and their soul H5315 shall be as a watered H7302 garden; H1588 and they shall not sorrow H1669 any more H3254 at all. Then shall the virgin H1330 rejoice H8055 in the dance, H4234 both young men H970 and old H2205 together: H3162 for I will turn H2015 their mourning H60 into joy, H8342 and will comfort H5162 them, and make them rejoice H8055 from their sorrow. H3015 And I will satiate H7301 the soul H5315 of the priests H3548 with fatness, H1880 and my people H5971 shall be satisfied H7646 with my goodness, H2898 saith H5002 the LORD. H3068
I will heal H7495 their backsliding, H4878 I will love H157 them freely: H5071 for mine anger H639 is turned away H7725 from him. I will be as the dew H2919 unto Israel: H3478 he shall grow H6524 as the lily, H7799 and cast forth H5221 his roots H8328 as Lebanon. H3844 His branches H3127 shall spread, H3212 and his beauty H1935 shall be as the olive tree, H2132 and his smell H7381 as Lebanon. H3844 They that dwell H3427 under his shadow H6738 shall return; H7725 they shall revive H2421 as the corn, H1715 and grow H6524 as the vine: H1612 the scent H2143 thereof shall be as the wine H3196 of Lebanon. H3844
The land G1093 of Zabulon, G2194 and G2532 the land G1093 of Nephthalim, G3508 by the way G3598 of the sea, G2281 beyond G4008 Jordan, G2446 Galilee G1056 of the Gentiles; G1484 The people G2992 which G3588 sat G2521 in G1722 darkness G4655 saw G1492 great G3173 light; G5457 and G2532 to them which G3588 sat G2521 in G1722 the region G5561 and G2532 shadow G4639 of death G2288 light G5457 is sprung up. G393 G846
The sun H8121 shall be no more thy light H216 by day; H3119 neither for brightness H5051 shall the moon H3394 give light H216 unto thee: but the LORD H3068 shall be unto thee an everlasting H5769 light, H215 and thy God H430 thy glory. H8597 Thy sun H8121 shall no more go down; H935 neither shall thy moon H3391 withdraw H622 itself: for the LORD H3068 shall be thine everlasting H5769 light, H216 and the days H3117 of thy mourning H60 shall be ended. H7999
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Malachi 4
Commentary on Malachi 4 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 4
Mal 4:1-6. God's Coming Judgment: Triumph of the Godly: Return to the law THE Best Preparation for Jehovah's Coming: Elijah's Preparatory Mission of Reformation.
1. the day cometh … burn—(Mal 3:2; 2Pe 3:7). Primarily is meant the judgment coming on Jerusalem; but as this will not exhaust the meaning, without supposing what is inadmissible in Scripture—exaggeration—the final and full accomplishment, of which the former was the earnest, is the day of general judgment. This principle of interpretation is not double, but successive fulfilment. The language is abrupt, "Behold, the day cometh! It burns like a furnace." The abruptness imparts terrible reality to the picture, as if it suddenly burst on the prophet's view.
all the proud—in opposition to the cavil above (Mal 3:15), "now we call the proud (haughty despisers of God) happy."
stubble—(Ob 18; Mt 3:12). As Canaan, the inheritance of the Israelites, was prepared for their possession by purging out the heathen, so judgment on the apostates shall usher in the entrance of the saints upon the Lord's inheritance, of which Canaan is the type—not heaven, but earth to its utmost bounds (Ps 2:8) purged of all things that offend (Mt 13:41), which are to be "gathered out of His kingdom," the scene of the judgment being that also of the kingdom. The present dispensation is a spiritual kingdom, parenthetical between the Jews' literal kingdom and its antitype, the coming literal kingdom of the Lord Jesus.
neither root nor branch—proverbial for utter destruction (Am 2:9).
2. The effect of the judgment on the righteous, as contrasted with its effect on the wicked (Mal 4:1). To the wicked it shall be as an oven that consumes the stubble (Mt 6:30); to the righteous it shall be the advent of the gladdening Sun, not of condemnation, but "of righteousness"; not destroying, but "healing" (Jer 23:6).
you that fear my name—The same as those in Mal 3:16, who confessed God amidst abounding blasphemy (Isa 66:5; Mt 10:32). The spiritual blessings brought by Him are summed up in the two, "righteousness" (1Co 1:30) and spiritual "healing" (Ps 103:3; Isa 57:19). Those who walk in the dark now may take comfort in the certainty that they shall walk hereafter in eternal light (Isa 50:10).
in his wings—implying the winged swiftness with which He shall appear (compare "suddenly," Mal 3:1) for the relief of His people. The beams of the Sun are His "wings." Compare "wings of the morning," Ps 139:9. The "Sun" gladdening the righteous is suggested by the previous "day" of terror consuming the wicked. Compare as to Christ, 2Sa 23:4; Ps 84:11; Lu 1:78; Joh 1:9; 8:12; Eph 5:14; and in His second coming, 2Pe 1:19. The Church is the moon reflecting His light (Re 12:1). The righteous shall by His righteousness "shine as the Sun in the kingdom of the Father" (Mt 13:43).
ye shall go forth—from the straits in which you were, as it were, held captive. An earnest of this was given in the escape of the Christians to Pella before the destruction of Jerusalem.
grow up—rather, "leap" as frisking calves [Calvin]; literally, "spread," "take a wide range."
as calves of the stall—which when set free from the stall disport with joy (Ac 8:8; 13:52; 20:24; Ro 14:17; Ga 5:22; Php 1:4; 1Pe 1:8). Especially the godly shall rejoice at their final deliverance at Christ's second coming (Isa 61:10).
3. Solving the difficulty (Mal 3:15) that the wicked often now prosper. Their prosperity and the adversity of the godly shall soon be reversed. Yea, the righteous shall be the army attending Christ in His final destruction of the ungodly (2Sa 22:43; Ps 49:14; 47:3; Mic 7:10; Zec 10:5; 1Co 6:2; Re 2:26, 27; 19:14, 15).
ashes—after having been burnt with the fire of judgment (Mal 4:1).
4. Remember … law—"The law and all the prophets" were to be in force until John (Mt 11:13), no prophet intervening after Malachi; therefore they are told, "Remember the law," for in the absence of living prophets, they were likely to forget it. The office of Christ's forerunner was to bring them back to the law, which they had too much forgotten, and so "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" at His coming (Lu 1:17). God withheld prophets for a time that men might seek after Christ with the greater desire [Calvin]. The history of human advancement is marked by periods of rest, and again progress. So in Revelation: it is given for a time; then during its suspension men live on the memories of the past. After Malachi there was a silence of four hundred years; then a harbinger of light in the wilderness, ushering in the brightest of all the lights that had been manifested, but short-lived; then eighteen centuries during which we have been guided by the light which shone in that last manifestation. The silence has been longer than before, and will be succeeded by a more glorious and awful revelation than ever. John the Baptist was to "restore" the defaced image of "the law," so that the original might be recognized when it appeared among men [Hinds]. Just as "Moses" and "Elias" are here connected with the Lord's coming, so at the transfiguration they converse with Him, implying that the law and prophets which had prepared His way were now fulfilled in Him.
statutes … judgments—ceremonial "statutes": "judgments" in civil questions at issue. "The law" refers to morals and religion.
5. I send you Elijah—as a means towards your "remembering the law" (Mal 4:4).
the prophet—emphatical; not "the Tishbite"; for it is in his official, not his personal capacity, that his coming is here predicted. In this sense, John the Baptist was an Elijah in spirit (Lu 1:16, 17), but not the literal Elijah; whence when asked, "Art thou Elias?" (Joh 1:21), He answered, "I am not." "Art thou that prophet?" "No." This implies that John, though knowing from the angel's announcement to his father that he was referred to by Mal 4:5 (Lu 1:17), whence he wore the costume of Elijah, yet knew by inspiration that he did not exhaustively fulfil all that is included in this prophecy: that there is a further fulfilment (compare Note, see on Mal 3:1). As Moses in Mal 4:4 represents the law, so Elijah represents the prophets. The Jews always understood it of the literal Elijah. Their saying is, "Messiah must be anointed by Elijah." As there is another consummating advent of Messiah Himself, so also of His forerunner Elijah; perhaps in person, as at the transfiguration (Mt 17:3; compare Mt 17:11). He in his appearance at the transfiguration in that body on which death had never passed is the forerunner of the saints who shall be found alive at the Lord's second coming. Re 11:3 may refer to the same witnesses as at the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah; Re 11:6 identifies the latter (compare 1Ki 17:1; Jas 5:17). Even after the transfiguration Jesus (Mt 17:11) speaks of Elijah's coming "to restore all things" as still future, though He adds that Elijah (in the person of John the Baptist) is come already in a sense (compare Ac 3:21). However, the future forerunner of Messiah at His second coming may be a prophet or number of prophets clothed with Elijah's power, who, with zealous upholders of "the law" clothed in the spirit of "Moses," may be the forerunning witnesses alluded to here and in Re 11:2-12. The words "before the … dreadful day of the Lord," show that John cannot be exclusively meant; for he came before the day of Christ's coming in grace, not before His coming in terror, of which last the destruction of Jerusalem was the earnest (Mal 4:1; Joe 2:31).
6. turn … heart of … fathers to … children, &c.—Explained by some, that John's preaching should restore harmony in families. But Lu 1:16, 17 substitutes for "the heart of the children to the fathers," "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just," implying that the reconciliation to be effected was that between the unbelieving disobedient children and the believing ancestors, Jacob, Levi, "Moses," and "Elijah" (just mentioned) (compare Mal 1:2; 2:4, 6; 3:3, 4). The threat here is that, if this restoration were not effected, Messiah's coming would prove "a curse" to the "earth," not a blessing. It proved so to guilty Jerusalem and the "earth," that is, the land of Judea when it rejected Messiah at His first advent, though He brought blessings (Ge 12:3) to those who accepted Him (Joh 1:11-13). Many were delivered from the common destruction of the nation through John's preaching (Ro 9:29; 11:5). It will prove so to the disobedient at His second advent, though He comes to be glorified in His saints (2Th 1:6-10).
curse—Hebrew, Cherem, "a ban"; the fearful term applied by the Jews to the extermination of the guilty Canaanites. Under this ban Judea has long lain. Similar is the awful curse on all of Gentile churches who love not the Lord Jesus now (1Co 16:22). For if God spare not the natural branches, the Jews, much less will He spare unbelieving professors of the Gentiles (Ro 11:20, 21). It is deeply suggestive that the last utterance from heaven for four hundred years before Messiah was the awful word "curse." Messiah's first word on the mount was "Blessed" (Mt 5:3). The law speaks wrath; the Gospel, blessing. Judea is now under the "curse" because it rejects Messiah; when the spirit of Elijah, or a literal Elijah, shall bring the Jewish children back to the Hope of their "fathers," blessing shall be theirs, whereas the apostate "earth" shall be "smitten with the curse" previous to the coming restoration of all things (Zec 12:13, 14).
May the writer of this Commentary and his readers have grace "to take heed to the sure word of prophecy as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn!" To the triune Jehovah be all glory ascribed for ever!