Malachi 4

Malachi 4:1-3

We have here the proper instructions given us (every proper to close the

2. He will be a reviving sun to his people. Unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; he led his people out of Jerusalem to Pella, when it was ready to be destroyed; and more generally on all his people he thus arises, when first he calls them out of darkness into his marvellous light; he is their sun, the fountain of all spiritual light and life; by his bright beams they are quickened, bring forth fruit abundantly, rejoice before him, and walk in the light of truth, which leads to the mansions of glory. He is their sun of righteousness, shining without spot himself, the author of everlasting righteousness to his people, and the powerful and effectual agent, who by his mighty working transforms them into his own image of righteousness and true holiness: in his wings, his rays of light and grace, there is healing, our spiritual diseases are cured, the native darkness of the mind removed, and our sin-sick souls restored to health and strength, by the genial influences of his reviving beams. And in the resurrection morn with brighter glories shall our sun appear, and shine for ever upon his redeemed people.

3. In consequence of this, ye shall go forth, either out of Jerusalem to Pella, where the Christians found a place of refuge; or rather, ye shall go forth to walk in the light of the Lord, rejoicing in his salvation, steadily advancing in the path of grace and glory, and running with delight the way of God’s commandments; and grow up as calves of the shall, fat and well liking; so replenished shall they be with the influences of God’s spirit, and fed with the bread of life, strengthening and increasing with the increase of God. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, faith the Lord of hosts; the wicked Jews, who persecuted them, shall now be burnt with their cities, and trod into the dust. Thus when the conquests of the Redeemer shall be compleated, and death itself destroyed, then shall the wicked be brought low, and every foe that troubled God’s saints be trodden under foot, whilst the triumphs of the redeemed will be everlasting; and when the smak of the sinner’s torment ascends, they will cry, Hallelujah.

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.

Malachi 4:4-6

The canon of the Old Testament here receives a solemn close. The Jewish people are to expect no more prophets till the great forerunner of the Messiah appears; and therefore,

1. They must keep steadfast to the law and the testimony, and be guided only by God’s past revealed will. Remember ye the law of my servant Moses, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, with the statutes and judgments, moral and ceremonial; all which would have a direct tendency to lead them to Christ; for which purpose the law was their schoolmaster, and which must now be their only rule, in contradistinction to the corrupt glosses which their teachers shortly after began to put upon it. Note, The word of God alone, exclusive of all traditions and human expeditions, must be our rule; the labours of others may assist our enquiries after truth, but after all, we must call no man master; one is our master, even Christ, and he hath promised we shall be taught of him; and by prayer and meditation on his word, humbly desiring to know his mind, he will lead us into all truth.

2. They must live in the constant expectation of the Messiah, and his forerunner John the Baptist. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, one in the spirit and power of Elijah, Luke 1. 17. one in zeal, courage to rebuke sin, piety and austerity of manners resembling him, Mat. xi. 14. before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, when, for the rejection of the true Messiah, wrath to the uttermost should be poured out upon their land, and their city and temple utterly destroyed, Acts ii. 20. He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, or of the fathers with the children; both one and the other by his preaching shall be turned to Christ, and directed to the Lamb of God, which is come to take away the sin of the world, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse, which would be the certain consequence of their rejecting the Lord’s Christ, and visibly remains upon the Jewish people to this day.