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Malachi

Malachichapter 4

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Speaks with:Luke 1×22 Thessalonians 1×12 Peter 3×1Malachi 3×1Jeremiah 33×1Psalms 84×1

Summary

Chapter summary

The Old Testament ends looking straight at the day of Jehovah: 'behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace,' leaving the proud and the wicked neither root nor branch. And in the same breath, for those on the other side: 'unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall' (4:2). Two last commands close the canon, remember the law of Moses given at Horeb, and watch for the forerunner: 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come.' Jesus points to John in that role (Matthew 11). Then four hundred silent years.

Context

Prophecy · Malachi — Malachi overview

  • A. 1–3 The day burning like an oven, and the Sun of Righteousness
  • B. 4–6 Remember the law; Elijah before the great and terrible day

The outline

  1. A.The day burning like an oven, and the Sun of Righteousnessvv. 1 to 3

    Read vv. 1 to 3 →

  2. B.Remember the law; Elijah before the great and terrible dayvv. 4 to 6

    Read vv. 4 to 6 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The messenger before his face

Pattern

Malachi closes the Old Testament with a messenger sent to prepare the way and Elijah promised before the great day. The Gospels open exactly there: Gabriel says John will go in the spirit and power of Elias, Mark begins his book with Malachi's verse, and Jesus says of John, this is he of whom it is written.

The seam between the Testaments is a single promise kept. Four centuries of silence end with the very figure the last prophet named, and Jesus himself supplies the identification.

  1. Malachi 3:1

    Behold, I will send my messenger

  2. Malachi 4:5-6 you are here

    Elijah before the great and dreadful day

    The Old Testament's last promise: Elijah sent to turn the heart of the fathers to the children.

  3. Matthew 11:10

    Jesus names John as the messenger

    For this is he, of whom it is written.

  4. Mark 1:2

    Mark opens his Gospel with the verse

  5. Luke 1:17

    In the spirit and power of Elias

    Before John's birth the angel binds Malachi's two promises to him.

The world behind this chapter

Malachi 4
When
The last chapter of the Old Testament · c. 460–430 BC
Where
A coming day, described as an oven and as a sunrise
Who first heard it
The last generation to hear a canonical prophet for roughly four hundred years

The history

The chapter is built on one contrast. The same day burns like an oven for the proud and rises like the sun with healing in its wings for those who fear God's name. Bread ovens in that world were clay domes heated until the walls glowed; stubble thrown in was gone in seconds.

"The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings" uses a winged sun image that was widespread across the ancient Near East as a symbol of a god or a king's protective power — carved on Persian, Egyptian, and Assyrian monuments alike. The picture would have been instantly legible.

Then two names close the Old Testament. Remember the law of Moses, the servant of God, given at Horeb — that is, hold to what you already have. And: behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Elijah had not died but was taken up, which is part of why his return was expected. Jewish tradition kept that expectation alive; a place is still set for Elijah at Passover. The Gospels report that people asked John the Baptist whether he was Elijah, and Jesus said John came in the spirit and power of Elijah.

The very last sentence of the Old Testament is about families: 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. After all the oracles about nations and temples, it ends at the kitchen table.

Then silence. No canonical prophet speaks again until a priest named Zacharias is struck dumb in the temple, and the angel who does it quotes this chapter.

What it meant to them

To that generation this was both an ending and a holding instruction. The prophets were finishing; the Law and the memory of Elijah were what they had to live on.

The promise that carried them was that the silence was not abandonment. Someone was coming ahead of the day, and the sunrise was for people who feared God's name — who would go out and grow up like calves let out of the stall, which is exactly what a calf does on the first day of spring.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Malachi 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 5 · A picture of Christ

Elijah will come before the great day

Matthew 11:14→

And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.

MannaFest topical index

This page draws on E. B. Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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