Malachi was the last of the prophets, and is supposed to have prophesied B.C. 420. He reproves the priests and the people for the evil practices into which they had fallen, and invites them to repentance and reformation, with promises of the blessings to be bestowed at the coming of the Messiah. And now that prophecy was to cease, he speaks clearly of the Messiah, as nigh at hand, and directs the people of God to keep in rememberance the law of Moses, while they were in expectation of the gospel of Christ.
The ingratitude of Israel. (1-5) They are careless in God's institutions. (6-14)
@Verses 1-5 All advantages, either as to outward circumstances, or spiritual privileges, come from the free love of God, who makes one to differ from another. All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.
@Verses 6-14
We may each charge upon ourselves what is here charged
upon the priests. Our relation to God, as our Father and Master,
strongly obliges us to fear and honour him. But they were so
scornful that they derided reproof. Sinners ruin themselves by
trying to baffle their convictions. Those who live in careless
neglect of holy ordinances, who attend on them without
reverence, and go from them under no concern, in effect say, The
table of the Lord is contemptible. They despised God's name in
what they did. It is evident that these understood not the
meaning of the sacrifices, as shadowing forth the unblemished
Lamb of God; they grudged the expense, thinking all thrown away
which did not turn to their profit. If we worship God
ignorantly, and without understanding, we bring the blind for
sacrifice; if we do it carelessly, if we are cold, dull, and
dead in it, we bring the sick; if we rest in the bodily
exercise, and do not make heart-work of it, we bring the lame;
and if we suffer vain thoughts and distractions to lodge within
us, we bring the torn. And is not this evil? Is it not a great
affront to God, and a great wrong and injury to our own souls?
In order to the acceptance of our actions with God, it is not
enough to do that which, for the matter of it, is good; but we
must do it from a right principle, in a right manner, and for a
right end. Our constant mercies from God, make worse our
slothfulness and niggardliness, in our returns of duty to God. A
spiritual worship shall be established. Incense shall be offered
to God's name, which signifies prayer and praise. And it shall
be a pure offering. When the hour came, in which the true
worshippers worshipped the Father in Spirit and in truth, then
this incense was offered, even this pure offering. We may rely
on God's mercy for pardon as to the past, but not for indulgence
to sin in future. If there be a willing mind, it will be
accepted, though defective; but if any be a deceiver, devoting
his best to Satan and to his lusts, he is under a curse. Men
now, though in a different way, profane the name of the Lord,
pollute his table, and show contempt for his worship.
The priests reproved for neglecting their covenant. (1-9) The
people reproved for their evil practices. (10-17)
@Verses 1-9
What is here said of the covenant of priesthood, is true of
the covenant of grace made with all believers, as spiritual
priests. It is a covenant of life and peace; it assures all
believers of all happiness, both in this world and in that to
come. It is an honour to God's servants to be employed as his
messengers. The priest's lips should not keep knowledge from his
people, but keep it for them. The people are all concerned to
know the will of the Lord. We must not only consult the written
word, but desire instruction and advice from God's messengers,
in the affairs of our souls. Ministers must exert themselves to
the utmost for the conversion of sinners; and even among those
called Israelites, there are many to be turned from iniquity.
Those ministers, and those only, are likely to turn men from
sin, who preach sound doctrine, and live holy lives according to
the Scripture. Many departed from this way; thus they misled the
people. Such as walk with God in peace and righteousness, and
turn others from sin, honour God; he will honour them, while
those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed.
@Verses 10-17
Corrupt practices are the fruit of corrupt principles;
and he who is false to his God, will not be true to his fellow
mortals. In contempt of the marriage covenant, which God
instituted, the Jews put away the wives they had of their own
nation, probably to make room for strange wives. They made their
lives bitter to them; yet, in the sight of others, they pretend
to be tender of them. Consider she is thy wife; thy own; the
nearest relation thou hast in the world. The wife is to be
looked on, not as a servant, but as a companion to the husband.
There is an oath of God between them, which is not to be trifled
with. Man and wife should continue to their lives' end, in holy
love and peace. Did not God make one, one Eve for one Adam? Yet
God could have made another Eve. Wherefore did he make but one
woman for one man? It was that the children might be made a seed
to serve him. Husbands and wives must live in the fear of God,
that their seed may be a godly seed. The God of Israel saith
that he hateth putting away. Those who would be kept from sin,
must take heed to their spirits, for there all sin begins. Men
will find that their wrong conduct in their families springs
from selfishness, which disregards the welfare and happiness of
others, when opposed to their own passions and fancies. It is
wearisome to God to hear people justify themselves in wicked
practices. Those who think God can be a friend to sin, affront
him, and deceive themselves. The scoffers said, Where is the God
of judgement? but the day of the Lord will come.
The coming of Christ. (1-6) The Jews reproved for their
corruptions. (7-12) God's care of his people; The distinction
between the righteous and the wicked. (13-18)
@Verses 1-6
The first words of this chapter seem an answer to the
scoffers of those days. Here is a prophecy of the appearing of
John the Baptist. He is Christ's harbinger. He shall prepare the
way before him, by calling men to repentance. The Messiah had
been long called, "He that should come," and now shortly he will
come. He is the Messenger of the covenant. Those who seek Jesus,
shall find pleasure in him, often when not looked for. The Lord
Jesus, prepares the sinner's heart to be his temple, by the
ministry of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, and he
enters it as the Messenger of peace and consolation. No
hypocrite or formalist can endure his doctrine, or stand before
his tribunal. Christ came to distinguish men, to separate
between the precious and the vile. He shall sit as a Refiner.
Christ, by his gospel, shall purify and reform his church, and
by his Spirit working with it, shall regenerate and cleanse
souls. He will take away the dross found in them. He will
separate their corruptions, which render their faculties
worthless and useless. The believer needs not fear the fiery
trial of afflictions and temptations, by which the Saviour
refines his gold. He will take care it is not more intense or
longer than is needful for his good; and this trial will end far
otherwise than that of the wicked. Christ will, by interceding
for them, make them accepted. Where no fear of God is, no good
is to be expected. Evil pursues sinners. God is unchangeable.
And though the sentence against evil works be not executed
speedily, yet it will be executed; the Lord is as much an enemy
to sin as ever. We may all apply this to ourselves. Because we
have to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is that we
are not consumed; because his compassions fail not.
@Verses 7-12
The men of that generation turned away from God, they had
not kept his ordinances. God gives them a gracious call. But
they said, Wherein shall we return? God notices what returns our
hearts make to the calls of his word. It shows great
perverseness in sin, when men make afflictions excuses for sin,
which are sent to part between them and their sins. Here is an
earnest exhortation to reform. God must be served in the first
place; and the interest of our souls ought to be preferred
before that of our bodies. Let them trust God to provide for
their comfort. God has blessings ready for us, but through the
weakness of our faith and the narrowness of our desires, we have
not room to receive them. He who makes trial will find nothing
is lost by honouring the Lord with his substance.
@Verses 13-18
Among the Jews at this time, some plainly discovered
themselves to be children of the wicked one. The yoke of Christ
is easy. But those who work wickedness, tempt God by
presumptuous sins. Judge of things as they will appear when the
doom of these proud sinners comes to be executed. Those that
feared the Lord, spake kindly, for preserving and promoting
mutual love, when sin thus abounded. They spake one to another,
in the language of those that fear the Lord, and think on his
name. As evil communications corrupt good minds and manners, so
good communications confirm them. A book of remembrance was
written before God. He will take care that his children perish
not with those that believe not. They shall be vessels of mercy
and honour, when the rest are made vessels of wrath and
dishonour. The saints are God's jewels; they are dear to him. He
will preserve them as his jewels, when the earth is burned up
like dross. Those who now own God for theirs, he will then own
for his. It is our duty to serve God with the disposition of
children; and he will not have his children trained up in
idleness; they must do him service from a principle of love.
Even God's children stand in need of sparing mercy. All are
righteous or wicked, such as serve God, or such as serve him
not: all are going to heaven or to hell. We are often deceived
in our opinions concerning both the one and the other; but at
the bar of Christ, every man's character will be known. As to
ourselves, we have need to think among which we shall have our
lot; and, as to others, we must judge nothing before the time.
But in the end all the world will confess that those alone were
wise and happy, who served the Lord and trusted in Him.
The judgements on the wicked, and the happiness of the
righteous. (1-3) Regard to be had to the law; John the Baptist
promised as the forerunner of Messiah. (4-6)
@Verses 1-3
Here is a reference to the first and to the second coming
of Christ: God has fixed the day of both. Those who do wickedly,
who do not fear God's anger, shall feel it. It is certainly to
be applied to the day of judgment, when Christ shall be revealed
in flaming fire; to execute judgment on the proud, and all that
do wickedly. In both, Christ is a rejoicing Light to those who
serve him faithfully. By the Sun of Righteousness we understand
Jesus Christ. Through him believers are justified and
sanctified, and so are brought to see light. His influences
render the sinner holy, joyful, and fruitful. It is applicable
to the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit, brought into the
souls of men. Christ gave the Spirit to those who are his, to
shine in their hearts, and to be a Comforter to them, a Sun and
a Shield. That day which to the wicked will burn as an oven,
will to the righteous be bright as the morning; it is what they
wait for, more than those that wait for the morning. Christ came
as the Sun, to bring, not only light to a dark world, but health
to a distempered world. Souls shall increase in knowledge and
spiritual strength. Their growth is as that of calves of the
stall, not as the flower of the field, which is slender and
weak, and soon withers. The saints' triumphs are all owing to
God's victories; it is not they that do this, but God who does
it for them. Behold another day is coming, far more dreadful to
all that work wickedness than any which is gone before. How
great then the happiness of the believer, when he goes from the
darkness and misery of this world, to rejoice in the Lord for
evermore!
@Verses 4-6
Here is a solemn conclusion, not only of this prophecy, but
of the Old Testament. Conscience bids us remember the law.
Though we have not prophets, yet, as long as we have Bibles, we
may keep up our communion with God. Let others boast in their
proud reasoning, and call it enlightening, but let us keep near
to that sacred word, through which this Sun of Righteousness
shines upon the souls of his people. They must keep up a
believing expectation of the gospel of Christ, and must look for
the beginning of it. John the Baptist preached repentance and
reformation, as Elijah had done. The turning of souls to God and
their duty, is the best preparation of them for the great and
dreadful day of the Lord. John shall preach a doctrine that
shall reach men's hearts, and work a change in them. Thus he
shall prepare the way for the kingdom of heaven. The Jewish
nation, by wickedness, laid themselves open to the curse. God
was ready to bring ruin upon them; but he will once more try
whether they will repent and return; therefore he sent John the
Baptist to preach repentance to them. Let the believer wait with
patience for his release, and cheerfully expect the great day,
when Christ shall come the second time to complete our
salvation. But those must expect to be smitten with a sword,
with a curse, who turn not to Him that smites them with a rod.
None can expect to escape the curse of God's broken law, nor to
enjoy the happiness of his chosen and redeemed people, unless
their hearts are turned from sin and the world, to Christ and
holiness. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.
Amen.
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
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