IX. Taking God’s Sovereignty Seriously (Malachi 4:1-6)
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IX. Taking God’s Sovereignty Seriously (4:1-6)
The concluding verses of Malachi remind us of the sovereignty of God over his creation. Sovereignty is a theological term that simply means that God rules, controls, and governs all things. There is absolutely nothing that happens anywhere, anytime, anyhow that God does not either cause or allow. He’s not only God of the big stuff but also of the tiny details, as well. In fact, there is not a single hair that falls from your head of which he is not intimately aware (see Matt 10:30).
4:1a Scripture often speaks of “the day” or “the day of the Lord.” It has both a temporal meaning and an eschatological one. Temporally, the day refers to God’s intervention in history to reverse circumstances. It is the day when heaven intervenes—such as when the Lord struck down the Assyr-ians as they threatened Jerusalem (see 2 Kgs 18:19–19:37). When things are headed in the wrong way, God can turn events on a dime to accomplish his purposes.
Malachi is talking here about the eschatological day. Eschatology is the study of the last things. The day is coming refers to the moment when Jesus Christ brings history to a climax (see 1 Thess 5:1-5). God always exercises his sovereignty. But, on that final day of Christ’s coming, he’ll display his sovereignty for all to see. When the day of the Lord arrives, it has a two-fold effect: the bringing down of the wicked and the lifting up of the righteous.
4:1b-2 The arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them (4:1) means that those who do not trust in Jesus Christ will experience eternal judgment, forever separated from the goodness and grace of God. For those who fear [God’s] name, however, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and his people will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall (4:2). So, whereas the calves have been cooped up and locked down, they’re going to go skipping with joy when God opens the stall through Christ to set them free.
4:4-6 The admonition to remember the instruction of Moses (4:4) is a reminder to remember God’s Word. In essence, he says, “Don’t give up—because the day is coming when I’m going to break through and separate the righteous from the wicked as promised.”
Before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, God will send the prophet Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers (4:5-6). Jesus says this promise was fulfilled in John the Baptist (Matt 11:14). John called people to repentance in order to prepare the way for the Lord. This repentance would not only restore people’s relationship to God but also their relationships to one another. The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that his son John would go before the Lord “in the Spirit and power of Elijah” and quoted from this passage in Malachi (Luke 1:17). God’s messengers are responsible for restoring relationships—both the relationships between people and God and those between individuals.
With this, the final prophet of the Old Testament falls silent.