Malachi 2:17 to 3:2
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 18:13.
“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, however, clearly identifies John the Baptist with the first “messenger” of Malachi 3:1. See also Luke 1:76-79; and Isaiah 40:3, which is quoted in Mark 1:3 and 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 1:11). He is the Messenger, or Angel, of the covenant, —regarding which see 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 31:31-34; Matthew 20:28; 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 6:15-17 (for the world) and 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