Elijah Promise in Malachi

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

14 August 2011

Malachi 3 is a chapter of a prophet a prophet that writes down exactly what the Lord told him, not less not more. It is not that the Lord showed him a video and then told him to go home and write his own feelings with a style suggested by modern criticism like that of Rudolph Bultmann's demythologizing procedures and Emil Brunner with his Encounter Theology, that the prophet write with many plusses and minusses, very human, adding and omitting the Word of God at free will. Finding the truth in Malachi 3, is not a cutting away of the onion peels of trash, what one can call Kerugma, to get to the core of the Word of the Lord. There is no principle that only the red letters are the Word of God and the rest is Kerugma with plusses and minusses.

Malachi has the Lord with a message. Malachi 3:1 says "Behold I send My messenger and he will clear a way before Me". Wait. The Lord is speaking and said he will send the Messenger who will clear the way before Him. The only close contact we had in history of divine and human with human preparing the arrival of divine is in 27 CE when John the Baptist was preaching in the desert clearing the way for Christ to start His work. This is the connection that Christ made as well and reaffirmed a number of times throughout His three and a half years ministry. They were asking Him if John the Baptist is Elijah or not. His indicators were that he is in the spirit of Elijah and a fulfillment of Malachi 3.

Then Malachi reports that "suddenly shall come to His temple, the Lord whom you seek". Jesus came to His temple. It was not the temple of Herod but His temple. What we have here is that before the cross, the temple still had meaning for God. There was no cancellation of the activities of the temple in the incarnation of Jesus. The divine arrived and went to His temple. He found business conducted in the temple and He wished to throw them out.

Malachi continued to say that "the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, He is coming says the Lord of Hosts". He cites the Lord verbatim here. He did not want to miss any detail nor add wrongfully anything of his own (contra Bultmann and Brunner). Who is the messenger of the covenant here? In our opinion, the messenger of the covenant is Christ Himself. It is the Lord Himself. Covenant because in Genesis 1 a covenant for creation is made: "Let us make ....". More than one is involved. In Christian terms it is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Embedded in the Old Testament is the Trinity although Judaism has sidestep this point time and again at the pertinent verses with insisting on alternative interpretations or on attempts to remove, what they called, the anthropologisms of the God concept by substitute phrases. The moment one does that, one is cutting and changing the text from below and deny the reality of a text edited from above. The Targums are at fault for this. "The Lord appeared to him" they easily changed in the Targums to "the Shekinah glory of the Lord appeared to him". They wish to remove any "human actions" the Lord did in the Old Testament, see, touch, hand of the Lord, eye of the Lord etc. The Holy Spirit who edited the whole Word of God accepted it as efficient and sufficient for His message. No change needed. In the Middle Ages, the rabbi Redak suggested that the messenger and the messenger of the covenant is the same person and that he is the King-Messiah who is to come. In the Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer it is said that it can also be a reference to Elijah since in 1 Kings 19:10, Elijah said "I have been zealous for the Lord, the God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant". In our opinion, there is a difference between the two messengers in verse 1. Messenger one is preparing the way of the Lord. Messenger two is the messenger of the covenant coming. The second Messenger, who is mentioned in verse 2 is eschatological in actions. "who can abide the day of His coming?" This is the Day of the Lord messenger two of Malachi 3:1. It cannot be Elijah as the rabbi Redak is suggesting in both cases. Elijah cannot be the messenger of the covenant. This covenant is the eternal covenant between the Trinity as is mentioned in Ephesians 1:4 that should there be a Fall after Creation, Christ would offer Himself for salvation.

Malachi explains that on the Day of the Lord, who can stand? That is on the Day of His coming (Malachi 3:2). His coming is like fire that refines. At the second coming or the Advent of the Messiah portrayed here, it is expected that He will refine the righteous. It will be similar than when one refines silver or soap. Rabbi Redak wants to see this refining process as the same one of Zechariah 13:9 "and I will bring a third in fire". Also Ibn Ezra saw it this way. Zechariah 13:9 is eschatological and Rabbi Redak saw it also that way. It is talking of the period that is known in Adventism in the Old Testament to be the period shortly before or in Time of Trouble. It will be testing times. Two thirds shall be cut off and one third shall remain in it. Does this mean that through the Deception and role of the Antichrist two thirds will leave the faith and after this two thirds Apostacy, the Latter Rain will fall and bring others to replace those who have fallen out, so that one third only remain. Will the remnant of those days be one third of the world population, be it 2 billion of the 6 billion or 3 billion out of 9 billion in those days? Redak thinks that it will be in Zechariah 13:9 a Day dear to the Lord for His glory and His might will be manifest at that time, when the God and Magog will march to the land of Israel as Ezechiel prophesied in Ezechiel 38:18-39:16. When these people are refined they shall bring an offering to the Lord with rigtheousness. When these people are made really righteous it means they are made perfect and that is the process of glorification. In perfection people will give the Lord only righteousness.

Malachi says the Lord sits when He is refining. Atonement in the New Testament started when Christ sat down with His Father on the throne as Stephen witnessed in a vision. We have looked at the sit and stand actions of the Christ. In Daniel 12:1 when it is the Time of Trouble, Michael or Christ shall stand up for His people. Before that He was sitting down. Rabbi Redak explains that a judge sits down to judge and to differentiate between the guilty and the innocent. In Adventism, because of a great event that happened at the end of 2300 years of Daniel 8:14, that misunderstood event as Christ's Advent or Coming was then understood to be the Investigative Judgement starting that will precede His Second Coming. In a way it is a purifying and refining action. The righteous are refined during this time.

Notice one thing, there are Investigative Judgment deniers by former Adventists or those who call themselves by names like progressive Adventists, but it is really a regressive stance, since here the refining process is before He comes! When Malachi 3:5 indicate that "I will draw near to you to judge" the Lord has finished His refining process of the righteous. What is left from the harvest are the weeds. He will be a swift witness against a number of sinful people: sorcerers, adulterers, swearing falsely ones, wage witholders to day laborers, wage witholders of widows and fatherless people, those who pervert the stranger. These sins are all contra the Torah or Law of God. All the commandments of the Law of God are in mind here although just a few are listed. One cannot go on Sunday to church and claim it substitutes God's instruction to go on Saturday or the Seventh-day. Rabbi Redak said about this verse: "If they have not received their punishment in this world, they will receive it in the World to come". The Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, Ibn Ezra and Redak explained that it is a perversion of the legal rights of the strangers.

In Malachi 3:6 the Lord says that He has not changed. The Law of God is still in force today. There is no change. The expectations are not dropped. God does not change His obligations of worship. Faithful people in Malachi's day thought that there punishment has been nullified but God said that it is not yet the end. Eschatology has to run its course before one can relax. Daily commitment is needed, daily faith. It is not yet the end.

That the issue with the people in Malachi's day was commandment keeping is clear in Malachi 3:7 "From the days of your fathers you have departed from Me, from My laws and have not kept [them]". The Lord is not happy with the remnant since they are not returning to Him after deviating from His laws. He asked them to return to the Law keeping and in returning to Him. Like Rabbi Mezudath David also said "Return to Me - to keep My commandments".

At this point we have to ask whether the Lord is speaking to the people of Malachi's day or to the people who will be living in the day of refining, since the Investigative Judgment started in 1844? It appears more likely that the words are applicable to the time of the end. That will mean that modern man is robbing/angering the Lord from tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8). So far the description of the situation was during the time of the End, thus the Lord is focussing on what will happen in the time of the End and that includes the time of Modernism. They do not faithfully pay their tithes and offerings. Targum Jonathan to the prophets rendered it with the translation of "anger". The word is said by Rashi using some sources like Rosh Hashanah 26b and Tanhuwa Terumah 9, that the word is Aramaic but Parshandatha noted that in some editions of Tanhuwa it is said to be Arabic and not Aramaic. Our reaction is that it is unlikely to be Arabic and Aramaic is rather the place to search for its meaning. Arabic texts for that early period does not exist so that comparison of Arabic etymology for this period is not possible. In fact, the whole nation were guilty of this. Every single person was robbing or made the Lord angry. If it is our own time that is involved here, how are the whole nation robbing the Lord when the remnant are consisting of mulitnationalities? Is Malachi 3:9 referring to the ethnic nation of Israel in his own day here? What license do we have to switch from the literal to the spiritual Israel here? We know that God counted His own as those who have faith. Faithful Israel is real Israel. This was the thrust of Hans LaRondelle's Theology in Adventism. He wrote on it in his book, The Israel of God in Prophecy. It is maybe a good principle to keep in mind here that when the Lord is speaking of nation that He is referring to the faithful nation or remnant of Israel. Then when the context is supposedly placed in the End time scenario as was the case in the early verses, then tithes and offering are withheld by faithful Israel of modern times after 1844. Our own day even. It is a modern disease. How many people are paying faithfully tithes?

God ask people to test Him with tithes and offerings to see if He will not open blessing for them. Deuteronomy 6:16 says that we may not test the Almighty but the exception is tithes and offerings. He will prove that He will reward them. The Lord will send blessing until there will be no room to take care of it. Our vegetables and fruits are lying outside the storage room, on the floor of the kitchen because there is no more space in the refrigerators. The food in the house will not be enough but more than enough. The blessing will be such that the faithful will receive before the time of reception comes up (Malachi 3:11). However, in this time of Modernism, people say: "it is futile to serve God" (Malachi 3:14). The moment the believer follows Bultmann to agree that the supernatural does not exist in the Bible, resurrection, Advent, virgin birth, miracles, Second Coming, incarnation, then one is saying it is futile to serve God.

Malachi 3:15 says that the ones who are praised are the bold transgressors. the ones who work wickedness are built up. One of the most difficult aspects of church life is what to do with the wayward. What if a deacon open her own supermarket but on Sa bath it is open. What if her husband is an elder and he sometimes go to work on Sabbath? Do one buy at her shop and is that not building up wickedness? Malachi says they tempt God and escaped.

In vision it seems that in the time of Modernism, in our own day, the faithful are going to speak and the Lord will hear them (Malachi 3:16). At this time a book of remembrance is written before Him for those who fear the Lord and valued His name highly. A special record is made of their faithful deeds. That the Lord has still the time of Modernism, thus after 1844, in mind is clear in Malachi 3:17: "for that day when I make a treasure". They shall belong to the Lord on that day that He is making a treasure. He is making a treasure of them when He is refining them and He is refining them shortly before the Day of the Lord, as was already explained in the early part of the same chapter. Rabbi Redak thought that he was not talking to a later generation but to the generation of the prophet and that this generation will be resurrected along with the God-fearing of the generation of the resurrection. He actually says: "the generation of the prophet" (Malachi 3:17).

At this time in modernism [our time], and not the time of the prophet as Redak thought, there shall be a return to the commandments of the Lord, Sabbath keeping, and all the other love commandments going with it. That will allow the faithful to discern properly between the righteous and the wicked. The faithful or wayward among them will no longer think it is futile to worship God or that the evil is good (Rabbi Redak).

When the Rabbis of the Middle Ages came to Malachi 3:19 they changed the reading of "day" = yom to "sun" = shemesh. They translated that the sun will come. The Sages of Judaism states that "there will be no Gehinnom in the future, but that the Holy One, blessed is He, will take the sun out of its case and the wicked will be punished thereby and the righteous will be healed thereby" (Rabbi Rashi from Nedarim 8b, Genesis Rabbah 26:6; Ecc. Rabbah 1:2; Midrash to Psalm 19:13). They are saying that the sun will come glowing like a furnace that will burn the wicked. Rabbi Redak said that the day of judgment is compared to a burning furnace, referring back to Malachi 3:2.

Adventism refer to this day as the executive judgment. It is the Hell event described in Revelation. It is the extermination of evil in finality and forever. The Day that come shall burn them up so that neither root or branch remains (Malachi 3:19). "And shall rise to them those who fear My name, Sun of Rigtheousness, and healing are under His wings and they will go forth and be fat like calves which are fatted" (Malachi 3:20). Rabbi Redak wants to interpret this verse that the wicked will not be destroyed immediately but there will be a delay so that the righteous will rule over them and then they will be destroyed. Adventists do believe there is a delay of a thousand years before they will be finally destroyed but the righteous are ruling in heavenly domains not on earth over the wicked during that thousand years.

The Talmud and Rabbi Moses Maimonides developed a view of almost a Catholic purgatory fire, called Gehinnom. What the Talmud is saying in Rash Hashanah 17a, is that those of Israel and the nations who sinned with their bodies descend to Gehinnom and are judged there for twelve months. After these twelve months their bodies disintegrate, and their souls are burnt, wind scatters the burnt souls and they become ash under the feet of the righteous. Rabbi Moses Maimonides thinks that this chapter is about torments in Gehinnom. But, in another work of Maimonides, Shaar Hagemul, he said that the Talmud is referring not to the present but to the day of resurrection, and that on the day of resurrection there will also begin twelve months of torment for the sinful souls. We do not have an eternal torment here but only twelve months. That purgatory does not exist now but will be there at the day of resurrection. In Adventist eschatology there will be a special resurrection for those who pierced Christ to see Him coming in glory.

The Day that the Lord will prepare (Malachi 3:21) is the Second Coming of the Lord. The Righteous will be rescued from the evil during the Time of Trouble (Daniel 12:1) and here the Lord says that their enemies shall be as ash under the soles that day. It is another idiom to say that they will suffer humiliation that day.

The Lord told Malachi that what He wants people to do is to keep in remembrance the teaching of Moses, His servant, the laws and ordinances which He commanded him in Horeb for Israel. There are many things which God commanded to Moses that are still applicable today. Hygienic laws like Leviticus 11, the Ten Commandments with the Seventh-day Sabbath, dietary, health laws. One should not build graveyards in town etc. Malachi said that the laws were not fabricated. That is what Rabbi Mezudath David also said. Rabbi Redak says that the Torah does not expire. "This verse refutes the contention of those who believe that the Torah was given for a limited time only". The dietary laws are also listed by Rabbi Mezudath David.

Then Malachi came to a part of Malachi 3 that Adventists know very well. It was also well known by the disciples, Jesus and John the Baptist.

Before the eschatological and awesome day of the Lord comes, He will send them Elijah the prophet (Malachi 3:23). This verse got Judaism speculating that Elijah's soul in heaven will be returned to take on a newly created body again prior to the coming of the Lord (so Rabbi Redak). However, Rabbi Abarbanel said that Elijah's soul never left his body and that he stayed in the Garden of Eden and will return before the coming of the Lord.

When he comes he will turn the hearts of people towards each other. If this did not happen, the Lord would have come and execute extinguishing judment on people. He is coming to smite the earth with utter destruction later, but due to the Latter Rain and the wake up call or Alarm cry or Midnight Cry, the ten virgins will wake up to meet the Groom.

In Adventist eschatology John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ. He came in the Spirit of Elijah. A third Elijah was in 1844 when the Adventist movement woke people up about the great task the Lord will do coming to the Most Holy for that Highpriestly role of His which is investigative judgment.

In Judaism in Tosephta Yom Tov it says that Elijah will come to make peace for Israel with the nations and to bring them the tidings of the coming of the Messiah. This will take place one day prior to the coming of the Messiah. For Adventist eschatology some in the remnant will act in the spirit of Elijah preparing people for the soon coming of the Lord. So in Adventist eschatology, one should probably think of four Elijah's functioning, each time at a pivotal point in the function and ministry of Christ: 1) Theophany against Baalism 2) First Advent of Christ coming for the inauguration of His ministry in 27 CE 3) Standing up to enter the Most Holy as High Priest in an Investigative Judgment scene as seen in Daniel 7 in combination with the time period in Daniel 8:14 counting days as years with the year-day principle for Bible prophecy time-periods 4) Second Advent.

        One principle I have always maintained is that God does not speak with a forked tongue. His message can uplift each generation but specific application of Bible prophecy is allocated only to one fulfillment not multiple fulfillments. People misunderstood Matthew 24:14 and other texts in Luke 21 and Mark 13 and on the basis of their misreading wants to allow or create a principle of multiple applications in Bible prophecy. The context tells us what time zone is in mind and one must respect that time zone allocated in the text itself. Biblical prophecy does not work with an apotelesmatic principle unless explicitly so indicated.