Time to Take a Turn

Background

Opening Up Malachi Flee to Christ (vv. 5–6)

Flee to Christ (vv. 5–6)

Many find these verses to be confusing. Malachi has obviously been speaking of the Day of Judgement at the end of human history, but here he begins speaking about Elijah coming. We know that this is a prophecy of the ministry of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11–14; 17:10–13), and we know that John the Baptist came to pave the way for Jesus (John 1:19–34).

So the question we are facing is this: How did Malachi get from Judgement Day to Jesus’ day? John Benton gives this answer: ‘… there is a sense in which the last day, the Day of Judgement, was brought forward and broke into history in the coming of Jesus.’

He further writes:

When people receive or reject the Lord Jesus Christ, they are passing judgement day verdict upon themselves. In preparing people for Jesus to be revealed to the nation of the Jews, John was preparing people for judgement day. Those who truly owned up to their sins would be looking for the Saviour. Those who went on in the pretence and hypocrisy of being good enough for God by their ‘religion’ would reject Jesus. That judgement stands for eternity.

The upshot of it all is if we want to be prepared for Judgement Day, we must receive the Christ whose ministry pictured it and signalled it.

By the way, the ministry of John the Baptist would prove to have a profound effect on the family life of the people of Israel. It would turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of the children towards their fathers. How we need such a turning! And that turning can come only as parents and children find a common bond in the Christ of whom John spoke. One of the evidences that people have truly found Christ is the love they have for one another. Where that love exists, there is blessing. Where it does not exist, there is a curse (v. 6).

Holman Concise Bible Commentary Theological and Ethical Significance

Theological and Ethical Significance. Malachi speaks to the hearts of a troubled people whose circumstances of financial insecurity, religious skepticism, and personal disappointments are similar to those God’s people often experience or encounter today. The book contains a message that must not be overlooked by those who wish to encounter the Lord and His kingdom and to lead others to a similar encounter. Its message concerns God’s loving and holy character and His unchanging and glorious purposes for His people. Our God calls His people to genuine worship, to fidelity both to Himself and to one another, and to expectant faith in what He is doing and says He will do in this world and for His people.

God’s love is paramount. It is expressed in Malachi in terms of God’s election and protection of Israel above all the nations of the world. Since God has served the interests of Judah out of His unchanging love, He requires Judah to live up to its obligations by obedience and loyalty to Him and not empty ritualism in worship. This love relationship between God and Judah is the model by which the individual is expected to treat his neighbor; we are bound together as a community created by God, we are responsible for one another, and we are required to be faithful in our dealings with one another at every point in life.

An Exposition of the Old Testament, Vols. I–VI Chapter 4

both fathers and children: the meaning is, that John the Baptist should be an instrument of converting many of the Jews, both fathers and children, and bringing them to the knowledge and faith of the true Messiah; and reconcile them together who were divided by the schools of Hillell and Shammai, and by the sects of the Sadduceea and Pharisees, and bring them to be of one mind, judgment, and faith, and to have a hearty love to one another, and the Lord Christ; see Matt. 3:5, 6 and the note on Luke 1:17. The Talmudists interpret this of composing differences, and making peace. Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse; the land of Judea; which, because the greater part of the inhabitants of it were not converted to the Lord, did not believe in the Messiah, but rejected him, notwithstanding the preaching and testimony of John the Baptist, and the ministry and miracles of Christ, it was smitten with a curse, was made desolate, and destroyed by the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Adrian, as instruments doing what God here threatened he would do; for not the whole earth is intended, as the Targum and Abarbinel suggest; but only that land, and the people of it, are intended, to whom the law of Moses was given; and to whom Elias, or John the Baptist, was to be sent; and to whom he was sent, and did come; and by whom he was rejected, and also the Messiah he pointed at; for which that country was smitten with a curse, and remains under it to this day.

CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 4

4:4–6 The people of Israel wore tassels as constant reminders of God’s instructions (Nm 15:38–40). Malachi called them to remember—not to be guided by human wisdom, ambition, or societal expectations, but by the application of God’s instruction through Moses (see Ps 119:16). On the great and terrible day of the LORD, see Jl 2:31 (the only other place where this phrase occurs). This will be a day of blessing for God’s people as well as a time of judgment on his enemies. Elijah, mentioned twenty-eight times in the NT, was viewed as the preeminent prophet of repentance. He appeared with Moses on the mountain of Jesus’s transfiguration to testify that Jesus is the Messiah (Lk 9:29–31). Both Moses and Elijah were connected with Horeb, God’s mountain (Ex 3:1; 1Kg 19:8). Although this prophecy was provisionally fulfilled by John the Baptist (Mal 3:1–5), it will be further fulfilled at Jesus’s return (Mt 11:14; 17:11; Rv 11:3) and it will be accompanied by a great revival of faith in Israel (Dt 30:1–2). Mal 4:6, quoted in Lk 1:16–17, describes a time of reconciliation when “the disobedient” will accept the wisdom of “the righteous” and when fathers and their children will no longer live self-serving lives but will regard one another with compassion and respect (2:15; Ezk 5:10; Rm 1:30).

(6) And he shall turn . . . to their fathers.--This does not refer to the settlement of family disputes, such as might have arisen from marriage with foreign wives. "The fathers are rather the ancestors of the Israelitish nation, the patriarchs, and generally the pious forefathers . . . The sons, or children, are the degenerate descendants of Malachi's own time and the succeeding ages."--Keil. "The hearts of the godly fathers and ungodly sons are estranged from one another. The bond of union--viz., the common love of God--is wanting. The fathers are ashamed of their children, and the children of their fathers."--Hengstenberg. (Comp. particularly Isaiah 29:22-24, and the paraphrastic citation of Malachi 4:6 in Luke 1:17.)

Verse 6. - He shall turn, etc.; i.e., taking the preposition, rendered "to," in the sense of "with," he shall convert one and all, fathers and children, young and old, unto the Lord. Or, in agreement with the versions, he shall bring back the Jews then living to the faith of their ancestors, who rejoiced to see the day of Christ (John 8:56); and then the patriarchs, who for their unbelief had disowned them, shall recognize them as true Israelites, true children of Abraham. Others explain - He shall unite the Jews who are our fathers in the faith to us Christians who are their children (see Luke 1:17, where the angel Gabriel quotes part of the passage, and applies it to John the Baptist). The heart. Here not the seat of the intellectual powers, but of love and confidence, which lead to union and concord. Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse; or, smite the land with the ban. This is an allusion to the ban threatened in the Law, which involved extermination (see Leviticus 27:29; Deuteronomy 13:16, 17; Deuteronomy 20:16, 17). So Elijah shall come and preach repentance, as the Baptist did at Christ's first coming; and unless the Jews listen to him and turn to Christ, they shall be destroyed, shall share in that eternal anathema which shall fall on the ungodly at the day of judgment.

Malachi 4:6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, &c. — After the times of the Maccabees, to the times of Christ, the Jewish people were miserably divided among themselves, by discords, which broke out into civil wars, of which Josephus gives an account. And moreover, the different religious sects among them, especially those of the Sadducees and Pharisees, greatly distracted the people, and alienated and separated the nearest relations from each other. Now John the Baptist began to apply a remedy to these evils, by instilling the precepts of love and charity, and directing all to one and the same master, Christ: see Luke 3:11; Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:7; John 1:15. This seems to be the most probable interpretation of the words, taking them in the sense of our translation, and as they are understood by the LXX., and by St. Luke 1:17. But a more easy sense may be given of them by translating the Hebrew preposition על, not to, but with, in which sense it is often used, and as Kimchi, Noldius, and others render it, namely, He shall turn the hearts of the fathers with the children, and of the children with the fathers; that is, he shall do his utmost to produce a national reformation, to turn both fathers and children from their evil practices, and to make them all unanimously join in the great duties of repentance and amendment of life; to restore a true sense of religion, which was then dwindled into a mere form, and thereby to prepare the people for the reception of Christ, in order to prevent the utter excision denounced upon the land, as it follows, Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. — By the earth here, as frequently elsewhere, is meant the land of Judea, and the clause would be better rendered, Lest I come and smite the land, namely, of Judea, with utter destruction: for so the word חרם, here rendered curse, is often translated, as the learned reader may see by referring to Numbers 21:2; Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 7:15-16; Joshua 6:21; Zechariah 14:11. So that the meaning is, Lest, when I come to execute judgment upon Judea, all the inhabitants of it should be utterly destroyed. By the preaching of John, and his directing the people to Christ, many were brought to repentance and reformation of life, and thereby escaped the common destruction of the nation. All, therefore, did not perish, but a remnant was saved, as St. Paul takes notice, Romans 9:27; Romans 9:29; Romans 11:5. Judea, however, remains a desolation, and Jerusalem a heap of ruins, both of them sad and perpetual monuments of God’s displeasure against such as reject Christ and his salvation. The three remarkable predictions, therefore, contained in this last chapter of the ancient records of the divine will, like a multitude of others, which have come under our consideration in the course of these notes, have all been punctually fulfilled. The harbinger of the Messiah appeared at the time foretold, in the spirit and power of Elias; the Messiah himself was manifested as the Sun of righteousness, as soon as that messenger sent before his face had prepared his way; and the most signal vengeance was executed, as foretold, on all such as rejected him and his salvation. These remarkable predictions, therefore, added to all that went before, being evidently verified, are so many fresh proofs of the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, of the truth of the Christian religion, of the certain accomplishment of all the promises and threatenings of the gospel of Christ, and of the absolute necessity of possessing the religion there delineated, and practising the duties there enjoined. This, indeed, is the design of all the prophecies, and even of all the books contained in the Old and New Testaments, and the principal use which ought to be made of them.

This Elijah, according to Malachi 4:6, is to lead back the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers. The meaning of this is not that he will settle disputes in families, or restore peace between parents and children; for the leading sin of the nation at the time of our prophet was not family quarrels, but estrangement from God. The fathers are rather the ancestors of the Israelitish nation, the patriarchs, and generally the pious forefathers, such as David and the godly men of his time. The sons or children are the degenerate descendants of Malachi's own time and the succeeding ages. "The hearts of the godly fathers and the ungodly sons are estranged from one another. The bond of union, viz., common love to God, is wanting. The fathers are ashamed of their children, the children of their fathers" (Hengstenberg). This chasm between them Elijah is to fill up. Turning the heart of the fathers to the sons does not mean merely directing the love of the fathers to the sons once more, but also restoring the heart of the fathers, in the sons, or giving to the sons the fathers' disposition and affections. Then will the heart of the sons also return to their fathers, turn itself towards them, so that they will be like-minded with the pious fathers. Elijah will thereby prepare the way of the Lord to His people, that at His coming He may not smite the land with the ban. The ban involves extermination. Whoever and whatever was laid under the ban was destroyed (cf. Leviticus 27:28-29; Deuteronomy 13:16-17; and my Bibl. Archol. i. 70). This threat recals to mind the fate of the Canaanites who were smitten with the ban (Deuteronomy 20:17-18). If Israel resembles the Canaanites in character, it will also necessarily share the fate of that people (cf. Deuteronomy 12:29).

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The New Testament gives us a sufficient explanation of the historical allusion or fulfilment of our prophecy. The prophet Elijah, whom the Lord would send before His own coming, was sent in the person of John the Baptist. Even before his birth he was announced to his father by the angel Gabriel as the promised Elijah, by the declaration that he would turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the unbelieving to the wisdom of the just (Luke 1:16-17). This address of the angel gives at the same time an authentic explanation of Malachi 4:5 and Malachi 4:6 of our prophecy: the words "and the heart of the children to their fathers" being omitted, as implied in the turning of the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the explanatory words "and the unbelieving to the wisdom of the just" being introduced in their place; and the whole of the work of John, who was to go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, being described as "making ready a prepared people for the Lord." The appearance and ministry of John the Baptist answered to this announcement of the angel, and is so described in Matthew 3:1-12, Mark 1:2-8; Luke 3:2-18, that the allusion to our prophecy and the original passage (Isaiah 40:3) is obvious at once. Even by his outward appearance and his dress John announced himself as the promised prophet Elijah, who by the preaching of repentance and baptism was preparing the way for the Lord, who would come after him with the winnowing shovel to winnow His floor, and gather the wheat into His granary, but who would burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Christ Himself also not only assured the people (in Matthew 11:10., Luke 7:27.) that John was the messenger announced by Malachi and the Elijah who was to come, but also told His disciples (Matthew 17:1.; Mark 9:1.) that Elijah, who was to come first and restore all things, had already come, though the people had not acknowledged him. And even John 1:21 is not at variance with these statements. When the messengers of the Sanhedrim came to John the Baptist to ask whether he was Elias, and he answered, "I am not," he simply gave a negative reply to their question, interpreted in the sense of a personal reappearance of Elijah the Tishbite, which was the sense in which they meant it, but he also declared himself to be the promised forerunner of the Lord by applying to his own labours the prophecy contained in Isaiah 40:3.

And as the prophet Elijah predicted by Malachi appeared in John the Baptist, so did the Lord come to His temple in the appearing of Jesus Christ. The opinion, which was very widely spread among the fathers and Catholic commentators, and which has also been adopted by many of the more modern Protestant theologians (e.g., Menken and H. Olshausen), viz., that our prophecy was only provisionally fulfilled in the coming of John the Baptist and the incarnation of the Son of God in Jesus Christ, and that its true fulfilment will only take place at the second coming of Christ to judge the world, in the actual appearance of the risen Elijah by which it will be preceded, is not only at variance with the statements of the Lord concerning John the Baptist, which have been already quoted, but as no tenable foundation in our prophecy itself. The prophets of the Old Testament throughout make no allusion to any second coming of the Lord to His people. The day of the Lord, which they announce as the day of judgment, commenced with the appearance on earth of Christ, the incarnate Logos; and Christ Himself declared that He had come into the world for judgment (John 9:39, cf. John 3:19 and John 12:40), viz., for the judgment of separating the believing from the ungodly, to give eternal life to those who believe on His name, and to bring death and condemnation to unbelievers. This judgment burst upon the Jewish nation not long after the ascension of Christ. Israel rejected its Saviour, and was smitten with the ban at the destruction of Jerusalem in the Roman war; and both people and land lie under this ban to the present day. And just as the judgment commenced at that time so far as Israel was concerned, so does it also begin in relation to all peoples and kingdoms of this earth with the first preaching of Christ among them, and will continue throughout all the centuries during which the kingdom spreads upon earth, until it shall be ultimately completed in the universal judgment at the visible second coming of the Lord at the last day.

With this calling to remembrance of the law of Moses, and this prediction that the prophet Elijah will be sent before the coming of the Lord Himself, the prophecy of the Old Testament is brought to a close. After Malachi, no other prophet arose in Israel until the time was fulfilled when the Elijah predicted by him appeared in John the Baptist, and immediately afterwards the Lord came to His temple, that is to say, the incarnate Son of God to His own possession, to make all who received Him children of God, the segullâh of the Lord. Law and prophets bore witness of Christ, and Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them. Upon the Mount of Christ's Transfiguration, therefore, there appeared both Moses, the founder of the law and mediator of the old covenant, and Elijah the prophet, as the restorer of the law in Israel, to talk with Jesus of His decease which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem (Matthew 17:1.; Mark 9:1.; Luke 9:28.), for a practical testimony to the apostles and to us all, that Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us, to bear our sin and redeem us from the curse of the law, was the beloved Son of the Father, whom we are to hear, that by believing in His name we may become children of God and heirs of everlasting life.