Malachi 4:1-6

If you are reading this post then you have made it! After twelve posts on this small book, we are finally at the end, and what an end it is! God makes one finally promise about the evildoers in the land that seem to have His favor, and then gives the righteous believers the promise of hope, joy, and justice.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ² But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. ³And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

⁴“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

⁵“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ⁶ And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

This chapter starts out by acknowledging that the arrogant and evildoers (the ones who live outside God’s commands, and therefore, outside His correction, reproof, and love) will be destroyed. There will be nothing left of them. No monument, no resting place, just stubble. When I see this word I think of going in to use the bathroom sink right after my husband has shaved. There are tiny pieces of his stubble all over the white bathroom sink. Some English versions say that they will be like chaff. Being a city dweller, it took be a long time to figure out really what chaff was. When the wheat turns golden and dry in the fields, it is harvested and, for lack of a better word, shaken until the wheat grains separate from the chaff. In the picture above, you can see the oval grains, intermixed with the chaff, which is the the rest of the wheat head. That’s how small chaff is, small enough to be scattered by a light breeze.

There is another metaphor used here, “set them ablaze”. After a fire has completely consumed its fuel (wood) the only thing left is ash, and unless the ash is kept damp or contained, it will be blown around. If you try to catch the larger pieces they will just disintegrate between your fingers. When God says He is going to leave “neither root nor branch” He means that there will be no trace that there was ever a plant or tree growing there. This means that all record of the existence of these evildoers will be gone and erased. Reading this verse makes me realize that I really don’t want to be one of these evildoers.

So we have a choice before us. We can have an easy life now, but have all evidence of it completely erased later, or we can suffer in the hands of our righteous and gracious God, and by given healing and joy later. Verse two talks about the reward and joy that awaits those who fear, revere, and praise the name of the Lord. Their suffering shall end, their wounds shall be healed, they will dance with joy, leap with laughter, and in doing so trample down the ashes of the wicked that lie under their feet. I confess, I have never seen calves leaping with energy and joy from their stalls, but I can imagine it as I think of my dear dog, Theodore, and how excited and happy he gets when he knows he gets to go on a car ride. The faithful are given the best thing that there is, and they respond with great joy and praise.

The phrase, “sun of righteousness” is applied to Jesus who came and healed the sick. He testified to John the Baptist: “the bind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them (Matthew 11:5).” This phrase is also used in the third verse of the well-known Christmas Carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Christ is the one who came with healing, to reconcile a broken world back to Himself and God the Father so that they could know their God and their Redeemer, and live life to the fullest as ordained by God.

Verse four is a call to remember that God is God, and not some happy-go-lucky and fickle friend. He has given us rules for living, even today. We may not look to the Mosaic Law to figure out how to treat others, but we learn from Jesus, John, and Paul about loving others, bearing with each other’s weaknesses, and keeping each other accountable to the faith we have professed. Even today, we need to remember what Jesus taught us about being a neighbor to others, loving others, caring for the poor and disenfranchised, and living a life above reproach.

Finally, the promise of Elijah coming to rekindle the hearts of the people and bring unity to families, communities and nations. What God is promising is that there will be a change in the behavior of the people. They will not continue down the road to hell with their good intentions, but they will be able to fulfill them and live righteous and holy lives as they were intended to. This is change that can be trusted, because God has proved Himself time and time again to His people as trustworthy and having an unfailing love for them which has kept them from being reduced to stubble—even in their wickedness.

We also know that God is trustworthy because He kept this promise also. He fulfilled His promise to send Elijah to the people about four hundred years after making it. John the Baptist came and sparked a revival in the hearts of the people that helped Jesus to minister to them and testify to the new work God was doing among them. Jesus himself says, “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come (Matthew 11:14).” This is not to say that John was Elijah reincarnate—but that he had Elijah’s spirit of faithfulness and evangelism so that he could minister and prepare the way for Christ.

To wrap up Malachi, perhaps it is best to see this book as God’s call to His people to wake up and remember who they were. For us too, we need to remember that we are called by God to a certain purpose and kind of life. We are called to hold ourselves to God’s standards and remember that while He is forgiving, He is also just and is going to judge all our sins one day. If we suffer now, it is so that we can leap with joy later and for longer (like, for all eternity). God is not afraid to do what it takes to make his people holy. This is so important to remember: God’s primary concern for us, His people, is our holiness, not our happiness. There will be happiness, but it is born of a deep joy that comes from knowing our redeemer, savior, and God. So let us humble ourselves before our great and mighty God, and seek not only His forgiveness, but also to know Him and His will for our lives.