SUMMARY
Like their ancestors, the people of JudahJudah was the name of Jacob's fourth son and one of the 12 tribes. More will experience another national pruning event, only this time, there will be no root or branches left. Those who fear the LORD, however, will still prosper.
ANALYSIS
This troubling passage is essentially confirmation that the Babylonian exile failed to produce lasting national repentance. The arrogant and evildoers are still plentiful. They will be burned like chaff (See Matthew 3:11-12, 13:24-43). At the close of the dialogue back and forth between the people and God in the first three chapters of Malachi, it is not clear that the people are willing to trust God, behave justly and maintain covenantal faithfulness. So God plans another cataclysmic event, even as the returned exiles are just barely getting used to life in the land again.
Yet, the Day of the LORDThe Day of the Lord, in prophetic writing, is the day of judgment when God will intervene directly in world affairs. As described in Zephaniah, for instance, God will sweep everything away. In Matthew's gospel God is described as gathering the elect on the day... More will be a cause of celebration for those who fear God. They will bask in the light of the sun of righteousness. Further, they will be like animals let loose from their confining pens. This differentiated fate is developed in the intertestamental periodThe time period from the book of Malachi in the Old Testament to the opening of the book of Matthew in the New (about 400 years) is regarded as the intertestamental period. During this period some of the books of the Apocrypha like Tobit and... More and in the New Testament, so that the title “Children of Light” becomes a designation for a sort of in-group of faithful people who know and do God’s will, especially around the dawning Day of the Lord ( Luke 16:8-9; John 12:36; Ephesians 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11).
