TEXT [Commentary]

  VI.   Sixth Disputation: The Coming Day of Judgment (3:13–4:3)

13 “You have said terrible things about me,” says the LORD.

“But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?’

14 “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the LORD of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? 15 From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’”

16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with each other, and the LORD listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.

17 “They will be my people,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. 18 Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

CHAPTER 4

1 [*]The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed—roots, branches, and all.

2 “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.[*] And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. 3 On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

NOTES

3:14 what have we gained? Lit., “what profit?” (betsa‘ [TH1215, ZH1299]). The word is a technical term associated with the carpet-making industry and means “to cut off” (a completed piece of woven material), hence “take one’s cut” or “gain profit.” The word has neutral connotations in this context, as the issue is not illegal gain but the assumption that acts or righteousness should result in material blessing according to the blessings-and-curses theology of the Mosaic legal tradition (Deut 28).

sorry for our sins. The idea of the idiom here (halak [TH1980, ZH2143] + qedorannith [TH6941, ZH7726]) is to “parade mournfully” or “walk in funeral garb” as a demonstration of penitence.

3:16 listened. The word is a verb of hearing (qashab [TH7181, ZH7992]) and means to “listen carefully” or “take note.” The expression emphasizes the high level of Yahweh’s interest in his people.

scroll of remembrance. This type of document, following Persian tradition, was both a catalog of names and a record of events associated with those individuals. The “scroll of remembrance” (seper zikkaron [TH5612/2146, ZH6219/2355]) has a parallel in the “historical records” mentioned in Esth 6:1 (seper hazzikeronoth).

feared him. The word “fear” (yare’ [TH3373, ZH3710]) especially connotes loyalty to Yahweh as the covenant-making God. The term assumes the volitional response of obedience to God’s commands, the moral response of proper conduct, and the ritual response of right worship.

3:17 special treasure. The expression (segullah [TH5459, ZH6035]) is a covenant term that describes the privileged status of Israel as the people of God—his “private property,” so to speak.

4:1 [3:19] furnace. The imagery of a burning furnace (ba‘ar [TH1197, ZH1277] + tannur [TH8574, ZH9486]) used as an incinerator for destroying wicked people in the day of Yahweh’s judgment is both graphic and frightening (cf. Ps 21:9).

4:2 [3:20] Sun of Righteousness. Typically the phrase is understood as a solar epithet for Yahweh or as a Christological title. The phrase may simply be a figurative description of the eschatological day, the dawning of a new era of righteousness in which God will overturn the curse of sin. The source for this title may have been the winged sun disk that is ubiquitous in ancient Near Eastern iconography.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Watts (1987:376-377) has identified Malachi’s final disputation as a blend of several types of speech acts, including an assertive speech of accusation designed to persuade the audience that there is value in obeying God (3:13-15), a report intended to elicit a response of reverence for Yahweh (3:16), an assertive speech declaring that Yahweh is righteous (3:17-18), and a warning speech about the coming day of God’s judgment (4:1-3). The prophet’s final sermon distills the teaching of the previous disputations, especially the contrast between the faithful and the faithless and the call for community-wide repentance. More specifically, Malachi has addressed (in reverse order) the hypothetical questions raised by his audience in disputations four and five: The first question, “Where is the God of justice?” (2:17), is answered directly in the bold statements about the judgment accompanying the Day of the Lord (4:1-3); and the second question, “Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears?” (3:2), is dealt with in the affirmation that those who “fear” and “love” Yahweh will be spared in the day of God’s visitation (3:17-18). Like the previous oracle, this message is addressed to the postexilic community at large, leaders, priests, and people (both the righteous and the wicked).

Klein (1986:150) has identified the primary audience of Malachi’s fifth and sixth disputations as “latter-day Jobs” whose fate does not befit their faith. Like Job, these “Yahweh-fearers” assumed their righteousness held some claim on God for divine blessing. Yet God does not tolerate human beings’ discrediting his justice for the sake of proving themselves correct (Job 40:8). Sadly, the prophet’s constituency experienced the blurring of theological truths and moral values. This incapacity to discern “good” from “evil” and “right” from “wrong” was not peculiar to postexilic Israel, since preexilic prophets like Isaiah (Isa 5:20) and Micah (Mic 3:2) encountered a similar transposition of values. And as Craigie (1984:246) has observed, “a society may decide to abandon the distinction between good and evil, but God never abandons it.” One illustration of this crisis of biblical values among Malachi’s audience was the degeneration of personal spirituality into a commercial venture (“What have we gained by obeying his commands?” 3:14). The prophet’s “flock” apparently could recognize the work of God only in the “doing of good” for them—and sooner not later!

Thankfully, Malachi’s message could not be more relevant to contemporary Christians. There are still “latter-day Jobs” among us, as Jesus himself indicated: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33). Spirituality is at times still reduced to a commercial venture in the Christian church, as the ceaseless publishing blitz of books “guaranteeing” God’s blessing and the glitzy marketing of religious paraphernalia attest. But fortunately something else has not changed: The “secret” of healthy biblical spirituality remains absolutely rooted in God and his Word. Whether for Malachi or John the Apostle, the litmus test for spiritual vitality is the fear of the Lord (3:16; cf. Rev 14:7). Malachi connected this reverence for God that prompts true worship with always thinking about the honor of God’s name (3:16)—an idea similar to the first great commandment: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind” (Matt 22:37).

Malachi essentially understood the Day of the Lord as one of justice and judgment: justice in the form of the vindication and restoration of the righteous and judgment in the form of the punishment and destruction of the wicked (4:1-3). In that sense, much like other Old Testament prophets, Malachi’s eschatology was based on the retribution principle—ultimately, God will bless the righteous and curse the wicked. This two-pronged response of the prophet to postexilic Judah served as an answer to the question posed earlier, “What’s the use of serving God?” (3:14), and in another way, it conveyed the substance of his reply to the initial question raised in the opening disputation (“How have you loved us?” [1:2]). First, it is not futile to serve God because the God-fearers will survive the day of Yahweh’s judgment as his special possession (3:18; 4:2). Second, Yahweh’s love for Israel is demonstrated in this deliverance and the reversal of fortunes for the righteous (4:3). Like Malachi’s audience, we must learn that part of the answer to the question of theodicy lies in the truth of the prophet’s indictment of the entire Hebrew community: The righteous are among the guilty as well. Crucial then, as it is now, is the fact that the emblems of God’s presence and God’s judgment are not mutually exclusive (cf. Achtemeier 1986:187).

The more important element of Malachi’s message about the Day of the Lord is that God will act (3:17). The New Testament guarantees this in the declaration that Jesus Christ “will return” (Acts 1:11) but also notes that “the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved” (2 Pet 3:15). The assurance of this coming day of the Lord’s visitation for justice and judgment is rooted in salvation-history as revealed in the Bible. For example, God has already acted in the Genesis flood (cf. 2 Pet 3:6), God has already given the Hebrews an Exodus from Egypt (Exod 12-13), God has already acted in the contest against Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs 18), and God has already acted at the cross of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:1-4). The righteous have every reason to be confident that God will act again on their behalf. This brings us to the real purposes of biblical eschatology, purposes that include engendering hope within the Christian church (2 Cor 5:19), affording the righteous an opportunity for mutual comfort and encouragement (1 Thess 4:18), prompting expectant and godly living among the people of God (2 Pet 3:11-12), fostering a spirit of willing service in the name of Christ (Gal 5:13), and exhorting the persecuted Christian church to patient endurance (Rev 1:9).

The prophet Malachi promised a day when God would act to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked (3:17). The Christian church awaits that day when Jesus Christ will return to “repay all people according to their deeds” (Rev 22:12). The Spirit and the bride say, “Come . . . Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:17, 20).