TEXT [Commentary]

  IV.   Fourth Disputation: Yahweh’s Messenger of Justice and Judgment (2:17–3:5)

17 You have wearied the LORD with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.

You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the LORD’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

CHAPTER 3

1 “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

2 “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the LORD. 4 Then once more the LORD will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.

5 “At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

NOTES

2:17 wearied. The Hiphil form of this verb (yaga‘ [TH3021, ZH3333]) occurs only here and in Isa 43:23-24. Malachi’s audience has wearied God with insincere prayer and mechanical worship. Calvin’s translation (“saddened his spirit”) aptly conveys the effect that religious words and ritual acts devoid of any conviction, loyalty, or devotion have had upon God.

3:1 my messenger. The expression (mal’aki [TH4397/2967.1, ZH4855/3276]) plays on the prophet’s name Malachi. “Messenger” (mal’ak) may indicate either an angel or a human being functioning as a divine courier.

messenger of the covenant. Malachi’s audience probably would have understood this messenger as a divine being (like an angel) on the basis of the parallel with the angel of Yahweh in Exod 23:20-23.

3:2 blazing fire. Malachi borrowed the image of God purifying his people in the smelter’s furnace from Isaiah (1:25), Jeremiah (6:29), and Ezekiel (22:22). The dross of the people’s wickedness must be burned away by the fires of divine testing and chastisement.

strong soap. The word (borith [TH1287, ZH1383]) refers to a laundry detergent or lye in the form of alkali soda made from certain plants or herbs (cf. Jer 2:22).

3:5 eager to witness. The phrase ‘ed memaher [TH5707/4116, ZH6332/4554] is a legal expression and suggests a legal proceeding in which God is both prosecuting attorney (as accuser) and star witness (as a provider of evidence). The phrase not only connotes God’s readiness or eagerness to testify against postexilic Judah but also that he takes the stand as an “expert witness” (Baldwin 1972:244).

sorcerers. The word mekashepim [TH3784A, ZH4175] denotes one who practices witchcraft and black magic. The activity Malachi refers to is probably “fortune-telling,” predicting the future for personal gain.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The rhetorical question “where is the God of justice?” (2:17; reported as part of the “talk” that has wearied Yahweh) marks the beginning of the fourth disputation (note the paragraph marker between 2:16 and 2:17 in the MT). The oracle consists of two speech acts: an assertive speech intended to assure the audience that God is just (2:17–3:1) and an expressive speech (3:2-5) posed in the form of a threat that they will soon experience God’s justice. According to VanGemeren (1990:204), the message of the third oracle (faithlessness in marriage, 2:10-16) and the message of the fifth oracle (faithlessness to God, 3:6-12) turn upon the hinge of divine judgment threatened in the fourth disputation (2:17–3:5).

The fourth disputation is addressed to the “righteous skeptics” in postexilic Jerusalem at large, including the priests (3:3). This is deduced from the emphasis placed on the order of purification (3:3-4) before judgment (3:5). The later reference to “those who feared the Lord” (3:16) also suggests Malachi’s target audience was the “doubting Thomas”–type person among the faithful in the restoration community. The prophet confronted all those who had interpreted God’s apparent non-involvement in the current crisis of faith within the community as the failure of divine justice (2:17). Thus, Wells (1987:45) has correctly isolated the crisis in Malachi to the meaning and value of covenant relationship with Yahweh for postexilic Judah.

Like Job and his “spiritual mentors,” postexilic Judah had to learn that external acts of religious piety do not guarantee divine blessing (cf. Job 21:7; 41:11). At issue in the fourth disputation is the disparity (real or imagined) between divine justice and human justice. The problem of theodicy (or God’s relationship to evil in the world) led to false ideas about God’s application of the Mosaic covenant blessings and curses in postexilic Judah. The “righteous skeptics” assumed that the principle of divine retribution had been revoked or even inverted because it appeared that evildoers were thriving while God’s faithful languished under the “corporate curse” of the law of Moses (Deut 28). Malachi’s audience, expecting the exact opposite, presumed they had an “exemption” from divine judgment because of their participation in the Temple rituals (cf. 3:14). As they cried “foul” to God, they were implicitly clamoring for the “new covenant” paradigm that executes divine justice on an individual rather than a corporate basis (cf. Jer 31:29-30; Ezek 18:3-4).

The question “Where is the God of justice?” remains apropos as news reported today by the print and visual media often seems to reflect the situation of Malachi’s day—evildoers thrive while the faithful of God suffer persecution at the hands of godless secularists and militant “religious” extremists. The Christian church must learn from Malachi’s message that the biblical solution to theodicy is not found in what Baldwin (1972:242) describes as the faulty logic of “practical atheism.” When we charge God with injustice, as did Malachi’s audience, we impeach the divinity of the Godhead and challenge the very existence of God himself.

Ultimately, the issue of theodicy may be reduced to a crisis of lifestyle not a crisis of faith. The substance of the matter for postexilic Judah was not the fairness of God’s judgment as meted out in the retribution principle of the covenant relationship, but Israel’s purity as Yahweh’s vassal. This is no less true today, as divine justice is always linked to God’s ethical demands in the realm of human justice. Malachi recognized that spiritual decline may be reversed by a renewal movement that includes moral reform—hence, in the threat of divine judgment is an implicit call for the practice of social justice (3:5; cf. Jesus’ rebuke of those who “shamelessly cheat widows,” Mark 12:40). Jesus Christ seeks a pure “bride”—a cleansed and holy church wearing the “finest of pure white linen,” which “represents the good deeds of God’s holy people” (Rev 19:8). James was but a sounding board for the Old Testament prophetic voice when he equated “pure and genuine religion” with “caring for orphans and widows in their distress” (Jas 1:27; cf. Isa 1:17). The God of justice is seen through the just deeds of his people!

The ambiguities surrounding the number and identity of the divine “messengers” (3:1) who have roles in the coming day of Yahweh’s judgment continue to invite scholarly discussion. Malachi appears to mention three distinct figures in his eschatological projection to the time of God’s visitation: “my messenger,” “the Lord,” and “the messenger of the covenant” (3:1). In the context of formal entrance to temples in the ancient world, it is possible that Malachi envisioned Yahweh in a processional flanked by two angelic retainers. The question still remains whether these two “messengers” are distinct divine beings or some sort of dual representation of “the Angel of Yahweh” (see the discussion in Hill 1998:289).

Traditional Christian interpretation has identified the “messenger” figure as John the Baptist on the basis of New Testament fulfillment as declared by Jesus himself (Matt 11:3, 10, 14). The “messenger [or angel] of the covenant” has been understood Christologically as a reference to Jesus Christ and hence equated with “the Lord” since patristic times. This has fixed a two-character understanding of Malachi 3:1 in Christian biblical interpretation—John the Baptist as the “messenger” and Jesus Christ equated with “the Lord” and “the messenger of the covenant.”

Beyond these identifications, it is important to note that the messengers will enact a thorough purification for God’s people. The eschaton will witness the transformation of God’s people into a holy community by a spirit of burning, washing, and cleansing (3:2-3; cf. Isa 4:3-4; Zeph 3:11-13, 17). The “blazing fire” and “strong soap” mentioned in 3:2 (see note) signify a two-stage procedure in Israel’s restoration to covenant faithfulness to Yahweh: testing (symbolized in the smelting process) and cleansing (symbolized in the laundering process). The desired outcome of this difficult and painful process of “refining” is genuine worship offered to Yahweh by his faithful people—now spiritually renewed.