John Calvin Commentary Malachi 2:10

"Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" — Malachi 2:10 (ASV)

The Prophet accuses the Jews here of another crime: that they were treacherous towards God and their own brothers, and departed from that preeminence into which God had raised them, when they were chosen in preference to other nations to be a holy and peculiar people. This ingratitude the Prophet now condemns by saying that they all had one father, and that they had been all created by one God.

The word Father may be applied to God as well as to Abraham, and some interpreters consider it repeated, which is not uncommon in Hebrew. They say then that all had God as their Father, because he created them all, so that the latter clause is taken as an explanation.

But it is better, as I think, to apply the word to Abraham, and the passage requires this, for it follows at the end of the verse that the covenant which the Lord had made with their fathers had been violated. This will appear still more certain when we bear in mind the Prophet's design.

Subsequently, a reproof follows because they had taken many wives. However, the Prophet seems not yet to mention this vice, but speaks generally: that they did not preserve that purity to which they had been called, for they indiscriminately married heathen wives. Since they mingled without distinction with unbelievers and the despisers of God, the Prophet complains that they were unmindful of that dignity to which they had been elevated when God deigned to adopt them as his holy people.

Thus it happened that the preeminence which Moses celebrates in Deuteronomy 4:8 disappeared: “What nation is so renowned, to whom God draws near, as you see that he is near to you?” When, therefore, the Jews rendered themselves vile, the Prophet condemns them for ingratitude.

He, at the same time, shows that they had become inhuman towards their brothers, with whom they had been united by a most sacred bond. It then seems probable to me that God and Abraham are mentioned here because God had chosen the race of Abraham and adopted them as his people, and also because he had deposited his covenant with Abraham and the fathers. Thus, Abraham became, so to speak, the mediator of the covenant which God made with his whole race. By understanding the Prophet's subject in this way, it is easier for us to see why he mentions Abraham as well as God.

Is there not one father, he says, to us all? That is, “Did not God select us from the rest of the world when he promised to our father Abraham to be a God to him and to his seed? Since God’s favor has flowed to us from that fountain, what foolishness it is to break that sacred bond by which God has joined us to himself in the person of Abraham!” For when the Jews did not consider that they derived their origin from the holy patriarch, the covenant of God with them consequently became void and of no effect.

This then is the reason why he says that one God was to them all a Father. And as other nations might have claimed the same privilege, he adds, “Has not one God created us?” He shows that the Jews had descended in no common or ordinary way from their holy father Abraham, but that God was the maker of his race, that he created them. Did not he also create the rest of the world? Not in the same manner, for this creation ought to be confined especially to the Church. God has created the whole human race, but he also created the race of Abraham; and hence the Church is often called in Isaiah the work and the formation of God (Isaiah 66:21), and Paul also adopts the same mode of speaking (Ephesians 2:10).

Our Prophet then does not mean that the Jews had been created by God merely when born into this world, but that they had become his holy and peculiar people. Since God had thus created the Jews and had given them one father, so that being mindful of their origin they might remain united in true religion, the Prophet here condemns their foolishness in casting away this invaluable favor of God.

Every one dealt falsely with his brother; and thus they violated the covenant of the fathers. Regarding the verb, נכגד, nubegad, grammarians have explained it in various ways. However, it is agreed what is meant: the Jews are condemned here because they were not only treacherous to God but also fraudulent towards their neighbors. Thus, they doubled their treachery, which was clearly proven by their lack of sincerity towards their brothers.

Why then, he says, do we deal falsely with man, that is, every one with his own brother, so that we pollute the covenant of our fathers? Here the covenant of the fathers is to be taken for that separation or setting apart which we have mentioned, by which God had adopted Abraham and his posterity, that they might be separated from all the nations of the world.

Therefore, God Himself is included under this covenant of the fathers. Since this has not been perceived, it is no wonder that this passage has been so inadequately explained, and that Malachi has been, so to speak, wholly buried in darkness. Although interpreters have tried to bring light, the effect has often been to pervert the Prophet's real meaning.

But it appears now clear, I think, that the Jews are here said to be guilty of a twofold treachery: because they rejected the honor offered to them by God’s gratuitous election, and also because they acted fraudulently towards their own brothers. Consequently, the covenant of the fathers—that is, what God had deposited with the patriarchs, that it might come from hand to hand to their posterity—had been violated and made void by their wickedness.

We must also note what I have already referred to: that the priests are so reproved that the whole people are also included. This we shall see again shortly. I add also that the Prophet connects God with Abraham to show that we will fail to seek God effectively if we seek him apart from his covenant, and also that our minds should not be fixed on men.

There are indeed two vices against which we should carefully guard. Some, ignoring all appointed means, seek to fly upward to God; and so they entertain many vain thoughts and devise for themselves many labyrinths from which they never emerge. We see how many fanatics there are today who proudly speak against God’s word, and yet touch neither heaven nor earth. And why? Because they would be superior to angels and do not acknowledge that they need any helps by which they might gradually, according to their weakness, ascend to God Himself.

Now, this is to seek God without the covenant or without the word. This is the reason why the Prophet here unites father Abraham to God Himself; this was done so that the Jews might know that they were confined by certain limits, in order that they might in humility make progress in God’s school and be gradually carried into heaven. For God, as has been said, had deposited his covenant with Abraham.

Yet, because they might have depended on a mortal man, the Prophet adds a corrective: that they had been created by God. For they were not to separate their father Abraham from the very author of the covenant.

This passage then deserves special attention, for men from the beginning and in all ages have been inclined to the two vices which I have mentioned. And today we see that some indulge their dreams and despise the outward preaching of the word, for many fanatics say that there is no need of rudiments or foundational elements, since God has promised that the sons of the Church would be spiritual.

Therefore, Satan by such delusions strives to draw us away from pure simplicity of doctrine. It is therefore necessary to set up this shield: that God is not exhibited to us without Abraham, that is, without a Prophet and an interpreter. The Papists are also sunk in the same mud, for they always have the fathers in their mouths but take no account of God. This is also very preposterous. Let us then remember that God is not to be separated from his word, and that the authority of men is of no account when they depart from it. And the Prophet confirms the same thing at the end of the verse when he speaks of the covenant of the fathers; for he does not here simply commend the covenant of the fathers, as the Turks might do, or as it is done by Papists and Jews. Instead, he means the covenant which God had given, and which the holy patriarchs faithfully handed down to their posterity, according to what Paul says in Acts 22, when speaking of his father’s religion. He did not speak of it as heathens might do of their religion, but he took it for granted that the law promulgated by Moses was not his invention, but had God as its author. It now follows-