In the final section of this writing, the Lord rebukes the people for not trusting in his justice. The Lord clearly shows the wicked will be separated from the righteous. This idea was already treated in Malachi 3:3-5, but also in the following chapter in the canonical Bible, Psalm 1.
Malachi 3:13-15 A wrong view of God’s justice
To lead into the subject of the separation of the righteous
from the wicked, this section begins with some confusion over God’s justice.
Those serving him do not understand the benefits and furthermore, they see that
those who do evil are prospering. This misunderstanding is dealt with by the
end of this section. The righteous will indeed be blessed, and the wicked will
perish.
The rebuke begins with a sixth verbal exchange, between the
Lord and the people. The Lord’s statement is: “Your words are hard against me.”
The objection follows, but this time we have “מַה” instead of
“בַּמֶּה”. If it was the latter: “Ἐν τίνι”, the Septuagint could have a different vorlage or it could be that they
are following the pattern of the rest of the text. The people object: “What
have we said (נִּדְבַּרְנוּ) to one another concerning
you?” נִּדְבַּרְנוּ is a Niphal so the verb is reflexive, the
people are talking among themselves.[1] The Lord tells
them exactly what they said: “it is vain
to serve the Lord, what profit because we keep his charge and we walk (as)
mourners before the Lord of Hosts.”, “and now we called blessed the insolent,
the ones doing evil are established, also they test God and they escape (וַיִּמָּלֵטוּ)”. וַיִּמָּלֵטוּ the waw is for sequence, they test the Lord
and then they escape. The people’s words
are hard concerning the Lord because they have a skewed view of his justice.
The proper perspective follows and it is attributed to those who fear the Lord.
Malachi 3:16-17 A right perspective on God’s Justice
In Malachi 3:16-17 we get a corrected view on how God deals
with those fearing him. Those who fear the Lord know that the Lord attends and
he listens and he writes a scroll of remembrance before him. The Lord confirms
this in Malachi 3:17, adding that those fearing him will be a possession for
the day of the Lord, they will be spared, as a son spares his son serving him.
Malachi 3:18 Truth will be seen on judgment day
In Malachi 3:7 there was a call to turn to the Lord, in 3:18
the Lord says that the will indeed turn and they will see, that there is indeed
justice. They will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, the
one serving God and the one not serving God.
Malachi 3:19-21 The Day of the Lord
The Day of Judgment as we saw in section 4 has two sides to
it, for the wicked it is judgment, and for the righteous it is cleansing.
Malachi 3:19 Judgment
For the wicked the day of judgment is coming, burning like an
oven and all the insolent and the wicked will be chaff and the coming day will
blaze them. This is such a different picture than the false view of the Lord’s
justice in Malachi 3:15 where this same group was being called blessed. This
blazing will not leave them anything (שֹׁרֶשׁ
וְעָנָף). שֹׁרֶשׁ וְעָנָף literally translates “a root
and a branch”. It is a merism taking opposite ends, the root and the branch are
the parts furthest away from each other in a tree to communicate totality.
This message is really severe, there is nothing positive or
comforting about this judgment, and this must be communicated when we talk
about final judgment in our preaching.
Malachi 3:20 Healing
To talk about the positive side of the Day of the Lord, there
is a change from the third person, to God addressing his people directly in the
second person. The group receiving blessing is now call “יִרְאֵי שְׁמִי” (the ones fearing my name) rather than “יִרְאֵי יְהוָה” (the ones fearing the Lord). For them the sun of righteousness
shall rise (שֶׁמֶשׁ צְדָקָה) and healing in her wings (וּמַרְפֵּא בִּכְנָפֶיהָ) and they will go out and the will spring about like calves
from a stall (וִיצָאתֶם וּפִשְׁתֶּם כְּעֶגְלֵי
מַרְבֵּק). Verse 20 is very figurative and must be understood as a
description of the blessing. First because it is related to those fearing God,
whose destiny is going to be different from the wicked, who are destroyed.
The sun of righteousness is placed in contrast to the day
burning like an oven for the insolent and those doing evil. This expression is
only used here in the Bible. The sun being so pervasive, the image gives the
idea that with the day of the Lord, righteousness will pervade.[2] “It’s wings” (בִּכְנָפֶיהָ) referring to the sun, agreeing with its feminine gender could
be understood as the sun rays in the imagery.[3]
The main idea is that rather than being burned, it is healing (מַרְפֵּא) that they receive. The verse
ends with a simile: the picture of those fearing the Lord’s name will be springing
about as calves of a stall. It must be assumed that these calves have been let
out from a stall, and are enjoying their freedom.
Malachi 3:21 the right order of things
In verse 21, we have a real answer for those who think that it was vain
to serve God, because it was the wicked who were being blessed. In this verse,
the Lord tells the righteous that they will crush the wicked, and they will be
ash under the soles of their feet. These things will happen on the coming day
of the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment