A Light in the DarknessMalachi 4:1-6

Main Idea: The Day of the Lord will bring both judgment and vindication for God’s people, whose present obedience is sustained by remembering the law and anticipating future restoration.

1. Introduction: The Day of the Lord
2. The Day of the Lord as a Day of Judgment upon the Arrogant (4:1, 3)
3. The Rising of the Sun and the Vindication for God’s People (4:2)
4. Remembering the Law as a Means of Sustaining Present Obedience (4:4)
5. Looking Forward in Hope, Anticipating Restoration (4:5-6)
6. Conclusion: The Sun of Righteousness with Healing in His Wings

Introduction: The Day of the Lord

With the light from the sun comes life. Yet, the sun has become something to fear over the past few years. Now we know that the sun’s ultraviolet rays can cause wrinkles and skin cancer. The sun can be both a blessing and a curse—it all depends on the context. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the same way. For believers, Jesus is a source of comfort and assurance of one’s salvation. For those who are far from God, Jesus is the basis for judgment and condemnation. The book of Malachi concludes with God the Judge rewarding the righteous and punishing the unrighteous to substantiate that He always fulfills His promises.

The Day of the Lord as a Day of Judgment upon the Arrogant (Malachi 4:1, 3)

A future light shines in the midst of Israel’s darkness, though it launches on a negative note. Malachi first assures the people of a coming day of judgment. Verse 1 is the response to a question that was posed earlier by the people: Why are the wicked flourishing and we, as the faithful people of God, floundering (3:14)? God responds, “The day is coming.” That word day should remind us of the Lord’s appearing. It is a day when God Himself will appear and make all the wrongs right. The excitement is short lived for Israel, though, because the Lord declares, “I am going to start with you guys.”

The Israelites, expecting a blessing from God, find out God will come “like a furnace.” By God’s own mouth, He intends to cleanse and purify, not coddle. This will happen when the arrogant and the evildoers burn like straw. That word arrogant is synonymous with “prideful.” Pride may run rampant now, but there will come a day when all will be humbled on level ground. In their own minds the people are self-sufficient and independent of God, caring little for Him. A modern-day example would be people who profess, “I can wait to serve the Lord later. I do not need God in my life.” The Lord strikes fear in their hearts with the promise of a future day of reckoning. He will come with recompense for their evil deeds.

Malachi returns to this theme in verse 3, reassuring the people that God will fulfill His promise. Once again, God implicitly answers the question posed in 3:14, where the people questioned their need for following the Lord. He reveals that those who fear God will have victory over the unrighteous, though it previously appeared the wicked were prospering.

What does this day of reckoning mean for NT believers? A day is fast approaching when God will restore all things, for nothing can get past Him who sees everything. In the meantime, as believers, we must proclaim the gospel to a lost world. We should be longing and looking for that day, for it is promised to us. While relatively few modern Christians woke up this morning thinking, “I cannot wait for the second coming of Christ,” this belief consumed the first-century apostles. In reading their writings we witness an intense anticipation, as if Jesus could come back at any moment. Don’t let the gap between His first and second coming overshadow the significance or imminence of His return.

The people of Israel were longing for the day of His arrival, but they failed to realize it would be a day of judgment, not jubilee. We know that Christ has already come and that He is coming again. The question each one of us must ask ourselves is, “Am I prepared for His second coming?”

The Rising of the Sun and the Vindication for God’s People (Malachi 4:2)

When the Lord comes, He will bring perfect, righteous judgment with Him similar to the rising of the sun. His appearance will be both a blessing and a curse. Verse 2 describes the blessing. Those who fear the Lord’s name are the ones whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life or the book of remembrance. Additionally, they will be insulated from the fiery furnace: “and the sun of righteousness will rise.” This is the only occurrence of this phrase in the entire Bible. It conveys images of the brilliant morning sun projecting rays and providing warmth and comfort to those privileged to find solace under it. Malachi reveals that the sun of righteousness will rise also “with healing in its wings.”

In Malachi this sun is not an inanimate object, but a person. It is God Himself. It is the manifest presence of God. The Hebrew word kanaph is here translated “wings.” It occurs elsewhere in the OT to refer to a number of different things. In Genesis 1:21 it speaks of those created, winged animals who soar around the earth. Isaiah 6:2 uses the word to define the wings of the seraphim.

It is also used to refer to the corner or the hem of a garment. In the book of 1 Samuel, after Saul is disobedient to the Lord, the Lord sends Samuel to confront Saul and strip him of the kingdom. Saul responds by approaching Samuel and grabbing the corner or the hem (kanaph) of his garment, the force of which rips it off.

Malachi states the sun of righteousness will appear with healing in His garments; that is, His arrival will be associated with the healing and restoring of His people. The sun of righteousness, God Himself, will possess healing in His wings. It was assumed in ancient Israel that the hem of the garment of righteous men contained healing properties. Yet the healing that Malachi refers to in this passage is not merely physical healing, but a spiritual restoration from sin and from separation from the Lord. Therefore, this sun will come with jubilation and celebration. When He comes, “you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall.” The Israelites would take the calves in the winter and put them in stalls, and they would be locked up all winter. We can imagine the calves’ excitement the moment the stalls were opened. Malachi says that the excitement of God’s people over His coming will resemble this jubilation.

Remembering the Law as a Means of Sustaining Present Obedience (Malachi 4:4)

The Lord shifts to speaking with the people of Israel directly. Notice the directive in verse 4 to remember the Word of God. Israel was prohibited from separating the idea of following God from the idea of following God’s law. They were one and the same. Jesus affirmed this in Matthew 5:17: “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Through His Word, particularly the OT, God has given a road map for success—not to riches and fame, but a road map to pleasing Him and living the abundant life: Meditate on My Word and do it! (see Josh 1:7-9; Ps 1:1-3).

The Hebrew Bible, what we refer to as the OT, is composed of three sections, often collectively referred to as the Tanakh. Each of the consonants in this word represent one of the three sections. So the “T” stands for the Torah, the Law. The “N” stands for the Nevi’im, the Prophets. And the “K” is for the Ketuvim, the Writings. This last section contains the wisdom literature and poetic books of the OT.

Within the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), God reminds the people to hold fast to the law of God, to keep it central in their life and worship. The first books of each of the latter sections both begin with a commendation of the law for God’s people. After Moses passed the baton, God outlined for Joshua a recipe for success:

Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. (Josh 1:7)

That phrase the whole instruction refers to the teaching of God in the Torah. Do you want to be effective as a leader, Joshua? Do you want to be successful in your life and ministry? Then follow the law. Notice what the Lord says next:

This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. (Josh 1:8)

If Joshua is to be successful, he must meditate on and memorize the law.

In the first book of the Ketuvim the law of God is once again essential to fruitful living before God. Psalm 1 starts by pronouncing a blessing on the man who will set his heart on the law:

How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. (Ps 1:1-2)

If he does that,

He [will be] like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. (Ps 1:3-4)

Psalm 1 goes so far as to contrast the man who delights in the law with the wicked, foreseeing the futility of those who dismiss God’s instruction.

Looking at the prominence of God’s law throughout the Old Testament, it should be no surprise that God turns to the people of Israel at the end of Malachi and commands them to remember Moses’ instruction. This is perfectly consistent with what He has instructed the people to do from the very beginning of their existence!

Looking Forward in Hope, Anticipating Restoration (Malachi 4:5-6)

Malachi announced in 3:1 that the forerunner to the Messiah would come. We know from the NT that the forerunner is John the Baptist. But he says here in verses 5-6 that there would be another person, another forerunner, to come before the Day of the Lord.

We know this forerunner cannot ultimately be John the Baptist because this day ends with fathers turning their hearts to children and children turning their hearts to fathers. If this prophecy was completely fulfilled in John, we might ask why Jesus was still rejected by the Jews. So what is He talking about here? Although Jesus said in Matthew 11 that John the Baptist is the forerunner, something happens in Matthew 17 to prove that yet another Elijah will fulfill Malachi’s prophecy. In Matthew 17 Jesus leads the disciples up to the Mount of Transfiguration, where both Elijah and Moses appear, talking with the Lord. Peter, of course, wants to set up rooms at the Motel 6 for all three of them, but a voice from heaven rebukes his misunderstanding.

As Jesus’ face shines like the sun, the disciples are awestruck, understanding Jesus true identity. The disciples cite this verse in Malachi, to which Jesus replies,

“Elijah is coming and will restore everything,” He replied. “But I tell you: Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him. On the contrary, they did whatever they pleased to him.” (Matt 11:11-12)

The key for our purposes is the future tense “will restore.” At the time Jesus is speaking, John the Baptist is already dead. So we know that he cannot be the Elijah of Malachi 4:5. In addition, John the Baptist cannot be this Elijah because this Elijah is going to reestablish all things. John the Baptist was hindered from doing this because of the wickedness of the people’s hearts. Thus, Jesus is stating that He is the Elijah-like figure, initiating His kingdom at His resurrection and completing it at His second coming when He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers—a time of great repentance.

Notice how the book of Malachi ends: “Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” The final words from God to the people for 400 years is a warning that utter destruction will come. The final words are a curse, which left some rabbis uncomfortable with the ending. G. Campbell Morgan noted,

The Jew always understood this as a message of love, and the Rabbis in the Synagogue from then until the coming of Christ, and in the days of Christ, and until this day, never end Malachi with its last verse. They conclude with the fifth verse. Reading the last: “And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children; and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse;” they revert to the fifth: “Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (Morgan, Malachi’s Message for Today, 116)

However, this discomfort does not subside with the end of the OT. God, in a similar manner, says essentially the same thing in Revelation 22:12-13:

Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

The same promise of judgment is given to the people in Revelation, bringing with it either a day of rejoicing or a day of mourning, depending on whether you are among the righteous or among the wicked. On this side of the life and ministry of Jesus, the determining factor will be whether or not we have received the righteousness of Christ through repentance and faith.

Conclusion: The Sun of Righteousness with Healing in His Wings

We can imagine the destruction of life that would take place if the sun faded the way a candle burns out. Life would cease to exist, causing a shift in the functionality of our planet and solar system. Severe storms would erupt all over the world because of the climate change. Temperatures would plunge, and the land would be covered with a thick layer of snow and ice. The earth might break free from its orbital path and fly off into total darkness. Such is the fate of people who do not have Jesus as their Savior. According to Malachi, however, the sun of righteousness will come with healing in His garments.

In the NT, Jesus Christ meets a woman who reaches out to Him out of complete desperation:

Just then, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for 12 years approached from behind and touched the tassel on His robe, for she said to herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I’ll be made well!” But Jesus turned and saw her. “Have courage, daughter,” He said. “Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. (Matt 9:20-22)

She was certain that by touching the hem of His garment, she would be healed. Jesus, seeing the woman’s actions, commends her faith.

The key word tassel or fringe is a reference to the hem (Gk kraspedon; Hb kanaph) of Jesus’ garment. Matthew knows the audience of his Gospel is made up of Jews who know the OT. They would have known immediately why she desired to touch His garment. In doing so she was confessing that Jesus Christ was the sun of righteousness from Malachi 4. He was God Himself.

To confirm that Jesus was the rising of the sun, we may also look to Luke 1:76-79:

And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

In this passage John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, has been mute for a season. When the silence is broken, his first utterance is a prophecy. He declares that John is preparing the way for “the Dawn from on high.” Not surprisingly, John’s ministry would be to prepare the way for Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the light to our soul, “the sun of righteousness,” in the same way that the sun is light and life to the planet. Jesus Himself declared, “I am the light of the world.” The question for every one of us is, Has that light shone in our hearts today?

Reflect and Discuss

1. How is the promise of judgment comforting in the midst of evil and injustice in the world? What specific injustices do you long to see corrected by God’s judgment?
2. How does God’s judgment work like a purifying furnace? Compare this with Hebrews 12.
3. How can you live longing for the return of Christ? What does it look like to live with the eager expectation of His return?
4. What does it mean that the sun will rise “with healing in its wings”? How do we see this demonstrated in the life of Jesus?
5. If you are a Christian, think about the day you responded to the gospel. Discuss the joy you felt upon being spiritually “healed” by Christ.
6. Why does God remind the people to remember His Word? How does this relate to the judgment and deliverance He has been talking about?
7. What was Jesus’ attitude towards the law of God? How should Christians think about the specific commands of the law?
8. Discuss the identity of the forerunner of 4:5. Is he the same or different from the forerunner in 3:1?
9. Discuss the significance of Revelation ending with a similar promise of judgment as Malachi. Is this referring to the same judgment?
10. How would you instruct someone who sees the promise of judgment and responds by trying to “get his life together”? What is a more biblical response, and to what passages of Scripture would you direct him for help?