圣经注释书

本章我们有以下内容：I. 应许弥赛亚及其先锋的降临，并在此特别说明了他所肩负的使命——他的到来为教会和百姓所带来的安慰，以及对恶人所带来的威吓（玛 3:1-6）。II. 责备犹太人败坏神的典章、亵渎性地抢夺本当归与神的供物，责令他们改正此事，并应许他们若如此行，神必在怜悯中归向他们（玛 3:7-12）。III. 描绘那些顶撞神之恶人的恶行（玛 3:13-15），以及那些为神说话之义人的义行，并赐给义人的宝贵应许（玛 3:16-18）。

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, Malachi 3:1; with the terrible judgments which were to accompany that event, in order to refine and purify his people and his priests, Malachi 3:2-6. The following verses reprehend them for withholding the legal tithes and offerings, with large promises in case of their repentance and amendments, Malachi 3:7-12. The prophet expostulates with the people for their hard and profane speeches against the conduct of Providence, and declares God will one day make a fearful and final distinction between the righteous and the wicked, whose different characters are in the mean time carefully recorded, Malachi 3:13-18.

INTRODUCTION TO Malachi 3

This chapter begins with a prophecy of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ; and of the coming of Christ, and the effects and consequences of it, with respect both to the righteous and the wicked; and it contains accusations and charges of sin against the Jews, intermixed with exhortations to repentance. John the Baptist is promised to be sent, and is described by his office as a messenger, and by his work, to prepare the way of the Lord; and the Messiah is prophesied of, who is described by his characters; with respect to himself, the Lord and Messenger of the covenant; with respect to the truly godly among the Jews, as the object of their desire and delight; whose coming is spoken of as a certain thing, and which would be sudden; and the place is mentioned he should come into, Malachi 3:1 and this his coming is represented as terrible to the wicked, and as trying and purifying to the righteous, expressed by the various similes of a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap; and the end answered by it, their offering a righteous offering to the Lord, Malachi 3:2 but with respect to the wicked, he declares he should be a swift witness against them, whose characters are particularly given, and this assured from his immutability; the consequence of which to the saints is good, being their security from destruction, Malachi 3:5 and next a charge is commenced against the wicked Jews, as that in general they had for a long time revolted from the Lord, and were guilty of sins of omission and commission, and are therefore exhorted to return to the Lord, with a promise that he will return to them, and yet they refuse, Malachi 3:7 and, in particular, that they were guilty of sacrilege, and so accounted, even the whole nation, in withholding tithes and sacrifices, which they are exhorted to bring in; to which they are encouraged with promises of blessings of prosperity and protection, Malachi 3:8 and that they had spoken impudent and blasphemous words against the Lord; which, though excepted to, is proved by producing their own words, Malachi 3:13 and by the contrary behaviour of those that feared the Lord, who were taken notice of by him, and were dear unto him, Malachi 3:16 wherefore it is suggested, that the time would come when there would be a manifest difference made between the one and the other, Malachi 3:18.

玛 3:1-18。

弥赛亚的降临，由其先锋先行开路，他要刑罚有罪之人的种种罪恶，并赏赐那敬畏神的人。

1. 看——特别唤起对随后重大真理的注意。你们不信地发问：审判的神在哪里（玛 2:7）？因此“看哪，我差遣”等。你们的不信不能拦阻我守约，在所定之时成就你们所说永不会应验的事。

我必差遣……他必来到——父差遣子，子来到。证明父与子位格的分别。

我的使者——施洗约翰；正如太 3:3；11:10；可 1:2、3；路 1:76；3:4；7:26、27；约 1:23 所证。玛拉基这段话显然依据其前辈以赛亚的经文（赛 40:3-5）。也许正如亨格斯滕贝格（Hengstenberg）所想，“使者”也包括以以利亚为首的一长列先知（故他的名在玛 4:5 作为代表名提出），而终结于众先知中最后、也是最大的约翰（太 11:9-11）。约翰作为代表先知（弥赛亚——代表神人——的先锋），将先前预言中一切散布的特征集于一身（因此基督称他为“比先知大多了”，路 7:26），再现其所有可畏又令人振奋的宣告；他那如古先知般的粗陋装束，是对悔改的有形劝勉；他所传道的旷野，象征当时犹太人在政治与属灵上的死寂荒芜；他的主题——罪、悔改、救恩——最后呈现了神借先知一切先前教导的浓缩概要；因此他被卓越地称为神的“使者”。因此可 1:2 最古老、最真的读法是“正如以赛亚先知书上记着”；其中的难处是：玛拉基的预言怎能归诸以赛亚？解释是：玛拉基的经文依据赛 40:3，因此为了标记这种依赖与关联，便追溯到预言的原始源头。

主——希伯来文 Ha-Adon。冠词表明这是耶和华（出 23:17；34:23；参赛书 3:11、13）。比较但 9:17，那里“为主的缘故”指的就是神子。发言的神使“主”、“盟约的使者”与他合而为一。“我差遣……在我前面”，又说“主……必……来到”；因此“主”必与“我”为一，即他必须是神——约翰正是被差遣到他面前。既如此证明子的神性及与父的合一，借“我差遣”与“他必来到”彼此区分，也证明了位格的分别。他也以圣殿为“他的殿”：标示他对圣殿之上的神圣主权，与所有 merely“在其中服事”的受造之物相对（该 2:7；来 3:2、5、6）。

你们所寻求的……你们所喜悦的——（见玛 2:17 注释）。他第一次降临时，他们“寻求”并“喜悦”的是一位属地救主的盼望，不在于他当时所是。对玛拉基当时所应对的人而言，“你们所寻求……所喜悦的”是反讽。他们不信地发问：他到底何时才来？玛 2:17，“审判的神在哪里”（赛 5:19；摩 5:18；彼后 3:3、4）？至于敬虔者，对弥赛亚的渴慕是真诚的（路 2:25、28）。他被称为“神面前的一位天使”（赛 63:9），也称为耶和华的使者。比较他向亚伯拉罕（创 18:1、2、17、33）、向雅各（创 31:11；48:15、16）、在荆棘中向摩西（出 3:2-6）的显现；他以舍金那行在以色列前头（出 14:19），并在西奈山颁布律法（徒 7:38）。

忽然——这形容词更指向第二次再来，而非第一次；那次意外临到之审判的凭据，已在弥赛亚把兑换银钱之亵渎者从圣殿中审判性地赶出的事上显明（路 12:38-46；启 16:15；太 21:12、13），在那里他也如这里一样称圣殿为他的殿。也在耶路撒冷的毁灭中——犹太人到末了仍自欺地指望弥赛亚忽然作为属地救主显现，所以这毁灭对他们极其意外。比较民 12:4-10 中他在烈怒中显现时所用“忽然”一词。

盟约的使者——即与以色列的古约（赛 63:9）以及与亚伯拉罕之约的使者，外邦人的应许最终也包括在内（加 4:16、17）。第一次降临时福音从以色列开始，随后接纳外邦世界；第二次降临时也必如此。旧约中神一切显现——舍金那与人形显现——都是在神子的位格里成就（出 23:20、21；来 11:26；12:26）。他既是新约的使者，也是旧约的使者。

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 on John the Immerser's birth, "shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people, for the remission of their sins." Repentance was to be the preparation for the kingdom of Christ, the Messiah, for whom they looked so impatiently.

He who speaks, is He who should come, God the Son. For it was before Him Who came and dwelt among us, that the way was to be prepared. He speaks here in His divine nature, as the Lord Who should send, and Who should Himself come in our flesh. In the Gospel, when He was come in the flesh, He speaks not of His own Person but of the Father, since "indivisible are the operations of the Trinity, and what the One doth, the other Two do, since the Three are of one nature, power and operation." Whence Christ, in order to give no excuse to the Jews to speak against Him before the time, refers it, as He does His life John 6:57. His doctrine John 7:16 words John 3:11; John 5:43; John 8:38, John 8:40, John 8:47, John 8:55; John 12:49; John 14:10, John 14:24 and works John 4:34; John 5:19-20, John 5:26, John 5:30, John 5:36; John 6:38; John 8:28; John 9:4; John 10:25, John 10:32, John 10:37-38; John 14:10-11 to the Father.

"Those works, which do not relate to that which b uniquely belongs to each Person, being common, are ascribed now to One Person, now to Another, in order to set forth the One Substance in the Trinity of Persons." Thus, John says John 12:41. Isaiah spoke of the unbelief of the Jews, when he "saw" the "glory" of God the Son "and spake of Him," and Paul says Acts 28:25. that the "Holy Spirit spake" then "by" him.

And he shall prepare the way before Meo - "The same is God's way here, and Christ's there, an evident proof that Christ is one God with the Father, and that, in Christ, God came and was manifest in the flesh." The prophets and all who turned men to righteousness, or who retained the knowledge of the truth or of righteousness or of God in the world, did, in their degree, prepare the way for Christ. But John was His immediate forerunner "before His Face," the herald of His immediate approach; from where he is called "the end of the law, and the beginning of the Gospel," "the lamp before the Light, the voice before the Word, the mediator between the Old and the New Testament;" "the link of the law and of grace; a new morning star; a ray, before the true Sun should burst forth," the end of night, the beginning of day.

And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple - He, Whose Coming they sought for, was Almighty God, "the God of Judgment." He who should come, was "the Lord," again Almighty God, since, in usage too, none else is called "the Lord," as none else can be. The temple also, to which He was to come, the temple of God, is His own. "The messenger, or the Angel of the covenant," plainly, even from the parallelism, is the same as "the Lord." It was "one," for whom they looked; one, of whose absence they complained; Malachi 2:17, "where is the God of judgment?" one, who should come to His temple , one whose coming they sought and prepared "to have pleasure in;" one, of whom it is repeated, "lo, He cometh," one, in the day of whose coming, at whose appearing, it was asked, "who shall stand?" "All Christian interpreters are agreed that this Lord is Christ Acts 2:36, whom God hath made both Lord and Christ, and Acts 10:36. Who is Lord over all; by whom all things were made, are sustained and governed; Who is (as the root of the word implies) the basis and foundation, not of any private family, tribe or kingdom, but of all; 1 Corinthians 8:6. by whom are all things and we by Him: and whose we are also by right of redemption; and so He is Revelation 17:14; Revelation 19:16. Lord of lords and King of kings, deservedly called the Lord." As then the special presence of God was often indicated in connection with "the Angel of the Lord," so, here, He who was to come was entitled the Angel or messenger of the covenant, as God also calls Him the covenant itself.

Isaiah 42:6, "I will give Thee for a covenant of the people, a light of the Gentiles." He it was Isaiah 63:9, "the Angel of His presence," who saved His former people, in whom His "Name was," and who, by the prerogative of God, would Exodus 23:21, "not pardon their transgressions." He should be Hebrews 12:24; Hebrews 8:6, "the Mediator of the new and better covenant" which is promised Jeremiah 31:32-33; Hebrews 8:9, "not according to the covenant, that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt," which "My covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant, that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be My people."

Whom ye seek, are seeking, whom ye delight in - , i. e., profess so to do; "He will come," but will be very different from Him whom ye look for, an Avenger on your enemies. Judgment will come, but it will begin with yourselves.

Shall suddenly come - o "unawares, when men should not think of them; whence perhaps it is that the Jews reckon the Messiah among what shall come unawares." As, it is here said of His first Coming, so it is said of His second Coming (which may be comprehended under this here spoken of) that except they diligently watch for it Luke 21:35, "it shall come upon them unawares Mark 13:36. suddenly Matthew 24:44. in such an hour as they think not." "The Lord of glory always comes, like a thief in the night, to those who sleep in their sins."

Lo, He will come - : he insists again and calls their minds to that Coming, certain, swift, new, wonderful, on which all eyes should be set, but His coming would be a sifting-time.

Behold, I will send my messenger - מלאכי Malachi, the very name of the prophet. But this speaks of John the Baptist. I, the Messiah, the Seed of God, mentioned above, will send my messenger, John the Baptist.

He shall prepare the way - Be as a pioneer before me; a corrector of civil abuses, and a preacher of righteousness.

And the Lord, whom ye seek - The Messiah, whom ye expect, from the account given by the prophet Daniel, in his seventy weeks, Daniel 9:24.

Shall suddenly come to his temple - Shall soon be presented before the Lord in his temple; cleanse it from its defilement, and fill it with his teaching and his glory.

The Messenger of the covenant - He that comes to fulfill the great design, in reference to the covenant made with Abram, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. See the parallel texts in the margin, and the notes on them.

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; and which shows the power and authority of Christ in sending forth ministers; his superior excellency to John, and his existence before him, or he could not be sent by him, and so before his incarnation; for John was sent by him before he was in the flesh, and consequently this is a proof of the proper deity of Christ: and the word "behold" is prefixed to this, in order to raise the attention of those that put the above question, and all others; as well as to show that the message John was sent upon was of the greatest moment and importance; as that the Messiah was just ready to appear, his kingdom was at hand, and the Jews ought to believe in him; though it also respects the coming of the Messiah, spoken of in the latter part of the text:

and he shall prepare the way before me; by declaring to the Jews that he was born, and was in the midst of them; by pointing him out unto them; by preaching the doctrine of repentance, and exhorting them to believe in him; and by administering the ordinance of baptism in general to all proper subjects, and in particular to Christ, by which he was made manifest to Israel; See Gill on Mark 1:2 the allusion is to kings and great men sending persons before them when on a journey, to give notice of their coming, and provide for them:

and the Lord, whom ye seek; this is the person himself speaking, the Son of God, and promised Messiah, the Lord of all men, and particularly of his church and people, in right of marriage, by virtue of redemption, and by being their Head and King; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it of him, and even Abarbinel (q) himself; the Messiah that had been so long spoken of and so much expected, and whom the Jews sought after, either in a scoffing manner, expressed in the above question, or rather seriously; some as a temporal deliverer, to free them from the Roman yoke, and bring them into a state of liberty, prosperity, and grandeur; and others as a spiritual Saviour, to deliver from sin, law, hell, and death, and save them with an everlasting salvation:

shall suddenly come to his temple; meaning not his human nature, nor his church, sometimes so called; but the material temple at Jerusalem, the second temple, called "his", because devoted to his service and worship, which proves him to be God, and because of his frequency in it; here he was brought and presented by his parents at the proper time, for the purification of his mother; here he was at twelve years of age disputing with the doctors; and here Simeon, Anna, and others, were waiting for him, Luke 2:22 and we often read of his being here, and of his using his authority in it as the Lord and proprietor of it; and of the Hosannas given him here, Matthew 21:12 the manner in which he should come, "suddenly", may refer to the manifestation of it, quickly after John the Baptist had prepared his way by his doctrine and baptism:

even the messenger of the covenant; not of the covenant of works with Adam, of which there was no mediator and messenger; nor of the covenant of circumcision, at which, according to the Jews, Elias presides; nor of the covenant at Sinai, of which Moses was the mediator; but of the covenant of grace, of which Christ is not only the Surety and Mediator; but, as here, "the Messenger"; because it is revealed, made known, and exhibited in a more glorious manner by him under the Gospel dispensation, through the ministration of the word and ordinances. De Dieu observes, that the word in the Ethiopic language signifies a prince as well as a messenger, and so may be rendered, "the Prince of the covenant", which is a way of speaking used in Daniel 11:22,

whom ye delight in; either carnally, as they pleased themselves with the thoughts of a temporal prince, and of great honour and grandeur under him; and as they would have done, had he submitted to have been made a king by them in this sense; or rather spiritually, and so is to be understood of such who had a spiritual knowledge of him, and joy in him; who rejoiced and delighted in the contemplation of his person, offices, righteousness, and salvation:

he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts; this expresses the certainty of his coming, being said by himself, who is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies in heaven and in earth, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. This passage is, in some Jewish writers (r), interpreted of the world to come, or times of the Messiah.

(q) Mashmiah Jeshuah, fol. 76. 4. (r) Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 16. fol. 219. 4.