John Calvin Commentary Malachi 2:5

"My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name." — Malachi 2:5 (ASV)

The Prophet now proves more clearly how God does not violate His covenant when He freely rebukes the priests and also exposes their false attempts to absurdly apply God's covenant to themselves, like the Papal priests today who say that they are the Church.

How so? Because they claim to have succeeded the apostles in a regular order. But this is a foolish and ridiculous definition, for someone who occupies another's place should not, for that reason alone, be considered a successor.

If a thief were to kill the master of a family, occupy his place, and take possession of all his goods, is he to be considered his legitimate successor?

So these dishonest men, to show that they are to be regarded as apostles, only allege a continuous line of succession. However, the likeness between them is what should rather be examined.

We must first see whether they have been called, and then whether they live up to their calling; they can prove neither of these.

Therefore, their definition is altogether frivolous.

So also our Prophet here shows that the priests made pretenses and deceived the common people, as they sought to prove themselves heirs of the covenant which God had made with Levi their father, that is, with the tribe itself.

God says, “I will be faithful, and My faithfulness will be evident from the compact itself: my compact with your father was that of life and peace. But it was mutual. You do not seem to think that there are two parties in a compact, and that there is, as is commonly said, a reciprocal obligation.

But I on My part promised your father to be his father, and I also stipulated with him that he was to obey Me, to obey My word, and whatever I might afterwards require. Now you want Me to be bound to you, and yourselves to be free from every obligation.

What kind of fairness is this—that I should owe everything to you and you nothing to Me? My compact then with him was that of life and peace. But what is your compact? What is it that you owe to Me?

It is what the mutual compact I made with your father Levi and his tribe requires. Perform this, and you will find that I am faithful and constant in all My promises.” I cannot go further now.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have been pleased to choose us today Your priests, and have consecrated us to Yourself by the blood of Your only-begotten Son and through the grace of Your Spirit, O grant, that we may rightly and sincerely perform our duties to You, and be so devoted to You that Your name may be really glorified in us. May we thus be more and more confirmed in the hope of those promises by which You not only guide us through the course of this earthly life, but also invite us to Your celestial inheritance. And may Christ Your Son so rule in us, that we may ever cling to our Head, and be gathered as His members into a participation of that eternal glory into which He has gone before us. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We began in the last lecture to explain what the Prophet says here about the priesthood. We have said that the sum of the whole is that wicked priests vainly lay claim to the title of honor if they do not faithfully perform their office.

For the compact between God and them is mutual, since God did not institute priests under the law to allow them unbridled liberty or to deprive Himself of all power. On the contrary, He set them over the Church to retain the people in true religion.

Since, then, the obligation is, as they say, reciprocal, there is no reason for the priests to arrogate supreme power and deprive God of it.

The Prophet then had said that God’s compact with Levi was that of life and peace, because God, who is faithful in His promises, had promised to be propitious to the Levites. Our Prophet therefore calls it the compact of life and peace because the Levites had found that God was in every respect kind and bountiful whenever they performed their parts.

He now adds, I gave to him fear, and he feared me. The interpreters who consider the preposition for, or on account of (propter), to be understood here pervert the whole sense.

For “fear” here is to be taken as the rule of worshipping God, as if He had said, “I have prescribed how he is to perform his office rightly.”

He means then that God gave the Levites knowledge of the way in which He was to be served, because He would not have them wander according to their own notions, but He prescribed to them the duties of their office.

It is as if He had said, “You are indeed endowed with no common honor, for you are the teachers of the Church. Yet I have laid a restraint upon you; just as I have commanded the people to obey you, so I have commanded you what to do.

Since then I have given My fear to Levi, since I have prescribed how he is to worship Me, is it not now most shameless and most impious to boast of the honorable name of priesthood and at the same time to be no priests?

For what is it to be God’s priest, except to govern the Church as God has commanded? I have then given him my fear.”

And he feared me; that is, he observed the law laid down for him.

And he was contrite before my name; that is, “he conducted himself in a humble manner. He did not exalt himself out of vain pride, so that he might oppress My Church, rule tyrannically, and subvert all due order.

Instead, he was an example of humility, for he acknowledged himself all the more bound to Me, because I honored him with such dignity as to make him the ruler of My Church.”