John Calvin Commentary Malachi 3:6

"For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed." — Malachi 3:6 (ASV)

Here the Prophet more clearly reproves and checks the impious waywardness of the people. For God, after having said that He would come and send a Redeemer—though not one who would satisfy the Jews—now claims for Himself what justly belongs to Him, and says that He does not change, because He is God.

Under the name Jehovah, God reasons from His own nature, for He sets Himself, as we have observed in our last lecture, in opposition to mortals. It is no wonder, then, that God here disclaims all inconsistency, since even the impostor Balaam was compelled to celebrate God’s immutable constancy—

For He is not God, he says, who changes—or varies—like man. (Numbers 23:19).

We now understand, then, the force of the words, I am Jehovah. But He adds as an explanation, I change not, or, I am not changed. For whether we take the verb actively or passively, the meaning is the same: that God continues in His purpose and is not turned this way and that like men, who regret a purpose they have formed because something they had not previously considered comes to mind, or because they wish to undo what they have done and seek new ways to retrace their steps.

God denies that anything of this kind can happen with Him, for He is Jehovah, and changes not, or is not changed.

The latter clause is variously explained. The verb כלה, cale, means, in the first conjugation, to be consumed; but in Piel, to complete, or to make an end. This meaning would be very suitable, but a grammatical reason prevents this, for it is in the first conjugation. If grammar allowed, this meaning would be appropriate: “You children of Israel have not made an end.” Why?

From the days of your fathers, etc. Then the verse that follows would be connected with this.

But we must be content with the current reading, and a twofold view may be taken of it. The copulative 'waw' may be taken as an adversative conjunction: “Though you are not consumed, I still am not changed.”

This is as if it were said, “Do not think that you have escaped, though I have long spared you and your sins. Though you are not yet consumed, since I have borne with you in your great wickedness, I still continue to be Jehovah, nor do I change My nature. You shall at length find that I am a just Judge. Though I shall not soon execute My vengeance—punishment being held suspended, or, as it were, buried—yet the end will show that I am not changed.”

But the Prophet seems rather to accuse the Jews of ingratitude for charging God with cruelty or negligence because He did not immediately assist them. At the same time, they did not consider that they remained alive because God had a reason derived from His own nature for sparing them and for not rendering to them what they had deserved.

The meaning, then, is this: “I am God, and I do not change. Ought you not to have acknowledged that wonderful forbearance through which I have spared you? For how is it that you have not perished, and that innumerable deaths have not swallowed you up? How is it that you are still alive? Is it because you have dealt faithfully with Me, so that it was My duty to exercise care over you? No, it is indeed a wonder that I had not fulminated against you to destroy you long ago.”

Thus, we see that He upbraids them with ingratitude for accusing Him because He did not immediately come forward in their defense. For He answers them and says that if He had been rigid and vehement in His displeasure, they could not have continued, for they had not ceased for many successive ages to seek their own ruin, as we find in what follows, for He says—