Behold, I will send my messenger, &c.— Here is a description of two persons whom God promises to send to the Jews. The one God calls my angel or messenger, whose errand is said to be to prepare the way before me; meaning, that he should be a prophet of note, (for so the Hebrew word מלאךֶ malaak has been interpreted in other parts of the Old Testament,) who should usher in the LORD who was to follow him,—and supply the place of a harbinger to a great Prince; and consequently, from the nature of his employ, was as much inferior to the Lord who was to come after him, as servants are to him whose forerunners they are appointed. The other is represented in very high characters, as that Lord whom they sought, or expected to come; as the Angel or Messenger of the covenant, in whom they delighted; that is to say, under or by whom they promised themselves all felicity; and again as a severe Judge, Malachi 3:2. It was partly the atheistical behaviour and discourse of many Jews in that age, which moved God to give them this prophesy. "We are not so wicked, said they to the prophet who reproved them, as you make us; or, there are others more wicked than we, that prosper; and why may not we? If God disliked their ways, he certainly would not bear with them; or, where is the God of judgment?" "Well then," replies God, "you shall know experimentally where he is, and find him where you least look for him. By Him whom you seek,—whom you delight in, will I appear to be a God of judgement: and, that you may not be surprised at his coming, Behold, I send my messenger," &c. He is the same person, as Eben Ezra observes, who, from the dignity of his person, is called the LORD, and from his office, Angel of the covenant. His office relates to a covenant with his people, which, as it seems by the punishment which followed his coming, they should reject. The time of his coming is said to be suddenly, that is, after the messenger, who was to prepare his way; and is implied to be under that temple which they despised and profaned, but of which he shall be the glory.
The question now is, Who is intended by the first messenger? and again, Who by the LORD,—the messenger of the covenant? You need only turn to chap. Malachi 4:5-6 to be sure that the first messenger is the same that is there called Elias. In the one place we read, My messenger shall prepare the way before me; in the other it is declared how he shall prepare it; viz. by turning the hearts of the fathers, &c. In the one place the day of his coming is described as very dreadful; But who may abide? &c. In the other, it is expressly named so, and with reference to what went before: that great and dreadful day of the Lord! in both for the same reason;—because of the terrible judgment which ensued. The Jews in St. Jerome's time interpreted the first messenger of Elias; and so did the Jews much earlier, who composed their liturgy: in the prayer at the bringing forth the book of the law, they say, "O God, animate and strengthen us, and send to us the angel (or messenger), the redeemer. Let Elias thy prophet surely come in our days, with Messiah the son of David thy servant." He is called Elias the prophet, chap. 4: but nowhere God's prophet, except in the passage before us, where God saith, I will send my messenger, &c. Knowing the first messenger, we cannot be in doubt about the second, since the coming of Elias and of the Lord Messiah are ever joined together by the Jews; the one presupposes and infers the other. You read in the prayer just quoted, "Send to us the angel (or messenger), the redeemer." This is Malachi's Angel of the covenant. Again, "Let Elias thy prophet surely come in our days, with the Messiah," &c. This is the LORD in Malachi, who shall suddenly come after the messenger, his forerunner. Kimchi, Abarbanel, and other of the ancient Rabbis, unanimously agree that the Hebrew word אדון adon, or, Lord, means the "Messiah the son of David." St. Jerome says they referred it to their ηλειμμενος, their Anointed, or Christ, which is the word that Aquila and Symmachus used for the Messiah: and indeed it is not possible to find any other person to whom the words in question will apply. What man besides was ever expected and sought, and delighted in, so long before they knew him? What man else was ever called the LORD, and the Lord of the temple, but he, whom David in spirit called My LORD, because of God's associating him as Man into dominion with himself, to sit at his right hand, till he made his enemies his footstool? What other deliverance was looked for by the Jews, as the deliverance of God himself, than that by the Messiah? There is one certain deliverance promised them in a succession of prophets, by the terms of salvation by the Lord,—by the Lord God himself, as superior to, and different from, their former deliverances by flesh and blood; and this the Jews appropriate to the redemption by the Messiah. God saves, and God judges by him: and he is, therefore, in Malachi, termed the Lord, as being Emmanuel, the God, the Saviour with us. In a word, who but one of his dignity ever had in Scripture a forerunner appointed him, that was predicted to give notice of, and prepare for, his coming? Who, but the Angel of the covenant, was likely to transact the new covenant, which God assured them he would make with them in the latter days, and, as they understood, by the Messiah? St. Mark, therefore, with good reason, introduces his Gospel with this unexceptionable text of Malachi, in order to shew the connection between the Old and New Testament; and that one began where the other ended. Malachi was the last prophet whom God vouchsafed to the Jews before the coming of Elias; and he, supposing the belief of a Messiah to come to be already received, and borrowing the expressions of the former prophets,—where-ever Malachi speaks clearly of the Messiah, he may be justly thought to direct how we should understand those prophesies before him, of the Messiah. Thus when he says, The Lord whom ye seek, &c. he plainly intimates, that in his days the Jews expected and wished for that coming; even before the assurance that he now gave them. They had certainly some grounds for such pleasing hopes; for no one desires or delights in things unknown, undescribed, unpromised: and, the event depending merely on the will of God, nothing less than God's revelation was sufficient foundation for believing it; which revelation God was wont to communicate to their nation by the prophets. The writings of the prophets were in their hands; and they read therein many gracious promises of great good under some king of the house of David, repeated frequently before and after the captivity. On these promises they built their hopes; and as their affairs became low or intricate, the more their longings for these happy times increased. In such a situation Malachi found them at the time he prophesied. But, did he tell them that they were mistaken in their expectations? On the contrary, he assures them, that the Lord whom they expected shall come, &c. He could not have established the belief of a Messiah better, if he had cited the very texts from which they expected him. Yet some of these texts he refers to in this prophesy; for the words spoken of Christ's harbinger, He shall prepare the way before me, being taken from Isaiah 40:1-3 we have Malachi's testimony that Isaiah prophesied of the same person as he does. Isaiah begins his prophesy thus, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, &c. Something very extraordinary appears to be here promised. The Jewish Targum tells us what it is, Malachi 3:9. Behold, the kingdom of your God is revealed; meaning the kingdom of the Messiah; which, because the God of heaven shall set it up, is called the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of heaven. Hence the Jews learned to call the days of the Messiah the days of consolation; and waiting for the consolation of Israel is explained by seeing the Lord's Christ, or Messiah, Luke 2:25-26 and by looking for redemption, and waiting for the kingdom of God. Hence one of the names of the Messiah is מנחם Menachem, or Comforter: and his salvation, Isaiah 62:1 is interpreted by the consolation of Israel, in the Chaldee. Since, therefore, Isaiah, under the figure of a voice proclaiming the approach of a greater person, prophesies of the coming of a certain messenger, to remove all hindrances out of his way, who is called the glory of the Lord, and their God; and since Malachi, predicting the coming of the same messenger, recites the very words of Isaiah, that he should prepare the way before him; and then applies the title of LORD to him whom they sought and delighted in; that is to say, to the Messiah;—we cannot avoid thinking that the same persons are intended in both the prophesies. It may be collected from this text, that angel or messenger is one of the titles of the Messiah. Malachi's fixing the character of messenger of the covenant on the Messiah authorises us to look for the accomplishment of those prophesies which speak of another covenant in the days of the Messiah. God signified by his prophets successively, that he would make a new covenant, a covenant of peace; an everlasting covenant: that he would give his servant, his elect, to be a covenant to the people, and a light to the Gentiles. To what time or person these prophesies did relate, might be disputed before Malachi prophesied, though they have internal marks which point to the Messiah. But after Malachi had said so plainly, that the Lord whom they sought, meaning the Messiah, is the Messenger of the covenant whom they delight in, and that he shall surely come, we can no longer doubt it. It is saying in other words, the Messiah shall be the declarer, the publisher, the mediator of that better covenant,—for all these ideas are comprehended in the word messenger,—as Moses was of the old covenant; and that a law should be given by him. See Bishop Chandler's Defence, p. 52, &c.