Malachi 4

My *Messenger

Malachi

Gordon Churchyard

Chapter 4

v1 Now look! A day will come. On that day, it will be as if there is a very hot fire. And then, every proud man and everybody that does evil (things) will become fuel (for the fire). And on that day, they will burn’, says the *LORD of Everything. ‘Neither a root nor a branch will remain among them. v2 But for you (people) that respect my name (this will happen). The sun of *righteousness will rise with health in its wings (see notes). And you will go out and jump happily. (You will be) like young cows (that people) let out from their pen. v3 Then you will jump on wicked (people). They will be like ashes under your feet on the day when I do these things’, says the *LORD of Everything.

Notes

This is a section about people who say things against God.

3:13 The unkind words are very unkind. Some translations have ‘hard’. Perhaps ‘cruel’ would be a good translation. It means that people were saying very bad things about God. They were people who did not want to work for God.

3:14 These were the people that did not want to work for God. Perhaps they were the *Levites in Malachi 3:8-10. ‘At a funeral’ is ‘in black (clothes)’ in the *Hebrew Bible. ‘Of no use’ means ‘it does nothing good’.

3:15 They were not happy because God did not seem to punish bad people. The bad people are the ‘proud (people)’ that do ‘evil (things)’. Psalms 73 studies the same problem.

3:16 Perhaps the people that respected the *LORD had said bad things in verses 13-15. But now they were sorry. Or, they may be other people. God put their names into a book. The *Hebrew Bible does not say who wrote it down. Perhaps it was an *angel. ‘Malachi’ can mean ‘my *angel’! There are some verses about God’s book in Something to do number 10. ‘Keep them in memory’ means so that God can ‘always remember them’.

3:17 ‘Treasure’ means ‘something very valuable’. God’s people were valuable to him when he started the *covenant (Exodus 19:5). Read also Deuteronomy 7:6 and Deuteronomy 14:2; and Psalms 135:4.

3:18 The good people serve God. The bad people do not serve God. But good people listen to him and they obey him. So God does not punish them.

4:1 A fire can make things pure (Malachi 3:2-3). But here is a fire that destroys things. It will happen to people who do not listen to God. It will happen to people who do not obey him. They are not sorry about their *sins. They will be like a tree. Not one root or branch of them will remain after the fire. ‘Fuel for the fire’ is a word that means ‘stubble’ in the *Hebrew Bible. Stubble is dead bits of plants. A hot sun (verse 2) can make them burn.

4:2 But the hot sun can be ‘a sun of *righteousness’. This is the only place in the Bible that mentions ‘a sun of righteousness’. Its wings are the streams of light from the sun. Christians believe that this is a description of Jesus Christ. A famous Christmas song by Charles Wesley includes the lines:

*Hail the heaven-born Prince of peace!

Hail the Sun of *Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

Risen with healing in his wings.

‘Hail’ is another word for ‘praise’. ‘Heaven-born’ means ‘born with help from God in heaven’. ‘Healing’ means health. Jesus is the ‘heaven-born Prince of peace’ who is the Sun of *Righteousness.

Malachi says that people will become very excited. They will jump about like animals that people let out from their pens.

4:3 Deuteronomy 32:35 says that people must not try to punish their enemies. God is the greatest judge. He will punish wicked people. But here, people dance on the ashes of wicked people! The good people are glad because God has saved them from these wicked people.

v4 ‘Remember the law of Moses my servant. (Remember) the laws and rules. I gave them to him at Horeb for all Israel.

v5 Look! I will send to you Elijah the *prophet. (He will come) before the great and terrible day of the *LORD comes. v6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. And (he will turn) the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the country with a *curse’.

Notes

Verse 4 The *Hebrew word for ‘law’ is ‘torah’. It usually means the first 5 books of the Bible. Horeb is another name for Sinai, where God gave the law to Moses (Exodus 34:1-28).

Verse 5 God says that Elijah will come to warn people. He will warn them that the day of the *LORD is near. Joel 2:31 also calls it ‘a great and terrible day’. It is the day when God will do something. It often happens, but one day it will really be for the last time. Then it will be very terrible indeed.

Verse 6 Elijah’s job will be to change people’s attitudes. Then people can obey God’s commands. They will prepare their lives for God’s work among them. But God will punish those who do not obey him.

Luke repeated Malachi 4:6 in Luke 1:17. This links John the *Baptist with Elijah. Jesus did the same thing in Matthew 11:10-15. Jesus also repeated Malachi 3:1 in these verses.

Something to do

1. Read some other verses in the Bible that contain the *Hebrew word for ‘weight’, like Malachi 1:1. See Zechariah 9:1 and Zechariah 12:1.

2. Read the story about Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25:19-34.

3. Make a list of the verses in Malachi where people outside Israel give honour to God. Read again Exodus 12:48 and Ruth 1:16.

4. Pray that people all over the world will trust the one real God.

5. Study some verses about *refiners: Isaiah 1:25 and Isaiah 48:10; Jeremiah 6:29-30 and Ezekiel 22:17-22.

6. Make a table of the 7 things in Malachi 3:5. Read these verses: Exodus 20:14 and Exodus 23:6; Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 6:13-15 and 19:16-20 and 24:17-18; Jeremiah 27:9; Zechariah 7:10. Then decide which bad thing each verse is about. Write it in the table below. You can find many more verses in both Old and *New Testaments that say the same.

What the *LORD is against	Bible verse that says so

7. If you can find a map, look for some of the *Levite’s towns. There is a list in Joshua chapter 21.

8. Learn to say some of the verses from Malachi from memory. (‘From memory’ means that you do not look at the words.) Here are some: Malachi 1:11; Malachi 2:7; Malachi 2:15; Malachi 3:10.

9. Study Psalms 73 and make a list of the problems in verses 2-14. Then see how the writer of Psalms 73 found an answer to his problem in verse 17.

10. Read these verses about God’s book: Genesis 15:6 (‘counted’ may mean ‘wrote it down somewhere’); Exodus 32:32; Psalms 69:28 and Psalms 87:6; and Daniel 12:1. Ask God to put your name in his book.

11. What verse in Malachi does 1 Peter 2:7; 1 Peter 2:9 remind you of?

12. ‘Remember the Torah’, (Malachi 4:4). The Torah is the name (in the Hebrew language) of the first 5 books of the Bible. Read through the notes on Malachi. Make a list of the references to these 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

messenger ~ someone who brings a message.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of Israel’s people.
Lord ~ master; also a name for God.
LORD ~ the covenant name of God.
covenant ~ agreement, especially, an agreement between God and the people.
righteousness ~ something that is very, very good; really, only God has righteousness.
Levites ~ the tribe (or large family) that worked in the temple. Some of them were priests. Other Levites helped the priests, or taught people about the Bible.
tribe ~ a large family that started many centuries ago, with just one mother and father.
temple ~ the house of a god; the Temple in Jerusalem was God’s house.
angel ~ a special servant of God.
covenant ~ agreement, especially, an agreement between God and the people.
sin ~ not to obey God’s rules.
hail ~ praise.
righteousness ~ something that is very, very good; really, only God has righteousness.
prophet ~ a person who hears God’s words, and tells them to other people.
curse ~ a wish that bad things and death will happen; in Malachi it does not mean bad language.
Baptist ~ John the Baptist was born just before Jesus was born; John put people into water to show that they wanted to obey God.
refiner ~ someone that makes metals pure by fire.