Malachi 4:1

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Ver. 1. For, behold, the day cometh] This chapter should not be divided from the former; for here God's different dealing with the righteous and the wicked, proposed in the former verse, is further amplified by various effects of Christ's coming in the flesh. And if any ask, saith an interpreter, how this was verified of that his first coming? we answer, It was an initial or incipient stage, and by way of preparation, then; and shall be consummate in the day of the last judgment. This day comprehendeth all that time that is called by the apostle, "the ends of the world," 1 Corinthians 10:11, and "the world to come," Hebrews 2:5; all the administrations of Christ's kingdom, from his incarnation to the end of all things, which also is at hand, and, as it were, under view already. "Behold, the day," that notable day, so long looked for by the Jews, who boasted of a Redeemer, and promised themselves all possible comforts then: Tunc enim Deus nos dignabitur clarissima visione, saith Jachiades on Daniel 12:4, tunc intelligemus res ipsas prout sunt: Then shall we have a most clear vision of things as they are, &c. Lo, that day cometh; not such a day as you imagined, but like that in Amos, "A day of darkness, and not light: even very dark, and no brightness in it," Amos 5:20. A day that shall burn like an oven; Nebuchadnezzar's oven, seven times more heated than it was wont, Daniel 3:19. This day is come, the end is come, it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come, Ezekiel 7:6. It was fulfilled in part upon this people at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and their miserable exile ever since for their unbelief. Howbeit, all these are but the beginning of sorrows; their present sorrows but a typical hell, "the pile whereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, doth kindle it," Isaiah 30:33. It is said to be "prepared for the devil and his angels," Matthew 25:41, as if the all-powerful wisdom did deliberate, and, as it were, sit down and devise most tormenting temper, for that most formidable fire. The fire of the last day shall surely be very terrible, when all the world shall be on ablaze with fire, and wicked men shall give account with flames about their ears, with the elements melting and falling like scalding lead or burning bell metal on their heads. But all this will be but a shadow or spark of that fire of hell, the smoke whereof ascendeth for ever and ever, Revelation 19:3. Some have held the fire of hell to be no true material; and corporeal fire but metaphorical, of a type known to God. qualem novit Deus. The most conspire in the contrary tenet; because bodies are to be punished by it. How spirits are also thus tormented, as the rich glutton's, Luke 16:24, Austin sits down and admires the mystery; he tells us that for vehemence of heat it exceeds our fire, as far as ours doth fire that is painted on a wall (De Civ. Dei, lib. 21, c. 10). I would we had not cause to complain that preaching of hell is but as the painting of fire; which men can look on and handle without harm or fear. Surely he that observes the impiety of this age may say to us, as Cato did to Caesar, Credo, quae de inferis dicuntur, falsa existimas, I believe you think hell to be a very fable, Esse aliquos manes nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur (Juven.).

And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, &c.] Those proud whom you pronounced happy, Malachi 3:15, because jolly, and full of worldly prosperity, rich and renowned; those workers of wickedness, whom you looked upon as set up, built upon a firm basis: God shall abase every one that is lifted up, he shall repay the wicked doer to his face, Deuteronomy 7:10, and into his bosom, Isaiah 65:6. Whatever arrows are in the bow string will one day fly and hit, and strike deep. They shall be as stubble, saith the text, as stubble that is fully dried, Nahum 1:10, even when they be folden together as thorns. "Who would set these briers and thorns against me in battle?" saith the Lord: "I would go through them, I would burn them together," Isaiah 27:4. Did he not deal so by Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Herod, the primitive persecutors? &c. Those mighty Magnificos that here seemed fortes, ferrei, et aenei, strong, and made up, as it were, of brass and iron, shall appear to be but as stubble, that cannot stand before God's fire.

The day that cometh shall burn them up] Heb. Shall so burn them ut flamma ex ipsis excitetur, as to set them aflame. Here Christ burns up his enemies with invisible judgments, inward terrors and torments, pangs and plunges, a very hell in their consciences, a foretaste of eternal torment (as was to be seen in Belshazzar, and our Richard III). But what will they do at the last day, when the law they shall be judged by is a fiery law, Deuteronomy 33:2, the tribunal of fire, Ezekiel 1:27, the judge a consuming fire, Hebrews 12:29, his attendants flaming seraphims, his pleading with sinners in flames of fire, 2 Thessalonians 1:7, the place of punishment a lake of fire fed with a river of brimstone? Isaiah 30:33; what can be the fruit of such a fiery proceeding but utter excision? Surely this fire will leave them neither root nor branch.