John Calvin Commentary Malachi 3:1

"Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts." — Malachi 3:1 (ASV)

Here the Prophet does not bring comfort to the wicked slanderers previously mentioned, but asserts the constancy of his faith in opposition to their blasphemous words; as if he had said, “Though they impiously declare that they have been either deceived or forsaken by the God in whom they had hoped, yet His covenant will not be in vain.” The design of what is announced is like that of the declaration made elsewhere,

“Though men are perfidious and false, yet God remains true and cannot depart from His own nature” (Numbers 23:19).

So God here gloriously triumphs over the Jews and alleges His own covenant in opposition to their disgraceful slanders, because their wicked murmurings could not hinder Him from accomplishing His promises and performing in due time what they thought would never be done; and He adopts a demonstrative adverb in order to show the certainty of what is said.

Behold, He says, I send My messenger, who will clear the way before My face. This passage should doubtless be understood of John the Baptist, for Christ Himself so explains it, than whom no better interpreter can be found. Since John the Baptist was the messenger of Christ, the beginning of the verse can be applied to no other person. Afterwards, the Father Himself speaks, as we will see. But as He who appeared in the flesh is the same God with the Father, it is no wonder that He speaks, and then that the words which follow are spoken in the person of the Father.

There is here a striking allusion to Moses, whose office it was to intercede, that God might not in His just wrath destroy the whole people. For as then the majesty of God was more than could be borne without an intercessor, so that the people through fear cried out, “Speak thou to us lest we die” (Exodus 20:19), so also Malachi now teaches us that there is need of an intercessor, by whom God’s wrath might be mitigated, which the Jews had extremely provoked.

This office John the Baptist undertook, who prepared the Jews to hear the voice of Christ.

By saying that He would send a messenger to clear His way, He indirectly reproved the Jews, by whom many hindrances were thrown, as it were, in the way. It was as if He had said, “They prevent, by the obstacles they raise up, the redemption and the promised salvation from being revealed; there will therefore be the need of a messenger to clear the way.” For the Jews had introduced impediments, as though they designedly wished to resist the favor which had been prepared and promised to them.

But how the Baptist performed his work by clearing the way is evident from the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, as well as from the Gospels; and from this may be gathered what I have already said—that God, by His fidelity and mercy, struggled with those obstacles which the Jews had raised up to prevent the coming of Christ.

He afterwards adds, “And presently shall come to His temple the Lord, whom you seek.” After having said that He would open a way for His favor, He now adds, “come shall the Lord.” He introduces here, not Jehovah, but the Lord, אדון, Adun; and hence He speaks distinctly of Christ, who is afterwards called the Angel or Messenger of the covenant.

But the word אדון, Adun, is commonly used for a Mediator, as in Psalm 110, and also in Daniel 9:17; where it is expressly said, “Hear, O Jehovah, for the sake of the Lord,” למען אדוני, lamon Aduni; the word is the same as here, come then shall the Lord. The reason for this mode of speaking was because Christ was shown to them under the type which represented Him.

As then the kingdom of David was a representation of the kingdom of Christ our Lord, it is no wonder that the Prophets designate Him by this title, especially those who were closest to the time of Christ’s manifestation. But He is promised by another title, the angel or messenger of the covenant; but it does not mean the same here as in the first clause.

He called John the Baptist at the beginning of this verse a messenger, the messenger of Jehovah; and now He calls Christ a messenger, but He is the messenger of the covenant, for it was necessary that the covenant should be confirmed by Him.

The title of John the Baptist was then inferior to that of Christ. For though He was God manifested in the flesh, yet this did not prevent Him from being God’s minister and interpreter in order to confirm His covenant. We know that the office of Christ consists in confirming and sealing to us the covenant of God, not only by His doctrine, but also by His blood and the sacrifice of His cross.

Malachi then promises here to the Jews both a king and a reconciler—a king under the title of Lord, and a reconciler under the title of the messenger of the covenant. And we know it was the main thing in the whole doctrine of the law that a Redeemer was to come, to reconcile the Church to God and to rule it.

And He says that the Mediator was sought and expected by the Jews, and that through Him God was to be propitious to them; but this was said ironically.

The faithful indeed today have all their desires fixed on Christ, after He has been revealed in the flesh, until they will partake at His last coming of the fruit of His death and resurrection. Under the law, we know that the groaning and the sighings of the godly were towards Christ.

But Malachi here, by way of contempt, checks these unreasonable charges by which the Jews accused God, as though He had disappointed their hope and their prayers. For we have said, and the fact is evident, that God had been presumptuously and shamefully impeached by them, as though He did not mean to fulfill His promises.

Hence the Prophet says ironically, and sharply too, that Christ was expected by the Jews, for they murmured because God had too long deferred His coming: “Oh! Where is the Redeemer? When will He be revealed to us?” Since they thus pretended that they earnestly expected the coming of Christ, the Prophet upbraids them with this, and justly too, for they had expressly manifested their unbelief.

“Behold, He comes, saith Jehovah of hosts.” Here the Prophet introduces the Father as the speaker, as has already been stated. The particle הנה, ene, behold, is used for the sake of removing every doubt, and then he confirms what he says by the authority of God. He might have asserted this in his own person as a teacher, but in order to produce an effect on the Jews by the majesty of God, he makes God the author of this prophecy.