Who is the "sun of righteousness"? Study Malachi 4 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · MALACHI 4 — THE BURNING DAY, THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ELIJAH BEFORE THE GREAT DAY
Interpreters have understood the phrase as a figure for the Messiah, as a description of God's righteousness arriving like sunrise, or as a symbol of the vindication of the faithful. The Christian church from early times has applied it to Christ, and Zechariah's song uses the image of a dawn from on high. This commentary takes it as a messianic image in which Christ comes as the light that brings healing and justice.
The wings are probably the rays of the sun as they spread across the sky. Some think that the image alludes to the winged sun disc, a widespread symbol in the ancient Near East and Persia, and that the prophet uses it to say that it is the LORD, and not a pagan symbol, who brings healing. Others see the wings as the corners of a garment, as in Ruth 3:9 and Matthew 23:37, a picture of protection and care. The meaning of healing is not affected.
The word "healing" is used in the Old Testament for both physical and spiritual restoration, and this commentary sees the verse as a promise of comprehensive restoration, which includes physical healing as a gift in the present and a certainty in the age to come. It does not guarantee that every believer will be healed in this life, but it points to the coming of the One who heals, and Christ's ministry showed that healing is part of the kingdom.
Yes, according to Jesus (Matthew 11:14; 17:12–13) and the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:17), who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. John himself denied that he was Elijah in the sense of being Elijah returned to earth (John 1:21), which shows that he was not a reincarnation but a prophet in Elijah's likeness. Some expect a future appearance of Elijah or of a prophet like him before the day of the LORD, as the Jewish tradition does, and this commentary holds that view with humility.
It describes the restoration of right relationships in families and across generations, and by extension the restoration of the covenant community to its faith. In context, it follows the book's concern for marriage and family faithfulness (2:10–16). John's ministry of repentance brought people to a renewed relationship with God and with each other.
The ending is a warning, but it is also a promise that God will send a forerunner to call people to repentance, so that the destruction can be averted. The Old Testament closes in expectation, and the New Testament shows how the expectation is met in Christ, in whom the curse is borne (Galatians 3:13), and who comes, not to destroy, but to save (John 3:17).
The fourth chapter of Malachi in English Bibles is the third chapter's last six verses in the Hebrew Bible (3:19–24), and it is the conclusion of the sixth disputation (begun at 3:13), together with the closing exhortations of the book. It is a short chapter, but it carries great weight, since it is the last word of the Old Testament in the Christian canon. In the Hebrew Bible, the order of the books is different, and the last book is 2 Chronicles, but the Christian arrangement of the Old Testament, which follows the Septuagint's grouping of the Prophets at the end, places Malachi immediately before the Gospel of Matthew. This arrangement allows the final promise of Elijah's coming to lead directly into the New Testament, which begins with the genealogy of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist. In the Jewish liturgical tradition, the last verse (3:24 in Hebrew) is repeated after the reading of Malachi in the synagogue so that the book does not end on the note of the curse. The chapter responds to the question that has driven the book: is it worth serving God? The answer is a vision of the day of the LORD in which the wicked are destroyed and the righteous are healed. The contrast between the two groups is stressed, and the day comes as judgment for some and salvation for others. The remembrance of the law of Moses and the promise of Elijah serve as bookends for the long period that would follow. The Jewish people would wait for about four hundred years after Malachi, a time often called the intertestamental period, in which there was no new prophetic word, until the arrival of John the Baptist.
The prophecy of Elijah's coming and its fulfillment in John the Baptist is one of the clearest examples of fulfilled prophecy in the Bible. The expectation of Elijah's return was widespread in Second Temple Judaism, as shown in Sirach 48:10, which speaks of Elijah as one who was destined to calm the wrath of God and to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and in the Gospels, where the people asked whether John or Jesus was Elijah (Mark 8:28; John 1:21). Jewish tradition continues the expectation to this day, as can be seen in the custom of pouring a cup for Elijah at the Passover Seder. The Gospels' report that John dressed in camel hair and a leather belt (Mark 1:6) matches the description of Elijah in 2 Kings 1:8, and it reflects a conscious prophetic identification. The description of John's ministry by Josephus, written independently of the Gospels, confirms that he was a historical figure who preached repentance and attracted large crowds. The canonical position of Malachi and the four hundred years of silence that followed have also been noted by historians. The Jewish writings of the period, including 1 Maccabees, speak of the absence of a prophet (1 Maccabees 4:46; 9:27; 14:41), and the community at Qumran looked for the coming of a prophet and messiahs, and this confirms that the expectation of the final prophet was a part of the religious landscape. The text of Malachi has been well preserved, and its last verses are read in the Hebrew Bible after the end of the book of the Twelve, with the verse repeated to avoid ending on a negative note, which shows how seriously the tradition treated the text. The fulfillment of the promise in the first century, after four centuries, with a prophet in the wilderness, is a remarkable correspondence that strengthens the case for the reliability of the biblical witness.
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.