Malachi

OR, THE STATE OF THINGS AT THE END.

By Edward Dennett

Chapter 4

 

THE division also between chapters 3 and 4 tends to obscure the connection, inasmuch as verse 1 of chapter 4 explains the declaration of the last verse of Mal. 3. The prophet had said that the time would come when those who were arraigning Jehovah should see that there was in His eyes an everlasting distinction between the righteous and the wicked, and now he teaches that this distinction will be publicly manifested at a future day. The word "for" is the connecting link between the two chapters. "For," he continues, "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. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings," &c.

Before we examine this important passage, we may call attention to the principle it exemplifies. Man in his short-sightedness and unbelief is ever prone, like the apostate priests in the preceding chapter, to judge God by the circumstances of the moment. It was so also with the three friends of Job, yea, with Job himself. But we learn there, as from innumerable scriptures, that the issue of God's ways and dealings will not be manifested till a future day, and that He waits for that time to declare His righteousness even before the world. We must therefore, as the apostle teaches, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall every man (if he have matter for praise) have praise of God. In the meantime faith says with Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" for the God that faith knows is infinite in wisdom, holiness, and love. Now this scripture brings us to the moment when Jehovah will manifest His holiness and truth in His judgment of the wicked, and in blessing for those that fear His name; but even here the judgment is not eternal, as it is in connection with His appearing, and preparatory, therefore, to the establishment of His kingdom on earth.

These two aspects of the Lord's appearing must be carefully observed in order to distinguish it from His coming for His Church, a truth not revealed in the Old Testament, because the Church never comes into view in the prophetic writings. (See, for example, Eph. 3) When He returns to claim His Bride, it is in pure unmingled blessing, and has for its object only His own people. (John 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 4:14-18.) The world will not even be aware of the event, save, perchance, from the unwilling recognition of the absence of so large a number with whom they had been conversant The shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God are exclusively for the saints, and will not even be heard by the world around; or if they are heard, like the companions of Saul of Tarsus, when the Lord met him on the way to Damascus, they will not understand the significance of such unwonted sounds. The language will be incomprehensible to their ears, as it will come from a land to which they do not belong, and which they have never visited. No; when the Lord fulfils His promise to His waiting Church, "Surely, I come quickly," He has regard to it alone; and none but the saints will be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air, to be for ever with Him. But "the day" of which our passage treats will be public; it will be introduced when the Lord returns with His saints. It is of this John speaks when he says, "Behold, He cometh with clouds: and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." (Rev. 1:7.) Our Lord Himself also describes it in Matthew's gospel: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man, in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." (Matt. 24:29-30.) And in the same chapter we find the same two aspects — judgment and blessing — linked together. We thus read, "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left." (vv. 40, 41.) And be it noticed that those "taken" here are taken for judgment, while those "left" are left for blessing in the kingdom which will then be established. This conclusively shows the difference between the Lord's return for His Church and His appearing, because when He comes for His people they, unlike these in Matthew, are taken away for blessing — to be with Himself; while those who are left are left for judgment.

Another thing may be pointed out to establish the difference between these two important things. After describing the thorough character of the judgment which will be executed when "the day" cometh, the prophet, speaking in the name of the Lord, says, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings." (v. 2.) This figure entirely accords with the distinction we have made. The appearing of the Lord is, as already explained, the introduction of the day; and hence it is set forth here as the rising of the Sun of righteousness, as it will be for His earthly people. David uses similar language of the same event: "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." (2 Samuel 23:4.) On the other hand, this figure is never employed in relation to the Church, but another equally significant is used, and expressive of the truth it is intended to convey; viz., the Bright and Morning Star. (Rev. 22:16; see also 2 Peter 1:19.) Now these two figures, rightly understood, explain both the character and the order of the Lord's coming for His Church and His appearing. The morning star appears before the day, towards the closing of the night, at the dawn, and is thus the harbinger of the rising of the sun. So will it be when the Church is rapt away from this world. It will be caught up to be associated with Christ in His heavenly beauty, who has been displayed before the eye of faith as the Bright and Morning Star; and this event will be preparatory to the Lord's appearing as the Sun of righteousness, as set forth in this scripture. An interval — greater or less — there will be between the two events; but the relation between them, in regard to the earth, is that which is symbolized by the Morning Star and the Sun of righteousness.¹

The "day" then of which the prophet speaks has a double aspect — judgment without mercy (for the day of grace will then be past) upon the proud and all that do wickedly; and pure, unmingled blessing for those that fear the name of Jehovah. (See Isa. 24 - 26; Zech. 12 - 14 &c.) There is moreover another thing. "Ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 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." (vv. 2, 3.) This promise, which the Lord makes to His people Israel in connection with their deliverance and blessing at His appearing, again distinguishes this event both from His return for the Church, and from the closure of all dispensations at the end of the thousand years. There are some who affirm that the coming of the Lord for His saints and His appearing are identical. In what sense, if this were so, will His people, who will then be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, as those who hold this view admit, tread down the wicked as ashes under the soles of their feet? There would be a manifest incongruity in such a figure with the circumstances of those who will then be for ever with the Lord. There are others who deny any coming or appearing of the Lord until after the millennium. Let such then tell us how the saints of God, who, according to their own thought, enter at that time upon eternal blessedness, will then come into conflict with and triumph over the wicked. To mention these views is sufficient to show that they are opposed to the truth of Scripture.

This passage, we may repeat for the sake of clearness, has no application to the Church; it concerns itself with God's ancient people, who, then in the land, had been brought back from their captivity in Babylon. There are two classes, as we have seen, amongst them — those who had departed from God while they kept up the forms of their ritual, and those that feared the Lord, spake often one to another, and thought upon Jehovah's name. These latter met the mind of Jehovah; and were the objects of His heart; and, addressing to them words of consolation and promise, He takes them up as characteristic morally of the remnant that will be found at the Lord's appearing. There was such a remnant at the Lord's first coming; but the nation rejected Him, and all was lost on the ground of responsibility. The realization of these blessed promises was consequently postponed — only postponed, because what was forfeited on the ground of responsibility will be finally made good in grace according to the unchanging counsels of God on the foundation of the finished work of Christ. These promises yet remain therefore for Israel, though they have no title to anything, save in and through the Christ; and when He shall return to them in power and glory, as shown in this scripture, He will accomplish their fulfilment. Then will His people — the remnant brought through the fire, but viewed as the nation — be not only put into the enjoyment of these blessings, but they will also, under the sway of their Messiah and King, and as thus associated with Him, tread down the wicked, who will be as ashes under their feet. (See Ps. 2, Ps. 110, etc. etc.) It is thus the earthly people, and not the heavenly saints of this dispensation, that are here described by the prophet.

The three last verses (4-6) constitute a kind of appendix. In verse 4 Jehovah recalls the people to the unchanging basis of His covenant with them; viz., the law. This was His standard for them, the measure of their responsibility, and thus the condition of blessing. Their safety, as the safety of God's people in all ages, would lie in obedience to the word. Testing all by that infallible standard, and refusing all that answers not to it, while seeking grace at the same time to restore it to its supremacy over our own hearts and ways; such is the only path of recovery and blessing. They were thus to go back to the beginning — a principle that has before occupied us, not to the times of Nehemiah and Ezra, neither to the glory of the kingdom in the days of David and Solomon, but to Horeb — "the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb." In like manner we, in days of confusion and ruin, must not stop short of Pentecost, if we would gauge the extent of our decline, and discover the means of restoration. This is an abiding principle, and on this account it is solemnly affirmed just as God was about to silence the voice of prophecy for the long period of four hundred years.

Jehovah, moreover, lays the foundation in this exhortation, and in the principle which it contains, for the announcement of the mission of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (v. 5.) We have explained the relation of John the Baptist to Elijah in connection with Mal. 3:1. If Israel, when our Lord first came, had received the Baptist, he would have been Elijah for them, and as it was his mission was in the spirit and the power of Elijah. But John was beheaded, and the Christ, of whom he was the forerunner, was crucified; and God, who is as immutable in His holiness as in His grace, will as surely perform His truth unto Abraham, as execute his judgments upon the wicked. In the day of judgment, however, He remembers mercy, and therefore, before the advent of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, He will send Elijah to test the hearts of His people, and to recall them to His unchanging faithfulness and grace. And the very mention of Elijah is significant of the state in which Israel will then be found. The mission of Elijah, historically, was at a time of general apostacy, when Jehovah had been publicly disowned, and Baal had been chosen in His place. And we gather from many scriptures that apostacy will characterize Israel as a whole in the last days. As in the time of Ahab there was a hidden remnant, so will it be again, for God will never leave Himself without witness on the earth. But outwardly, under the sway of Antichrist, idolatry will mark the condition of the people. The mission of "Elijah" will be in the midst of this state of things, and the character of his ministry in the time of Ahab and Jezebel will enable us to understand its nature at the end. Its object is here given: "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." (v. 6.) John the Baptist never fulfilled this promise, at least in the largeness of its import. Crowds gathered about him at the commencement of his labours, but the most of these only rejoiced in his light for a season, and then turned back to the darkness of their own pride and self-righteousness. With "Elijah" it will be different, for the Lord hath spoken the word, and He will perform it. Labouring as the prophet will, under far greater difficulties than even the Baptist, the effects of his work, if not outwardly seen, will be greater; and in this way there will be once again a people prepared for the Lord on His return. The object, however, here is, "Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." There will be judgments, as we have seen from verse 1; but the existence of a people whom God has called and prepared in grace will once again be the salt of the earth, and on their account the earth, or more probably the land, will be exempted from that which is here termed a curse — pure and unmingled judgment.

The conjunction of Moses and Elijah (vv. 4, 5) at the close of the Old Testament cannot fail to be observed. They are, as we know, the expressions of the law and the prophets, and these abide for ever — till the close of all God's ways on the earth. (Compare Matt. 5:17-19; see also Rev. 11 — the ministry of the two witnesses being characterized by the features of Moses and Elijah.)

With these words the light of prophecy is quenched, and God ceases to send His messengers to His people until the days of the Baptist; and, while never failing in His love and faithfulness, He withdraws for a season from all active and direct intervention in their affairs. All has now been prepared to test their hearts by the coming of Christ, and God waits four hundred years, until the fulness of the time should arrive when He would send forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, who would be for Israel a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. (Romans 15:8.) But though He came unto His own, and His own received Him not, God, in His infinite long-suffering, still waits, and eventually, in pursuance of His eternal counsels of grace and mercy, Christ will be a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel.

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1) See, for further instruction on this subject, The Blessed Hope.