8-Blogging the New Testament. Lecture Two: John the Baptist

Part Eight begins here. Lecture Two: John the Baptist.

We begin by looking at the Malachi passages. Here is Malachi 3.1-3. This is the Word of the LORD; thanks be to God.

א הִנְנִי שֹׁלֵחַ מַלְאָכִי, וּפִנָּה-דֶרֶךְ לְפָנָי; וּפִתְאֹם יָבוֹא אֶל-הֵיכָלוֹ הָאָדוֹן אֲשֶׁר-אַתֶּם מְבַקְשִׁים, וּמַלְאַךְ הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר-אַתֶּם חֲפֵצִים הִנֵּה-בָא--אָמַר, יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת.

1 Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, behold, he cometh, saith the LORD of hosts.

ב וּמִי מְכַלְכֵּל אֶת-יוֹם בּוֹאוֹ, וּמִי הָעֹמֵד בְּהֵרָאוֹתוֹ: כִּי-הוּא כְּאֵשׁ מְצָרֵף, וּכְבֹרִית מְכַבְּסִים.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap;

ג וְיָשַׁב מְצָרֵף וּמְטַהֵר, כֶּסֶף, וְטִהַר אֶת-בְּנֵי-לֵוִי וְזִקַּק אֹתָם, כַּזָּהָב וְכַכָּסֶף; וְהָיוּ, לַיהוָה, מַגִּישֵׁי מִנְחָה, בִּצְדָקָה.

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and there shall be they that shall offer unto the LORD offerings in righteousness.

We quote from Calvin’s commentary on Malachi for context, this prophetic book being four hundred years out from the arrival of the Baptist and Jesus.[1] Calvin says of Malachi.

"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 labor 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."

Malachi says “Behold,” an attention-getter, to wit, that the Messenger is coming. He uses the term twice (הִנְנִי). As a former military man, we are not being given options here. The sense is, “Stand by, shipmate and listen up.”

Actually, there are two messengers in view.

The personal pronouns in 1.1 are important, “I will send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me.” He, the Forerunning Messenger of the long-awaited Messenger, will clear “the impediments lying in the road” which “denotes the removal of all that retards the coming of the Lord to His people, e.g. the taking away of enmity to God of ungodliness by the preaching of repentance and the conversion of sinners.”[2]

The second Messenger comes to view.

The “I,” “My” and “Me” refers to the LORD of hosts in all His rich, humbling, blinding, shekinah glory, יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת. We would refer the reader to Calvin’s Institutes of Religion, Book I, for a beginner’s handbook for theology proper.[3] Utter respect is in order. We would refer all readers to The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, for an orderly and respectful approach to the Divine Being.

An appropriate response--personally and corporately—to these “personal pronouns” on view from Malachi 3.1 are as follows. Habakkuk 2.20, But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. Ecclesiastes 5.2, Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou on earth: therefore let thy words be few. Isaiah 66.1-2: Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

If the modern Churchman and Church would but reacquire the biblical approach of the prophets: reverence and respect for God's Word!

The Malachi passage has Isaiah 40.1ff. in view. Isaiah, centuries earlier, heard the voice calling in the wilderness.[4] There are two messengers in view, one as a preparatory worker, e.g. John the Baptist, and the second is the LORD Himself.

Concerning the Second Messenger, we are told that He will “suddenly” come to His Temple. The word “suddenly” always has a calamitous context. [5] וּפִתְאֹם suggests “unexpectedly” not “immediately.”[6] The possessive pronoun, His Temple, suffuses the issue about the Person (and work) of Messiah. It was not a second Moses or second David that was sought, but the coming of the LORD Himself.

The people had been seeking this Messenger or Messiah, had delighted in the Messianic promises, with hope, faith and anticipation. Malachi says indicatively and predictively, “He is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” Who can endure that day when he comes?

As to the first messenger in our passage, the Baptist, he mirrors the practice of the ancient near east, wherein, messengers will precede the arrival of a king. The same practice is observed on the “pilgrimages” of Tudor kings and queens who would travel through England during the summers—houses would be commandeered, food prepared, and various activities, arts, dramas, and festivals. All would be made ready for the King.

We bring Part Eight to an end. One verypractical lesson we take from all of this—reverence for the Word of the LORD. Thanks be to God. Also, let your daily words be view, Coram Deo.

[1] John Calvin. Malachi. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom30.txt accessed 16 August 2009.
[2] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Vol X: Minor Prophets (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978), 457..
[3] http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2009/07/calvinistic-anglican-blogs-calvins_24.html
[4] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch), op.cit., 457-460.
[5] New Geneva Study Bible (Atlanta: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 1492. Further references are Numbers 12.4; Is.47.11; 2 Peter 3.10.
[6] C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch,), 458.