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Malachi 3 Commentary
Witten and edited by Glenn Pease
1. "See, I will send my messenger, who willprepare the way before me. Then suddenly theLord you are seeking will come to his temple; themessenger of the covenant, whom you desire, willcome," says the LORD Almighty.
1.If the messenger being spoken of here is John the Baptist, then the speaker here isJesus Christ the Messiah, for he says he will prepare the way before me. At the endof the verse he is the Lord Almighty, and so Jesus is the Lord Almighty. It is theLord himself who is the Messiah, and so Jesus was truly God in flesh. He was theGod of the Old Testament, the Lord Almighty, who came into history as a man.Here is a clear statement of the deity of Christ. He is coming to his temple, and thattemple is God's temple.1B. The implication is that this messenger will come shortly and quickly, and justsuddenly show up at the temple, but we know it was 400 years later before hearrived. In God's time table where a thousand years is like a day, this was less thanhalf a day away, and so from his perspective it was soon and sudden. It is hard forus to live on God's time table, for what is soon and quickly done is agonizingly slowfrom our perspective. It takes enormous patience to wait on the Lord, for we neverknow when it is his time to act.1C. Piper makes a logical case here for the full deity of Jesus. He wrote, "This isanother messenger, different from the first. Who is this person? Three thingspoint to the divine Son of God and Messiah.- He is called "Lord" -- a term thatMalachi would not apply to Elijah or John the Baptist. This person is someonegreater.- The temple is said to belong to him: He will suddenly come to "HIStemple." Of whom could you say that he is the owner of the temple of God? - Thisperson seems to be almost identical with Jehovah, not only because Jehovah'stemple is his temple, but also because he seems to take the place of the word "me" inthe first half of the verse. It says, "Behold, I send my messenger (Elijah = John theBaptist) to prepare the way before ME . . ." But then he switches without anydifficulty and instead of saying, "And I will suddenly come to my temple . . ." hesays, "And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple." It looks asthough "me" --Jehovah -- is virtually interchangeable with this other person calledthe Lord, who owns the temple of God. . ."
 
2. Barnes, "Malachi uses Isa_40:3: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straiqht in the desert a highway for our God.Luk_1:76. Thou, child,” was the prophecy on John the Immerser’s birth, “shalt becalled the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord toprepare His way, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people, for the remissionof their sins.”3. Barnes goes on, "As, it is here said of His first Coming, so it is said of His secondComing (which may be comprehended under this here spoken of) that except theydiligently watch for it Luk_21:35, “it shall come upon them unawares Mar_13:36.suddenly Mat_24:44. in such an hour as they think not.” “The Lord of glory alwayscomes, like a thief in the night, to those who sleep in their sins."4. Stedman, "This prophecy of Malachi was given by a man whose name means "mymessenger." It is most suggestive that this last book of our Old Testament centersaround the theme of a messenger of God and a prediction of the coming of anothermessenger. In this, therefore, we have a direct tie between Malachi and the NewTestament. Chapter 3, for instance, begins with this prophecy: "Behold, I send mymessenger [in Hebrew that would be "Behold, I send Malachi"] to prepare the waybefore me, ..." {Mal 3:1a RSV} And as you discover in the book of Matthew, thatmessenger was John the Baptist. He came to prepare the way of the Lord and toannounce the coming of the second messenger from God. That second messenger ishere in this prophecy in the next phrase: "... and the Lord whom you seek willsuddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant ..." {Mal 3:1b RSV}It was the work of the Lord Jesus on the closing night of his ministry to take wineand bread with his disciples and holding the cup up to say, "This is my blood of the[new] covenant." (Matt. 26:28) The messenger of the covenant is the Lord Jesushimself. . . "5. Gill, "These are the words of Christ, in answer to the question put in the lastverse of the preceding chapter Mal_2:17, "Where
is
the God of judgment?"intimating that he would quickly appear, and previous to his coming send hismessenger or angel; not the angel of death to destroy the wicked, as Jarchi thinks;nor an angel from heaven, as Kimchi; nor Messiah the son of Joseph; as Aben Ezra;nor the Prophet Malachi himself, as Abarbinel; but the same that is called Elijah theprophet, Mal_4:5and is no other than John the Baptist, as is clear from Mat_11:10called a "messenger" or "angel", not by nature, but by office; and Christ'smessenger, because sent by him and on his errand; and which shows the power andauthority of Christ in sending forth ministers; his superior excellency to John, andhis existence before him, or he could not be sent by him, and so before hisincarnation; for John was sent by him before he was in the flesh, and consequentlythis is a proof of the proper deity of Christ: and the word "behold" is prefixed tothis, in order to raise the attention of those that put the above question, and allothers; as well as to show that the message John was sent upon was of the greatestmoment and importance; as that the Messiah was just ready to appear, his kingdomwas at hand, and the Jews ought to believe in him; though it also respects the
 
coming of the Messiah, spoken of in the latter part of the text:"6. Gill continues, "and the Lord, whom ye seek; this is the person himself speaking,the Son of God, and promised Messiah, the Lord of all men, and particularly of hischurch and people, in right of marriage, by virtue of redemption, and by being theirHead and King; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of him, and even Abarbinelhimself; the Messiah that had been so long spoken of and so much expected, andwhom the Jews sought after, either in a scoffing manner, expressed in the abovequestion, or rather seriously; some as a temporal deliverer, to free them from theRoman yoke, and bring them into a state of liberty, prosperity, and grandeur; andothers as a spiritual Saviour, to deliver from sin, law, hell, and death, and save themwith an everlasting salvation:6B. Gill goes on, "..shall suddenly come to his temple; meaning not his humannature, nor his church, sometimes so called; but the material temple at Jerusalem,the second temple, called "his", because devoted to his service and worship, whichproves him to be God, and because of his frequency in it; here he was brought andpresented by his parents at the proper time, for the purification of his mother; herehe was at twelve years of age disputing with the doctors; and here Simeon, Anna,and others, were waiting for him, Luk_2:22and we often read of his being here, andof his using his authority in it as the Lord and proprietor of it; and of the Hosannasgiven him here, Mat_21:12the manner in which he should come, "suddenly", mayrefer to the manifestation of it, quickly after John the Baptist had prepared his wayby his doctrine and baptism:6C. Gill continues, "..even the messenger of the covenant; not of the covenant of works with Adam, of which there was no mediator and messenger; nor of thecovenant of circumcision, at which, according to the Jews, Elias presides; nor of thecovenant at Sinai, of which Moses was the mediator; but of the covenant of grace, of which Christ is not only the Surety and Mediator; but, as here, "the Messenger";because it is revealed, made known, and exhibited in a more glorious manner byhim under the Gospel dispensation, through the ministration of the word andordinances. De Dieu observes, that the word in the Ethiopic language signifies aprince as well as a messenger, and so may be rendered, "the Prince of thecovenant", which is a way of speaking used in Dan_11:22,"7. Keil, "... it was because the priests did not fulfil their duty as the ordinaryambassadors of God that the Lord was about to send an extraordinary messenger.Preparing the way ( an expression peculiar to Isaiah: compare Isa_40:3; also, Isa_57:14and Isa_62:10), by clearing away the impediments lying in the road, denotesthe removal of all that retards the coming of the Lord to His people, i.e., the takingaway of enmity to God and of ungodliness by the preaching of repentance and theconversion of sinners. The announcement of this messenger therefore implied, thatthe nation in its existing moral condition was not yet prepared for the reception of the Lord, and therefore had no ground for murmuring at the delay of themanifestation of the divine glory, but ought rather to murmur at its own sin andestrangement from God. When the way shall have been prepared, the Lord will
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