It’s the mother of all fatherhood passages and in my eleven years working at National Fatherhood Initiative, it was the most oft-quoted verse by faith-based practitioners. Unfortunately, as often as it was quoted, it was just as often poorly understood and applied. And it still is.
The common conception goes something like this: “400 years before Jesus came to this earth, the Scriptures spoke about a central expression of love that would characterize the ministry of Jesus: reconciling fathers and families heart to heart.”
Upon closer investigation of the context of Mal. 4:6, however, the “he” of this passage is connected first to Elijah, not Jesus, and “the fathers” to the Jewish forefathers, not biological fathers. Further, the verse is in a context of impending judgment, not heart-warming nurturance. Thus and understandably, the second half of the verse (Mal 4:6b)—“lest I come and destroy the land with a decree of utter destruction”—is never included when 4:6a is quoted or displayed on marketing flyers, websites, or inspirational placards! Here’s the passage in full:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Malachi 4:1-6, ESV
Resetting Malachi 4:6 in its Context
Prior to the setting of Malachi, the Mesopotamian overlords, Assyria and Babylon, had taken Israel in 722 B.C. and Judah in 586 B.C. into exile. Old Testament scholar David Baker notes that these overlords had a different approach to their captives than Israel’s later Persian rulers:
“[Assyria and Babylon focused on] displacing major parts of captured populations, resettling them in various parts of far-flung territories and importing others to take their place (e.g., 2 Kings 17:23-24; 25:7, 11–21)…. Persia, however, reversed this policy . . . when they conquered the Babylonian empire. It allowed subject people to return to their ancestral lands and reestablish their religious practices (e.g., 2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1–4). This the Judeans did, rebuilding the temple and the city walls and establishing their own province under Persian rule (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther). It is within this setting that Malachi prophesies.”[1]
Malachi, then, is historically nearest to “Haggai and Zechariah both of which are also prophecies to a people recently returned from exile.”[2] While the message of Zechariah is focused more on encouragement, “Malachi, by contrast, challenges an apathetic and antagonistic people…”[3] The book of Malachi also occupies a unique place in bridging the two testaments, and 4:6 specifically gives “primary evidence to the inbreaking of God’s reign—predicted by the prophet Malachi, proclaimed by John the Baptist, and consummated through the presence of Jesus Christ.”[4] Still, there are some things that need to be unpacked to get at Mal. 4:6’s “then and there” so we can fully appreciate its “here and now.”
Identifying “the Fathers” of Malachi 4:6: Parents, Biological Fathers, or Jewish Forefathers?
Responsible exegetes know well that “the only proper control for hermeneutics is to be found in the original intent of the biblical text . . . a text cannot mean what it never meant. Or to put it in a positive way, the true meaning of a biblical text for us is what God originally intended it to mean when it was first spoken. This is the starting point.”[5] In determining the original intent of Mal. 4:6, then, next week we’ll examine the three possibilities above, make a case for the third, and end with some important applications.
[1] David W. Baker, The NIV Application Commentary: Joel, Amos, Malachi (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 209.
[2] Ibid., 210.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Timothy Paul Jones, Perspectives on Family Ministry (Nashville: B&H, 2009), 19.
[5] Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 29–30.