Commentary on the Twelve Prophets, Volume 3

Commentary on Malachi, Chapter Three

COMMENTARY ON MALACHI, CHAPTER THREE Lo, I am sending my messenger, and he will have an eye to the way before me, and the Lord will suddenly come into his Temple, whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight (v.1). ITH THEM asking, Where is God? (595) the text before us appropriately moves to the mystery of Christ. Emmanuel came from the God and Father, remember , as our “righteousness and sanctification and redemption,”1 a cleansing of every stain, removal of sin, abolition of shame, a way to better and more fitting things, a door, as it were, and introduction to eternal life. Through him came complete reform, overthrow of oppression, and emergence of righteousness—in fact, with which marvelous things have we not been enriched through him? Accordingly, Lo, I am sending my messenger, and he will have an eye to the way before me. In this there is an apparent prediction of the ministry of the holy Baptist; Christ himself said, remember, “This is the one about whom it is written, Lo, I send my messenger before you, who will prepare your way before you.” The divinely inspired Isaiah also indicated him to us likewise in the words, “A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.”2 Once he came, the text is saying, as a forerunner he was under orders briefly to make this announcement, the Lord will suddenly come into his Temple, whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant , in whom you delight. Blessed John also gave confirmation in saying to those coming to the baptism of repentance, “While I baptize you with water, there is coming after me a man, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop and untie; he 320 1. 1 Cor 1.30. 2. Mt 11.10; Is 40.3. COMMENTARY ON MALACHI 3 321 will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”3 You understand , therefore, how Christ immediately afterwards walked in the footsteps, as it were, of the foreteller, making himself known to people throughout Judea, appearing suddenly and unexpectedly , so to say. (596) We actually say the divinely inspired Baptist is called an “angel,” though not by nature, since he was born of a woman and was a human being like us; rather, it is because he was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming and announcing such things to us. The title, therefore, comes from his role, and does not suggest an angel’s being.4 He will come into his Temple, the text says, either meaning that the Word became flesh and dwelt, as in a temple, in the pure body from the holy Virgin (or rather in a perfect human being —which, I mean, is believed to be directly and in the divine plan a unity of soul and body), or by Temple he refers simply to the sacred city dedicated to him, as it were (Jerusalem, that is), or to the Church as in a type. Now, he made the announcement of his own coming by working wonders in various ways, “preaching the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people,” as Scripture says.5 So he says, The Lord whom you seek will come, namely, those asking in desperation , “Where is the God of righteousness?” He will come to teach what is beyond the Law and what surpasses shadow and types, being a messenger of the covenant that was prophesied of old in the word of the God and Father. He said somewhere to the revealer Moses, “I shall raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people, I shall put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.”6 Now, the fact that Christ was the angel of the new covenant blessed Isaiah also makes clear in saying of him, “Because they will return with transformation all apparel assembled by deceit and every garment. They would prefer to be burned alive because a child has been born to us and a son given to us; government is on his shoulder, and he will be called (597) Angel of Great Counsel.” Hence he also 3. A conflation of Mt 3.11 and Mk 1.7. 4. At the outset of commentary on Malachi (as on Hg 1.13), Cyril noted the...