46 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
Introduction to Malachi
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God\'s prophets were his witnesses to his church, each in his day, for
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several ages, witnesses for him and his authority, witnesses against sin
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and sinners, attesting the true intents of God\'s providences in his
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dealings with his people then and the kind intentions of his grace
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concerning his church in the days of the Messiah, to whom all the
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prophets bore witness, for they all agreed in their testimony; and now
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we have only one witness more to call, and we have done with our
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evidence; and though he be the last, and in him prophecy ceased, yet the
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Spirit of prophecy shines as clearly, as strongly, as brightly in him as
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in any that went before, and his testimony challenges an equal regard.
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The Jews say, Prophecy continued forty years under the second temple,
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and this prophet they call the seal of prophecy, because in him the
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series or succession of prophets broke off and came to a period. God
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wisely ordered it so that divine inspiration should cease for some ages
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before the coming of the Messiah, that that great prophet might appear
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the more conspicuous and distinguishable and be the more welcome. Let us
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consider, `I.` The person of the prophet. We have only his name, Malachi,
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and no account of his country or parentage. Malachi signifies my angel,
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which has given occasion for a conjecture that this prophet was indeed
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an angel from heaven and not a man, as that Judges 2:1. But there is no
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just ground for the conjecture. Prophets were messengers, God\'s
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messengers; this prophet was so; his name is the very same with that
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which we find in the original (3:1) for my messenger; and perhaps from
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that word he might (though, probably, he had another name) be called
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Malachi. The Chaldee paraphrase, and some of the Jews, suggest that
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Malachi was the same with Ezra; but that also is groundless. Ezra was a
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scribe, but we never read that he was a prophet. Others, yet further
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from probability, make him to be Mordecai. But we have reason to
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conclude he was a person whose proper name was that by which he is here
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called; the tradition of some of the ancients is that he was of the
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tribe of Zebulun, and that he died young. `II.` The scope of the prophecy.
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Haggai and Zechariah were sent to reprove the people for delaying to
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build the temple; Malachi was sent to reprove them for the neglect of it
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when it was built, and for their profanation of the temple-service (for
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from idolatry and superstition they ran into the other extreme of
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impiety and irreligion), and the sins he witnesses against are the same
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that we find complained of in Nehemiah\'s time, with whom, it is
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probable, he was contemporary. And now that prophecy was to cease he
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speaks more clearly of the Messiah, as nigh at hand, than any other of
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the prophets had done, and concludes with a direction to the people of
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God to keep in remembrance the law of Moses, while they were in
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expectation of the gospel of Christ.
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