THE last verse of the second chapter is so directly connected with the third that it should have been made the first verse of it.
“Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him?”
Insensibility to God’s love we have seen in verse 2 of the first chapter, and utter blindness regarding their shocking disregard of what was due to Him, in verses 6 and 7 of that chapter, and again in chapter 2. A plain mark of moral distance from God is the state of self-satisfaction while going on in ways displeasing to Him, which is revealed here; how different altogether from the attitude and language of the publican in Luke 18:1313And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luke 18:13).
“And the publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a (properly the) sinner”!
What depth of moral darkness must have been theirs, who said,
“Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them.” Whence come such thoughts, so utterly false and wicked? O, is it not amazing that God in love seeks such wanderers from Himself? They said, “Where is the God of judgment?”, as much as to say, There is no day of reckoning; we can do as we please. This is the unspoken language of many a human heart in out day,
The answer to the question asked at the end of chapter 2 immediately follows:
“Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, ... .”
Two persons are here spoken of, the first being John the Baptist, at the Lord’s first coming, though we must also look onward to a coming day when that which John failed to accomplish, will be wrought before the Lord’s second coming to the earth (Mark 1:2,2As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. (Mark 1:2) however, clearly identifies John the Baptist with the first “messenger” of Malachi 3:11Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1). See also Luke 1:76-7976And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, 78Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, 79To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:76‑79); and Isaiah 40:3,3The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (Isaiah 40:3) which is quoted in Mark 1:33The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. (Mark 1:3) and John 1:2323He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. (John 1:23)).
John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded, and Whom he served was crucified, but here as generally in the Old Testament prophecies, no indication is given of the unmeasured period from the cross to the awakening of the Jews which will take place before the Lord’s second appearing on earth.
The Lord, the second person spoken of in verse 1 is of course the Son of God, Israel’s Messiah. They looked for the Messiah, but when He suddenly came to His temple they would not receive Him (John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11)). He is the Messenger, or Angel, of the covenant, —regarding which see Exodus 23:20-23,20Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 22But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. 23For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. (Exodus 23:20‑23) and when He comes it will not be on the ground of the old broken covenant of Sinai, but the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-3431Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31‑34); Matthew 20:2828Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28); Hebrews 9:15,15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:15) etc., where, “covenant” should be read instead of “testament”).
“But who”, is asked, “who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth?”
It is the fearful day of the Lord, told of in so many Scriptures, including Malachi, Two New Testament Scriptures may with profit be referred to in this connection (Revelation 6:15-1715And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:15‑17) (for the world) and 1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17) (for Christians), the true reading of the latter being,
“Herein has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as He is, so also are we in this world” (N. T.).
ML 12/05/1937