Sunday 33Ca, Proper 28Ca. Old Testament

The sun of righteousness. 3:13-4:3

Introduction
Malachi's prophecy initially deals with the superficial worship of the religious elite, along with the general disobedience of the people. He then focuses on the people's self-deceit, 2:17-3:5, their selfishness, 3:6-12, and their self-sufficiency, 3:13-4:3. In each of these units, Malachi defines the problem and then presents a promise. In our passage for study, 3:13-4:3, the problem is defined in terms of the people's claim that their independence, their self-sufficiency, is the way to success, 3:13-15. The promise is defined in terms of future blessing, of the dawning of a new age when the "sun of righteousness" comes. The promise of divine blessing is for those who repent, 3:16, as for those who do not repent, only judgement is promised, 4:1.

The passage
v13. The Lord brings a charge against his people, a charge that they speak perversely against him, they are repeating malicious gossip. The people's response is "what are the words?"
v14. The words are the whispered thoughts of a people faced with a harsh environment and a corrupted humanity. They have seen no gain in obeying the Law or fulfilling their religious duty, ie. they have concluded that the righteous are not rewarded.
v15. In fact, it seems that those who live an evil life are the ones who succeed; they are the "blessed" ones - happy, prosperous and satisfied, ie. the wicked are not punished. The selfishness of the wicked is vindicated in their successful life.
v16. Some of the people recognize that these "harsh" words are evil, and so they repent; they hear the prophets words, respond in mutual confession and are, in turn, heard by the Lord. The Lord then acts to record their names in the "scroll of remembrance", the "book of life" that has always existed to record the names of those who revere and esteem the Lord, cf. Ex.32:32.
v17. In response, the Lord makes a binding promise to the remnant of the people. Because they are his special people, his own possession, he will gather them to himself and protect them as he did Israel at the time of the Exodus.
v18. It may be difficult to distinguish between the remnant and those Israelites who now consider that the selfish self-sufficient-ones are the blessed-ones, but the day is coming when the distinction will be patently clear.
4:1. The coming day of judgment will clarify the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, for the wicked will be consumed by fire, they will be annihilated.
v2. In that day, those under God's grace will be bathed with a gift of right-standing in the sight of God. This righteousness, like warm rays of the sun, enables them to stand forgiven and eternally accepted in the sight of God. Like calves released from a stall, they will leap free, eternally free from guilt, self and fear.
v3. The remnant will then take up their task of ruling with the messiah, executing judgment on his behalf.

Self-sufficiency
A Rabbi, in a Nazi concentration camp, was faced with the horror of watching his brothers and sisters being gassed. He was heard to pray, "Lord, act to vindicate your people", yet there was no vindication, just slaughter. In the midst of the horror he finally exclaimed, "there is no God."
For Israel in Malachi's day, there was a pervading sense that either piety or pragmatics mattered little to God. In fact, it was felt that self-sufficiency was more likely to promote success than a piety that attempted to apply Biblical principles. Yet, there was a remnant of the people who did not hold with this type of thinking. For this remnant, there is a coming day when the difference between right and wrong will become manifest. In that day, the self-sufficient will be totally consumed, annihilated, while the children of grace will receive the crown of salvation; they will be redeemed as if bathed in the healing rays of the sun. When this day dawns, it will be those counted righteous before God who will reign, while the self-sufficient will stand condemned. It is then the difference will become manifest.
The Rabbi had to deal with the stark observation that it seemed to matter little to God whether the holocaust continued, or not. He chose to rest on his observation of the present, rather than his faith in a God who promises to put things right.
God's people today have to wrestled with a similar observation, although not nearly as horrific. Our eyes seem to declare that God has little concern over how we conduct our life. In fact, it would seem that the more self-sufficient we are, the more we detach ourselves from Biblical principles, or at least, the more we reinterpret those principles in line with good secular pragmatics, the more we succeed.
The prophet encourages us to give greater weight to a divine Word than a secular pragmatic, even though the distinction between the two must await "the last day", the day when our right-standing before God, through Christ, will cover us like the warming rays of the sun. Meanwhile, we can only but rest on the Lord and his Word.

Discussion
1. Is a pragmatic solution to a problem evil in itself? Explain.
2. When does a good pragmatic solution become a spiritual problem?
3. Test your church program to see whether any successful pragmatics have overridden Biblical principles.

Textual notes Abbreviations, Bibliography

It is important for the preacher to note that Malachi, as with most of the Old Testament prophets, directs his words to Israel. The problem of self-sufficiency is a faith problem, not a secular problem. It is very easy to move our perspective from the church to our secular society and expose sin there, whereas the prophet's perspective is fixed squarely on the community of faith.
The issue of self-sufficiency, or in more practical terms, the application of good pragmatics for successful living in our personal lives and in our administration of the church, is one of those subtle temptations that so easily trips us up. Most believers do understand that a good pragmatic is not an evil in itself. In fact, a person who ignores pragmatic solutions to life's problems is rightly defined as someone who is so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly use. It is when the pragmatic contradicts the Word that we move into the danger area, for too often success seems to lie with the pragmatic rather than the Word.
Examples of this problem are not far from any of us, but I give the following example to illustrate the issue. The Anglican church in the diocese of Sydney, Australia, has had to face the problem of declining numbers. This is a problem facing most of the mainline denominations throughout the Western world. The new archbishop and his administration has sought to implement a mission strategy to reverse this decline with a growth target of 10% over ten years by means of the multiplication of socially targeted congregations able to bridge the gap between the churched and the unchurched. It will be interesting to see whether this strategy is successful in terms of "bums on seats", but what is more important is whether it is neutral, or as some suspect, opposed to God's Word. If God's Word reveals that the business of building the kingdom of God is by means of the proclamation (communication) of the gospel (based on the assumption that "the gospel is the power of God unto salvation"), rather than by managed and marketed group dynamics (based on the assumption that the kingdom is built "'not by power, not by might, but by my Spirit' says the Lord God Almighty"), then the adoption of a "secular" growth-pragmatic may well grow weeds instead of wheat.

v13
"have said" pres. perf. - said some time ago, but effective in the present.
"harsh" - perverse, cynical, arrogant

v14
"futile" - useless, vanity, emptiness.
"gain" - What benefit do we derive from serving the Lord? Grammatically implying a negative answer.
"carrying out his requirements" - keeping the covenant. The specific sense is cultic, but a general observance of the Law is intended.
"going about like mourners" - in the dark, darkened. Applying the piety expected of a religious Jew.

v15
"we" - "We ourselves" NEB. We, all of the people.
"call" - deem. Regard so from now on.
"arrogant" - Those who are insolent toward God, the wicked. The people of Israel now regard them as the blessed ones.
"evildoers" part. - those who do evil
"prosper" - will be built.
"challenge" - test. cf. v10 where the people are encouraged to "test" the Lord, but there it is to test his promise rather than test his patience, as here.

v16
"feared" - Here of a response of reverence toward the Lord, best understood in the terms of an act of repentance by a remnant of the people.
"scroll of remembrance" - The sense is of this book already existing and the names of the remnant being added (metaphorically, of course), cf. Rev.20:12-15. On the other hand, the book may serve to illustrate the fact that God does take note of what goes on in his world and that he records it, as it were, for future action.

v17
"treasured possession" - property. A technical term referring to the Lord's redeemed elect, his own special property, his peculiar people.
"in the day when I make" - NIV, an accusative of time, although better, an accusative of the object, "the day that I will create." As in the "day of the Lord", the day of God's acting.
"I will spare them" - have compassion on. Probably an allusion to the Exodus and the delivering of Israel at the passing-over of the angel of death.

v18
"will see" - become apparent. Some commentators suggest "turn about" or "change ones opinion", following the LXX.
"again" adv. - In the sense that the Lord has constantly made a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who rely on his covenantal grace and those who reject it.

4:1
"the day" - The day of the Lord. Commentators argue over what "day" is intended, ether Jesus' first coming or his second coming. Yet, the day refers to any day, any coming of the Lord in judgment, and there have been, and will be, many such days, eg. the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and later the Romans in 70AD., Armageddon at the end of time. The prophetic perspective provides levels of fulfilment - a word to the present that reflects the past and images the future.
"stubble" - stubble, straw, chaff.
"set them on fire" - devour, scorch. Consume them
"not a root or a branch will be left" - annihilated.

v2
"but" - then, but. Adversative is best.
"sun of righteousness" - NIV opts for a genitive relationship, following the LXX. Different genitive interpretations are possible, eg. a genitive of working, the sun that produces righteousness. Verhoff suggests that "sun" is an accusative of condition explaining the "righteousness". In the day of the Lord, righteousness will shine out like the sun, a blessing of warming brilliance. The "righteousness" is either "the righteous one", ie. the messiah, or "the gift of righteousness", ie. the gift of the essential quality (covenantal relationship [right status before God], rather than ethical probity) necessary for the remnant to stand in the last day. So, in the last day, righteousness will shine on the remnant, radiating them, and as a consequence, saving them.
"healing" - peace, healing. Describing rejuvenation, recovery, renewal. The consequence of righteousness radiating the remnant is "healing". Physical healing is obviously part of the image, but the redemption/salvation of the people through the removal of their sin and the imputation of a status of righteousness, is at the heart of the image. The task of the messiah to heal and the suffering servant saves/heals his people through his vicarious suffering, Isa.53:5.
"wings" - This metaphor probably aligns with the rays of the sun and may image protection, as with the wings of a bird, or more probably, it images blessing, as with the wings/folds of a cloak where money is carried.
"leap like calves" - An image of freedom

v3
"trample down" - tread down as in a wine press. Exercise dominion over the nations and judge them. In the day of the Lord there will be a great reversal of things, the oppressed will reign.
"ashes" - dust. Again indicating the annihilation of the wicked

Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons

Malachi

Notes