Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

3:13-15 The sixth disputation begins with Israel's audacious and blasphemous complaint that it is vain to serve God. It looks like keeping his charge and walking as in mourning are parallel statements, which suggests that they refer to ceremonial or liturgical requirements such as the ritual mourning about which Israel boasts in Zech. 7:1-6. Because of their hypocrisy, these acts had degenerated into meaningless formalities (Isa. 58:3-9; Mal. 2:13).

3:16 In sharp contrast to the fault-finding cynics, a second group is now mentioned, those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. Just as the Lord recounts the contemptuous blasphemies of the first group (vv. 13-15), so he overhears the faithful conversation of the second. Similar to the honor roll kept by King Xerxes, which recorded the long-unrewarded faithfulness of Mordecai (Est. 6:1-3), a book of remembrance is written in God's presence concerning these faithful believers. Similar books of significant deeds were kept by kings in the ancient world (see Est. 2:23; 6:1). This image of God's record book, which appears throughout Scripture (see e.g., Ex. 32:32-33; Ps. 56:8; 139:16; Dan. 7:10; 12:1; Rev. 20:12), indicates that God will never forget and will rightly judge both the good deeds of the righteous and the evil deeds of the wicked.

3:17-4:3 The insolent complainers had charged that "evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape" (3:15). But in 3:17-4:3 the Lord promises that a day is coming when these complainers will see how wrong they were. For those faithful believers listed in the "book of remembrance" (3:16), it will be a day when God will say, "They shall be mine," his treasured possession (3:17; cf. Ex. 19:5), and they will be spared as a man spares his son who serves him. Although for the arrogant and all evildoers it will be a day when they are burned up like stubble, for those who fear God's name it will be a day when the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings (Mal. 4:2; cf. Isa. 60:1-3; Luke 1:78), and they will subdue the wicked.

4:2 Just as the sun drives away darkness and clouds, bringing light and joy, so the sun of righteousness will appear to dispel gloom, oppression, and injustice. For the image of the rising sun applied to a great visitation from God, cf. Isa. 60:1-2; for the recognition that the birth of John the Baptist had ushered in this expected era, see Luke 1:78. The "righteousness" brought by this "sun" includes both judgment on evildoers and reward for those who are righteous in their deeds. Its wings are a poetic image for the rays of this sun, bringing healing to all who come under its influence. Some suggest that ancient Near Eastern depictions of a winged sun disk are reflected in the image. Malachi's readers probably would have thought this image predicted the sudden appearance of God himself, who is elsewhere compared to the sun (Ps. 84:11; Isa. 60:19-20; cf. Ps. 27:1; Isa. 60:1; Rev. 21:23). But Christian interpreters throughout the history of the church have understood this prophecy to be fulfilled in Christ, who is "the light of the world" (John 8:12; cf. John 1:4-6).