6<\/strong>. he shall turn the heart of the fathers<\/em> ] The “fathers” here are the patriarchs, whom the prophet regards as estranged from their degenerate “children”, or descendants, and ceasing to acknowledge them on account of their unworthy character and conduct. (Comp. Isa 63:16<\/span>; Mat 3:9<\/span>.) When “the heart of the children is turned to their fathers”, so that they seek to imitate their example and walk in their ways, or, in other words, when “the disobedient” are turned “ to walk<\/em> in the wisdom of the just” (Luk 1:17<\/span>, R.V.), then the heart of the fathers will turn to them again in paternal recognition and love.<\/p>\n Some think (and the rendering with<\/em>, R.V. margin, instead of to<\/em>, favours the view), that the prophet refers to a state of discord and dissension between contending sections of the Jewish people, the old conservative, the young revolutionary, such as would need the intervention of a powerful prophet to correct. But is there any proof that this was the state of society with which John Baptist had to deal? Was not rather the whole nation corrupt and in need of being restored to its pristine purity?<\/p>\n with a curse<\/em> ] The Masoretic direction is to read again at the end of this Book the last verse but one (Mal 4:5<\/span>), in order to avoid concluding with the ominous word “curse” or “ban”; and the LXX., presumably with the same object, place Mal 4:4<\/em><\/span> after Mal 4:5-6<\/em><\/span>. Yet the dark close of the Old Testament, “Lest I come and smite with the curse”, rightly understood, is the truest preparation for the bright opening of the New, “Behold, I am come to bless!”<\/p>\n And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children – <\/B>Now they were unlike, and severed by that unlikeness from each other. Yet not on earth, for on earth parents and children were alike alienated from God, and united between themselves in wickedness or worldliness. The common love of the world or of worldly pursuits, or gain or self-exaltation, or making a fortune or securing it, is, so far, a common bond of interest to those of one family, through a common selfishness, though that selfishness is the parent of general discord, of fraud, violence, and other misdeeds. Nay, conversion of children or parents becomes rather a source of discord, embittering the unconverted. Whence our Lord says, Think not, that I Mat 10:34-36<\/U><\/span>. am come to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: and a mans foes shall be they of his own household; a prophecy fulfilled continually in the early persecutions, even to the extent of those other words of our Lord Mat 10:21<\/span>, the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.<\/P> It is fulfilled also in the intense hatred of the Jews at this day, to any who are converted to Christ; a hatred which seems to have no parallel in the world. Nor do the words seem to mean that fathers and children should be united in one common conversion to God, as one says Ibn Ezra. The Jews, although mostly agreed, that Elijah will come, are disagreed as to the end of his coming. By some he is spoken of as a Redeemer. Tanchuma (f. 31. 1), God said to Israel, In this world I sent an angel to east out the nations before you, but in the future (or, in the world to come, Yalkut Shimoni f. 98-29) myself will lead you and will send you Elijah the prophet. Pesikta rabbathi (in Yalkut Shimoni ii. f. 32. 4) Both redeemed Israel: Moses in Egypt, and Elias in that which is to come. (Id. ib. f. 53. 2), I send you a redeemer. Midrash Shocher tof Ibid. f. 884, Israel said, It is written of the first redemption, He sent Moses His servant, Aaron whom He had chosen; send me two like them. God answered; I will send you Elijah the prophet: this is one, the other is he, of whom Isaiah spoke Isa 42:1<\/span>. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen. Shemoth Rabba (Sect. 3. col. 108. 2. ad loc.) In the second redemption, ye shall be healed and redeemed by the word I, i. e., I will send. Or, as a comforter, I will send you Elias, he shall come and comfort you. Debarim rabba sect. 3. fin. Or to pronounce some things clean, others unclean. Shir hashirim rabba f. 27. 3. (all the above in Schottgen ad loc.) Others, in different ways, to settle, to Which tribe each belongs. Kimchi on Ezek. 47<\/span> and this with differcut explanations as to strictness. (See Edaioth fin. Mishnah T. iv. p. 362. Surenhus.) Rabbi Simeon says, To remove controversies. And the wise and doctors say, To make peace in the world, as is said, Behold I send. Rabbi Abraham ben David explains the peace to be from the nations, and adds, to announce to them the coming of the redeemer, and this in one day before the coming of the Messiah; and to turn the hearts etc. he explains the hearts of the fathers and children (on whom softness had fallen from fear, and they fled, some here, some there, from their distresses) on that day they shall return to their might and to one another and shall comfort each other. Abarbanel says, that Elijah shall be the instrument of the resurrection, and that, through those who rise, the race of man shall be directed in the recognition of God and the true faith. Ibn. Ezra, that he shall come at the collection of the captives, as Moses at the redemption of Egypt, not for the resurrection. (These are collected by Frischmuth de Elite adventu. Thes. Theol. Phil. V. T. T. i. pp. 1070ff) R. Tanehum, from Maimonides, says, This is without doubt a promise of the appearance of a prophet in Israel, a little before the coming of the Messiah; and some of the wise think that it is Elias the Tishbite himself, and this is found in most of the Midrashoth, and some think that it is a prophet like him in rank, occupying his place in the knowledge of God and the manifesting His Name and that so he is called Elijah. And so explained the great Gaon, Rab Mosheh ben Matmon, at the end of his great book on jurisprudence, called Mishneh Torah. And, perhaps he (the person sent) may be Messiah ben Joseph, as he says again – And the exactness of the matter in these promises will only be known, when they appear: and no one has therein any accredited account, but each of them says what he says, according to what appears to him, and what preponderates in his mind of the explanation of the truth. The turning of the heart of the father to the children, he explains to be, the restoration of religion, until all should be of one heart in the obedience to God.) All shall be one heart to return to the Lord, both fathers and children; for he speaks primarily of their mutual conversion to one another, not to God.<\/P> The form of the expression seems to imply that the effect of the preaching of Elijah shall be, to bring back the children, the Jews then in being, to the faith and love which their fathers, the patriarchs, had; that Joh 8:56<\/span> as these believed, hoped for, longed exceedingly for, and loved Christ to come, so their sons should believe, hope in, long exceedingly for and love Christ, Who was come, yea is present; and so the heart of fathers, which before was turned from their unbelieving children, he should turn to them, now believing, and cause the patriarchs to own and love the Jews believing in Christ, as indeed their children, for your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and was glad, Christ saith. <\/P> Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse – <\/B>, i. e., with an utter destruction, from which there should be no redemption. In the end, God will so smite the earth, and all, not converted to Him. The prayer and zeal of Elijah will gain a reprieve, in which God will spare the world for the gathering of His own elect, the full conversion of the Jews, which shall fulfill the Apostles words Rom 11:26<\/span>, So shall all Israel be saved.<\/P> After the glad tidings, Malachi, and the Old Testament in him, ends with words of awe, telling us of the consequence of the final hardening of the heart; the eternal severance, when the unending end of the everlasting Gospel itself shall be accomplished, and its last grain shall be gathered into the garner of the Lord. The Jews, who would be wiser than the prophet, repeat the previous verse , because Malachi closes so awfully. The Maker of the heart of man knew better the hearts which He had made, and taught their authors to end the books of Isaiah and Ecclesiastes with words of awe, from which mans heart so struggles to escape. To turn to God here, or everlasting destruction from His presence there, is the only choice open to thee. Think of this, when lust goads thee, or ambition solicits thee, or anger convulses thee, or the flesh blandishes thee, or the world allures thee, or the devil displays his deceitful pomp and enticement. In thy hand and thy choice are life and death, heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, bliss or misery everlasting. Choose which thou willest. Think, A moment which delighteth, eternity which tortureth; on the other hand, a moment which tortureth, eternity which delighteth.<\/P> I see that all things come to an end:<\/P> Thy commandment is exceeding broad.<\/P> Psa 119:96<\/I><\/span><\/P> As the hart panteth after the water brooks,<\/P> So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.<\/P> Psa 42:1<\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/p>\n Verse 6<\/span>. And he shall turn<\/B><\/I> (convert) <\/B>the heart of the fathers<\/B><\/I> (<\/B> <\/B>al, WITH)<\/B> the children<\/B><\/I>] Or, together with the children; both old and young. Lest I come, and<\/I>, finding them unconverted, smite the land with a curse<\/I>, cherem, utter extinction. So we find that, had the Jews turned to God, and received the Messiah at the preaching of John the Baptist and that of Christ and his apostles, the awful cherem<\/I> of final excision and execration would not have been executed upon them. However, they filled up the cup of their iniquity, and were reprobated<\/I>, and the Gentiles elected<\/I> in their stead. Thus, the last was first, and the first was last. Glory to God for his unspeakable gift!<\/P> There are three<\/I> remarkable predictions<\/I> in this chapter: –<\/P> 1. The advent of John Baptist, in the spirit and authority of Elijah.<\/P> 2. The manifestation of Christ in the flesh, under the emblem of the Sun of righteousness.<\/P> 3. The final destruction of Jerusalem, represented under the emblem of a burning oven, consuming every thing cast into it.<\/P> These three prophecies, relating to the most important facts that have ever taken place in the history of the world, announced here nearly four hundred<\/I> years before their occurrence, have been most circumstantially fulfilled.<\/P> In most of the Masoretic Bibles the fifth<\/I> verse is repeated after the sixth<\/I> – “Behold, I send unto you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come;” for the Jews do not like to let their sacred book end with a curse; and hence, in reading, they immediately subjoin the above verse, or else the fourth<\/I> – “Remembering ye the law of Moses my servant.”<\/P> In one of my oldest MSS. the fifth<\/I> verse is repeated<\/I>, and written at full length: “Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” In another, only these words are added: “Behold, I will send you Elijah.” It is on this ground that the Jews expect the reappearance of Elijah the prophet, and at their marriage-feast always set a chair and knife and fork for this prophet, whom they suppose to be invisibly present. But we have already seen that John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord, was the person designed; for he came in the spirit and power of Elijah, (see on Mal 3:1<\/span>), and has fulfilled this prophetic promise. John is come, and the Lord Jesus has come also; he has shed his blood for the salvation of a lost world; he has ascended on high; he has sent forth his Holy Spirit; he has commissioned his ministers to proclaim to all mankind redemption in his blood; and he is ever present with them, and is filling the earth with righteousness and true holiness. Hallelujah! The kingdoms of this world are about to become the kingdoms of God and our Lord Jesus! And now, having just arrived at the end of my race in this work, and seeing the wonderful extension of the work of God in the earth, my heart prays: –<\/P> O Jesus, ride on, till all are subdued, Thy mercy make known, and sprinkle thy blood; Display thy salvation, and teach the new song, To every nation, and people, and tongue!<\/P> In most MSS. and printed Masoretic Bibles<\/I> there are only three<\/I> chapters in this prophet, the fourth<\/I> being joined to the third<\/I>, making it twenty-four<\/I> verses.<\/P> In the Jewish reckonings the Twelve Minor Prophets<\/I> make but one book; hence there is no Masoretic note found at the end of any of the preceding prophets, with accounts of its verses<\/I>, sections<\/I> &c.; but, at the end of Malachi<\/I> we find the following table, which, though it gives the number of verses in each prophet, yet gives the total sum, middle verse<\/I>, and sections<\/I>, at the end of Malachi, thereby showing that they consider the whole twelve<\/I> as constituting but one bo<\/I>ok.<\/P> MASORETIC NOTES<\/B><\/P> On the Twelve Minor Prophets<\/I><\/P> Hosea has . . . . . . . . . . 197 verses.<\/P> Joel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73<\/P> Amos . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146<\/P> Obadiah . . . . . . . . . . . . 21<\/P> Jonah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48<\/P> Micah . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105<\/P> Nahum . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57<\/P> Zephaniah . . . . . . . . . . . 53<\/P> Habakkuk . . . . . . . . . . . 56<\/P> Haggai . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38<\/P> Zechariah . . . . . . . . . . 211<\/P> Malachi . . . . . . . . . . . . 55<\/P> The sum of all the verses of the Twelve Minor Prophets is 1060<\/P> The middle verse is Micah, Mic 3:12<\/span>.<\/P> Number of Sections, 21.<\/P> TO GOD THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY GHOST, BE ETERNAL PRAISES. AMEN.<\/B><\/P> I have this day completed this Commentary on which I have laboured above thirty years; and which, when I began, I never expected to live long enough to finish. May it be a means of securing glory to God in the highest, and peace and good will among men upon earth! Amen, Amen.<\/P> ADAM CLARKE.<\/B><\/P> Heydon Hall, Middlesex,<\/I><\/P> Monday, March<\/I> 28, A.D. 1825.<\/P><\/p>\n And he; <\/B>John the Baptist, who comes in the spirit and power of Elias. <\/P> Shall turn; <\/B>it shall be his office and work to turn, as it is the office of every preacher. The success is of God, who also gives it as he pleaseth, and did give it to Johns ministry; and so the words include the event of Johns preaching, which did, as here it is foretold he should, convert many. <\/P> The heart of the fathers to the children:<\/B> there were at this time many great and unnatural divisions and quarrels among the Jews, in which fathers studied mischief to their own children; they were divided and spitefully bent against them, in civil matters and on account of religion, and these turned their hearts from the dearest relations. Some by fathers<\/I> and children<\/I> understand Jews and Gentiles, whose souls being converted to Christ, their hearts were turned one to another. <\/P> And the heart of the children to their fathers; <\/B>undutiful children estranged by the same means and on the same accounts from their fathers, but now, by obeying the call to repentance, embracing the doctrine of the Messiah immediately to be revealed, and baptized into it, religious quarrels cease, and both parents and childrens hearts unite to Christ first, and then to each ofher, and all to God. <\/P> Lest I; <\/B>God or Christ, who indeed first tenders the blessings of grace and peace, and gives them to such as accept; but this the Jews would not, the rulers, the priests, the body of the people, refused them: the next thing Christ (Lord and King, rejected and disowned) will do, is to curse and destroy. <\/P> Smite the earth, <\/B>the land of Judea, and the inhabitants of it, <\/P> with a curse; <\/B>which brings with it and ends in utter destruction; as at this day we read in the story of the Romans invading, subduing, captivating the Jews, and razing their city and temple. That time is past now one thousand six hundred and forty-four years since a stone was not left upon a stone, as was foretold by Christ, Mat 24:2<\/span>, since those unparalleled hardships and miseries befell the Jews, which no heart almost can read and not bleed at reading, (though at this distance of time,) and the sufferers so deservedly endured such a curse as leaveth Jerusalem a desolate heap, and a perpetual monument of Gods displeasure against a people that finally sin against his sovereignty and his mercy. <\/P> END OF VOL. II <\/P> <\/p>\n 6. turn . . . heart of . . . fathersto . . . children,<\/B> c.Explained by some, that John’s preachingshould restore harmony in families. But Luk 1:16<\/span>Luk 1:17<\/span> substitutes for “theheart of the children to the fathers,” “the disobedient tothe wisdom of the just,” implying that the reconciliation to beeffected was that between the unbelieving disobedient children andthe believing ancestors, Jacob, Levi, “Moses,” and “Elijah”(just mentioned) (compare Mal 1:2<\/span>;Mal 2:4<\/span>; Mal 2:6<\/span>;Mal 3:3<\/span>; Mal 3:4<\/span>).The threat here is that, if this restoration were not effected,Messiah’s coming would prove “a curse” to the “earth,”not a blessing. It proved so to guilty Jerusalem and the “earth,”that is, the land<\/I> of Judea when it rejected Messiah at Hisfirst advent, though He brought blessings (Ge12:3<\/span>) to those who accepted Him (Joh1:11-13<\/span>). Many were delivered from the common destruction of thenation through John’s preaching (Rom 9:29<\/span>;Rom 11:5<\/span>). It will prove so tothe disobedient at His second advent, though He comes to be glorifiedin His saints (2Th 1:6-10<\/span>).<\/P> curse<\/B>Hebrew,Cherem,<\/I> “a ban”; the fearful term applied by the Jewsto the extermination of the guilty Canaanites. Under this ban Judeahas long lain. Similar is the awful curse on all of Gentile churcheswho love not the Lord Jesus now (1Co16:22<\/span>). For if God spare not the natural branches, the Jews, muchless will He spare unbelieving professors of the Gentiles (Rom 11:20<\/span>;Rom 11:21<\/span>). It is deeplysuggestive that the last utterance from heaven for four hundred yearsbefore Messiah was the awful word “curse.” Messiah’s firstword on the mount was “Blessed” (Mt5:3<\/span>). The law speaks wrath; the Gospel, blessing. Judea is nowunder the “curse” because it rejects Messiah; when thespirit of Elijah, or a literal Elijah, shall bring the Jewishchildren back to the Hope of their “fathers,” blessingshall be theirs, whereas the apostate “earth” shall be”smitten with the curse” previous to the coming restorationof all things (Zec 12:13<\/span>;Zec 12:14<\/span>). <\/P> May the writer of this Commentaryand his readers have grace “to take heed to the sure word ofprophecy as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the daydawn!” To the triune Jehovah be all glory ascribed for ever!<\/P><\/p>\n And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children<\/strong>,…. Or “with” the children, as Kimchi; and Ben Melech observes, that<\/p>\n is put for , and so in the next clause:<\/p>\n and the heart of the children to their fathers<\/strong>; or “with” their fathers; that is, both fathers and children: the meaning is, that John the Baptist should be an instrument of converting many of the Jews, both fathers and children, and bringing them to the knowledge and faith of the true Messiah; and reconcile them together who were divided by the schools of Hillell and Shammai, and by the sects of the Sadducees and Pharisees, and bring them to be of one mind, judgment, and faith, and to have a hearty love to one another, and the Lord Christ; see Mt 3:5<\/span><\/p>\n [See comments on Lu 1:17]<\/span>. The Talmudists t interpret this of composing differences, and making peace.<\/p>\n Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse<\/strong>; the land of Judea; which, because the greater part of the inhabitants of it were not converted to the Lord, did not believe in the Messiah, but rejected him, notwithstanding the preaching and testimony of John the Baptist, and the ministry and miracles of Christ, it was smitten with a curse, was made desolate, and destroyed by the Roman emperors, Vespasian and Adrian, as instruments doing what God here threatened he would do; for not the whole earth is intended, as the Targum and Abarbinel suggest; but only that land, and the people of it, are intended, to whom the law of Moses was given; and to whom Elias, or John the Baptist, was to be sent; and to whom he was sent, and did come; and by whom he was rejected, and also the Messiah he pointed at; for which that country was smitten with a curse, and remains under it to this day.<\/p>\n t Massachet Ediot, c. 8. sect. 7.<\/p>\n This verse may be viewed as containing a simple promise; but I prefer to regard it as including what is between an exhortation and a promise. The first thing is, that God reminds the Jews for what purpose he would send John, even to turn the hearts of men and to restore them to a holy unity of faith. It must therefore be noticed, that not only the Redeemer would come, but that after some intermission, as it has been said, had taken place, the doctrine of salvation would again have its own course, and would be commenced by John. <\/p>\n Yet the Prophet seems here to concede to men more than what is right, for the turning of the heart is God’s peculiar work, and still more, it is more peculiarly his than his other works; and if no one can change a hair on the head of his brother, how can he renew his heart, so as to make him a new man? It is at the same time of more consequence to be regenerated than to be created and to be made only the inhabitants of this world. John then seems to be here too highly extolled, when the turning of the heart is ascribed to him. The solution of this difficulty may be easily given: when God thus speaks highly of his ministers, the power of his Spirit is not excluded; and he shows how great is the power of truth when he works through it by the secret influence of his Spirit. God sometimes connects himself with his servants, and sometimes separates himself from them: when he connects himself with them, he transfers to them what never ceases to dwell in him; for he never resigns to them his own office, but makes them partakers of it only. And this is the import of such expressions as these, <\/p>\n “<\/p>\n Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted: whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven,” (Joh 20:23<\/span>\ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n or when Paul says, that he had begotten the Corinthians, (1Co 2:15<\/span>,) he did not claim for himself what he knew only belonged to God, but rather extolled the favor of God as manifested in his ministry, according to what he declares in another place, <\/p>\n “<\/p>\n Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1Co 15:10<\/span>.) <\/p>\n But when God separates himself from his ministers, nothing remains in them: “He who plants is nothing,” says Paul in another place, <\/p>\n “<\/p>\n And he who waters is nothing, but God who gives the increase.” (1Co 3:7<\/span>.) <\/p>\n When then is it that teachers are co-workers with God? Even when God, ruling them by his Spirit, at the same time blesses their labor, so that it brings forth its fruit. <\/p>\n We now then see that this mode of speaking derogates nothing from God, that is, when the minister is said to turn the hearts of men; for as he implants nothing by his own influence, so God supplies what is necessary that he may fulfill his office. <\/p>\n By saying that he would turn the hearts of fathers to sons and of sons to fathers, (277) he points out not a simple union or consent, for men often unite together, and yet God reprobates and hates their union; but the Prophet here has in view the origin of the people, even Abraham and other holy patriarchs. Had he spoken of the Egyptians or the Assyrians, or some other nations, this turning would not have been so wonderful; but when he speaks of the holy and chosen race, it is no wonder that he mentions it as an instance of the ineffable kindness of God, that they were all to be gathered and restored from discord to unity, so as to become united in one faith. <\/p>\n Since their mutual consent is the subject, we must come to the fountain; for Malachi takes it for granted, that there was formerly true religion in that people, that the true worship of God prevailed among them, and that they were bound together by a sacred bond; but since in course of time various notions rose among them, yea, monstrous dotages, since sincerity had become wholly corrupted, he now recalls them to their first condition, so that sons might unite in sentiment with their fathers, and fathers also with their sons, and become one in that faith which had been delivered in the law. <\/p>\n Were any to object and say, that it was not reasonable that fathers should join themselves to their apostate sons, for this would be to approve of their defection, I answer, that there have been some converted young men who have shown the right way to their fathers, and have carried light before them. We indeed know that old men, as their are morose, not only reject what they hear from the young, but are rendered more obstinate, because they are ashamed to learn. Such a dispute the Prophet bids to be dismissed, so that all might in their heart think only the same thing in the Lord. <\/p>\n Lest I come and smite the land with a curse. Here again the Prophet threatens the Jews, and indeed vehemently. He was constrained, as we have said, by necessity, for the torpor of that people was very great, and many of them were hardened in their perverseness. This is the reason why God now declares, that the Jews would not escape unpunished for despising the coming of Christ. And we are at the same time reminded how abominable in the sight of God is the ingratitude of not receiving his Son whom he sends to us. If we wish to derive benefit from what the Prophet teaches us, we ought especially to welcome Christ, while he so kindly calls us, yea, allures us to himself. But if the sloth of our flesh keeps us back, let even this threatening stimulate us; and as we learn that the sin of not embracing Christ when he offers himself to us, shall not go unpunished, let us struggle against our tardiness. At all events, let us take heed to kiss the Son, as in Psa 2:12<\/span>, we are exhorted to do. <\/p>\n (277) Newcome ’s version is different, <\/p>\n That he may convert the heart of the fathers together with the children, And the heart of the children together with their fathers. <\/p>\n This is inconsistent with the passage partially quoted in Luk 1:17<\/span>, and also with the Septuagint version, which is as follows — <\/p>\n Who shall restore the heart of the father to the son, And the heart of a man to his neighbor. <\/p>\n Internal discord was a prevailing evil among the Jews. What is here promised is union and concord as the effect of the ministry of the second Elijah; but it is announced in terms suitable to a single family. — Ed. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n (6) And he shall turn . . . to their fathers.<\/strong>This does not refer to the settlement of family disputes, such as might have arisen from marriage with foreign wives. The fathers are rather the ancestors of the Israelitish nation, the patriarchs, and generally the pious forefathers . . . The sons, or children, are the degenerate descendants of Malachis own time and the succeeding ages.Keil.<\/em> The hearts of the godly fathers and ungodly sons are estranged from one another. The bond of unionviz., the common love of Godis wanting. The fathers are ashamed of their children, and the children of their fathers.Hengstenberg.<\/em> (Comp. particularly Isa. 29:22-24<\/span>, and the paraphrastic citation of Mal. 4:6<\/span> in Luk. 1:17<\/span>.)<\/p>\n Curse.<\/strong>Better, ban.<\/em> (Comp. Zec. 14:11<\/span>.) As with the conclusion of Isaiah, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes, so here the Jew read in the synagogue the last verse but one over again after the last verse, to avoid concluding with words of ill omen, thus: Behold I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of JEHOVAH.<\/p>\n REFLECTIONS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Reader! pause over the solemn, the very solemn and awful account here given of the great and dreadful day of God, so often spoken of in scripture, and so certain and sure. Think how tremendous the judgments which will then overtake the ungodly. For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear. Oh! what paleness, horror, and everlasting dismay, will then seize every Christless sinner, when appearing before the Judge of all the earth without an Advocate to plead his cause, and void of all righteousness to justify his person.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Reader! what can I ask for you, or for myself, as a boon from a bountiful God in Christ, but that now, even now, while the day of grace continue, Jesus may arise as the sun of righteousness on our benighted souls, with healing in his wings. Be thou, dearest Lord, our light, our life, our righteousness, now, and forever. Oh! be thou the one great source of our peace, who hast been the confidence and hope of thine Israel; and as thou hast been made a curse for thy people, so may they be made the righteousness of God in thee. Farewell Malachi! farewell till meeting together at this great day of God. May it be the portion of both Writer and Reader to meet all the Malachis’ and Elijahs’ of our covenant God in that day, when Jesus shall come to make up his jewels, and amidst the host of Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, to praise God and the Lamb forever and ever.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And now, Reader, as with this Part of my Commentary, I close the sacred volume of the Old Testament scripture, I beg once for all, and finally, and fully, that you will bend the knee in prayer as the author hath done before you, that the Lord will bless all that it contains, as far as it is agreeable to his holy and eternal truths, and pardon all that is amiss, which human weakness, ignorance, and infirmity, have given birth to, in this feeble endeavour to be helpful to the Lord’s household. May that sin-bearing Lamb of God, that taketh away the iniquities of our most holy things, cleanse all that is here unholy and unclean. It is my intention, if the Lord favors such a design, to prosecute in the same plain and humble manner, the several Books of the New Testament, by way of Commentary. But this I leave, as I do all other events, bounded as they are within the limits of a life hastening now fast to a close, to Him who fixeth both the time and place of His people’s habitation. In the mean season, I here set up my Ebenezer afresh. Hitherto hath the Lord helped! And concerning my further wishes to write the Commentary for the New Testament, as the Lord hath permitted me to finish one on the Old; if the gracious Master should say concerning this, as David remarked upon another occasion, I have no delight in it; with him I would submissively say, Behold! here I am, let him do to me as seemeth him good Amen.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n PLYMOUTH, CHARLES VICARAGE,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n On my birthday, making 59 years of sin and vanity! April 13, 1812<\/p>\n Mal 4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.<\/p>\n Ver. 6. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, &c.<\/strong> ] John Baptist’s office and efficacy is here described; he shall, as a powerful instrument (by preaching repentance, Mat 3:2<\/span> , and prevailing, as he did, with all sorts, even to admiration; so that all men mused in their hearts, whether he were the Christ or not, Luk 3:10<\/span> ; Luk 3:12<\/span> ; Luk 3:14-15 ), convert sinners from the errors of their way, reduce them to the faith of the old patriarchs, make them unanimous in the love of God and of one another, and tie them up together, as it were, by his baptism. For the multitude of believers “were of one heart and one soul,” Act 4:32<\/span> ( animo animaque inter se miscebantur,<\/em> as Tertullian phraseth it), neither was there any controversy at all among them, as one ancient Greek copy subjoineth there. Controversies there were great store among the Jews, when the Baptist came. As Joseph found his brethren in Dothan, which signifieth defection, so did he. They were all gone out of the way; and, being led aside by the error of the wicked, they were fallen from their own steadfastness. Many strange opinions and dotages they had taken up, and were woefully divided; specially by those three different sects, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes; which the prophet Zechariah calleth three shepherds: that were to be destroyed in one month, at John’s coming, Zec 11:8<\/span> . The Pharisees were held the best of those three, si ad legem respexeris,<\/em> saith Tremellius, if you look to the law; and St Paul, who was once a Pharisee of Pharisees, calleth them the most strict sect of the Jewish religion, Act 26:5<\/span> (like those districtissimi Monachi<\/em> among the Papists); and yet there were seven sorts of Pharisees, as we find in their Talmud. Hence much alienation of affection among them, and great animosities; father hating son, and son father, for truth’s sake, as Mat 10:35<\/span> . So powerful should John be in his ministry, that although the leprosy were gotten into their heads, and were therefore held incurable, Lev 13:44<\/span> , yet he should “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” Luk 1:17<\/span> . All headstrong and brutish affections should be calmed and corrected, as Isa 11:6-8<\/span> , and the peaceable wisdom from above instilled, Jas 3:17<\/span> , so that they shall “endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” Eph 4:8<\/span> . And albeit some jars may fall out (as between Paul and Barnabas), yet God’s people can soon piece again, and reunite. Ut aer percussus non laeditur, imo ne dividitur quidem, sed refundit sese, et spissior redit, &c.<\/em> As the air, divided by a stone or stroke, soon closeth and thickeneth the more. Certainly there is no such oneness and entireness anywhere as among the saints; their love is spiritual, Son 6:9<\/span> . The very heathens acknowledged that no people in the world did hold together and love one another so as Christians did. Tacitus observeth of the Jews, that there was misericordia in promptu spud suos,<\/em> but contra omnes alios hostile odium,<\/em> mercy enough for their own countrymen among them, but hostile hatred against all others: they used to say, that there is no Gentile but deserves to have his head bruised, &c. But John Baptist by his preaching made Jewish Pharisees and Roman soldiers (according to the phrase that Josephus useth of him), to convent, and knit together in baptism ( . Antiq. lib. 18, cap. 7). <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse<\/strong> ] That is, lest coming, I smite, &c. For there is no doubt to be made of his coming; and as little of his smiting, if men amend not. These words menace as many as resisted John’s ministry with utter destruction; “whether it be done against the whole nation, or against a man only,” Job 34:29<\/span> . The Romans came and took away both their place and their nation; not for letting Christ alone, as they feared, Joh 11:48<\/span> , but for laying wicked hands upon him, and putting to “death the Lord of life,” Act 2:28<\/span> . John also preached damnation to them, Mat 3:7-12<\/span> , and so did our Saviour, Mat 23:13-33<\/span> , whereby eight dreadful woes, as by so many links of an adamantine chain, he draws those irreformable hypocrites down to hell, their place; and then leaves them to be reserved unto judgment. St Jerome was called Fulmen Ecclesiasticum,<\/em> the Church thunderbolt. Mr Perkins was a most earnest preacher, and would pronounce the word damn with such an emphasis, as left a doleful echo in his auditors’ ears a good while after. And when catechist of Christ’s College, in expounding the commandments, he applied them so home, that he made his hearers hearts fall down, and their hairs to stand up straight almost. And surely this is the way to work upon hard hearted sinners; whence the apostle bids Titus rebuke with all authority; and then turning him to the people (as Calvin senseth it), chargeth them not to despise him for so doing, Tit 1:15<\/span> . The apostle knew well that men are, for the most part, of delicate ears; and can ill abide plain dealing. Ahab hates Micaiah, and hath him in prison, ever since that dreadful denunciation of displeasure and death, for dismissing Benhadad (for he was, probably, that disguised prophet), for which he was ever since fast in prison, deep in disgrace. But truth must be spoken, however it be taken; and those that will not be pricked at heart ( ), as Act 2:37<\/span> , but take up bucklers to ward off the blow, must have the sword of the Spirit sheathed in their bowels, and bathed in their blood; for in all this we are a sweet savour unto God, 2Co 2:15<\/span> , yea, though a “savour of death unto death.” The barren earth must be smitten with cursing, and they that mind earthly things ( Terra autem sunt, qui terrena sapiunt,<\/em> saith Austin) have damnation for their end, so that St Paul cannot speak of them without tears of compassion, Phi 3:18-19<\/span> . Oh that it might express from them tears of compunction! Oh that they would be forewarned to flee from the wrath to come! Oh that they would think upon eternity, and by breaking off their sins, disarm God’s indignation justly conceived against them! He therefore threateneth that he may not smite; he proceeds not to punish till there be no remedy, 2Ch 36:16<\/span> . Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit; <\/em> an unruly patient makes a cruel physician. Oh that we could all resolve to deal by our sins as Lewis, King of France, did by the Pope’s bulls, whereby he required the fruits of vacancies of all cathedral churches of France, about the year 1152; he cast them into the fire, saying, he had rather the Pope’s bulls should roast in the fire than his own soul should fry in hell. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n For a conclusion to all, take an observation of Amamas, and before him of Buxtorf; that in many Hebrew Bibles the last verse save one of this prophecy (as also of Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and Lamentations) is repeated again in the end thereof, though without pricks, lest anything should be thought added to God’s word. Hebrew Text Note<\/em> Factum hoc ex Scribarum decreto, &c.<\/em> This the scribes thought fit to do, either for the dignity of those repeated verses, that the reader might again ruminate and remind them; or else, as some will have it, because all those books end in threatenings and sad speeches. And therefore, lest the Sun of righteousness should seem to set in a cloud, or not to shine upon the departing passenger, they thought fit to leave the verse before to be last; as being sweet and full of comfort, that the reader might, Samson-like, go his way, feeding on that honeycomb. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Laus Deo in aeternum.<\/em> <\/p>\n Malachi<\/p>\n ‘ STOUT WORDS,’ AND THEIR CONFUTATION<\/p>\n THE LAST WORDS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS<\/p>\n Mal 4:6 <\/strong> . – Rev 22:21 .<\/p>\n It is of course only an accident that these words close the Old and the New Testaments. In the Hebrew Bible Malachi’s prophecies do not stand at the end; but he was the last of the Old Testament prophets, and after him there were ‘four centuries of silence.’ We seem to hear in his words the dying echoes of the rolling thunders of Sinai. They gather up the whole burden of the Law and of the prophets; of the former in their declaration of a coming retribution, of the latter in the hope that that retribution may be averted.<\/p>\n Then, in regard to John’s words, of course as they stand they are simply the parting benediction with which he takes leave of his readers; but it is fitting that the Book of which they are the close should seal up the canon, because it stands as the one prophetic book of the New Testament, and so reaches forward into the coming ages, even to the consummation of all things. And just as Christ in His Ascension was taken from them whilst His hands were lifted up in the act of blessing, so it is fitting that the revelation of which He is the centre and the theme should part from us as He did, shedding with its final words the dew of benediction on our upturned heads.<\/p>\n I venture, then, to look at these significant closing words of the two Testaments as conveying the spirit of each, and suggesting some thoughts about the contrast and the harmony and the order that subsist between them.<\/p>\n I. I ask you, first, to notice the apparent contrast and the real harmony and unity of these two texts.<\/p>\n <\/strong>‘Lest I come and smite the land with a curse.’ That last awful word does not convey, in the original, quite the idea of our English word ‘curse.’ It refers to a somewhat singular institution in the Mosaic Law according to which things devoted, in a certain sense, to God were deprived of life. And the reference historically is to the judgments that were inflicted upon the nations that occupied the land before the Israelitish invasion, those Canaanites and others who were put under ‘the ban’ and devoted to utter destruction. So, says my text, Israel, which has stepped into their places, may bring down upon its head the same devastation; and as they were swept off the face of the land that they had polluted with their iniquities, so an apostate and God-forgetting Judah may again experience the same utter destruction falling upon them. If instead of the word ‘curse’ we were to substitute the word ‘destruction,’ we should get the true idea of the passage.<\/p>\n And the thought that I want to insist upon is this, that here we have distinctly gathered up the whole spirit of millenniums of divine revelation, all of which declare this one thing, that as certainly as there is a God, every transgression and disobedience receives, and must receive, its just recompense of reward.<\/p>\n That is the spirit of law, for law has nothing to say, except, ‘Do this, and thou shalt live; do not this, and thou shalt die.’<\/p>\n And then turn to the other. ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.’ What has become of the thunder? All melted into dewy rain of love and pity and compassion. Grace is love that stoops; grace is love that foregoes its claims, and forgives sins against itself. Grace is love that imparts, and this grace, thus stooping, thus pardoning, thus bestowing, is a universal gift. The Apostolic benediction is the declaration of the divine purpose, and the inmost heart and loftiest meaning of all the words which from the beginning God hath spoken is that His condescending, pardoning, self-bestowing mercy may fall upon all hearts, and gladden every soul.<\/p>\n So there seems to emerge, and there is, a very real and a very significant contrast. ‘I come and smite the earth with a curse’ sounds strangely unlike ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.’ And, of course, in this generation there is a strong tendency to dwell upon that contrast and to exaggerate it, and to assert that the more recent has antiquated the more ancient, and that now the day when we have to think of and to dread the curse that smites the earth is past, ‘because the true Light now shineth.’<\/p>\n So I ask you to notice that beneath this apparent contrast there is a real harmony, and that these two utterances, though they seem to be so diverse, are quite consistent at bottom, and must both be taken into account if we would grasp the whole truth. For, as a matter of fact, nowhere are there more tender utterances and sweeter revelations of a divine mercy than in that ancient law with its attendant prophets. And as a matter of fact, nowhere, through all the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, are there such solemn words of retribution as dropped from the lips of the Incarnate Love. There is nothing anywhere so dreadful as Christ’s own words about what comes, and must come, to sinful men. Is there any depth of darkness in the Old Testament teaching of retribution half as deep, half as black, and as terrible, as the gulf that Christ opens at your feet and mine? Is there anything so awful as the threatenings of Infinite Love?<\/p>\n And the same blending of the widest proclamation of, and the most perfect rejoicing confidence in, the universal and all-forgiving love of God, with the teaching of the sharpest retribution, lies in the writings of this very Apostle about whose words I am speaking. There are nowhere in Scripture more solemn pictures than those in that book of the Apocalypse, of the inevitable consequences of departure from the love and the faith of God, and John, the Apostle of love, is the preacher of judgment as none of the other writers of the New Testament are.<\/p>\n Such is the fact, and there is a necessity for it. There must be this blending; for if you take away from your conception of God the absolute holiness which hates sin, and the rigid righteousness which apportions to all evil its bitter fruits, you have left a maimed God that has not power to love but is nothing but weak, good-natured indulgence. Impunity is not mercy, and punishment is never the negation of perfect love, but rather, if you destroy the one you hopelessly maim the other. The two halves are needed in order to give full emphasis to either. Each note alone is untrue; blended, they make the perfect chord.<\/p>\n II. And now, let me ask you to look with me at another point, and that is, the relation of the grace to the punishment.<\/p>\n <\/strong> Is it not love which proclaims judgment? Are not the words of my first text, if you take them all, merciful, however they wear a surface of threatening? ‘Lest I come.’ Then He speaks that He may not come, and declares the issue of sin in order that that issue may never need to be experienced by us that listen to Him. Brethren! both in regard to the Bible and in regard to human ministrations of the Gospel, it is all-important, as it seems to me at present, to insist that it is the cruellest kindness to keep back the threatenings for fear of darkening the grace; and that, on the other hand, it is the truest tenderness to warn and to proclaim them. It is love that threatens; ‘tis mercy to tell us that the wrath will come.<\/p>\n And just as one relation between the grace and the retribution is that the proclamation of the retribution is the work of the grace, so there is another relation-the grace is manifested in bearing the punishment, and in bearing it away by bearing it. Oh! there is no adequate measure of what the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is except the measure of the smiting destruction from which He frees us. It is because every transgression receives its just recompense of reward, because the wages of sin is death, because God cannot but hate and punish the evil, that we get our truest standard of what Christ’s love is to every soul of us. For on Him have met all the converging rays of the divine retribution, and burnt the penal fire into His very heart. He has come between every one of us, if we will, and that certain incidence of retribution for our evil, taking upon Himself the whole burden of our sin and of our guilt, and bearing that awful death which consists not in the mere dissolution of the tie between soul and body, but in the separation of the conscious spirit from God, in order that we may stand peaceful, serene, untouched, when the hail and the fire of the divine judgment are falling from the heavens and running along the earth. The grace depends for all our conceptions of its glory, its tenderness, and its depth, on our estimate of the wrath from which it delivers.<\/p>\n So, dear brethren, remember, if you tamper with the one you destroy the other; if there be no fearful judgment from which men need to be delivered, Christ has borne nothing for us that entitles Him to demand our hearts; and all the ascriptions of praise and adoration to Him, and all the surrender of loving hearts, in utter self-abandonment, to Him that has borne the curse for us, fade and are silent. If you strike out the truth of Christ’s bearing the results of sin from your theology, you do not thereby exalt, but you fatally lower the love; and in the interests of the loftiest conceptions of a divine loving-kindness and mercy that ever have blessed the world, I beseech you, be on your guard against all teachings that diminish the sinfulness of sin, and that ask again the question which first of all came from lips that do not commend it to us-’ Hath<\/em> God said?’ or advance to the assertion-’Ye shall not<\/em> surely die.’ If ‘I come to smite the earth with a curse’ ceases to be a truth to you, ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’ will fade away for you likewise.<\/p>\n III. Now, still further, let me ask you to consider, lastly, the alternative which these texts open for us.<\/p>\n <\/strong> I believe that the order in which they stand in Scripture is the order in which men generally come to believe them, and to feel them. I am old-fashioned enough and narrow enough to believe in conversion; and to believe further that, as a rule, the course through which the soul passes from darkness into light is the course which divine revelation took: first, the unveiling of sin and its issues, and then the glad leaping up of the trustful heart to the conception of redeeming grace.<\/p>\n But what I seek briefly to suggest now is, not only the order of manifestation as brought out in these words, but also the alternative which they present to us, one branch or other of which every soul of you will have to experience. You must have either the destruction or the grace. And, more wonderful still, the same coming of the same Lord will be to one man the destruction, and to another the manifestation and reception of His perfect grace. As it was in the Lord’s first coming, ‘He is set for the rise and the fall of many in Israel.’ The same heat softens some substances and bakes others into hardness. A bit of wax and a bit of clay put into the same fire-one becomes liquefied and the other solidified. The same light is joy to one eye and torture to another. The same pillar of cloud was light to the hosts of Israel, and darkness and dismay to the armies of Egypt. The same Gospel is ‘a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death,’ by the giving forth of the same influences killing the one and reviving the other; the same Christ is a Stone to build upon or a Stone of stumbling; and when He cometh at the last, Prince, King, Judge, to you and me, His coming shall be prepared as the morning; and ye ‘shall have a song as when one cometh with a pipe to the mountain of the Lord’; or else it shall be a day of darkness and not of light. He comes to me, to you; He comes to smite or He comes to glorify.<\/p>\n Oh, brethren! do not believe that God’s threatenings are wind and words; do not let teachings that sap the very foundations of morality and eat all the power out of the Gospel persuade you that the solemn words, ‘The soul that sinneth it shall die,’ are not simple verity.<\/p>\n And then, my brethren, oh! then, do you turn yourselves to that dear Lord whose grace is magnified in this most chiefly, that ‘He hath borne our sins and carried our sorrows’; and taking Him for your Saviour, your King, your Shield, your All, when He cometh it will be life to you; and the grace that He imparts will be heaven for ever more.<\/p>\n children = sons. <\/p>\n From Malachi to Matthew <\/p>\n The close of the Old Testament canon left Israel in two great divisions. The mass of the nation were dispersed throughout the Persian Empire, more as colonists than captives. A remnant, chiefly of the tribe of Judah, with Zerubbabel, a prince of the Davidic family, and the survivors of the priests and Levites, had returned to the land under the permissive decrees of Cyrus and his successors <\/p>\n (See Scofield “Dan 5:31”) See Scofield “Dan 9:25” and had established again the temple worship. Upon this remnant the interest of the student of Scripture centres; and this interest concerns both their political and religious history. <\/p>\n I. Politically, the fortunes of the Palestinian Jews followed, with one exception–the Maccabean revolt–the history of the Gentile world-empires foretold by Daniel (Daniel 2, 7.) <\/p>\n (1) The Persian rule continued about one hundred years after the close of the O.T. canon, and seems to have been mild and tolerant, allowing the high priest, along with his religious functions, a measure of civil power, but under the overlordship of the governors of Syria. The sources of the history of the Jewish remnant during the Persian period were purely legendary when Josephus wrote. During this period the rival worship of Samaria Joh 4:19; Joh 4:20 was established. <\/p>\n Palestine suffered much from the constant wars between Persia and Egypt, lying as it did “between the anvil and the hammer.” <\/p>\n (2) In 333 B.C. Syria fell under the power of the third of the world-empires, the Graeco-Macedonian of Alexander. That conqueror, as Josephus related, was induced to treat the Jews with much favour; but, upon the breaking up of his empire, Judaea again fell between the hammer and anvil of Syria and Egypt, falling first under the power of Syria, but later under Egypt as ruled by the Ptolemaic kings. During this period (B.C. 320-198) great numbers of Jews were established in Egypt, and the Septuagint translation of the O.T. was made (B.C. 285). <\/p>\n (3) In B.C. 198 Judaea was conquered by Antiochus the Great, and annexed to Syria. At this time the division of the land into the five provinces familiar to readers of the Gospels, Galilee, Samaria, Judaea (often collectively called Judaea), Trachonitis and Peraea, was made. The Jews at first were permitted to live under their own laws under the high priest and a council. About B.C. 180 the land became the dowry of Cleopatra, a Syrian princess married to Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, but on the death of Cleopatra was reclaimed by Antiochus Epiphanes (the “little horn” of (See Scofield “Dan 8:9”) after a bloody battle. In 170 B.C., Antiochus, after repeated interferences with the temple and priesthood, plundered Jerusalem, profaned the temple, and enslaved great numbers of the inhabitants. December 25, B.C. 168, Antiochus offered a sow upon the great altar, and erected an altar to Jupiter. This is the “desolation” of Dan 8:13 type of the final “abomination of desolation” of Mat 24:15. The temple worship was forbidden, and the people compelled to eat swine’s flesh. <\/p>\n (4) The excesses of Antiochus provoked the revolt of the Maccabees, one of the most heroic pages of history. Mattathias, the first of the Maccabees, a priest of great sanctity and energy of character, began the revolt. He did little more than to gather a band of godly and determined Jews pledged to free the nation and restore the ancient worship, and was succeeded by his son Judas, known in history as Maccabaeus, from the Hebrew word for hammer. He was assisted by four brothers of whom Simon is best known. <\/p>\n In B.C. 165 Judas regained possession of Jerusalem, purified and rededicated the temple, an event celebrated in the Jewish Feast of the Dedication. The struggle with Antiochus and his successor continued. Judas was slain in battle, his brother Jonathan succeeding. In him the civil and priestly authority were united (B.C. 143). Under Jonathan, his brother Simon, and his nephew John Hyrcanus, the Hasmonean line of priest-rulers was established, under sufferance of other powers. They possessed none of the Maccabean virtues. <\/p>\n (5) A civil war followed, which was terminated by the Roman conquest of Judaea and Jerusalem by Pompey (B.C. 63), who left Hyrcanus, the last of the Hasmoneans, a nominal sovereignty, Antipater, an Idumean, wielding the actual power. B.C. 47 Antipater was made procurator of Judaea by Julius Caesar, and appointed his son, Herod, governor of Galilee. After the murder of Caesar disorder ensued in Judaea, and Herod fled to Rome. There he was appointed (B.C. 40) king of the Jews, and returning, he conciliated the people by his marriage (B.C. 38) with Mariamne, the beautiful grand- daughter of Hyrcanus, and appointed her brother, the Maccabean Aristobulus III., high priest. Herod was king when Jesus Christ was born. <\/p>\n II. The religious history of the Jews during the long period from Malachi (B.C. 397) to Christ followed, as to outer ceremonial, the high-priestly office, and the temple worship, the course of the troublous political history, and is of scant interest. <\/p>\n Of greater moment are the efforts and means by which the real faith of Israel was kept alive and nurtured. <\/p>\n (1) The tendency to idolatry seems to have been destroyed by the Jews’ experience and observation of it during the captivity. Deprived of temple and priest, and of the possibility of continuing a ceremonial worship, the Jewish people were thrown back upon that which was fundamental in their faith, the revelation of God as One, the Creator, to be conceived of as having made man in His own image, and therefore as having such analogies to the nature and life of man as to be comprehensible by man, while remaining the Eternal Spirit, God. This conception of God, enforced by the mighty ministries of the pre-exilic and exilic prophets, finally prevailed over all idolatrous conceptions, and this ministry was continued amongst the returned remnant by Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The high ethics of the older prophets, their stern rebuke of mere formalism, and their glowing prophecies of the ultimate restoration of Israel in national and religious supremacy under Messiah, were all repeated by the three prophets of the restoration. <\/p>\n The problem was to keep alive this exalted ideal in the midst of outward persecutions and sordid and disgraceful divisions within. <\/p>\n (2) The organic means to this end was the synagogue, an institution which formed no part of the biblical order of the national life. Its origin is obscure. Probably, during the captivity, the Jews, deprived of the temple and its rites, met on the Sabbath day for prayer. This would give opportunity for the reading of the Scriptures. Such meetings would require some order of procedure, and some authority for the restraint of disorder. The synagogue doubtless grew out of the necessities of the situation in which the Jews were placed, but it served the purpose of maintaining familiarity with the inspired writings, and upon these the spiritual life of the true Israel (See Scofield “Rom 9:6”) was nourished. <\/p>\n (3) But during this period, also, was created that mass of tradition, comment and interpretation, known as Mishna, Gemara (forming the Talmud), Halachoth, Midrashim and Kabbala, so superposed upon the Law that obedience was transferred from the Law itself to the traditional interpretation. <\/p>\n (4) During this period also rose the two great sects know to the Gospel narratives as Pharisees and Sadducees. (See Scofield “Mat 3:7”) notes 2,3 The Herodians were a party rather than a sect. <\/p>\n Amongst such a people, governed, under the suzerainty of Rome, by an Idumean usurper, rent by bitter and unspiritual religious controversies, and maintaining an elaborate ritual, appeared Jesus, the Son and Christ of God.<\/p>\n turn: Luk 1:16, Luk 1:17, Luk 1:76 <\/p>\n lest: Isa 61:2, Dan 9:26, Dan 9:27, Zec 11:6, Zec 13:8, Zec 14:2, Mat 22:7, Mat 23:35-38, Mat 24:27-30, Mar 13:14-26, Luk 19:41-44, Luk 21:22-27 <\/p>\n and smite: Deu 29:19-29, Isa 24:6, Isa 43:28, Isa 65:15, Dan 9:11, Zec 5:3, Zec 14:12, Mar 11:21, Heb 6:8, Heb 10:26-31, Rev 22:3, Rev 22:20, Rev 22:21 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Deu 28:16 – in the city 1Ki 18:37 – thou hast turned 2Ch 19:4 – brought Psa 85:4 – turn us Isa 11:4 – and he shall Isa 40:3 – Prepare Jer 26:6 – a curse Jer 31:18 – turn Mat 11:13 – General Mat 17:10 – Why Mat 17:11 – and restore Mar 9:12 – restoreth Luk 3:4 – Prepare Luk 7:27 – Behold Joh 1:6 – a man Act 3:21 – the times Rev 2:5 – and do<\/p>\n Mal 4:6. The phrases of this verse refer to the reformative work that was to be accomplished by this Elijah (or John the Baptist). Without the effects of this forerunner and the new kingdom to follow, the whole world would have suffered the wrath or an outraged God. <\/p>\n Mal 4:6. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, &c. After the times of the Maccabees, to the times of Christ, the Jewish people were miserably divided among themselves, by discords, which broke out into civil wars, of which Josephus gives an account. And moreover, the different religious sects among them, especially those of the Sadducees and Pharisees, greatly distracted the people, and alienated and separated the nearest relations from each other. Now John the Baptist began to apply a remedy to these evils, by instilling the precepts of love and charity, and directing all to one and the same master, Christ: see Luk 3:11; Mat 3:11; Mar 1:7; Joh 1:15. This seems to be the most probable interpretation of the words, taking them in the sense of our translation, and as they are understood by the LXX., and by St. Luk 1:17. But a more easy sense may be given of them by translating the Hebrew preposition , not to, but with, in which sense it is often used, and as Kimchi, Noldius, and others render it, namely, He shall turn the hearts of the fathers with the children, and of the children with the fathers; that is, he shall do his utmost to produce a national reformation, to turn both fathers and children from their evil practices, and to make them all unanimously join in the great duties of repentance and amendment of life; to restore a true sense of religion, which was then dwindled into a mere form, and thereby to prepare the people for the reception of Christ, in order to prevent the utter excision denounced upon the land, as it follows, Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. By the earth here, as frequently elsewhere, is meant the land of Judea, and the clause would be better rendered, Lest I come and smite the land, namely, of Judea, with utter destruction: for so the word , here rendered curse, is often translated, as the learned reader may see by referring to Num 21:2; Deu 7:2; Deu 7:13; Deu 7:15-16; Jos 6:21; Zec 14:11. So that the meaning is, Lest, when I come to execute judgment upon Judea, all the inhabitants of it should be utterly destroyed. By the preaching of John, and his directing the people to Christ, many were brought to repentance and reformation of life, and thereby escaped the common destruction of the nation. All, therefore, did not perish, but a remnant was saved, as St. Paul takes notice, Rom 9:27; Rom 9:29; Rom 11:5. Judea, however, remains a desolation, and Jerusalem a heap of ruins, both of them sad and perpetual monuments of Gods displeasure against such as reject Christ and his salvation. The three remarkable predictions, therefore, contained in this last chapter of the ancient records of the divine will, like a multitude of others, which have come under our consideration in the course of these notes, have all been punctually fulfilled. The harbinger of the Messiah appeared at the time foretold, in the spirit and power of Elias; the Messiah himself was manifested as the Sun of righteousness, as soon as that messenger sent before his face had prepared his way; and the most signal vengeance was executed, as foretold, on all such as rejected him and his salvation. These remarkable predictions, therefore, added to all that went before, being evidently verified, are so many fresh proofs of the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, of the truth of the Christian religion, of the certain accomplishment of all the promises and threatenings of the gospel of Christ, and of the absolute necessity of possessing the religion there delineated, and practising the duties there enjoined. This, indeed, is the design of all the prophecies, and even of all the books contained in the Old and New Testaments, and the principal use which ought to be made of them.<\/p>\n Thus, through the assistance of God, we are come to the conclusion of the writings of the prophets: for, from the time of Malachi to the time of the Messiah, for the space of near four hundred years, there was, as some of the prophets had foretold there should be, a famine of the words of the Lord; (see Amo 8:11-12;) and during this long course of time no prophet appeared in Israel, where there had been before a succession of them for a very long period of years. The divine providence, it is probable, as was intimated in the argument to this book, caused this long cessation of prophecy, this long famine of the word of the Lord in the land, in order to excite the greater expectation and a more fervent desire of the coming of the great prophet, the Christ of God; and to prepare mens minds for a new and different dispensation, in which, after the first establishment of it, there was no longer to be a succession of prophets; but the work of God in and among men, in order to their salvation, was to be carried on through and by the grace of the Lord Jesus, that great one, who had been foretold by the mouth of all the prophets; and by the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, or a Divine Spirit, enlightening and renewing mens minds, inspiring them with true wisdom, and communicating to them the divine nature, and forming them after the image of him that had created them. It has been observed by some, and not improperly, that whereas the last word of the Old Testament is a curse which threatens the earth, of our danger of which we must be made sensible, that we may welcome the gospel of Christ, which comes with a blessing; it is with a blessing, with the choicest of blessings, that the New Testament ends: and with it let us arm ourselves, or rather, let God arm us, against this curse. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all! Amen.<\/p>\n To God only wise be ascribed all the glory.<\/p>\n 4:6 And he shall {g} turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and {h} smite the earth with a curse.<\/p>\n (g) He shows in what John’s office would consist: in the turning of men to God, and uniting the father and children in one voice of faith: so that the father will turn to the religion of his son who is converted to Christ, and the son will embrace the faith of the true fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.<\/p>\n (h) The second point of his office was to give notice of God’s judgment against those that would not receive Christ.<\/p>\n Malachi revealed only one future forerunner of Messiah before the day of the Lord in view, perhaps the more prominent of the two. Elijah was a very significant person in Israel’s history because he turned the Israelites back to God at the time of their worst apostasy, when Ahab and Jezebel had made Baal worship the official religion of Israel. Moses established the theocracy on earth, but Elijah restored it when it almost passed out of existence. Similarly the eschatological Elijah will unite the hearts of the Jews to turn back and worship Yahweh.<\/p>\n At His first coming Jesus said that because of Him families would experience division. Some fathers would believe on Him but their sons would not, and daughters would disagree with their mothers over Him (Mat 10:35-36; Luk 12:49-53; cf. Mic 7:6). When this Elijah comes, he will cause the Jews to believe on their Messiah, as many did in Elijah’s day. They will unite over belief in Him.<\/p>\n If the Lord would not send this Elijah, and if he did not turn the hearts of the Jews back to God, the Lord would have to come (in the person of Messiah) and strike the earth with a curse. Because the Jews will turn to Jesus Christ in faith (Zec 12:10), blessing will come to the earth, not a curse (Mal 4:2-3; cf. Zec 14:11; Rom 11:26). This is another reference to millennial conditions.<\/p>\n The Jews of Malachi’s day needed to remember their Law and practice it to prepare for the coming day of the Lord. As Jesus said, Moses wrote of Him (Joh 5:46). Had Malachi’s audience and subsequent generations of Jews paid attention to the Law of Moses they would have recognized Jesus for who He was at His first coming. This was the last revelation that God gave His people before the forerunner of Messiah, whom He promised in Mal 3:1, appeared some 400 years later. They had plenty of time to get ready.<\/p>\n In Malachi’s day the people needed to return to the Lord or He would smite the land with a curse. This is really what happened since they did not return to Him. The Israelites’ problems occupying the land God gave them since the Babylonian captivity is evidence of their failure.<\/p>\n Fortunately for them, and for the whole world, God did not cast off His people Israel because they rejected His Son (Rom 11:1). He will send another powerful prophet, like Moses, to His people in the end times. They will believe the message of that Elijah and will turn to Jesus Christ in faith when He returns to the earth (Zec 12:10; Rom 11:26). Then Messiah will initiate a righteous worldwide rule that will last 1,000 years (Rev 20:1-6) rather than smiting the land with a curse.<\/p>\n "Genesis reveals the entrance of the curse into the human family (Genesis 3); the last word of the O.T. shows the curse still persisting (Mal 4:6); Matthew begins (Mat 1:1) with Him who came to remove the curse (Gal 3:13; Rev 21:3-5; Rev 22:3)." [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 982.] <\/span><\/p>\n "The warning that ends the Old Testament is not absent at the end of the New (Rev 22:10-15), but the difference is that there grace has the last word (Rev 22:21)." [Note: Baldwin, p. 253.] <\/span><\/p>\n And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. 6. he shall turn the heart of the fathers ] The “fathers” here are the patriarchs, whom the prophet regards as estranged from their … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Malachi 4:6”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
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<\/P> Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"