Sermon Tone Analysis

**“my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi)

Biblical Studies Press.

(2006).

The NET Bible First Edition Notes ().

Biblical Studies Press., reported to us in 4:5

Biblical Studies Press.

(2006).

The NET Bible First Edition Notes ().

Biblical Studies Press., reported to us in 4:5

the same as the prophet’s ame (see ) but here we can see from and

Mal.

3:1–6.

Coming of the Lord to judgment.

V. 1. “Behold, I send my messenger, that he may prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the angel of the covenant, whom ye desire; behold he comes, saith Jehovah of hosts.”

To the question, Where is or remains the God of judgment?

the Lord Himself replies that He will suddenly come to His temple, but that before His coming He will send a messenger to prepare the way for Him.

The announcement of this messenger rests upon the prophecy in Isa.

40:3ff., as the expression וּפִנָּה דֶרֶךְ, which is borrowed from that passage, clearly shows.

The person whose voice Isaiah heard calling to make the way of Jehovah in the desert, that the glory of the Lord might be revealed to all flesh, is here described as מַלְאָךְ, whom Jehovah will send before Him, i.e., before His coming.

This maleâkh is not a heavenly messenger, or spiritual being (Rashi, Kimchi), nor the angel of Jehovah κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν, who is mentioned afterwards and called maleakh habberīth, but an earthly messenger of the Lord, and indeed the same who is called the prophet Elijah in v. 23, and therefore not “an ideal person, viz., the whole choir of divine messengers, who are to prepare the way for the coming of salvation, and open the door for the future grace” (Hengst.), but a concrete personality—a messenger who was really sent to the nation in John the Baptist immediately before the coming of the Lord.

The idea view is precluded not only by the historical fact, that not a single prophet arose in Israel during the whole period between Malachi and John, but also by the context of the passage before us, according to which the sending of the messenger was to take place immediately before the coming of the Lord to His temple.

It is true that in Mal.

2:7 the priest is also called a messenger of Jehovah; but the expression