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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
M A L A C H I.
CHAP. IV.
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,
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
(ver. 4)
and expect a further discovery of God’s will by Elijah the prophet,
that is, by John Baptist, the harbinger of the Messiah,
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.
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1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and
all the proud, yea, and all 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.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness
arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow
up as calves of the stall.
3 And 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.
The great and terrible day of the Lord is here prophesied of. This,
like the pillar of cloud and fire, shall have a dark side turned
towards the Egyptians that fight against God, and a bright side towards
the faithful Israelites that follow him: The day cometh, that
is, the Lord cometh, the day of the Lord; and it has reference both to
the first and to the second coming of Jesus Christ; the day of both was
fixed, and should answer the character here given of it.
I. In both Christ is a consuming fire to those that rebel against him.
The day of his coming shall burn as an oven; it shall be a day
of wrath, of fiery indignation. This was foretold concerning the
Messiah,
Thy hand shall find out all thy enemies, and shall make them
as a fiery oven in the time of thy anger. It will be a day of
terror and destruction like the burning of a city, or rather of a wood,
the trees whereof are withered and dried, for to that the allusion
seems to be, as
The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a
flame, and it shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful
field. Now observe here,
1. Who shall be fuel to this fire–all the proud in heart, whose
words have been stout against God, and their necks stiff and unapt to
yield to the yoke of his commandments (all those that in the pride
of their countenances will not seek after God, nor submit to the
grace and government of Jesus Christ–all that proudly say they will
not have Christ to reign over them), and all those that do
wickedly in their affections and conversations, that wilfully
persist in sin, in contempt of and contradiction to the law of God;
they are such as do wickedly against the covenant, as another
prophet had lately expressed it,
God, that has perfect knowledge of every one’s character, knows who are
the proud, and of every one’s actions, knows who they are that
do wickedly; and they shall be as stubble to this fire;
they shall be consumed by it, easily consumed, utterly consumed, and it
is wholly owing to themselves that they shall be so, for they make
themselves stubble, that is, combustible matter, to this fire. If they
were not stubble, it would not burn them; for the fire will be to every
man according as he and his works are found; if they be wood,
hay, and stubble, they will be consumed; but if they
be gold, silver, and precious stones, they will abide the
fire and be purified by it,
Those that by their unbelief oppose Christ thereby set themselves as
briers and thorns before a devouring fire,
Isa. xxvii. 4, 5.
2. What shall be the force and what the fruit of this fire: The day
that cometh shall burn them up, shall both terrify and ruin them,
and shall leave them neither root nor branch, neither son
nor nephew (so the Chaldee paraphrase): neither they nor their
posterity shall be spared; they shall be wholly extirpated and cut off.
Who knows the power of God’s anger? The proud and those that do
wickedly will not fear it, but they shall be made to feel it. Where
are those now that called the proud happy, when thus they are
made completely miserable, when there remains no branch of their
happiness to be enjoyed for the present, nor any root of it out of
which it might again spring up? Now this was fulfilled,
(1.) When Christ, in his doctrine, spoke terror and condemnation to the
proud Pharisees and the other Jews that did wickedly, when he sent that
fire on the earth which burnt up the chaff of the traditions of the
elders and the corrupt glosses they had put upon the law of God.
(2.) When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the nation of the
Jews, as a nation, quite blotted out from under heaven, and neither
root nor branch left them. This seems to be principally intended here;
our Saviour says that those should be the days of vengeance,
when all the things that were written to that purport should be
fulfilled,
Then the unbelieving Jews were as stubble to the devouring fire of
God’s judgments, which gathered together to them as the eagles to the
carcase.
(3.) It is certainly applicable, and is to be applied, to the day of
judgment, to the particular judgment at death (some of the Jewish
doctors refer it the punishment that seizes on the souls of the
wicked immediately after they go out of the body), but especially
to the general judgment, at the end of time, when Christ shall be
revealed in flaming fire, to execute judgment on the proud,
and all that do wickedly. The whole world shall then burn as an
oven, and all the children of this world, that set their hearts
upon it and choose their portion in it, shall take their ruin with it,
and the fire then kindled shall never be quenched.
II. In both Christ is a rejoicing light to those who serve him
faithfully, to those who fear his name and give him the glory due to it
(v. 2),
who stand in awe of that name of his which the wicked profane and
trample upon. Here are mercy and comfort kept in store for all those
who fear the Lord and think on his name. Observe,
1. Whence this mercy and comfort shall flow to them: To you that
fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his
wings. The day that comes, as it will be a stormy day to the
wicked, a day in which God will rain upon them fire and brimstone,
and a horrible tempest, as he did on Sodom
(Ps. xi. 6),
a day of clouds and thick darkness
so it will be a fair and bright day to those who fear God, and reviving
as the rising sun is to the earth; and particular notice is taken of
the rising of the sun upon Zoar when that was mercifully distinguished
from the cities of the plain, which the fire consumed; see
So to those that fear God is comfort spoken. When the hearts of others
fail for fear let them lift up their heads for joy, for
their redemption draws nigh,
Luke xxi. 28.
But by the Sun of righteousness here we are certainly to
understand Jesus Christ, who would undertake to secure the believing
remnant, in the day of the general destruction of the Jews, from
falling with the rest, and to comfort them in that day of distress and
perplexity with his consolations; he directed those that were in Judea
to flee to the mountains
and they did so, and were all safe and easy in Pella. But it is to be
applied more generally,
(1.) To the coming of Christ in the flesh to seek and save those that
were lost; then the Sun of righteousness arose upon this dark
world. Christ is the light of the world, the true light, the
great light that makes day and rules the day
as the sun. He is the light of men
(John i. 4),
is to men’s souls as the sun is to the visible world, which without the
sun would be a dungeon; so would mankind be darkness itself without the
light of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ.
Christ is the Sun that has light in himself, and is the fountain of
light
(Ps. xix. 4-6);
he is the Sun of righteousness, for he is himself a righteous
Saviour. Righteousness is both the light and the heat of this Sun; the
word of his righteousness is so; it guides, instructs, and quickens; so
is the everlasting righteousness he has brought in. He is
made of God to us righteousness; he is the Lord our
righteousness, and therefore is fitly called the Sun of
righteousness. Through him we are justified and sanctified, and so
are brought to see light. This Sun of righteousness, in the fulness of
time, arose upon the world, and with him light came into the
world
(John iii. 19),
a great light,
Matt. iv. 16.
In him the day-spring from on high visited us, to give light to
those that sit in darkness,
Luke i. 78, 79.
Righteousness sometimes signifies mercy or benignity, and it was in
Christ that the tender mercy of our God visited us.
(2.) It is applicable to the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit,
brought into the souls of men. Grotius understands it of Christ’s
giving the Spirit to those that are his, to shine in their hearts, and
to be a comforter to them, a sun and a shield. Those that
are possessed and governed by a holy fear of God and a dread of his
majesty shall have his love also shed abroad in their hearts
by the Holy Ghost; and then the sun may be said to arise there, and
to bring both a delightful day and a fruitful spring along with it.
(3.) Christ’s second coming will be a glorious and welcome sun-rising
to all that fear his name; it will be that morning of the
resurrection in which the upright shall have dominion,
Ps. xlix. 14.
That day which to the wicked will burn as an oven will to the
righteous be bright as the morning; and it is what they wait for,
more than those that wait for the morning.
2. What this mercy and comfort shall bring to them: He shall arise
with healing under his wings, or in his rays or
beams, which are as the wings of the sun. Christ came, as the
sun, to bring not only light to a dark world, but health to a
diseased distempered world. The Jews (says Dr. Pocock) have a
proverbial saying, As the sun riseth, infirmities decrease; the
flowers which drooped and languished all night revive in the morning.
Christ came into the world to be the great physician, yea, and the
great medicine too, both the balm in Gilead and the physician there.
When he was upon earth, he went about as the sun in his circuit, doing
this good; he healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases among the
people; he healed by wholesale, as the sun does. He shall arise
with healing in his skirts; so some read it, and they apply it
to the story of the woman’s touching the hem of his garment, and
being thereby made whole, and his finding that virtue went
out of him,
Mark v. 28-30.
But his healing bodily diseases was a specimen of his great design in
coming into the world to heal the diseases of men’s souls, and to put
them into a good state of health, that they may serve and enjoy both
God and themselves.
3. What good effect it shall have upon them.
(1.) It shall make them vigorous in themselves: “You shall go
forth, as those that are healed go abroad and return to their
business.” The souls shall go forth out of their bodies at death, and
the bodies out of their graves at the resurrection, as prisoners out of
their dungeons, and both to see the light and be set at liberty.
“You shall go forth as plants out of the earth, when in the
spring the sun returns.” Some make it to mean the going forth of the
Christians from Jerusalem, and the escape they thereby made from its
destruction. And thus the souls on whom the Sun of righteousness arises
go forth out of the world, go forth out of Babylon, as those that are
made free indeed. “You shall likewise grow up; being
restored to health and liberty, you shall increase in knowledge, and
grace, and spiritual strength.” The souls on which the Sun of
righteousness arises are growing up towards the perfect man;
those that by the grace of God are made wise and good are by the same
grace made wiser and better; and their path, like that of the rising
sun, shines more and more to the perfect day,
Prov. iv. 18.
Their growth is compared to that of the calves of the stall,
which is a quick, strong, and useful growth. “You shall grow up, not
as the flower of the field, which is slender, and weak, and of
little use, and withers soon after it has grown up, but as the
calves of the stall,” that, as one of the rabbin expounds it,
grow great in flesh and fatness, with which both God’s altars
and men’s tables are replenished; so the growth of the saints, on whom
the Sun of righteousness arises, honours both God and man. Some read
it, instead of You shall grow up, You shall move
yourselves, or leap for joy, shall be as frolicsome as
calves of the stall, when they are let loose in the open field; it
denotes the joy of the saints, who rejoice in Christ Jesus; they shall
even leap for joy; they are always caused to triumph.
(2.) It shall make them victorious over their enemies
(v. 3):
You shall tread down the wicked. Time was when the wicked trod
them down, said to their souls, Bow down, that we may go over;
but the day will come when they shall tread down the wicked. The
wicked, being made Christ’s footstool, are made theirs also
(Ps. cx. 1),
and come and worship before the feet of the church,
The elder shall serve the younger. When believers by faith
overcome the world, when they suppress their own corrupt
appetites and passions, when the God of peace bruises Satan under their
feet, then they tread down the wicked. When it came to the turn
of the Christians to triumph over the Jews that had insulted over them,
then this promise was fulfilled: They shall be ashes under the soles
of your feet; they shall not only be trodden down, but
trodden to dirt. When the day that comes shall have burnt
them up, they shall trample upon them as ashes. When the righteous
shall rise to everlasting life, the wicked shall rise to
everlasting contempt; and, though they shall not triumph over
them, they shall triumph in that God whose justice is glorified in
their destruction. The saints in glory are said to have power given
them over the nations, to rule them with a rod of iron,
Rev. ii. 26, 27.
This you shall do, in the day that I shall do this. Note, The
saints’ triumphs are all owing to God’s victories; it is not they that
do this, but God that does it for them, that says, Come set your
feet on the necks of these kings. Some read it, “In the day that
I make, or shall make, the great day that I shall make
remarkable, of which you will say with joy, This is the day which
the Lord has made.” The day of the destruction of Jerusalem is
called the great and notable day of the Lord
(Acts ii. 20),
and our Saviour in foretelling that destruction made use of such
expressions as, like these, might be applied likewise to the end of
the world and the last judgment; for it was such a terrible
revelation of the wrath of God from heaven, and caused such a scene of
horror upon this earth, that it might fitly serve for a type of that
glorious transaction which will be an outlet to the days of time and an
inlet to the days of eternity. By the accomplishment of these
prophecies in the ruin of the Jewish nation, we should have our faith
confirmed in the assurances Christ has given us concerning the
dissolution of all things. Surely I come quickly; so says
Christ, the Lord of hosts, to whom all power in heaven and earth
is committed.
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4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded
unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and
judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and
smite the earth with a curse.
This is doubtless intended for a solemn conclusion, not only of this
prophecy, but of the canon of the Old Testament, and is a plain
information that they were not to expect any more sayings nor writing
by divine inspiration, any more of the dictates of the Spirit of
prophecy, till the beginning of the gospel of the Messiah, which sets
aside the Apocrypha as no part of holy writ, and which therefore the
Jews never received.
Now that prophecy ceases, and is about to be sealed up, there are two
things required of the people of God, that lived then:–
I. They must keep up an obedient veneration for the law of Moses
(v. 4):
Remember the law of Moses my servant, and observe to do
according to it, even that law which I commanded unto him in
Horeb, that fiery law which was intended for all Israel, with
the statutes and judgments, not only the law of the ten
commandments, but all the other appointments, ceremonial and judicial,
then and there given. Observe here,
1. The honourable mention that is made of Moses, the first
writer of the Old Testament, in Malachi, the last writer. God by
him calls him Moses my servant; for the righteous shall be had
in everlasting remembrance. See how the penmen of scripture, though
they lived in several ages at a great distance from each other (it was
above 1200 years from Moses to Malachi), all concurred in the same
thing, and supported one another, being all actuated and guided by one
and the same Spirit.
2. The honourable mention that is made of the law of Moses; it
was what God himself commanded; he owns it for his law, and he
commanded it for all Israel, as the municipal law of their
kingdom. Thus will God magnify his law and make it honourable.
Note, We are concerned to keep the law because God has commanded it and
commanded it for us, for we are the spiritual Israel; and, if we expect
the benefit of the covenant with Israel
we must observe the commands given to Israel, those of them that were
intended to be of perpetual obligation.
3. The summary of our duty, with reference to the law. We must
remember it. Forgetfulness of the law is at the bottom of all our
transgressions of it; if we would rightly remember it, we could not but
conform to it. We should remember it when we have occasion to use it,
remember both the commands themselves and the sanctions wherewith they
are enforced. The office of conscience is to bid us remember the
law. But how does this charge to remember the law of Moses come in
here?
(1.) This prophet had reproved them for many gross corruptions and
irregularities both in worship and conversation, and now, for the
reforming and amending of what was amiss, he only charges them to
remember the law of Moses: “Keep to that rule, and you will do
all you should do.” He will lay upon them no other burden than
what they have received; hold that fast,
Rev. ii. 24, 25.
Note, Corrupt churches are to be reformed by the written word, and
reduced into order by being reduced to the standard of the law and
the testimony, see
(2.) The church had long enjoyed the benefit of prophets, extraordinary
messengers from God, and now they had a whole book of their prophecies
put together, and it was a finished piece; but they must not think that
hereby the law of Moses was superseded, and had become as an
almanac out of date, as if now they were advanced to a higher form and
might forget that. No; the prophets do but confirm and apply the law,
and press the observance of that; and therefore still Remember the
law. Note, Even when we have made considerable advances in
knowledge we must still retain the first principles of practical
religion and resolve to abide by them. Those that study the writings of
the prophets, and the apocalypse, must still remember the law of Moses
and the four gospels.
(3.) Prophecy was now to cease in the church for some ages, and the
Spirit of prophecy not to return till the beginning of the
gospel, and now they are told to remember the law of Moses;
let them live by the rules of that, and live upon the promises of that.
Note, We need not complain for want of visions and revelations as long
as we have the written word, and the canon of scripture complete, to be
our guide; for that is the most sure word of prophecy, and the
touchstone by which we are to try the spirits. Though we have
not prophets, yet, as long as we have Bibles, we may keep our communion
with God, and keep ourselves in his way.
(4.) They were to expect the coming of the Messiah, the preaching of
his gospel, and the setting up of his kingdom, and in that expectation
they must remember the law of Moses, and live in obedience to
that, and then they might expect the comforts that the Messiah would
bring to the willing and obedient. Let them observe the law of
Moses, and live up to the light which that gave them, and then they
might expect the benefit of the gospel of Christ, for to him that
has, and uses what he has well, more shall be given, and he
shall have abundance.
II. They must keep up a believing expectation of the gospel of Christ,
and must look for the beginning of it in the appearing of Elijah the
prophet
(v. 5, 6):
“Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet. Though the Spirit of
prophecy cease for a time, and you will have only the law to consult,
yet it shall revive again in one that shall be sent in the spirit
and power of Elias,”
The law and the prophets were until John
(Luke xvi. 16);
they continued to be the only lights of the church till that
morning-star appeared. Note, As God never left himself without
witness in the world, so neither in the church, but, as there was
occasion, carried the light of divine revelation further and further to
the perfect day. They had now Moses and the prophets, and might hear
them; but God will go further: he will send them Elijah. Observe,
1. Who this prophet is that shall be sent; it is Elijah. The
Jewish doctors will have it to be the same Elijah that prophesied in
Israel in the days of Ahab–that he shall come again to be the
forerunner of the Messiah; yet others of them say not the same person,
but another of the same spirit. It should seem, those different
sentiments they had when they asked John, “Art thou Elias, or
that prophet that should bear his name?”
But we Christians know very well that John Baptist was the Elias that
was to come,
and very expressly,
This is Elias that was to come; and
the same of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger,
ch. iii. 1.
Elijah was a man of great austerity and mortification, zealous for God,
bold in reproving sin, and active to reduce an apostate people to God
and their duty; John Baptist was animated by the same spirit and power,
and preached repentance and reformation, as Elias had done; and all
held him for a prophet, as they did Elijah in his day, and that his
baptism was from heaven, and not of men. Note, When God
has such work to do as was formerly to be done he can raise up such men
to do it as he formerly raised up, and can put into a John Baptist the
spirit of an Elias.
2. When he shall be sent–before the appearing of the Messiah, which,
because it was the judgment of this world, and introduced the ruin of
the Jewish church and nation, is here called the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. John Baptist gave them fair warning
of this when he told them of the wrath to come (that wrath to
the uttermost which was hastening upon them) and put them into a
way of escape from it, and when he told them of the fan in Christ’s
hand, with which Christ would thoroughly purge his floor; see
That day of Christ, when he came first, was as that day will be when he
comes again–though a great and joyful day to those that embrace him,
yet a great and dreadful day to those that oppose him. John
Baptist was sent before the coming of this day, to give people notice
of it, that they might get ready for it, and go forth to meet it.
3. On what errand he shall be sent: He shall turn the heart of the
fathers to their children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers; that is, “he shall be employed in this work; he shall
attempt it; his doctrine and baptism shall have a direct tendency to
it, and with many shall be successful: he shall be an instrument in
God’s hand of turning many to righteousness, to the
Lord their God, and so making ready a people prepared for
him,”
Note, The turning of souls to God and their duty is the best
preparation of them for the great and dreadful day of the Lord. It is
promised concerning John,
(1.) That he shall give a turn to things, shall make a bold stand
against the strong torrent of sin and impiety which he found in full
force among the children of his people, and beating down all before it.
This is called his coming to restore all things
to set them to rights, that they may again go in the right channel.
(2.) That he shall preach a doctrine that shall reach men’s hearts, and
have an influence upon them, and work a change in them. God’s word, in
his mouth, shall be quick and powerful, and a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Many had
their consciences awakened by his ministry who yet were not thoroughly
wrought upon, such a spirit and power was there in it.
(3.) That he shall turn the hearts of the fathers with the children,
and of the children with the fathers (for so some read it), to God and
to their duty. He shall call upon young and old to repent, and shall
not labour in vain, for many of the fathers that are going off, and
many of the children that are growing up, shall be wrought upon by his
ministry.
(4.) That thus he shall be an instrument to revive and confirm love and
unity among relations, and shall bring them closer and bind them faster
to each other, by bringing and binding them all to their God. He shall
prepare the way for that kingdom of heaven which will make all its
faithful subjects of one heart and one soul
(Acts iv. 32),
which will be a kingdom of love, and will slay all enmities.
4. With what view he shall be sent on this errand: Lest I come and
smite the earth, that is, the land of Israel, the body of the
Jewish nation (that were of the earth earthy), with a curse.
They by their impiety and impenitence in it had laid themselves open to
the curse of God, which is a separation to all evil. God was ready to
smite them with that curse, to bring utter ruin upon them, to strike
home, to strike dead, with the curse; but he will yet once more try
them, whether they will repent and return, and so prevent it; and
therefore he sends John Baptist to preach repentance to them, that
their conversion might prevent their confusion; so unwilling is God
that any should perish, so willing to have his anger turned away. Had
they universally repented and reformed, their repentance would have had
this desired effect; but, they generally rejecting the counsel of God
in John’s baptism, it proved against themselves
and their land was smitten with the curse which both it and they lie
under to this day. Note, Those must expect to be smitten with a sword,
with a curse, who turn not to him that smites them with a rod,
with a cross,
Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree, says John Baptist,
and it is ready to be smitten, to be cut down, with a curse;
therefore bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Some observe
that the last word of the Old Testament is a curse, which threatens the
earth
(Zech. v. 3),
our desert of which we must be made sensible of, that we may bid Christ
welcome, who comes with a blessing; and it is with a blessing, with the
choicest of blessings, that the New Testament ends, and with it let us
arm ourselves, or rather let God arm us, against this curse. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Amen.
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