Malachi 3:1

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. BEHOLD. Calling especial attention to the momentous truths which follow. Ye unbelievingly ask, "Where is the God of judgment?" (Malachi 2:17.) "Behold," therefore, "I send," etc. I WILL SEND MY MESSENGER, AND HE SHALL PREPARE THE WAY BEFORE ME. Your unbelief will not prevent MY keeping my covenant, and bringing to pass in due time that which ye say will never be fulfilled. I WILL SEND MY MESSENGER, AND ... HE SHALL COME. The Father sends the Son as "Messenger of the covenant:" the Son comes. Proving the distinctness of personality between the Father an...

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 though 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 shall 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.) God then does here gloriously triumph over the Jews, and alleges his own covenant in opposition to their disgraceful slanders, because their wicked murmurings could not hinder him to accomplish his promises and to perform 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...

1-6 The first words of this chapter seem an answer to the scoffers of those days. Here is a prophecy of the appearing of John the Baptist. He is Christ's harbinger. He shall prepare the way before him, by calling men to repentance. The Messiah had been long called, "He that should come," and now shortly he will come. He is the Messenger of the covenant. Those who seek Jesus, shall find pleasure in him, often when not looked for. The Lord Jesus, prepares the sinner's heart to be his temple, by the ministry of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, and he enters it as the Messenger of peace and consolation. No hypocrite or formalist can endure his doctrine, or stand before his tribunal. Christ came to distinguish men, to separate between the precious and the vile. He shall sit as a Refiner. Christ, by his gospel, shall purify and reform his church, and by his Spirit working with it,...

CHAPTER III _In allusion to the custom of sending pioneers to prepare the_ _way for the march of an eastern monarch, the coming of_ _Christ's forerunner is described, and then the coming of_ _Christ himself_, 1; _with the terrible judgments which were to accompany that event,_ _in order to refine and purify his people and his priests_, 2-6. _The following verses reprehend them for withholding the legal_ _tithes and offerings, with large promises in case of their_ _repentance and amendments_, 7-12. The prophet expostulates with

God answers their complaints of the absence of His judgments, that they would come, but would include those also who clamored for them. For no one who knew his own sinfulness would call for the judgment of God, as being himself, chief of sinners. Augustine pictures one saying to God, “Take away the ungodly man,” and that God answers, “Which?” BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER BEFORE MY FACE, AND HE SHALL PREPARE MY WAY BEFORE ME - they, then, were not prepared for His Coming, for whom they clamored. The messenger is the same whom Isaiah had foretold, whose words Malachi uses Isaiah 40:3 : “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straiqht in the desert a highway for our God. Luke 1:76. Thou, child,” was the prophecy o

EXPOSITION MALACHI 3:1 BEHOLD, I WILL SEND (_I send_) MY MESSENGER. God answers that he is coming to show himself the God of judgment and justice. Are they ready to meet him and to bear his sentence? Who this "messenger" is is disputed. That no angel or heavenly visitant is meant is clear from historical considerations, as no such event took place immediately before the Lord came to his temple. Nor can Malachi himself be intended, as his message was delivered nearly four, hundred years before Messiah came. The announcement is doubtless founded upon Isaiah 40:3, and refers to the same person as the older prophet mentions, who is generally allowed to be John the Baptist, the herald of Christ's advent ...

BEHOLD, I WILL SEND MY MESSENGER,.... These are the words of Christ, in answer to the question put in the last verse of the preceding chapter Malachi 2:17, "Where [is] the God of judgment?" intimating that he would quickly appear, and previous to his coming send his messenger or angel; not the angel of death to destroy the wicked, as Jarchi thinks; nor an angel from heaven, as Kimchi; nor Messiah the son of Joseph; as Aben Ezra; nor the Prophet Malachi himself, as Abarbinel; but the same that is called Elijah the prophet, Malachi 4:5 and is no other than John the Baptist, as is clear from Matthew 11:10 called a "messenger" or "angel", not by nature, but by office; and Christ's messenger, because sent by him and on his errand;

Malachi 3:1. _Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me:_ The name Malachi means «my messenger.» The reference here is, of course, to John the Baptist, who was to prepare the way of the Lord. Malachi 3:1. _And the lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,_ Now, the temple at Jerusalem is utterly destroyed, so how can the Jews still think the Lord, whom they profess to seek, will suddenly come to his temple? He must have come there already, so we know he did, for there is not one stone of the temple left standing upon another: «The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,» Malachi 3:1. Even the messenger of the covenant,

LORD The first verse of Malachi 3 (Malachi 3:1) is quoted of John the Baptist; (Matthew 11:10); (Mark 1:2); (Luke 7:27), but the second clause, "the Lord whom ye see," etc, is nowhere quoted in the New Testament The reason is obvious: in everything save the fact of Christ's first advent, the latter clause awaits fulfilment (Habakkuk 2:20). (Malachi 3:2) speak of judgment, not of grace. Malachi, in common with other Old Testament prophets, saw both advents of Messiah blend

4. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE MESSENGER AND THE DAY OF THE LORD CHAPTER 3:1-6 In this chapter and in the next we have the prophecies of Malachi as to the Messiah and His forerunner. The last verse of the preceding chapter belongs rightly to this chapter. “Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?” It is this last bold question, produced by their arrogant pride and self security which opens the way for the prophetic message in this chapter. “Where is the God of judgment?” The answer is, “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of h...