The messenger and the day: Malachi's closing promise

Malachi is the last of the twelve Minor Prophets and the last book of the Christian Old Testament. The name means 'my messenger'. Scholars debate whether it is a personal name or a title taken from 3:1, and the book gives no information about the prophet's family or town. Some ancient Jewish tradition identified him with Ezra, but the book does not say so.

The setting is Judah in the Persian period, after the exiles had returned and the temple had been rebuilt and dedicated in 515 BC. The book speaks of a governor (1:8), so Judah is a province, and its concerns match those of Nehemiah, such as a lax priesthood, marriage to foreigners (2:10-16) and neglect of the tithe (compare Nehemiah 13:10-14, 23-27). Most scholars date it to the middle of the fifth century BC, perhaps shortly before or during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, though the evidence does not allow certainty.

The community was disappointed. The great promises of Haggai, Zechariah and Isaiah 40 to 66 had not yet been seen. The temple was standing, but the glory had not come, the crops were poor and the Persian empire was in control. Some doubted whether serving the LORD made any difference. A note on numbering: English Malachi 4:1-6 is chapter 3, verses 19 to 24, in the Hebrew Bible, so the Hebrew book has three chapters. The English numbering is used here.

Malachi is prophetic oracle written in a distinctive style of disputation. The LORD states a charge, the people object with a question ('How have we...?'), and the LORD answers. Examples are 'How can we return?' (3:7), 'How do we rob You?' (3:8) and 'What have we spoken against You?' (3:13). The format shows a community that is not rebellious in an obvious way but is calloused, and it makes the text read like a conversation.

Three rules help.

• First, the covenant is the frame. Malachi appeals constantly to the covenant of Levi, the covenant between the people and God and the law of Moses (2:4-8, 10; 4:4). The promises of blessing for obedience in 3:10-12 belong to the covenant of Deuteronomy 28, which linked rain, harvest and obedience for Israel in its land. They should not be read as a general rule about money for every believer in every age.
• Second, the language of 'the Day' is the language of the Day of the LORD, which Joel and Amos have already shown to be double-sided: darkness for the unjust and healing for those who fear his name.
• Third, the book belongs at the end of the Twelve and, in the Christian order, at the end of the Old Testament, so its last verses (4:4-6) look back to Moses and forward to a coming Elijah. In the Hebrew Bible, however, the Twelve are followed by other books, and the last book is Chronicles.

In the synagogue reading of Malachi, the verse before the last is repeated so that the reading does not end on the word 'curse'.

3:1. 'Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me.' The word is mal'ak, the same as the name of the book. The picture is of a herald who goes ahead of a king to clear the road. Then the speech shifts: 'the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight.' The 'Lord' here is not the herald. It is the one before whom the way is prepared, and he is also called the Messenger of the covenant, so that there are two figures: the one who prepares, and the Lord himself who comes. The people have been asking where the God of justice is (2:17), and the answer is that he is coming, suddenly, to the temple, the place where he is meant to be met.

3:2-4. The coming will not be a comfort to everyone. 'Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?' He is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap. The refiner heats silver until the dross rises and is skimmed off, and the launderer (or fuller) scrubs cloth. Both images are of cleansing that hurts. The purpose is stated: he will purify the sons of Levi, the priests who served in the temple, and refine them like gold and silver, so that they offer offerings in righteousness. Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD as in former days.

3:5-6. The LORD will draw near for judgment, and be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, those who defraud workers of wages, those who oppress widows and orphans, and those who deny justice to the foreigner, all of whom do not fear him. This list matches the laws of Exodus 22 and Deuteronomy 24. Verse 6 gives the reason that Jacob's descendants have not been destroyed: 'Because I, the LORD, do not change.' Their survival rests on his steadfastness, a thought close to Lamentations 3:22.

3:7-12. From the days of their fathers the people have turned from his statutes. The invitation is mutual: 'Return to Me, and I will return to you.' When they ask how, the LORD says they are robbing him, in tithes and offerings. The tithe supported the Levites and the temple (Numbers 18:21-24; Nehemiah 10:37-39; 13:10-12), and neglect of it left the temple service starved. The remedy is to bring the full tithe to the storehouse. Then comes the unusual invitation: 'Test Me in this.' Usually the people were forbidden to test the LORD (Deuteronomy 6:16), but here he invites it, within the covenant. The 'windows of heaven' opening is the rain and harvest of the covenant blessing. The 'devourer', probably the locust, will be rebuked, and the nations will call the land a land of delight.

3:13-15. The complaint is that it is futile to serve God. What was gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully? The arrogant are called blessed, and evildoers prosper and escape. This is the voice of Psalm 73 and Job.

3:16-18. The response is that those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened. A scroll of remembrance was written before him, like the royal records that preserve the names of loyal people (compare Esther 6:1-3). They will be his 'treasured possession' (segullah), the word used of Israel at Sinai (Exodus 19:5), and he will spare them as a father spares a son who serves him. Then the distinction between the righteous and the wicked will be seen again.

4:1-3. The day comes, burning like a furnace, and the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, with neither root nor branch left. But for those who fear his name, 'the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings'. The winged sun was a familiar symbol of divine protection in the ancient Near East, and here it is applied to the LORD's own righteousness. Those who fear him will go out and leap like calves from the stall, with the freedom of animals let into pasture.

4:4-6. The final charge is to remember the law of Moses, given at Horeb. Then the LORD will send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and of children to their fathers, lest the LORD come and strike the land with a curse. The Hebrew word for 'curse' is cherem, the ban of total destruction. Elijah, who did not die but was taken up in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2), is the chosen forerunner.

Malachi's message is the faithfulness of an unchanging God to a wavering people. The LORD does not change (3:6), and so judgment is not complete and mercy is open. He invites a mutual turning: return to me, and I will return to you. This is the rhythm of covenant, set out in Deuteronomy 30:1-10, and prayed by Joel and Daniel.

The book also teaches that worship and life must match. The offerings of the temple were commanded by God, but a priesthood that offered defective sacrifices and a people that withheld the tithe had made his house a burden. At the same time the book insists on justice for the vulnerable (3:5), so that the first and second tables of the Law stand together. The LORD also hears the quiet talk of the faithful and records it, and the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, which seemed to have vanished, will be seen again (3:18).

Finally, Malachi gives the Old Testament its last word of hope and its last word of warning. The Day will come, and the forerunner will come first. The call of Isaiah 40:3 to prepare the way and the ministry of Elijah are drawn together. In the Christian order, the next page after Malachi is the Gospel of Matthew, and the book leaves the reader waiting for the messenger and the Lord.

The connection is promise and fulfilment, and the Gospels make it plainly. Mark opens by joining Malachi 3:1 with Isaiah 40:3 and applying them to John the Baptist (Mark 1:2-4). Jesus says that John is the messenger of Malachi 3:1 (Matthew 11:7-10; Luke 7:24-27) and that if the people are willing to accept it, John is the Elijah who was to come (Matthew 11:14; 17:10-13; Mark 9:11-13). Before John's birth the angel Gabriel says he will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children (Luke 1:16-17), which quotes Malachi 4:6. John himself, asked if he is Elijah, says that he is not (John 1:21), and the Gospels hold the two statements together: John is not Elijah returned in person, but he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah.

The Lord who comes to his temple is the second figure of 3:1. The Gospels present Jesus as the coming one, and they record his entry into the temple and his driving out of the traders (Mark 11:15-17; John 2:13-17), an echo of the sudden coming. The refiner's fire has a New Testament echo in the testing of faith, which is more precious than gold refined by fire (1 Peter 1:7), and in John's preaching that the coming one will baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire and burn the chaff (Matthew 3:11-12), which is language close to Malachi 4:1.

The sun of righteousness rising with healing is read by many Christians since the early centuries as Christ, and the New Testament has a close echo when Zechariah praises the tender mercy by which the dawn from on high will visit us (Luke 1:78). The treasured possession returns in Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9, where God's people in Christ are described in the language of Exodus 19:5 and Malachi 3:17. And the unchanging LORD of Malachi 3:6 is paired with Hebrews 13:8, where Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.