OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET
M A L A C H I.
GOD'S
prophets were his witnesses to his church, each in his day, for several
ages, witnesses for him and his authority, witnesses against sin and
sinners, attesting the true intents of God's providences in his
dealings with his people then and the kind intentions of his grace
concerning his church in the days of the Messiah, to whom all the
prophets bore witness, for they all agreed in their testimony; and now
we have only one witness more to call, and we have done with our
evidence; and though he be the last, and in him prophecy ceased, yet
the Spirit of prophecy shines as clearly, as strongly, as brightly in
him as in any that went before, and his testimony challenges an equal
regard. The Jews say, Prophecy continued forty years under the second
temple, and this prophet they call the seal of prophecy, because
in him the series or succession of prophets broke off and came to a
period. God wisely ordered it so that divine inspiration should cease
for some ages before the coming of the Messiah, that that great prophet
might appear the more conspicuous and distinguishable and be the more
welcome. Let us consider,
I. The person of the prophet. We have only his name, Malachi,
and no account of his country or parentage. Malachi signifies
my angel, which has given occasion for a conjecture that this
prophet was indeed an angel from heaven and not a man, as that
Judges 2:1.
But there is no just ground for the conjecture. Prophets were
messengers, God's messengers; this prophet was so; his name is the very
same with that which we find in the original
(Malachi 3:1)
for my messenger; and perhaps from that word he might (though,
probably, he had another name) be called Malachi. The Chaldee
paraphrase, and some of the Jews, suggest that Malachi was the same
with Ezra; but that also is groundless. Ezra was a scribe, but we never
read that he was a prophet. Others, yet further from probability, make
him to be Mordecai. But we have reason to conclude he was a person
whose proper name was that by which he is here called; the tradition of
some of the ancients is that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, and that
he died young.
II. The scope of the prophecy. Haggai and Zechariah were sent to
reprove the people for delaying to build the temple; Malachi was sent
to reprove them for the neglect of it when it was built, and for their
profanation of the temple-service (for from idolatry and superstition
they ran into the other extreme of impiety and irreligion), and the
sins he witnesses against are the same that we find complained of in
Nehemiah's time, with whom, it is probable, he was contemporary. And
now that prophecy was to cease he speaks more clearly of the Messiah,
as nigh at hand, than any other of the prophets had done, and concludes
with a direction to the people of God to keep in remembrance the law of
Moses, while they were in expectation of the gospel of Christ.
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'Malachi' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
.