In this chapter we have, a promise of the coming of the Messiah and His forerunner.
Verse one - “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
The first words of this chapter seem to be a direct answer to the demand of the scoffers of those days which closed the foregoing chapter, "Where is the God of justice?” To which it is answered, "Here He is; He is just at the door; the long-expected Messiah is ready to appear. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the Prophet; ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way” (Mark 1:1-2) is the
accomplishment of this promise. So that by this the two Testaments are, as it were, tacked together, and made to answer one another.
The appearing of John the Baptist is the fulfillment of the predication of Isaiah 40:3. John the Baptist is the Lord’s messenger, the Lord’s ambassador. His commission was from heaven and not of men and His mission was the same as all the prophets, to call men to repentance. He prepares the way for the coming of Christ by calling men to repent so they will be qualified to receive the Messiah and enter His kingdom. He calls them from the confidence in their
relationship to Abraham as their father, which, they thought guaranteed them a place in the kingdom of heaven.
The Lord observes a method in His work, and, before He comes He prepares the way for His coming. Israel was promised the Messiah would come and were told before He appears, there shall be a sign given, a great prophet shall arise, and shall announce He is near at hand. The fulfillment of the coming of the forerunner is proof that Jesus of Nazareth, is He that is to come and we are to look for no other.
Malachi told the Israelites, who you think, has forsaken the earth you may be assured that shortly
He will come. He is the Lord, Adonia, the basis and foundation on which the world is founded, the ruler, and governor of all that has been created. He is Lord over all (Acts 10:36), and all power has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18). He will reign over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:33). He is the Messenger of the covenant that was sent to earth to negotiate a peace
between God and man. He is the Lord of hosts who received a commission from the Father to bring man home to the Father by a covenant of grace. He is to be the desire of all nations. But He was the desire of the Jewish nation because they had the promise made to them.
Malachi told the Israelites the Lord they seek shall come immediately after the appearing of the fore-runner. He shall come suddenly, that is He shall come when many are not looking for His coming, just as His second coming will be. He shall come to His temple at Jerusalem for it is His Father’s house (John 2:16). At forty days old, Jesus was presented in the temple. At twelve years old he was in the temple, “about His Father’s business (Luke 21:12), When he rode in triumph
into Jerusalem, it should seem that he went directly to the temple (Matthew 21:12). Jesus went to the temple that was rebuilt by the returning captives.
Following His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven the temple was totally destroyed. Therefore we do not look for another.
Verse two - “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.”
Malachi told the people of his day the coming of the Lord is something that should be considered with great seriousness, and with awe and reverence. Though He does not come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might have life the days of his flesh there will be revelations of his glory and power and no one will be able to stand before Him. His power and glory was revealed at His transfiguration and it is written many trembled before Him (Mark 5:33). This
could also refer to the great afflictions that shall come upon Israel at the time of his coming. Jesus
spoke of a great tribulation “such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor shall ever be (Matthew 24:21). The Lord will be like the refiner’s fire that separates the gold and the dross or the soap that was used to remove spots from cloth.
Christ came “that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed (Luke 2:35) and to separate evil from good and “send fire on the earth, not peace, but rather division (Luke 12:49, 51), to “shake heaven and earth,” that the “wicked might be shaken” (Job 38:13) and that “the things which cannot be shaken might remain” (Hebrews 12:27). This is the effect the gospel will have upon the world.
Christ by His gospel shall purify and reform His church, and by his Spirit working with it shall
regenerate and cleanse souls; for to this end he gave Himself for the church, “that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26) and “purify to Himself a peculiar people” (Titus 2:14). Christ is the great refiner who will purify all those that are devoted to his praise and employed in his service, as the tribe of Levi was, and whom He plans to make unto our God spiritual priests (Revelation. 1:6).
How will He purify them? He will cleanse them inwardly; he will not only wash away the spots
they have contracted from without, but will take away the dross that is found in them. He will separate from them their indwelling corruption’s, which rendered them worthless and useless, and make them like gold refined, both valuable and serviceable. “He will purge them with fire, as gold and silver are purged, for He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11). He will purge them by “afflictions and manifold temptations,” that the “trial of their faith” may be “found to praise and honor” Him (1st Peter 1:6-7). He will purge them to make them a precious people
to Himself.
What will be the effect of the purging? They will offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.
They will worship the Lord in a spiritual manner according to his will. The offering of prayer, and
praise, and true love. We cannot worship the Lord in a proper way if we have not been justified and sanctified. We cannot do any thing that will bring glory of the Lord if our hearts have not been cleansed of all evil. The Lord purges His people, that they may offer their offerings to him in righteousness (Zephaniah 3:9). He makes the tree good that the fruit may be good.
Verse three - “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.”
And then it follows,
Verse four - “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and in the former years.”
Their offerings will no longer be offensive, as they had been when they worshipped other gods with the God of Israel, or when, in the present days, they brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick, for sacrifice. Their offerings will be accepted. The Lord will be pleased with the people and their offerings, as He was with Abel’s sacrifice and Noah’s, and when he kindled Aaron’s sacrifice with fire from heaven.
When the Messiah comes, He will, by His grace in them, make them acceptable when He has purified and refined them, then they shall offer sacrifices as God requires and will accept. He will, by his intercession for them, make them accepted; he will recommend them and their performances to God, so that their prayers, being perfumed with the incense of his intercession,
shall be pleasant unto the Lord.
The question, “Where is the God of justice” is answered in verse five.
Verse five- “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the
sorcerers and against the adulters and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts.”
Those who asked the question will know where “the God of justice” is through their terror and confusion for He will come near to those who have questioned His justice and character. Who are these people who question the justice and character of the Lord?
They are “the sorcerers” who forsake the oracles of the God of truth to consult the father of lies. The “adulterers” who wallow in the lusts of the flesh and were charged with “dealing treacherously against their wives” (2:15). The “false swearers” who profane God’s name and affront His justice, by claiming, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them” (2:17). The oppressors who barbarously injure and trample upon those who lie at their mercy, and are not able to help themselves. Those who will not give their employees what they said they would pay them. Those who oppress the widow, fatherless and the stranger who has no friend to stand by him and is ignorant of the laws of the country. And Those who do not fear the Lord.
The God of justice says, “I will draw near to you for judgment and I will be a swift witness against” you. You justify your sins and try to conceal them thinking you will escape punishment. But the God of justice who sees everything you have done and knows what you have not done that you should have done will Himself be a witness against those who despise and profane His
name. He will be a swift witness; though they reflect upon him as slow and dilatory, they will find that He is not slack concerning His judgments any more than He is concerning his promises.
Judgment against those sinners shall not be put off for want of evidence, for he will be a swift witness. His judgment shall overtake them, and it shall be impossible for them to outrun it.
Verse six - “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
The Lord immutability asserted by Himself, no word that He has spoken shall fall to the ground. He is a just revenger of those that rebel against him. He is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him. In both these He is unchangeable. Though the sentence passed against evil works (v. 5) is not executed speedily, yet it will be executed, for He is “the Lord” and He does not change. He is an enemy to sin and impenitent sinners will find him so. His judgment is never antiquated, or out of date, but against those that go on still in their trespasses the curse of his law still remains in full force, power, and virtue.
The Israel had reason to say that the Lord is unchangeable because of His faithfulness. If the Lord
had not be faithful His covenant with them and their fathers they would have been consumed long ago and cut off from being a people. They had been unfaithful and the Lord would have been just if He abandoned them, and then they would have been consumed and ruined, but because the Lord remembered His covenant and would not violate His covenant or alter it they were preserved from ruin. It was purely because he would be as good as his word (Deuteronomy 7:8; Leviticus 26:46).
