The Pulpit Commentary — Malachi — Section 12

is the IMt prophet-voice of the Old Testament times. After him II great prophrtic silence fell on the land. No direct utterance came from God for some three hundred years, until John the Baptist appeared. Nothing is certainly known concerning this Prophet Malachi. He is, indeed, only II name, and our interest lies entirely in hi< message. His name means, "The Messenger of Jehovah," and it calls us to atten<l to the message rather than to the apeaker. We do know something of the times in which he lived, and we cau understand what would be the burden of a Jehovah-prophet at such a time. After Nehemiah had been working for some twelve years at the moral reformation of the people of Jerusalem and Judaia, he was recalled to Persia; an,\ immediately on his departure the old evils which he had stoutly resisted came back like e. flood, In spite of the presence of Ezra in Jerusalem, it was seen that a reforma- tion enforced by the civil power, rather than as the fruit of individual conviction, ha,l no permanent vitality. When Nehemiah's back was turned," the tithes due to the temple, the Levites, and the priests were not delivered, and the greatest distress wa~ thus ea.used to all those who depended on them for maintenance. The choristers, the guards of the gates, and the ordinary Levites alike, were compelled to go back to their homes, and cultivate their fields for a living. Public worship was thus interrupted, and the temple, forsaken by its ministers, was neglected by the people. Nor was the refusal to pay tithes the only sign of an altered spirit. The sabbath was profaned, both in town and country, wine-presses were busy in its sacred hours, and the roads and fields were dotted with the workers taking sheaves to the barn on their heavily laden asses. Jerusalem itself was disturbed by a sabbath fair, to which loads of wine, grapes, figs, and much else were carried in during sacred hours. After all the professed zeal to put an end to mixed marriages, things were rapidly drifting to almost a worse condition than of old. The very priests had rapidly lost their high tone. Their irreverence, indifference, and worldliness shocked the thoughtful. Everything that Ezra and Nehemiah had effected was well-nigh undone." The Prophet Malachi had the "burden" laid upon him of recalling both priests and people to their duties. And this he did partly by vigorous denunciations of surrounding evils, and partly by anticipa- tions of the times of Messiah. The " Coming One " would surely prove to be e. stern Rebuker of national sin. L THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE WAS A BtJBDEN TO IIUIBELF. Denunciations of wrong- doing and wrong-doers lose their true force when those who utter them en.ioy their work. Then they put into them a bitter tone, which makes them ungod-like messages. Stem things have still to be spoken for God, but they must be spoken with pathos in the tone, and tears ready to start, No man can deliver a message of jud,,,17lllent aright, unless he feels it to be e. burden. II. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE SHOULD BE A BURDEN TO THOSE ADDRESSED. A burden of holy concern. It should set them upon grave self-searching. It should burden them with anxiety a.bout their sins, and with earnest efforts to put sin away. If it was not taken as a burden in that sense, it would become a burden as bringing upon them full, unrelieved, Divine judgments. III. 'l'HE PROPHET'S MESSAGE MAY BE THOUGHT OF AS A BUIIDEN TO Goo. "Judg- ment is his strange work;" "In all their affliction he was afflicted;" " Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" We a.re permitted to think that it troubles God to punish hie people. He is burdened by the messages which our sin compels him to send.-R. T. Vers. 2, 3.-The Lord's love for his people. The Lord had chosen Israel aa hie peculiar people, out of pure love and kindness, without any antecedent merit on their side. This love is strikingly exhibited by contrasting the Divine dealings with the two nations, Edom and Israel. Both came into Divine judgment for sin, and love triumphed in the restoration of Israel; but because of Edom's treatment of Israel, iL was left to its desolations. The word "hate" is employed, but South properly explains that "hating" is sometimes used comparatively for a Jes, degree of love (Geu. xxix. 31 ; Luke xiv. 26). '!'he English word "hate" has somewhat changed its meaning. Now it mean~, "have a personal aversion to," "regard with ill will." But when our Bible was translated, it had a simpler and kinder meaning, "love less," "show less favour to." It is Important to note that the reference is not to God's personal feelings  THE BOOK.,OF MALACHI. [OR. I, 1-14.