John Calvin, Commentary on Malachi
Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
by John Calvin.
Now first translated from the original Latin, by the
Rev. John Owen, vicar of Thrussington, Leicestershire.
Volume Fifth. Zechariah and Malachi
WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
Grand Rapids, 1950, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America.
THE
COMMENTARIES OF JOHN CALVIN
ON THE
PROPHET MALACHI
CALVIN'S PREFACE TO MALACHI
Lecture One Hundred and Sixty-ninth
The Book of Malachi follows, whom many have
imagined to have been an angel, on account of his name.
We indeed know that Melac, in Hebrew is an Angel; but how
absurd is such a supposition, it is easy to see; for the
Lord at that time did not send angels to reveal his
oracles, but adopted the ordinary ministry of men; and as
iod, is added at the end of the word, as it was usual in
proper names, we may indeed hence conclude that it was
the name of a man; at the same time I freely allow that
it may have been added for some particular reason not
known to us now. I am more disposed to grant what some
have said, that he was Ezra, and that Malachi was his
surname, for God had called him to do great and
remarkable things.
However this may be, he was no doubt one of the
Prophets, and , as it appears, the last; for at the end
of his Book he exhorts the people to continue in their
adherence to the pure doctrine of the Law: and this he
did, because God was not afterwards to send Prophets in
succession as before; for it was his purpose that the
Jews should have a stronger desire for Christ, they
having been for a time without any Prophets. It was
indeed either a token of God's wrath, or a presage of
Christ's coming, when they were deprived of that benefit
which Moses mentions in Deut. xviii.; for God had then
promised to send Prophets, that the Jews might know that
he cared for their safety. When therefore God left his
people without Prophets, it was either to show his great
displeasure, as during the Babylonian exile, or to hold
them in suspense, that they might with stronger desire
look forward to the coming of Christ.
However we may regard this, I have no doubt but he
was the last of the Prophets; for he bids the people to
adhere to the doctrine of the Law until Christ should be
revealed.
The sum and substance of the Book is, - that though
the Jews had but lately returned to their own country,
they yet soon returned to their own nature, became
unmindful of God's favor, and so gave themselves up to
many corruptions; that their state was nothing better
than that of their fathers before them, so that God had
as it were lost all his labour in chastising them. As
then the Jews had again relapsed into many vices, our
Prophet severely reproves them, and upbraids them with
ingratitude, because they rendered to God their deliverer
so shameful a recompense. He also mentions some of their
sins, that he might prove the people to be guilty, for he
saw that they were full of evasions. And he addresses the
priests, who had by bad examples corrupted the morals of
the people, when yet their office required a very
different course of life; for the Lord had set them over
the people to be teachers of religion and of uprightness;
but from them did emanate a great portion of the vices of
the age; and hence our Prophet the more severely condemns
them.
He shows at the same time that God would remember
his gratuitous covenant, which he had made with their
fathers, so that the Redeemer would at length come. -This
is the substance of the whole: I come now to the words.-
COMMENTARIES
ON
THE PROPHET MALACHI
CHAPTER 1:
1. The burden of the word of the Jehovah on Israel, by
Malachi,-
They who explain mesha, burden, as signifying
prophecy, without exception, are mistaken, as I have
elsewhere reminded you; for prophecy is not everywhere
called a burden; and whenever this word is expressed,
there is ever to be understood some judgment of God; and
it appears evident from Jer. 23:38, that this word was
regarded as ominous, so that the ungodly, when they
wished to brand the Prophets with some mark of reproach,
used this as a common proverb, "It is a burden,"
intimating thereby that nothing else was brought by the
Prophets but threatenings and terrors, in order that they
might have some excuse for closing their ears, and for
evading all prophecies by giving them an unhappy and
ominous name.
As we proceed it will become evident that the
doctrine of Malachi is not without reason called a
Burden; for as I have stated in part, and as it will be
more fullv seen hereafter, it was necessary that the
people should be summoned before God's tribunal, inasmuch
as many sins had again begun to prevail among them, and
such as could not be endured: and for this reason he says
that God's judgment was at hand.
But under the name of Israel he refers only to those
who had returned to their own country, whether they were
of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, or of the tribe of
Levi. It is nevertheless probable that there were also
some mixed with them from the other tribes: but the Jews
and their neighbors, the half tribe of Benjamin, had
almost alone returned to their country, with the
exception of the Levites, who had been their guides in
their journey, and encouraged the rest of the people.
They were yet called Israel indiscriminately, since among
them only pure religion continued: but they who remained
dispersed among foreign and heathen nations, had as it
were lost their name, though they had not wholly departed
from the pure worship of God and true religion. Hence, by
way of excellency, they were called Israel, who had again
assembled in the holy land, that they might there enjoy
the inheritance promised them from above.
The word hand, as we have observed elsewhere, means
ministration. The meaning then is, that this doctrine
proceeded from God, but that a minister, even Malachi,
was employed as an instrument; so that he brought nothing
as his own, but only related faithfully what had been
committed to him by God from whom it came. It then
follows
2. I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, Wherein
best thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith
the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, 3. And I hated Esau, and
laid his molmtains and his heritage waste for the dragons
of the wilderness.
4. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will
return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord
of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and
they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The
people against whom the Lord has indignation for ever. 5.
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will
be magnified from the border of Israel.
6. A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master:
if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be
a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto
you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein
have we despised thy name?
2. Dilexi vos, dicit Jehovah; et dixistis, In quo
dilexisti nos? Annon frater Esau erat ipsi Jacob? dicit
Jehovah; et dilexi Jacob,
3. Et Esau odio habui; et posui montes ejus solitudinem,
et haereditatem ejus serpentibus desertum (alit vertunt,
deserti.) 4. Si dixerit Edom, Attenuati sumus, sed
revertemur, et aedificabimus deserta: sic dicit Iehova
exercituum Ipsi aedificabmlt, et ego diruam, et dicetur
illis, Terminus impietatis et populous cui infensus est
Iehova in perpetuum.
5. Et oculi vestri videbunt, et vos dicetis,
Magnificabitur Iehova super terminum Israel. (Addendus
etiam sextus versus, saltem initium:)
6. Filius honorat patrem, et servus dominum suum; et si
pater ego, ubi honor meus? et si dominus dgo, ubi timor
mei? dicit Iehova exercituum.
I am constrained by the context to read all these
verses; for the sense cannot be otherwise completed. God
expostulates here with a perverse and an ungrateful
people, because they doubly deprived him of his right;
for he was neither loved nor feared, though he had a just
claim to the name and honor of a master as well as that
of a father. As then the Jews paid him no reverence, he
complains that he was defrauded of his right as a father;
and as they entertained no fear for him, he condemns them
for not acknowledging, him as their Lord and Master, by
submitting to his authority. But before he comes to this,
he shows that he was both their Lord and Father; and he
declares that he was especially their Father, because he
loved them.
We now then understand the Prophet's intention; for
God designed to show here how debased the Jews were, as
they acknowledged him neither as their Father nor as
their Lord; they neither reverenced him as their Lord,
nor regarded him as their Father. But he brings forward,
as I have already said, his benefits, by which he proves
that he deserved the honor due to a father and to a
master.
Hence he says, I loved you. God might indeed have
made an appeal to the Jews on another ground; for had he
not manifested his love to them, they were yet bound to
submit to his authority. He does not indeed speak here of
God's love generally, such as he shows to the whole human
race; but he condemns the Jews, inasmuch as having been
freely adopted by God as his holy and peculiar people,
they yet forgot this honor, and despised the Giver, and
regarded what he taught them as nothing. When therefore
God says that he loved the Jews, we see that his object
was to convict them of ingratitude for having despised
the singular favor bestowed on them alone, rather than to
press that authority which he possesses over all mankind
in common. God then might have thus addressed them, "I
have created you, and have been to you a kind Father; by
my favor does the sun shine on you daily, and the earth
produces its fruit; in a word, I hold you bound to me by
innumerable benefits." God might have thus spoken to
them; but as I have said, his object was to bring forward
the gratuitous adoption with which he had favored the
seed of Abraham; for it was a less endurable impiety,
that they had despised so incomparable a favor; inasmuch
as God had preferred them to all other nations, not on
the ground of merit or of any worthiness, but because it
had so pleased him. This then is the reason why the
Prophet begins by saying, that the Jews had been loved by
God: for they had made the worst return for this
gratuitous favor, when they despised his doctrine. This
is the first thing.
There is further no doubt but that he indirectly
condemns their ingratitude when he says, In what hast
thou loved us? The words indeed may be thus explained - "
If ye say, or if ye ask, In what have I loved you? Even
in this - I preferred your father Jacob to Esau, when yet
they were twin brothers." But we shall see in other
places that the Jews by evasions malignantly obscured
God's favor, and that this wickedness is in similar words
condemned. Hence the Prophet, seeing that he had to do
with debased men, who would not easily yield to God nor
acknowledge his kindness by a free and ingenuous
confession, introduces them here as speaking thus
clamorously, "Ho! when hast thou loved us! in what! the
tokens of thy love do not appear." He answers in God's
name, "Esau was Jacob's brother; and yet I loved Jacob,
and Esau I hated."
We now see what I have just referred to, - that the
Jews are reminded of God's gratuitous covenant, that they
might cease to excuse their wickedness in having misused
this singular favor. He does not then upbraid them here,
because they had been as other men created by God,
because God caused his sun to shine on them, because they
were supplied with food from the earth; but he says, that
they had been preferred to other people, not on account
of their own merit, but because it had pleased God to
choose their father Jacob. He might have here adduced
Abraham as an example; but as Jacob and Esau proceeded
from Abraham, with whom God had made the covenant, his
favor was the more remarkable, inasmuch as though Abraham
had been alone chosen by God, and other nations were
passed by, yet from the very family which the Lord had
adopted, one had been chosen while the other was
rejected. When a comparison is made between Esau and
Jacob, we must bear in mind that they were brothers; but
there are other circumstances to be noticed, which though
not expressed here by the Prophet, are yet well known:
for all the Jews knew that Esau was the first-born; and
that hence Jacob had obtained the right of primogeniture
contrary to the order of nature. As then this was
commonly known, the Prophet was content to use only this
one sentence, Esau was Jacob's brother.
But he says that Jacob was chosen by God, and that
his brother, the first-born, was rejected. If the reason
be asked, it is not to be found in their descent, for
they were twin brothers; and they had not come forth from
the womb when the Lord by an oracle testified that Jacob
would be the greater. We hence see that the origin of all
the excellency which belonged to the posterity of
Abraham, is here ascribed to the gratuitous love of God,
according to what Moses often said, " Not because ye
excelled other nations, or were more in number, has God
honored you with so many benefits; but because he loved
your fathers." The Jews then had always been reminded,
that they were not to seek for the cause of their
adoption but in the gratuitous favour of God; he had been
pleased to choose them - this was the source of their
salvation. We now understand the Prophet's design when he
says, that Esau was Jacob's brother, and yet was not
loved by God.
We must at the same time bear in mind what I have already
said - that this singular favour of God towards the
children of Jacob is referred to, in order to make them
ashamed of their ingratitude, inasmuch as God had set his
love on objects so unworthy. For had they been deserving,
they might have boasted that a reward was rendered to
them; but as the Lord had gratuitously and of his own
good pleasure conferred this benefit on them, their
impiety was the less excusable. This baseness then is
what our Prophet now reprobates.
Then follows a proof of hatred as to Esau, the Lord
made his mountain a desolation, and his inheritance a
desert where serpents dwelt. Esau, we know, when driven
away by his own shame, or by his father's displeasure,
came to Mount Seir; and the whole region where his
posterity dwelt was rough and enclosed by many mountains.
But were any to object and say, that this was no
remarkable token of hatred, as it might on the other hand
be said, that the love of God towards Jacob was not much
shown, because he dwelt in the land of Canaan, since the
Chaldeans inhabited a country more pleasant and more
fruitful, and the Egyptians also were very wealthy; to
this the answer is - that the land of Canaan was a symbol
of God's love, not only on account of its fruitfulness,
but because the Lord had consecrated it to himself and to
his chosen people. So Jerusalem was not superior to other
cities of the land, either to Samaria or Bethlehem, or
other towns, on account of its situation, for it stood,
as it is well known, in a hilly country, and it had only
the spring of Siloam, fiom which flowed a small stream;
and the view was not so beautiful, nor its fertility
great; at the same time it excelled in other things. for
God had chosen it as his sanctuary; and the same must be
said of the whole land. As then the land of Canaan was,
as it were, a pledge of an eternal inheritance to the
children of Abraham, the scripture on this account
greatly extols it, and speaks of it in magnificent terms.
If Mount Seir was very wealthy and replenished with
everything delightful, it must have been still a sad
exile to the Idumeans, because it was a token of their
reprobation; for Esau, when he left his father's house,
went there; and he became as it were an alien, having
deprived himself of the celestial inheritance, as he had
sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. This is the
reason why God declares here that Esau was dismissed as
it were to the mountains, and deprived of the Holy Land
which God had destined to his chosen people.
But the Prophet also adds another thing, - that
God's hatred as manifested when the posterity of Esau
became extinct. For though the Assyrians and Chaldeans
had no less cruelly raged against the Jews than against
the Edomites, yet the issue was very different; for after
seventy years the Jews returned to their own country, as
Jeremiah had promised: yet Idumea was not to be restored,
but the tokens of God's dreadful wrath had ever appeared
there in its sad desolations. Since then there had been
no restoration as to Idumea, the Prophet shows that by
this fact the love of God towards Jacob and his hatred
towards Esau had been proved; for it had not been through
the contrivance of men that the Jews had liberty given
them, and that they were allowed to build the temple; but
because God had chosen them in the person of Jacob, and
designed them to be a peculiar and holy people to
himself.
But as to the Edomites, it became then only more
evident that they had been rejected in the person of
Esau, since being once laid waste they saw that they were
doomed to perpetual destruction. This is then the import
of the Prophet's words when he says, that the possession
of Esau had been given to serpents. For, as I have
already said, though for a time the condition of Judea
and of Idumea had not been unlike, yet when Jerusalem
began to rise and to be repaired, then God clearly showed
that that land had not been in vain given to his chosen
people. But when the neighbouring country was not
restored, while yet the posterity of Esau might with less
suspicion have repaired their houses, it became hence
sufficiently evident that the curse of God was upon them.
And to the same purpose he adds, If Edom shall say,
We have been diminished, but we shall return and build
houses; but if they build, I will pull down, saith God.
He confirms what I have stated, that the posterity of
Edom had no hope of restoration, for however they might
gather courage and diligently labour in rebuilding their
cities, they were not yet to succeed, for God would pull
down all their buildings. This difference then was like a
living representation, by which the Jews might see the
love of God towards Jacob, and his hatred towards Esau.
For since both people were overthrown by the same enemy,
how was it that liberty was given to the Jews and no
permission was given to the Idumeans to return to their
own country? There was, as it has been said, a greater
ill-will to the Jews, and yet the Chaldeans dealt with
them more kindly. It then follows, that all this was
owing to the wonderful purpose of God, and that hence it
also appeared, that the adoption, which seemed to have
been abolished when the Jews were driven into exile, was
not in vain.
Thus then saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build,
that is, though they may build, I will overthrow; and it
shall be said to them, Border of ungodliness, and a
people with whom Jehovah is angry for ever. By the border
of ungodliness he means an accursed border; as though he
had said, "It will openly appear that you are reprobate,
so that the whole world can form a judgment by the event
itself." By adding, A people with whom Jehovah is angry
or displeased, he again confirms what I have said of love
and hatred. God might indeed have been equally angry with
the Jews as with the Edomites, but when God became
pacified towards the Jews, while he continued inexorable
to the posterity of Esau, the difference between the two
people was hence quite manifest.
Noticed also must be the words, ad-olam, for ever:
for God seemed for a time to have rejected the Jews, and
the Prophets adopt the same word som, angry, when they
deplore the condition of the peep]e, who found in various
ways that God was angry with them. But the wrath of God
towards the Jews was only for a time, for he did not
wholly forget his covenant; but he became angry with the
Edomites for ever, because their father had been
rejected: and we know that this difference between the
elect and the reprobate is ever pointed out, that when
God visits sins in common, he ever moderates his wrath
towards his elect, and sets limits to his severity,
according to what he says, "If his posterity keep not my
covenant, but profane my law, I will chastise them with
the rod of man; but my mercy will I not take away from
him." (Ps. 89: 31-33; 2 Sam. 7:14.) But with regard to
the reprobate, God's vengeance ever pursues them, is ever
suspended over their heads, and ever fixed as it were in
their bones and marrow. For this reason it is that our
Prophet says, that God would be angry with the posterity
of Esau.
He adds, Your eyes shall see. The Jews had already
begun in part to witness this spectacle, but the Prophet
speaks here of what was to continue. See then shall your
eyes; that is, "As it has already appeared of what avail
gratuitous election has been to you, by which I have
chosen you as my people, and as ye have also seen on the
other hand how it has been with your relations the
Edomites, because they had been rejected in the person of
their father Esau; so also this same difference shall
ever be evident to you in their posterity: see then shall
your eyes.
And ye shall say, Magnified let Jehovah be over the
border of Israel; that is, "The event itself will extort
this confession, - that I greatly enhance my goodness
towards you." For though tokens of God's grace shone
forth everywhere, and the earth, as the Psalmist says, is
full of his goodness, (Ps. 104: 24;) yet there was in
Judea something special, so that.our Prophet does not in
vain say, that there would be always reasons for the Jews
to celebrate God's praises on account of his bounty to
them more than to the rest of the world. And the Prophet
no doubt reproves here indirectly the wickedness of the
people, as though he had said, - "Ye indeed, as far as
you can, bury God's benefits, or at least extenuate them;
but facts themselves must draw from you this confession -
that God deals bountifully with the border of Israel,
that he exercises there his favour more remarkably than
among any of the nations."
After having briefly referred to those benefits
which ought to have filled the Jews with shame, he comes
at length to the subject he had in view; for his main
object, as I have already stated, was to show, that it
was God's complaint that he was deprived of his own right
and in a double sense, for the Jews did not reverence him
as their Father, nor fear him as their Lord. He might
indeed have called himself Lord and Father by the right
of creation; but he preferred, as I have already
explained, to appeal to their adoption; for it was a
remarkable favour, when the Lord chose some out of all
the human race; and we cannot say that the cause of this
was to be found in men. Whom then he designs to choose,
he binds to himself by a holier bond. But if they
disappoint him, wholly inexcusable is their perfidy.
As we now understand the Prophet's meaning, and the
object of this expostulation, it remains for us to learn
how to accommodate what is taught to ourselves. We are
not indeed descended fronm Abraham or from Jacob
according to the flesh; but as God has engraved on us
certain marks of his adoption, by which he has
distinguished us from other nations, while we were yet
nothing better, we hence see that we are justly exposed
to the same reproof with the Jews, if we do not respond
to the calling of God. I wished thus briefly to touch on
this point, in order that we may know that this doctrine
is no less useful to us at this day than it was to the
Jews; for though the adoption is not exactly the same, as
it then belonged to one seed and to one family, yet we
are not superior to others through our own worthiness,
but because God has gratuitously chosen us as a people to
himself. Since this has been the case, we are his; for he
has redeemed us by the blood of his own Son, and by
rendering us partakers, by the gospel, of a favour so
ineffably great, he has made us his sons and his
servants. Except then we love and reverence him as our
Father, and except we fear him as our Lord, there is
found in us at this day an ingratitude no less base than
in that ancient people. But as I wished now only to refer
to the chief point, I shall speak to-morrow, as the
passage requires, on the subject of election: but it was
necessary first briefly to show the Prophet's design, as
I have done; and then to treat particular points more at
large, as the case may require.
PRAYER.
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast not only designed
to give us a life in common in this world but hast also
separated us from other heathen nations, and illuminated
us by the Sun of Righteousness, thine only begotten Son,
in order to lead us into the inheritance of eternal
salvation, - O grant, that having been rescued from the
darkness of death, we may ever attend to that celestial
light, by which thou guidest and invitest us to thyself;
and may we so walk as the children of light, as never to
wander from the course of our holy calling, but to
advance in it continually, until we shall at length reach
the goal which thou hast set before us, so that having
put off all the filth of the flesh, we may be transformed
into that ineffable glory, of which we have now the image
in thine only-begotten, Son. - Amen.
Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
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