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Mal.4:1. 98 Zane 99 behold, the day is coming, burning like a cave, and it will burn me 100, and all the foreign women and all those who do iniquity will be 101 ... the stalk, and the day will 102 ... come, says the Lord Almighty, and 103 there will not be left 104 from them a root below a branch 105. One should think that the day of judgment will be in the fire, “the heavens... pass by with a noise, the elements that are burned will be destroyed, and the earth and the works on it will be burned up” everything... “the heavens are new and the earth is new according to the promises” 106 “by His tea” (2 Pet. 3:10-13), as one of the holy disciples said. So, he says, “like a cave,” the day of the Lord will come, and will burn all the foreigners, and will add to them “those who do wickedness”—there will be one punishment for both. Notice the art (of learning). Now he mentioned foreigners because they (the Jews) pleased them, saying: “and now we are blasphemous to strangers, and are created... those who commit iniquity, and resist God, and save themselves” (Mal. 3:15), - so that’s why he says that they will be burned, as those who opposed the glory of God and decided to worship the creature instead of the Creator ( Rom.1:28). Let us also take into account that in another sense, idolaters and in some other way alienated from the sacred and chosen race can be called foreigners, I mean, for example, heretics, about whom we can say, and with all justice: “She came forth from us, but was not from us: if they had been from us, they would have remained with us” (1 John 2:19). They, having renounced divine nobility and separated from the sacred and chosen race, which has become “a supply” (Mal. 3:17), obviously through faith in Christ, will become food for the all-consuming fire. “Those who do lawlessness” will be subjected to the same fate from God, even though they may be among those who believe and are chosen, and who know Him who is God by nature and in truth. After all, this alone is not enough for them to wash away sin, if it is true that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Faith in Christ, of course, justifies (Gal. 2:16) and frees us from the impurity of previous falls. But if anyone after this turns out to be careless and again falls into carnal and worldly passions, then he will, as it were, kill the faith in himself, adding nothing praiseworthy, but on the contrary, returning again to the former untruth of life. The divine disciple also speaks of such: “It is better for them not to know the path of righteousness, than for those who have known to return back from the holy commandment handed down to them: for a true parable happened to them: a dog returned to his vomit, and a pig, having washed, into a pot” (2 Pet. 2:21-22). So, “those who do evil”, along with foreigners, will be “straw” (straw), and just like it, they will be burned when the fire overtakes. After all, the grain is collected into the granary, just as the Savior speaks of the holy reapers, and the chaff is burned with unquenchable fire (Matthew 13:39–42 cf. 3 and parallels). “And from them the root will not remain below the branch,” that is, they will not have any hope of being reborn again to life - a life, I say, worthy of love and, as it were, in the glory of God, consisting (of life) in holiness and bliss. After all, when the root is not completely cut off and the branch is not completely torn out, there remains some hope for rebirth again, “for there is hope for the tree,” according to what is written (Job 14:7); so that even after it is cut down, it will grow again, and its shoots will not stop. If, from below and from the very root, it is completely torn out and undergoes complete cutting off of the branches, then at the same time, of course, all hope of being reborn to life will perish for it. So, the comparison with plants indicates the destruction of all hope for sinners. The divine Isaiah clearly proclaims this in the words: “the worm... theirs will not end, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a disgrace to all flesh” (Is. 66:24). Mal.4:2–3. And the sun of righteousness 107 and healing in its wings will shine upon you who fear my name: and 108 you will go out and leap like bulls from the bonds of freedom: and you will trample the wicked, 109 and there will be ashes under your feet in the day that I will do, says the Lord Almighty. The Only Begotten Word of God shone forth to those in this world and, taking on the likeness of us, “the Word became flesh and dwelt in us” (John 1:14). Like a certain sun, shining its brilliance on those who exist in darkness and darkness, and sending into the souls of believers a bright ray of true knowledge of God, It made them pure, wise and zealots of all virtue. It showed us the Father in Himself and, through ineffable mystery, made us happy and wise, filling our minds with the knowledge of Him. However, having been brought to such enlightenment and enriched, as Blessed Paul says, “in all speech and in all understanding” (1 Cor. 1:5), and “in all wisdom” (Eph. 1:8), we now “see” 110 in the mirror and in fortune telling, and we know “in part” (1 Cor. 13:12), but “that which is perfect will come” (1 Cor. 13:10). ), and we will already be in the fullest knowledge of Christ, when He again shines for us from heaven, abolishes “the hedgehog in part” and knowledge in the mirror and fortune-telling (1 Cor. 13:10, 12), shines as perfect (for us), saturates our mind with some divine and ineffable light and delights with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So the divine Paul said: “if the prophecies are abolished” and knowledge ceases (1 Cor. 13:8). We are not saying that we will move from partial knowledge to complete ignorance of something - far from it. Otherwise, how will the time of future hope not serve to harm the souls of the saints, 111 if it is necessary to lose even what we have, without acquiring anything better and without raising the mind to something higher, but, on the contrary, losing even what was once acquired not without difficulty? Prophecies will also be abolished, and knowledge will also cease, since, obviously, higher things (knowledge) will come to our souls. After all, if someone, when one (small) lamp is shining in the house and gives moderate light to those who see it, brings in a (large) lamp, then the light of that (small lamp) is necessarily, as it were, abolished, giving way to the strongest light of the large lamp. And just as the light of the stars remains inactive when the sun shines in the heavens, so with the appearance in us of the most perfect knowledge, it is as if the lesser things must be abolished. So Christ said to the holy apostles: “This is spoken to you in parables: an hour is coming, when I will not speak to anyone in parables, but will clearly tell you about the Father” (John 16:25). So, to the saints, who greatly feared the name of God and were zealots of all virtue in this world, Christ will shine as a kind of sun of truth, sending rays of the most perfect knowledge, freeing them from all spiritual weakness and removing them as much as possible from primordial sorrow. This means “healing on its wings,” as if it were said about an eagle and its chicks, quite similar to what the wise Moses said about God and about those liberated from Egypt: “as an eagle covers 112 its nest... it spreads out its wings 113 and receives them” (Deut. 32:11). In this age there is in us, as it were, a kind of play of the flesh, for it draws our spirit to inappropriate pleasures, hardens the law of sin in our members (Rom. 7:23), which is overcome with the help of Christ, by the good behavior of the saints. The mind becomes intoxicated, as it were, and is otherwise tempted by the passions; for we are depressed by: arrogance, worldly love of glory, anger, greed and other vices. When we were enriched by the pledge of the Spirit through Christ (1 Cor. 1:5), we acquired the ability to overcome the passions, however, not without our own efforts, and in the future century, having the full splendor of the knowledge of God, enriched by the most perfect gift of the Holy Spirit and having been put off by corruption and passions of the flesh, we serve God completely, not divided into sin and not oppressed by any of the original passions, but on an equal basis with the saints angels leading a pure and carefree life. It is written, after all, about the saints that “they will forget... their sorrow... and it will not come into their hearts” (Is. 65:16), but it will be, it is said, “and everlasting joy will be upon their heads, ... praise and gladness, and joy will I receive; sickness, sorrow and sighing will have fled away” (Is. 35:10). Therefore, this is what the prophet or God, the Creator and Giver of this, says, that “you will go out and leap like bulls from the bonds of freedom.” Just as small calves, freed from their bindings, gallop through the fields, jumping and mooing in a rich pasture, so once upon a time the saints, freed from the bonds of sorrow in this life, care, labor and torment, will achieve the complacency appropriate to the virtuous, trampling on the lawless, no longer fighting and opposing, but already fallen and defeated, and as if lying under their feet, with the complete cessation of war from them, for “there will not be a lion there, nor of the evil beasts,” not one “will go up... there,” according to what is written (Is. 35:9), but “it will be,” on the contrary, “the way is pure, and the way will be called holy” (Is. 35:8). Yes, without war and free from all defilement, at that very time there will be a life of saints. Mal.4:5–6. And behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite 114, before the coming of the day of the Lord, the great and enlightened one, who will build the heart of a father towards his son and the heart of a man towards his sincere one, lest I come and destroy 115 the earth to the end. Proof of God’s mercy and long-suffering is the fact that Elijah Thesbit once preceded us, foretelling throughout the entire universe that the Judge would finally appear. And the Judge will descend in the glory of God and the Father, surrounded by an army of angels, and “sit on the throne of his glory” (Matt. 25:31), judging the universe in righteousness (Ps. 9:5), and will certainly “reward everyone according to his work” (Matt. 16:27; Rom. 2:6). Since we are in the most numerous sins, the divine prophet helpfully precedes, bringing the inhabitants of the earth to unanimity, so that everyone, having gathered in unity through faith and ceasing the zeal for evil, would decide to do good, and thus receive salvation at the coming of the Judge. But first the blessed Baptist John came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). And as he preached, saying: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make righteous the paths of our God” (Is. 40:3; Matt. 3:3), so the divine Elijah will then preach near what is and is soon to be, so that he may judge the world in righteousness (Ps. 9:5). And now, perhaps, some differ among themselves, and the father is separated from the son and the son from the father (Matthew 10:35): one believed in Christ, the other was numbered with the apostles, others were separated from love for each other, divided by enmity, constant anger and competition in every worldly matter. But the prophet will raise up (establish) and, bringing those who were once divided to a single faith and restoring “man to his neighbor, lest I come,” he says, “and destroy the earth to the end,” that is, completely and completely. From here you see the mercy of the Lord of all. He convinces the inhabitants of the earth in advance and, as it were, testified by the voice of Elijah, that the Judge will appear, so that, having corrected their lives for the better, the then inhabitants of the earth would not appear before the Strict Judge, who sends them into flames and “into total darkness,” but on the contrary, they would hear: “Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” ( Matthew 25:30, 34). Mal.4:4. 116 Remember the law of Moses my servant, as he gave commands and justifications to all Israel at Horeb. Again he urges readers to reflect on the words - namely, that this was not a new or unusual sermon about Christ and not foreshadowed only through the lips of Malachi, but from ancient times and from the beginning, from the first, let's say, times in which Israel was called to the knowledge of God, when God revealed the laws at Horeb. The God of all things then descended in the form of fire onto Mount Sinai; smoke and flames were visible rushing from above and instilling great fear in those who contemplated it: there was darkness and darkness, and a storm and the voice of a trumpet that sounded loudly (Ex. 19 et al.). Then only the frightened sons of Israel approached the mediator and leader - it was Moses - with the words: “You have spoken to us, and let not God speak to us, lest we... die” (Ex. 20:19). And to this God says: “Everything is right, as I have spoken.... I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brethren, just like you,” and I will put My words “in his mouth, and he will speak to them” according to (according to) everything that “I command him” (Deut. 18:17–18). See how the Holy Scriptures proclaimed Christ from remote and primordial times? But if anyone wishes to explore the very shadows (types) of the law (of Moses), he will find in them a description of Christ and His sacraments. Therefore, they said to the Jews: “If they believed quickly in Moses, they quickly believed in me: for that is written about me” (John 5:46); for the fulfillment of the law and the prophets is Christ (Matt. 5 and Rom. 10:4), through whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father with the Most Holy Spirit forever. Amen. In Polyglots and ed. Greek, Vulg. and others (also Slavic and Russian) the 4th chapter begins here. But in Heb. ed. usually refers to chapter 3. Sir: “For behold, the days are coming, and My wrath will burn like a furnace.” Slav. read: "The Lord's". Heb., Chald., Vulg.: “which”. Heb., Chald., Syriac, Vulg.: “will not leave.” Khald.: “who will not leave for them a son and a son’s son” (grandson). Khald.: “the sun in purity (or truth).” From here to the end of the 3rd verse there is no Theod. Monc. Those. Instead of perfection and bliss, will the future life not turn out to be imperfection and deprivation for the saints, if... So are all the sources for the LXX (and Tert.). This verse is placed after the 3rd and before the 5th in many minuscules. You might be interested in: