The delay of the Day of the Lord in Malachi: A missional reading

Abstract

In this article, the missional significance of the delay of the Day of the Lord in the postexilic book of Malachi will be studied, employing a missional hermeneutic. First, the canon-historical meaning of the relevant eschatological texts in Malachi 3 will be established. Attention will be paid to the historical and literary context of Malachi in which his precursor, Joel, is pivotal. Second, the New Testament appropriation of Malachi 3 in Matthew’s Gospel is assessed. To conclude, a proposal how Malachi’s motif of the delay of the Day of the Lord can best be missionally re-employed in the present time, will be presented. Hence, apart from a brief note on missional hermeneutics, the missional origin of the text of Malachi, the missional motivation for the delay and the role of the Day of the Lord in modern missiology will be studied.

‘Remember the law of Moses’: Malachi 3:22 in prophetic eschatology, with a missional postscript

“…This article is a sequel to three previous ones (Wielenga 2015;2018) looking into the eschatology of the postexilic prophets from Haggai to Malachi. They offer information about the historical context and theological background of the early postexilic Persian era as reflected in the Book of the Twelve Prophets (Nogalski 2017;Sweeney 2000).…”

“…Thirdly, the apparent delay in the fulfilment of the eschatological promises made by the prophet Haggai (2:6-9, 20-23) in 520 bce (Wielenga 2015;2018) had left them spiritually depressed and led them to question God's justice (Ml 2:17;(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) and to neglect to observe God's covenantal 5.See for the discussion Assis (2011:208-209), andSnyman (2012;2015:182-184).…”

“…This spiritual condition could theologically be described as covenant infidelity. Two breaches of the covenant are raised in the bitter dialogues between the prophet and the people: the vertical and the horizontal breach, both threatening the coherence of the postexilic covenant community (Wielenga 2016;2018). God's presence among his people in the temple, the heart-beat of their existence as a faith community, is endangered by their apathetic worship and depressed spirituality.…”

“…In this section, the function of Malachi 3:22 in the eschatological discourse of the book is discussed without going into that discourse as such (Wielenga 2016;2018). The points relevant to the argument developed here, are summarily sketched; then the discussion moves towards the relationship between the exhortation to remember the law of 16.The three terms (tora, huqqim, mishpatim) are also used in Malachi 2:6-9; 3:5, 7 (Assis 2011:209).…”

“…This is not to deny that it also forms a canon-conscious conclusion to the Book of the Twelve Prophets or the Corpus Propheticum in its entirety and even to the canon of the OT as well (Chapman 2000:144). 2 However, only the function of Malachi 3:22 is studied in the context of prophetic eschatology 3 as reflected in the message of Malachi about the delay of the Day of the Lord (Wielenga 2018). It focuses upon the charge to 'remember the law of my servant Moses' and the question will be examined how this serves the purpose of awaiting the arrival of the prophet Elijah before the advent of the Day of the Lord (Ml 3:23-24).…”