_For behold the day cometh_ Though it may appear to be at a distance from you, yet it is coming, and will soon overtake and overwhelm you: even that great and terrible day of the Lord, as it is called Joel 2:31. _That shall burn as an oven_ God is described as _a consuming fire_, when he comes to ex... [ Continue Reading ]
_But unto you that fear my name_ So they are described, chap. Malachi 3:16, whose names were written in the book of remembrance; who loved the law of their God, and kept it; who believed its promises, and rejoiced in expectation of the blessings promised; who believed his threatenings and trembled a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye shall tread down the wicked_ “Ye shall know that they are wholly subdued.” Newcome. Houbigant thinks this “refers to the miracles of the rising church, by which the wicked were compelled to yield, and submit themselves; for there is no other dominion under which they could be held by Christi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember ye the law of Moses_ Ye are not now to expect any succession of prophets for the time to come, nor any prophet whatever, till the forerunner of the Messiah appears: your chief care, therefore, till that time, must be to attend upon the institutions, and to obey the precepts, which Moses ha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet_ The first prophet that I shall send to you, after him who now speaks to you, will be Elijah the messenger, that shall go before the Messiah to prepare his way. In him the spirit of prophecy shall be revived; and he shall be another Elijah for zeal, for co... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children_, &c. After the times of the Maccabees, to the times of Christ, the Jewish people were miserably divided among themselves, by discords, which broke out into civil wars, of which Josephus gives an account. And moreover, the different religio... [ Continue Reading ]