Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
(... continued from file 13)
Lecture One Hundred and Eighty-second.
Malachi, after having said that the Sun of
righteousness would arise on the Jews, now adds that it
would be for their joy, for as sorrow lays hold on the
faithful when they are without Christ, or when they think
him far removed from them, so his favour is their chief
happiness and real joy. Hence the angel when he made
known to the shepherds that Christ was born, thus
introduces his message, "Behold, I declare to you great
joy." (Luke 2: 10.)
Now though the comparison might seem rather
unnatural, yet it was not without reason that the Prophet
said that the Jews would be like fattened calves, for the
change of which he speaks was incredible; hence it was
necessary that the subject should be stated in a very
homely manner, that they might entertain hope.
There is in the words "going forth", an implied
contrast, for anxiety had long held them as it were
captives, but now they were to go forth and be at
liberty, according to what takes place when things change
for the better; we then openly declare our joy to one
another, and we seek as it were a wide place for giving
vent to our feelings. We now see why the Prophet says
that the Jews would go forth: they had been before
confined as it were within narrow limits, but God would
now give them occasion for rejoicing, according to what
Paul says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty." (2 Cor. 3: 17). It follows -
Malachi 4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for
they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the
day that I shall do [this], saith the LORD of hosts.
When God promises redemption to his Church, he
usually mentions what is of an opposite character, even
the destruction and ruin of his enemies, and he does this
on purpose lest envy should annoy or harass the faithful,
while seeing the ungodly prosperous and happy. So also in
this place Malachi says, that the ungodly would be
trodden under foot by the faithful like the dust; and he
says this lest the elect, while lying prostrate under the
feet of their enemies and proudly trampled upon by them,
should succumb under their troubles; but they were to
look for what the Prophet declares here, for they were
not only to be raised up by the hand of God, but were
also to be superior to their enemies, and be enabled in
their turn to suppress their pride: in short, he means
that they were to be raised above all the height of the
world.
At the same time, God does not allow his children
cruelly to seek vengeance, for he would have them to be
endued with meekness, so as not to cease to do good to
the wicked and to pray for them, though they may have
been unjustly treated by them. But, as I have already
said, he meant here to obviate an evil which is natural
to us all, for we are apt to despond when our enemies
exult over us, and rage against us. Lest then their
temporary success and prosperity should deject our minds,
God brings a remedy, and strengthens our patience by this
consideration, - that the state of things will shortly be
changed, so that we shall triumph over the ungodly, who
thought us to have been undone a hundred times; God will
indeed visit them with extreme shame, because they not
only fatuitously boast of their unjust deeds, but also
raise up their horns against him.
Let us proceed; he says, In the day in which I make.
He again restrains their desires, that they might not
with too much haste look forward, but wait for the day
prefixed by the Lord. We indeed know how great is the
importunity of men as to their wishes, and how ardently
they seek their accomplishment unless God checks them.
Whenever then we speak of the destruction of our enemies,
let us remember that we ought to regard the day of the
Lord, in which he purposes to execute his judgement.
Some, as I have said, give a different version, but the
one I have given is the most probable, and is also more
generally approved. It now follows - Malachi 4:4
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I
commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, [with] the
statutes and judgments.
This passage has not been clearly and fully
explained, because interpreters did not understand the
design of Malachi nor consider the time. We know that
before the coming of Christ there was a kind of silence
on the part of God, for by not sending Prophets for a
time, he designed to stimulate as it were the Jews, so
that they might with greater ardour seek Christ. Our
Prophet was amongst the very last. As then the Jews were
without Prophets, they ought more diligently to have
attended to the law, and to have taken a more careful
heed to the doctrine of religion contained in it. This is
the reason why he now bids them to remember the law of
Moses; as though he had said, "Hereafter shall come the
time when ye shall be without Prophets, but your remedy
shall be the law; attend then carefully to it, and beware
lest you should forget it." For men, as soon as God
ceases to speak to them even for the shortest time, are
carried away after their own inventions, and are ever
inclined to vanity, as we abundantly find by experience.
Hence Malachi, in order to keep the Jews from wandering,
and from thus departing from the pure doctrine of the
law, reminds them that they were faithfully and
constantly to remember it until the Redeemer came.
If it be asked why he mentions the law only, the
answer is obvious, because that saying of Christ is true,
that the law and the Prophets were until John. (Matt. 3:
13.) It must yet be observed, that the prophetic office
was not separated from the law, for all the prophecies
which followed the law were as it were its appendages; so
that they included nothing new, but were given that the
people might be more fully retained in their obedience to
the law. Hence as the Prophets were the interpreters of
Moses, it is no wonder that their doctrine was subjected,
or as they commonly say, subordinated to the law. The
object of the Prophet was to make the Jews attentive to
that doctrine which had been delivered to them from above
by Moses and the Prophets, so as not to depart from it
even in the least degree; as though he had said, "God
will not now send to you different teachers in
succession; there is enough for your instruction in the
law: there is no reason on this account that you should
change anything in the discipline of the Church. Though
God by ceasing to speak to you, may seem to let loose the
reins, so as to allow every one to stray and wander in
uncertainty after his own imaginations, it is yet not so;
for the law is sufficient to guide us, provided we shake
not off its yoke, nor through our ingratitude bury the
light by which it directs us."
He calls it the law of Moses, not because he was its
author, but its minister, as also Paul calls the gospel
"my gospel," because he was its minister and preacher. At
the same time God claims to himself the whole authority,
by adding that Moses was his savant: we hence conclude
that he brought nothing of himself; for the word servant
is not to be confined to his vocation only, but also to
his fidelity in executing his office. God then honoured
Moses with this title, not so much for his own sake, as
in order to give sanction to his law, that no one might
think that it was a doctrine invented by man. He
expresses the same thing still more clearly by saying,
that he had committed the law to him on Horeb; for this
clause clearly asserts that Moses had faithfully
discharged his office of a servant; for he brought
nothing but what had been committed to him from above,
and he delivered it, as they say, from hand to hand. Many
give this version, "To whom I committed, in the valley of
Horeb, statutes and judgements;" but I approve of the
other rendering - that God makes himself here the author
of the law, that all the godly might reverently receive
it as coming from him. Horeb is Sinai; but they who
describe these places say, that a part of the mountain
towards the east is called Horeb, and that the other
towards the west is called Sinai; but it is still the
same mountain.
By saying To all Israel, or to the whole of Israel,
he confirms what I have already said - that he had
committed to them the law: that the Jews might be the
more touched, he expressly says, that the law was given
to them, and that this was a singular privilege with
which God had favoured them, according to what is said in
Ps 147:20, "He has not done so to other nations, nor has
he manifested to them his judgements." For the nations
had not been laid under such obligations as the Jews, to
whom God had given his law as a peculiar treasure to his
own children. And that no one might claim an exemption,
he says, to the whole of Israel; as though he had said,
"Neither the learned nor the unlearned, neither the
rulers nor the common people, can have any excuse, except
they all with the greatest care attend to the law, yea,
all from the least to the greatest."
What follows may admit of two explanations: for
"chukim" and "mishpatim" may be referred to the verb
"zichru", remember; but as he says Which I have
committed, we may take statutes and judgements as
explanatory. As to the subject itself, it signifies but
little which view we may adopt. There is no doubt but
that God by these terms commends his law for its
benefits; as though he had said, "The law includes what
the Jews ought rightly to observe, even statutes and
judgements." We know that other terms are used in
Scripture, such as "pekudim", precepts; "mitswot",
commandments; and "edutim", testimonies; but here the
Prophet is content brief to remind the Jews that their
ingratitude would be less excusable if they departed from
the law of God, for this would be openly to reject
statutes and judgements; and this is what I have stated,
that they were here taught by the Prophet that the
doctrine of the law is profitable, in order that they
might attend to it more willingly. It follows - Malachi
4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
The Prophet continues the same subject; for having
testified to the Jews, that though God would for a time
suspend the course of prophetic teaching, they yet had in
the law what was sufficient for salvation, he now
promises the renovation of the Church; as though he had
said, "The Lord will again unexpectedly utter his voice
after a long silence." Isaiah speaks on the same subject,
prophesying of the return of the people, when he says,
"Comfort ye, comfort my people, will our God say." (Is.
40: 11) There is an emphatic import in the use of the
future tense. So also in this passage, the Prophet
declares that prophetic teaching would be again renewed,
that when God showed mercy to his people, he would open
his mouth, and show that he had been silent, not because
he intended to forsake his people, but as we have said,
for another end. At the same time he shows that the time
would come, when his purpose was to confirm and seal all
the prophecies by his only-begotten Son.
This passage has fascinated the Jews so as to think
that men rise again; and their resurrection is, - that
the souls of men pass into various bodies three or four
times. There is indeed such a delirious notion as this
held by that nation! We hence see how great is the
sottishness of men, when they become alienated from
Christ, who is the light of the world and the Sun of
Righteousness, as we have lately seen. There is no need
to disprove an error so palpable.
But Christ himself took away all doubt on this
point, when he said, that John the Baptist was the
Elijah, who had been promised; (Matt. 11: 10:) and the
thing itself proves this, had not Christ spoken on the
subject. And why John the Baptist is called Elijah, I
shall explain in a few words. What some say of zeal, I
shall say nothing of; and many have sought other
likenesses, whom I shall neither follow nor blame. But
this likeness seems to me the most suitable of all, -
that God intended to raise up John the Baptist for the
purpose of restoring his worship, as formerly he had
raised up Elijah: for at the time of Elijah, we know,
that not only the truth was corrupted and the worship of
God vitiated, but that also all religion was almost
extinct, so that nothing pure and sound remained. At the
coming of Christ, though the Jews did not worship idols,
but retained some outward form of religion, yet the whole
of their religion was spurious, so that that time may
truly be compared, on account of its multiplied
pollutions, to the age of Elijah. John then was a true
successor of Elijah, nor were any of the Prophets so much
like John as Elijah: hence justly might his name be
transferred to him.
But someone may object and say, that he is here
called a prophet, while he yet denied that he was a
prophet: to this the answer is obvious, - that John
renounced the title of a prophet, that he might not
hinder the progress of Christ's teaching: hence he means
not in those words that he ran presumptuously without a
call, but that he was content to be counted the herald of
Christ, so that his teaching might not prevent Christ
from being heard alone. Yet Christ declares that he was a
prophet, and more than a prophet, and that because his
ministry was more excellent than that of a prophet.
He says, Before shall come the day, great and
terrible. The Prophet seems not here to speak very
suitably of Christ's coming; but he now addresses the
whole people; and as there were many slothful and tardy,
who even despised the favour of God, and others insolent
and profane, he speaks not so kindly, but mixes these
threatenings. We hence perceive why the Prophet describes
the coming of Christ as terrible; he does this, not
because Christ was to come to terrify men, but on the
contrary, according to what Isaiah says, "The smoking
flax he will not extinguish, the shaken reed he will not
break; not heard will his voice be in the streets, nor
will he raise a clamour." (Is 42: 3.) Though then Christ
calmly presents himself, as we have before observed, and
as soon as he appears to us, he brings an abundant reason
for joy; yet the perverseness of that people was such as
to constrain the Prophet to use a severe language,
according to the manner in which God deals daily with us;
when he sees that we have a tasteless palate, he gives us
some bitter medicine, so that we may have some relish for
his favour. Whenever then we meet with any thing in
Scripture tending to fill us with terror, let us remember
that such thing is announced, because we are either deaf
or slothful, or even rebellious, when God kindly invites
us to himself. It follows - Malachi 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.
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.
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,
"Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted: whatsoever ye
shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven," (John 20:
23;) or when Paul says, that he had begotten the
Corinthians, (1 Cor. 2: 15,) he did not claim for himself
what he knew only belonged to God, but rather extolled
the favour of God as manifested in his ministry,
according to what he declares in another place, "Not I,
but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Cor. 15: 10.)
But when God separates himself from his ministers,
nothing remains in them: "He who plants is nothing," says
Paul in another place, "And he who waters is nothing, but
God who gives the increase." (1 Cor. 3: 7.) 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
labour, so that it brings forth its fruit.
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 fulfil his office.
By saying that he would turn the hearts of fathers
to sons and of sons to fathers, 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.
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.
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.
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, we are
exhorted to do. Prayer. Grant, Almighty God, that as
nothing is omitted by thee to help us onward in the
course of our faith, and as our sloth is such that we
hardly advance one step though stimulated by thee, - O
grant, that we may strive to profit more by the various
helps which thou hast provided for us, so that the Law,
the Prophets, the voice of John the Baptist, and
especially the doctrine of thine only-begotten Son, may
more fully awaken us, that we may not only hasten to him,
but also proceed constantly in our course, and persevere
in it until we shall at length obtain the victory and the
crown of our calling, as thou hast promised an eternal
inherence in heaven to all who faint not but wait for the
coming of the great Redeemer. - Amen. The End of all
the Lectures of John Calvin on the Minor Prophets. To
God the Glory.
Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
(...concluded)
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