Malachi 3:7

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept [them]. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

Ver. 7. Even from the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances] The more to magnify his own mercy (by a miracle, whereof they had hitherto subsisted, by an extraordinary prop of his love, and longsuffering), God sets forth here their utter unworthiness of any such free favour, by a double aggravation of their sins. First, their long continuance therein, so that their sins were grown inveterate and ingrained, and themselves aged and even crooked therein, so that they could hardly ever be set straight again.

From the days of your fathers, &c.] q.d. Non hoc nuper facitis: nec semel ut erroris mereamini veniam: sed haereditariam habetis impietatem, &c., as Jerome paraphraseth this text. You are no young sinners; it is not yesterday, or a few days since, you transgressed against me; you are a seed of serpents, a race of rebels; you are as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever your fathers were, Acts 7:51. Secondly, their pervicacy and stiffness: they would not yield or be evicted. But ye say, wherein shall we return as if they were righteous, and needed no repentance. Still they put God to his proofs, as Jeremiah 2:35, and show themselves an unpersuadable and gainsaying people, Isaiah 65:2; and this had "been their manner from their youth," Jeremiah 22:21, when they were in Egypt, they served idols there, Ezekiel 16:26. In the wilderness they tempted God ten times, and hearkened not to his voice, Numbers 14:22. Under their judges, and then their kings, they vexed him, and he bore with them "till there was no remedy," 2 Chronicles 36:16. After the captivity they do antiquum obtinere, and are found guilty here of various omissions and commissions, calling for "a just recompence of reward," Hebrews 2:2. All which notwithstanding, Deus redire eos sibi non perire desiderat (Chrysolog.). God soliciteth their return unto him here by a precept and a promise, two effectual arguments, if anything will work; and ratifieth all with his own authority, which is most authentic, in these words, "saith the Lord of hosts." A style often given to God, as elsewhere in Scripture, so especially in these three last prophecies to the people returned from Babylon, because they had many enemies, and therefore had need of all encouragement. For God is called the Lord of hosts, quod ille numine suo et nomine terreat terras, temperet tempera, exercitusque tam superiores quam inferiores gubernet, to show that he hath all power in his hand, and doth whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and earth (Alsted). See Trapp on " Mal 3:17 ", doctr. 1, and for the doctrine of returning to God (from whom we have deeply revolted) by repentance. See Trapp on " Zec 1:3 "

But ye said, Wherein shall we return?] This was their pride, proceeding from ignorance; they were rich and righteous, as those Laodiceans Revelation 3:17, not in truth, but in conceit, vainly puffed up by their carnal minds, drunk with self-dotage, as Luke 16:15. Hence they stand upon their slippers, and none must say, Black is their eye. Sin is in them as in its proper element, and therefore weighs not (Elementum in suo loco non ponderat); till, by long trading in wickedness, they grow to that dead and dedolent disposition, Ephesians 4:14, their heart fat as grease, their conscience cauterized, 1 Timothy 4:2, that is, so benumbed, blotted, senseless, filthy, and gangrenous, that it must be seared with a hot iron; whereupon it grows so crusty and brawny, that though cut or pierced with the sword of the Spirit, it doth neither bleed nor feel; and though handfulls of hell fire be flung in the face of it, yet it starts not, stirs not; but is deprived of all even passive power, and so satanized, that there is no help for them.