These final verses, not only end Malachi, they end the book
of The Twelve, the prophets and connect the prophets to the third section of
the Canonical Hebrew Bible, the Writings. This closing is twofold. It urges the
people to look back to the Law of Moses, and also to look forward to a time
when the Lord will send his messenger.
Malachi 3:22 Look back to the Law
The Lord urges the people to remember the instruction of
Moses. This has been the theme throughout the Prophets. From Joshua 1:7 “to
keep to doing all of the instruction that I commanded to Moses my servant” (לִשְׁמֹר
לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּכָל־הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ מֹשֶׁה עַבְדִּי) with very similar words in
Malachi 3:22 (תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה עַבְדִּי אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי
אוֹתוֹ), closing the Prophets with an inclusio. In the Septuagint this
verse is placed as the very last verse.
Malachi 3:23-24 Look forward to Elijah
The second element we have in this final section is a call to
look forward to Elijah. This is a parallel to Malachi 3:1 where the Lord was
warning of a time he would send his messenger. In BHS, the one being sent is “אֵלִיָּה הַנָּבִיא” (Elijah the Prophet) while the Septuagint has “Ηλιαν τὸν Θεσβίτην” (Elijah the Tishbite). It seems the Hebrew keep the
identity of the prophet vague. The Septuagint narrows it down, but they might
be going too far. The messenger to come might not be the exact same as “Elijah
the Tishbite”. In the New Testament, John the Baptist is connected to Elijah. Jesus
talking about John the Baptist, said that he was Elijah who was to come.
(Matthew 11:14, 17:1-5).
We know the Elijah who is still to come before the coming of
the great and feared day of the Lord. His ministry is described in the final
verse with his purpose. The Elijah who was to come was going to turn the hearts
of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of the sons to the father, for the
purpose of avoiding God’s wrath, the smiting of the land with a ban (וְהִכֵּיתִי אֶת־הָאָרֶץ חֵרֶם). וְהִכֵּיתִי אֶת־הָאָרֶץ חֵרֶם literally “I
will smite the land (with) a ban”, to be understood as completely, if we see
how the Septuagint reads it (ἄρδην). In Luke 2:16-17 an angel of the Lord speaking
to Zechariah and said concerning John the Baptist, that he would turn many
people to the Lord, and going before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah,
he would turn the fathers hearts to the children, and connecting Malachi 3:24
to Malachi 3:1 he also mentions that he would prepare the people.
The concluding paragraph speaks of the day of the Lord, and
of what will happen before it. Two names are mentioned, Moses, and Elijah.
Moses gave the Torah, and according to Deuteronomy 34:10 is the greatest
prophet, at the coming of the Lord, Israel needs to be living according to this
law. Before the day of the Lord, Elijah will also return, he did not die, was
taken up to heaven, he will come as a messenger to precede the Lord and
reconcile a father to his sons, so that they will not be subject to Judgment.[1]
Malachi 3 and Deuteronomy 34
As one of the two seals of the Old Testament, connecting the
prophets to the writings, it is interesting to compare Malachi 3:22-24 to
Deuteronomy 34:5-12, which is the other seal, as both have a lot in common.
Deuteronomy 34 focuses on Moses who is the key prophet in the Torah, while the
end of Malachi 3 focuses on Elijah, the key prophet in the Prophets. Both
passages stress the role of Moses and the Law, both call Moses a servant of the
Lord. The same way Malachi anticipates the coming if Elijah, in Deuteronomy 34,
we see that when the Canon took its final form, we have in Deuteronomy 34:10 a
comment implying that the prophet like Moses spoken about in Deuteronomy
18:15-18 had not yet come, and is still to be anticipated.[2]
No comments:
Post a Comment