Malachi 4:5 Komentář

We have here proper instructions given us (very proper to close the canon of the Old Testament with), I. Concerning the state of recompence and retribution that is before us, the misery of the wicked and the happiness of the righteous in that state (Mal 4:1-3). And this is represented to us under a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the unbelieving Jews with it, and of the comforts and triumphs of those among them that received the gospel. II. Concerning the state of trial and preparation we are now in, in which we are directed to have an eye to divine revelation, and to follow that; they then must keep to the law of Moses (Mal 4:4) and expect a further discovery of God's will by Elijah the prophet, that is, by John Baptist, the harbinger of the Messiah (Mal 4:5, Mal 4:6). The last chapter of the New Testament is much to the same purport, setting before us heaven and hell in the other world, and obliging us to adhere to the word of God in this world.

INTRODUCTION TO MALACHI 4 This chapter contains an account of the destruction of the wicked Jews, and the happiness of the righteous by the coming of the Messiah; an exhortation to regard the law of Moses; and a description of John the Baptist and his work. The day of Christ's coming, reaching to Jerusalem's destruction, is compared to a burning oven; the wicked Jews to stubble, whose ruin would be utter and complete, Mal 4:1 the appearance of Christ is signified by the arising of him, the sun of righteousness; the manner, with healing in his wings; the effects of which are, going forth in the exercise of grace, and the discharge of duty, and spiritual growth and triumph over their enemies, in which will lie the happiness of them that fear God, Mal 4:2 who are put in mind of the law of Moses on Horeb, Mal 4:4 the sending of John the Baptist under the name of Elijah, before the coming of Christ is prophesied of, Mal 4:5 and his work pointed out, with the end of it, Mal 4:6.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet,.... Not the Tishbite, as the Septuagint version wrongly inserts instead of prophet; not Elijah in person, who lived in the times of Ahab; but John the Baptist, who was to come in the power and spirit of Elijah, Luk 1:17 between whom there was a great likeness in their temper and disposition; in their manner of clothing, and austere way of living; in their courage and integrity in reproving vice; and in their zeal and usefulness in the cause of God and true religion; and in their famous piety and holiness of life; and in being both prophets; see Mat 11:11 and that he is intended is clear from Mat 17:10. It is a notion of the Jews, as Kimchi and others, that the very Elijah, the same that lived in the days of Ahab, shall come in person before the coming of their Messiah they vainly expect, and often speak of difficult things to be left till Elijah comes and solves them; but for such a notion there is no foundation, either in this text or elsewhere. And as groundless is that of some of the ancient Christian fathers, and of the Papists, as Lyra and others, that Elijah with Enoch will come before the day of judgment, and restore the church of God ruined by antichrist, which they suppose is meant in the next clause. Before the coming of the great and, dreadful day of the Lord; that is, before the coming of Christ the son of David, as the Jews (r) themselves own; and which is to be understood, not of the second coming of Christ to judgment, though that is sometimes called the great day, and will be dreadful to Christless sinners; but of the first coming of Christ, reaching to the destruction of Jerusalem: John the Baptist, his forerunner, the Elijah here spoken of, came proclaiming wrath and terror to impenitent sinners; Christ foretold and denounced ruin and destruction to the Jewish nation, city, and temple; and the time of Jerusalem's destruction was a dreadful day indeed, such a time of affliction as had not been from the creation, Mat 24:21 and the Talmud interprets (s) this of the sorrows of the Messiah, or which shall be in the days of the Messiah. (r) T. Bab. Eruvin, fol. 43. 2. & Gloss. in ib. (s) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol 118. 1.

I fully expect these heretics to seize upon the example of Elijah as reincarnated in John the Baptist, and thus they would have become our Lord espousing the doctrine of reincarnation. “Elijah indeed has come, and they knew him not.” And again, “And if you are willing to receive it, here is Elijah who was to come.” Was the question of the Jews to John, “Are you Elijah?” to be understood in a Pythagorean sense and not in reference to the divine pronouncement: “Behold, I send you Elijah, the Tishbite”? But their theory of transmigration refers to the recall of a soul that had died long before and to its insertion in some other body. Elijah, however, is to return not after leaving this life by death, not to be returned to his body, since he never left it, but he will come back to the world from which he has been removed. He will return not to take up a life he had left off but for the fulfillment of a prophecy. He will come back as Elijah, with the same name. How, then, could John be Elijah? The voice of the angel tells us: “And he shall go before the people in the spirit and power of Elijah,” not in the soul or body of Elijah. These substances are the specific property of each man, while “spirit and power” are extrinsic gifts conferred by the grace of God, and so they may be transferred to another according to the will of God as happened long ago with respect to the spirit of Moses.

We must after all this turn our attention to those scriptures also which forbid our belief in such a resurrection as is held by your Animalists (for I will not call them Spiritualists), that it is either to be assumed as taking place now, as soon as men come to the knowledge of the truth, or else that it is accomplished immediately after their departure from this life... Who has yet beheld Jesus descending from heaven in like manner as the apostles saw Him ascend, according to the appointment of the two angels? [Acts 1:11] Up to the present moment they have not, tribe by tribe, smitten their breasts, looking on Him whom they pierced. [John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10] No one has as yet fallen in with Elias; [Malachi 4:5] no one has as yet escaped from Antichrist; [1 John 4:3] no one has as yet had to bewail the downfall of Babylon. [Revelation 18:2] And is there now anybody who has risen again, except the heretic? He, of course, has already quitted the grave of his own corpse — although he is even now liable to fevers and ulcers; he, too, has already trodden down his enemies — although he has even now to struggle with the powers of the world. And as a matter of course, he is already a king — although he even now owes to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's. [Matthew 22:21]

But since the Savior was the beginning of the resurrection of all people, it was fitting that the Lord alone should rise from the dead, by whom too the judgment is to enter the whole world, that they who have wrestled worthily may be also crowned worthily by him, by the illustrious Arbiter. [That is, he] himself first accomplished the course, and was received into the heavens, and was set down on the right hand of God the Father, and is to be manifested again at the end of the world as judge. It is a matter of course that his forerunners must appear first, as he says by Malachi and the angel, “I will send to you Elijah the Tishbite before the Day of the Lord, the great and notable day, comes; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come and smite the earth utterly.” These, then, shall come and proclaim the manifestation of Christ that is to be from heaven; and they shall also perform signs and wonders; in order that people may be put to shame and turned to repentance for their surpassing wickedness and impiety.

Who of those who hear Jesus say of John, “If you wish to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come,” would not inquire how John says to those who ask, “Are you Elijah?” “I am not”? Will he not also inquire how one ought to consider John himself to be Elijah who is to come, according to Malachi’s statement: … “And behold, I am sending you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and renewed Day of the Lord comes, who will restore the heart of the father to his son and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and smite the earth utterly”?

And what is the source of your belief that Elijah who is to come will baptize? He did not even baptize the wood on the altar in the times of Ahab, when it needed a bath that it might be burned up when the Lord appeared in the fire. He commanded the priests to do this, and not only once, for he says, “Do it a second time, when also they did it for a second time.” And “Do it a third time, when also they did it a third time.” How, then, will he who did not baptize at that time but gave the task to others, baptize when he has come in fulfillment of things said by Malachi? Christ therefore does not baptize in water but his disciples. He reserves for himself the act of baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire.

"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God" He speaks of Elias the prophet, who is the precursor of the times of Antichrist, for the restoration and establishment of the churches from the great and intolerable persecution. We read that these things are predicted in the opening of the Old and New Testament; for He says by Malachi: "Lo, I will send to you Elias the Tishbite, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, according to the time of calling, to recall the Jews to the faith of the people that succeed them." And to that end He shows, as we have said, that the number of those that shall believe, of the Jews and of the nations, is a great multitude which no man was able to number. Moreover, we read in the Gospel that the prayers of the Church are sent from heaven by an angel, and that they are received against wrath, and that the kingdom of Antichrist is cast out and extinguished by holy angels; for He says: "Pray that ye enter not into temptation: for there shall be a great affliction, such as has not been from the beginning of the world; and except the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved." Therefore He shall send these seven great archangels to smite the kingdom of Antichrist; for He Himself also thus said: "Then the Son of man shall send His messengers; and they shall gather together His elect from the four corners of the wind, from the one end of heaven even to the other end thereof." For, moreover, He previously says by the prophet: "Then shall there be peace for our land, when there shall arise in it seven shepherds and eight attacks of men; and they shall encircle Assur," that is, Antichrist, "in the trench of Nimrod," that is, in the nation of the devil, by the spirit of the Church. Similarly when the keepers of the house shall be moved. Moreover, the Lord Himself, in the parable to the apostles, when the labourers had come to Him and said, "Lord, did not we sow good seed in Thy field? whence, then, hath it tares? answered them, An enemy hath done this. And they said to Him, Lord, wilt Thou, then, that we go and root them up? And He said, Nay, but let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, that they gather the tares and make bundles of them, and burn them with fire everlasting, but that they gather the wheat into my barns." The Apocalypse here shows, therefore, that these reapers, and shepherds, and labourers, are the angels. And the trumpet is the word of power. And although the same thing recurs in the phials, still it is not said as if it occurred twice, but because what is decreed by the Lord to happen shall be once for all; for this cause it is said twice. What, therefore, He said too little in the trumpets, is here found in the phials. We must not regard the order of what is said, because frequently the Holy Spirit, when He has traversed even to the end of the last times, returns again to the same times, and fills up what He had before failed to say. Nor must we look for order in the Apocalypse; but we must follow the meaning of those things which are prophesied. Therefore in the trumpets and phials is signified either the desolation of the plagues that are sent upon the earth, or the madness of Antichrist himself, or the cutting off of the peoples, or the diversity of the plagues, or the hope in the kingdom of the saints, or the ruin of states, or the great overthrow of Babylon, that is, the Roman state.

(Ver. 5, 6.) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes: and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. LXX: Behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes: he will turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of man to his neighbor; lest I come and strike the earth completely. After Moses (whose commands we have taught are to be observed spiritually), Jesus says that Elijah must be sent: in Moses, the Law, in Elijah, signifying prophecy, as Abraham said to a certain wealthy man dressed in purple: They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them (Luke 16:29). And the Lord and Savior, transfigured on the mountain, was speaking with Moses and Elijah in radiant clothing, who were also telling him what he would suffer in Jerusalem (Mark 9): for the Law and the chorus of all the prophets proclaim the passion of Christ. Therefore, before the day of judgment comes, and the Lord strikes the earth with a curse, either utterly or suddenly, as the LXX translated it (for this signifies ἀρδὴν), the Lord will send Elijah (who is interpreted as 'my God' and is from the city of Thesbi, which means 'conversion' and 'repentance') to convert the hearts of the fathers to the children, namely, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the patriarchs, so that their descendants may believe in the Lord and Savior, in whom they also believed. For Abraham saw the day of the Lord and rejoiced (John 8:56), that is, the heart of the father to the son, that is, the heart of God to every one who has received the spirit of adoption. And the heart of the children to their fathers, like the Jews and Christians, who now disagree among themselves, may they agree equally in the religion of Christ. Hence it is said to the apostles, who spread the seed of the Gospel throughout the whole world: For your fathers have begotten sons for you (Ps. 44:17). For if Elijah does not convert the heart of the fathers to the children beforehand, and the heart of the children to their fathers, when the great and terrible day comes (great for the saints, terrible for sinners), the true and just judge will strike, not the heavens, nor those who dwell in heaven, but the earth with a curse, those who perform earthly works. The Jews and the Judaizing heretics believe that Elijah will come before their own Messiah and will restore all things. Hence, in the Gospel, a question is posed to Christ: Why do the Pharisees say that Elijah will come? To which He responded: Elijah will indeed come, and if you believe, he has already come, referring to John the Baptist as Elijah.

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. (Mal 4:1-6) the day cometh . . . burn-- (Mal 3:2; Pe2 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-- (Oba 1:18; Mat 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 (Psa 2:8) purged of all things that offend (Mat 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 (Amo 2:9).

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 (Luk 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 (Luk 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 (Mat 17:3; compare Mat 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. Rev 11:3 may refer to the same witnesses as at the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah; Rev 11:6 identifies the latter (compare Kg1 17:1; Jam 5:17). Even after the transfiguration Jesus (Mat 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 Act 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 Rev 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).

This admonition to the ungodly is explained in Mal 4:1. by a picture of the separation which will be effected by the day of judgment. Mal 4:1. "For behold the day cometh burning like a furnace, and all the proud and every doer of wickedness become stubble, and the coming day will burn them, saith Jehovah of hosts, so that it will not leave them root or branch. Mal 4:2. But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise and healing in its wings, and ye will go out and skip like stalled calves, Mal 4:3. And will tread down the ungodly, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I create, saith Jehovah of hosts." The day of judgment will be to the ungodly like a burning furnace. "A fire burns more fiercely in a furnace than in the open air" (Hengstenberg). The ungodly will then resemble the stubble which the fire consumes (cf. Isa 5:24; Zep 1:18; Oba 1:18, etc.). זדים and עשׂה רשׁעה point back to Mal 3:15. Those who are called blessed by the murmuring nation will be consumed by the fire, as stubble is burned up, and indeed all who do wickedness, and therefore the murmurers themselves. אשׁר before לא יעזב is a conjunction, quod; and the subject is not Jehovah, but the coming day. The figure "root and branch" is borrowed from a tree - the tree is the ungodly mass of the people (cf. Amo 2:9) - and denotes total destruction, so that nothing will be left of them. To the righteous, on the other hand, the sun of righteousness will arise. Tsedâqâh is an epexegetical genitive of apposition. By the sun of righteousness the fathers, from Justin downwards, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand Christ, who is supposed to be described as the rising sun, like Jehovah in Psa 84:12 and Isa 60:19; and this view is founded upon a truth, viz., that the coming of Christ brings justice and salvation. But in the verse before us the context does not sustain the personal view, but simply the idea that righteousness itself is regarded as a sun. Tsedâqâh, again, is not justification or the forgiveness of sins, as Luther and others suppose, for there will be no forgiving of sins on the day of judgment, but God will then give to every man reward or punishment according to his works. Tsedâqâh is here, what it frequently is in Isaiah (e.g., Isa 45:8; Isa 46:13; Isa 51:5, etc.), righteousness in its consequences and effects, the sum and substance of salvation. Malachi uses tsedâqâh, righteousness, instead of ישׁע, salvation, with an allusion to the fact, that the ungodly complained of the absence of the judgment and righteousness of God, that is to say, the righteousness which not only punishes the ungodly, but also rewards the good with happiness and salvation. The sun of righteousness has מרפּא, healing, in its wings. The wings of the sun are the rays by which it is surrounded, and not a figure denoting swiftness. As the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over the earth for the growth and maturity of the plants and living creatures, so will the sun of righteousness bring the healing of all hurts and wounds which the power of darkness has inflicted upon the righteous. Then will they go forth, sc. from the holes and caves, into which they had withdrawn during the night of suffering and where they had kept themselves concealed, and skip like stalled calves (cf. Sa1 28:24), which are driven from the stall to the pasture. On pūsh, see at Hab 1:8. And not only will those who fear God be liberated from all oppression, but they will also acquire power over the ungodly. They will tread down the wicked, who will then have become ashes, and lie like ashes upon the ground, having been completely destroyed by the fire of the judgment (cf. Isa 26:5-6).