The Pulpit Commentary — Malachi — Section 17

Vers. 1-5.-The sovereignty of God in relation to man's secular conditi= of life. "Tho burden of the word of the Lord," etc. Malachi-which means "Messenger"- the last of the Hebrew prophets, is a man whose personal history is wrapped in utter obscurity. He is supposed to have lived after Haggai and Zechariah, and to be contemporary with Nehemiah. It is likely that he occupied a relationship to Nehemiah somewhat analogous to that which Haggai and Zechariah sustained to Zerubbabel. The general' opinion is that he prophesied about the year B.C. 430. This was that brilliant period in Greece in which flourished some of its greatest men-Cimon, son of Miltiades, distinguished as a commander; Pericles, the greatest of Athenian states- men, under whom, Athens attained a splendour that made her the wonder and admira- tion of all Greece; Phidia.s, the celebrated sculptor, and a host of distinguished artists ; Simonides and Pindar, eminent lyric poets; lEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, dis- tinguished dramatists; and Herodotus, who has received a title really due to Moses, "the Father of History." From this passage the following truths may be legitimately deduced. • I. THAT SOME MEN ON THIS EARTH REEM TO BE MORE FAVOURED BY PROVIDE~CE THAN OTiIERS, AND YET THEY ARE OFTEN UNCONSCIOUS OF IT. This is the communica- tion or "burden" of the Divine message which Malachi had to deliver to Israel: "I have loved 'you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?" Israel here stands for all the tribes, all the descendants of Jacob. The Israelitish nation was more favoured than any nation 011 the face of the earth. In relation to their privileges Paul says of the Israelites, "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises : whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came" (Rom. ix. 4, 5).' 'As individiial6, some men are more favoured than others. A.~ Jacob was more favoured than Esau, eii'some men in all generations are more blessed than others-blessed with' more· vigorous frames,· more intellectual resources, more emotional wealth, etc. There is amongst men nnmense variety in the degree of natural endowments. Read the parable of the talents. But it is man nationally that is here referred to. "I have loved you;'' that is, "I have 'regarded you more than other nations." Is not our England i:nore favoured than most if not all of the other nations of the earth? She is, in some respects, as far exalted above all existing states, as Israel of old was above all the heathen nations that surrounded it. But individually, as was said above, all men are not treated alike. Some are born of healthier parents than others, live in more saln- bri01is climes than· others, are endowed with higher faculties than others, brought np under more wholesome laws and higher educa.tional influences than others. The existence of these di~tinctions is too obvious to require either argument or illustration. But whilst this is such a patent fact, the favoured ones are too often unconscious of the distinction. "Wherein hast thou loved us?" Israel did not realize its exalted privileges. How often is this the case ! The men most favoured of Providence are often most unconscious of the favours, and they say, "Wherein hast thou loved us?" As a rule, perhaps the most favoured of Providence are the greatest complainers. What ingratitude is here I II. THAT TIDS DIFFERENOE IN THE PRIVILEGES OF MEN IS TO BE ASCRIBED TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF Goo. "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau." Some read it," I favoured Jacob, but rejected Esau." Why was Jacob more favoured than Esau? Not because he had a nobler moral character. In some respects he appears more despicable than Esau. It was simply because God chose to distinguish him. The reasou of distinction was in the mind of God, and nowhere else. "He worketh all things according to the .counsel of his will." His sovereignty does not imply either of two things. 1. Par- diality on his part. The fact that the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob, in their history endured, perhaps, calamities as great as those that befell the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, proved that it was no partiality on God's part. He is no Respecter of person~. Nor does it imply: 2. Irresponsibility on man's part. "They who have laast," says Godwin, "and bear most, may become better and happier than JC, THE BOOK OF MALACHI, [OH, I, 1-14-,