Ye have wearied the Lord with your words - (Isaiah 43:24).
Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? This verse forms the transition to Malachi 3:1, "The Lord shall suddenly come," etc. The Jewish sceptics of that day said virtually God delighteth in evil doers (inferring this from the prosperity of the surrounding pagan, while they, the Jews, were comparatively not prosperous: forgetting that their attendance to minor and external duties did not make up for their neglect of the weightier duties of the law-e.g., the duty they owed their wives, just before handled); or (if not), Where (is the proof that He is) the God of judgment? To this the reply (Malachi 3:1) is, "The Lord whom ye seek," and whom, as "messenger of the covenant (i:e., divine ratifier of God's covenant with Israel), ye delight in (thinking He will restore Israel to its proper place as first of the nations), shall suddenly come," not as a Restorer of Israel temporally, but as a consuming Judge against Jerusalem. You, who "desire the day of the Lord," shall find it a very different one in its relation to you from, what you expect it. It shall not bring you the "delight" that you expect, but "woe" and "darkness" (Amos 5:18-20). The "suddenly" implies the unpreparedness of the Jews, who, to the last of the siege, were expecting a temporal deliverer, whereas a destructive judgment was about to destroy them. So scepticism shall be rife before Christ's second coming. He shall suddenly and unexpectedly come then also as a consuming Judge to unbelievers (2 Peter 3:3-4). Then, too, they shall affect to seek His coming, while really doubting, sneering at the prophecies about it, and virtually denying it (Isaiah 5:19; Jeremiah 17:15; Ezekiel 12:22; Ezekiel 12:27).
Remarks:
(1) If ministers do "not lay it to heart," as the chief aim of the ministry, "to give glory unto the name of the Lord" (Malachi 2:2), they convert each one of their very "blessings" into a curse, and entail ruin on their flocks, and a double retribution of woe to themselves.
(2) They who have had no shame in sinning shall be loaded with shame and suffering. Their past gains shall prove the source of their bitterest pains; and, though once they were among the honourable of the earth, they shall be swept away as the "dung" of the earth (Malachi 2:3).
(3) Those who will not be taught by the gracious Word of God, too late, "shall know," by bitter experience, that God's past warnings were designed to bring them happiness, and to save them from misery (Malachi 2:4).
(4) The covenant made with Christians, who are spiritually "priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6), is essentially the same as that which God established with Levi. It is a covenant of grace whereby God freely gives, in Christ, "life and peace," (Malachi 2:5). On the other hand, God requires on man's part reverent "fear," faith, and obedience. Levi accepted and regarded the covenant, and so experienced the faithfulness of God to His gracious promises (Malachi 2:5). So shall we also know by blessed experience the grace and love of God, if only "the law of truth" be in our mouth, as it was in the mouth of Levi (Malachi 2:6). Though it cannot be said of the children of God, They have no sin, it will be said of them at the last judgment, "In their mouth was found no guile" (Revelation 14:5). God Himself shall testify of the believer, as He did of Levi and of Enoch, "He walked with me in peace and equity."
(5) Those ministers alone are likely to "turn many away from iniquity" who are themselves walking in peace with (5) Those ministers alone are likely to "turn many away from iniquity" who are themselves walking in peace with God through Christ, and in equity and uprightness before God. A consistent and sincere walk powerfully seconds the minister's exhortations to his people.
(6) The office of a minister is the highest of all earthly functions; for he is designed to be the setter forth of the perfect "law" of God to his fellow-men, so that his flock should look to him for spiritual pasture, and reverence his office as being no less than that of "the messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Malachi 2:7).
(7) But just in proportion as his office is the noblest on earth, is the guilt aggravated of those who are a disgrace to it, by "departing out of the way," instead of "departing from all iniquity" (2 Timothy 2:19). An ordinary Christian's inconsistences may prove a stumblingblock to one or two, a minister's corruptions of the covenant "cause many to stumble." Therefore the unfaithful minister's punishment shall be proportionally heavy. As unfaithful ministers have dishonoured God, so God will dishonour them "before all" (Malachi 2:9). As the have "accepted the persons" of men, with unjust partiality, so God will reject their persons in His all-just judgment.
(8) The common Fatherhood of God in relation to all the members of His visible Church, not only by the right of creation, but also and especially by the right of redemption, is the strongest tie to unite us in the discharge of our mutual obligations to one another (Malachi 2:10). To "deal treacherously against our brethren" is therefore to deal treacherously against our common God and Father (Malachi 2:10). They who violate the marriage-covenant, by separating from, or by acting unfaithfully to, their one lawful wife, "profane the holiness of God," and transgress against the common Church of God, which He so gratuitously hath "loved" (Malachi 2:11). Shame and a curse shall be on him that "taketh the members of Christ, and maketh them the members of an harlot," becoming "joined" as "one body" (1 Corinthians 7:16) to "the daughter" of fornication. "The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this" (Malachi 2:12). No offerings or religious services will save either minister or people who sin thus presumptuously, from the awful penalty. The tears of those who are wronged plead with God that He should "not accept with good will the offering" of the wrong doers (Malachi 2:13). The cries of the oppressed are louder in the ears of God than the prayers of the oppressors.
(9) God is a witness to every marriage, and will avenge every violation of that covenant upon the transgressors (Malachi 2:14).
(10) The design of the marriage-law of one man's union with one woman is that God might thereby have a "godly seed" (Malachi 2:15) to serve Him. Where the marriage-relation is made light of (as, alas! is the tendency, not only of individuals privately, but of the legislature in their public capacity), the design of God is proportionally set aside, to the great injury of the Church, and of the nation, and of society, and to the dishonour of God.
(11) It is vain to try to "cover" from God's cognizance of "violence" and wrong: He will tear off the "garment" of dissimulation. Therefore, let all "take heed to their spirit," for all sin begins there. If we would retain the good Spirit of God, who dwells in His elect people, we must take heed diligently to shun all "filthiness of the flesh and spirit" (2 Corinthians 7:1).
(12) Men "weary the Lord" when they justify themselves in sin (Malachi 2:17). Such self-justifiers are often those who arraign the justice of God. Instead of discerning their chastisements to be the just and merciful consequences of their sins, from which God would have them to flee in time, they assert that their own trials, and the prosperity of many around them, whom they consider worse than themselves, are proofs that God is indifferent to, or even delights in, evil doers. It is to he the characteristic especially of the last days, that men shall say, "Where is the God of judgment?" (Malachi 2:17.) May we be found loyal to our King in His visible absence, that so we may be owned as His when He shall come in personal and manifested glory as the Almighty Judge!