Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Malachi

• Malachi 1:2

  Who are these that reply to God, who speaks to Rebecca? She had twin sons of one conception of Isaac our father. "The children were not yet born nor had done any good or evil (that the purpose of God according to election might stand)." The election was of grace, not of merit. It is the election by which he does not find but makes elect—"that it was not of works but of him that calls, that the elder should serve the younger." To this sentence the blessed apostle adds the testimony of a prophet who came along afterward: "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated" to give us to understand plainly by the later utterance what was hidden in the predestination of God by grace before they were born. For what did he love but the free gift of his mercy in Jacob, who had done nothing good before his birth? And what did he hate but original sin in Esau, who had done nothing evil before his birth? Surely he would not have loved in the former a goodness which he had not practiced, nor would he have hated in the latter a nature which he himself had created good.

  LETTER 194

• Malachi 1:2

  Furthermore, who would be so impiously foolish as to say that God cannot turn the evil wills of people—as he wills, when he wills and where he wills—toward the good? But when he acts, he acts through mercy; when he does not act, it is through justice. For "he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills, he hardens." Now when the apostle said this, he was commending grace, of which he had just spoken in connection with the twin children in Rebecca's womb: "Before they had yet been born or had done anything good or bad, in order that the electing purpose of God might continue, it was said of them, 'The elder shall serve the younger.' " Accordingly he refers to another prophetic witness, where it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I have hated." Then, realizing how what he said could disturb those whose understanding could not penetrate to this depth of grace, he adds, "What therefore shall we say to this? Is there unrighteousness in God? God forbid!" Yet it does seem unfair that, without any merit derived from good works or bad, God should love the one and hate the other. Now if the apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good deeds of the other—which God, of course, foreknew—he never would have said "not of good works" but rather "of future works." Thus he would have solved the difficulty; or rather he would have left no difficulty to be solved. As it is, however, when he went on to exclaim, "God forbid!" he proceeds immediately to add (to prove that no unfairness in God is involved here), "For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show pity to whom I will show pity.' " Now who but a fool would think God unfair either when he imposes penal judgment on the deserving or when he shows mercy to the undeserving? Finally, the apostle concludes and says, "Therefore it is not a question of him who wills nor of him who runs but of God's showing mercy."

  Enchiridion 25:98

• Malachi 1:6

  We must consider what it is that we have been commanded to pray for—commanded by him from whom we learn to pray for and through whom we obtain what we pray for. He says, "In this manner shall you pray: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'?" In every kind of petition we ought first to try to gain the good will of the one we are petitioning. And the praise is usually placed at the beginning of the prayer, where in this instance our Lord has bidden us to say nothing else than "our Father who art in heaven." Praise of God has been expressed in many manners of speech. Anyone can see this as he reads those forms of praise scattered widely here and there throughout the sacred Scriptures. But nowhere is there found any instruction for the people of Israel to say "our Father" or to pray to God as a Father. To them he has been proposed as a master, for they were servants; that is, they were as yet living according to the flesh. When I say this, I am referring to them when they received the commandments of the law which they were ordered to observe, for the prophets frequently point out that this same Lord of ours would have been their father as well, if they did not stray from his commandments. For instance, there are the following expressions: "I have begotten children and exalted them, but they have despised me," and, "I have said, 'You are gods and all of you the sons of the most high,' " and, "If I am a master, where is my fear? And if I am a father, where is my honor?" Even if we were to disregard those prophetic sayings that refer to the fact that there would be a Christian people who would have God as their Father—in accordance with that saying in the Gospel, "He gave them the power of becoming children of God"—there are still many other expressions whereby the Jews are reproved for the fact that by committing sins they refused to be children. The apostle Paul says, "As long as the heir is a little child, he differs in no way from a slave," but he reminds us that we have received the spirit of adoption, by virtue of which we cry, "Abba, Father."

  SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2:4.15

• Malachi 1:10

  Now I turn to Malachi. This man, prophesying of the church which by Christ's power has now expanded far and wide, takes on the person of God to say to the Jews: " 'I have no pleasure in you,' says the Lord of hosts, 'and I will not receive a gift from your hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation for my name is great among the Gentiles,' says the Lord of hosts." Now if we see that everywhere in our time, "from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof," this sacrifice is being offered by Christ's priests according to the order of Melchizedek, and if the Jews are in no position to deny that their sacrifices, rejected in the first verse, have come to an end—how is it that they can be looking for another Christ? They read the prophecy; they see its fulfillment before their very eyes. Why can they not realize that he must have been the Christ to fulfill it, since nobody else could?

  City of God 18.35

• Malachi 1:10

  Lastly, O Jews, if you try to distort these prophetic words into another meaning according to the dictates of your heart, you resist the Son of God against your own salvation.… The house of Jacob or Israel is the same people, both called and cast off—not called in respect to some and cast off in respect to others, but the entire house called to walk in the light of the Lord.… The reason why the house had been cast off was because its people were not walking in the light of the Lord, or some of the house certainly were called and others cast off in such a way that without any separation having been of the Lord's table as regards the sacrifice of Christ. Both called and cast off were under the same old sacraments, to be sure; both those who walked in the light of the Lord and observed his precepts and those who rejected justice and deserved to be abandoned by it. If you choose to interpret these testimonies in this manner, what are you going to say and how will you interpret another prophet who cuts this reply away entirely, shouting with unmistakable manifestation: " 'I have no pleasure in you,' says the Lord almighty, 'and I will not receive a gift of your hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place sacrifice is offered in my name, a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles,' says the Lord almighty."

  IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 9

• Malachi 1:11

  To him it was said, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." For you seek a sacrifice among the Jews; you have none after the order of Aaron. You seek it after the order of Melchizedek, though finding it not among them; but through the whole world it is celebrated in the church: "From the rising of the sun to the setting thereof the name of the Lord is praised." "And they sowed fields and planted vineyards and got fruit of corn," at which that workman rejoiced who said, "not because I desire a gift, but I seek fruit." "And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly, and their cattle were not diminished." This stands. For "the foundation of God stands sure, because the Lord knows them that are his." They are called "beasts of burden" and "cattle" that walk simply in the church yet are useful; not deeply learned but full of faith. Therefore, whether spiritual or carnal, "he blessed them."

  EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 107:8

• Malachi 1:11

  Whether betrayers of the divine books ordained Caecilian, I do not know; I did not see; I heard it from his enemies; it's not declared to me by the law of God, or by the preaching of the prophets, or by the holy psalms, or by the apostles of Christ or by Christ's words. But the testimonies of the entire Scripture proclaim with one voice that the church, with which the sect of Donatus is not in communion, is indeed spread throughout the entire world. "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," said the law of God. "From the rising of the sun even to the going down, there is offered to my name a clean offering, for my name is great among the Gentiles," said God through the prophet.

  LETTER 185:5

• Malachi 1:11

  You have all just now been born again of water and the spirit, and can see that food and drink upon this table of the Lord in a new light, and receive it with a fresh love and piety. So I am obliged by the duty I have of giving you a sermon and by the anxious care by which I have given you birth, that Christ might be formed in you, to remind you infants of what the meaning is of such a great and divine sacrament, such a splendid and noble medicine, such a pure and simple sacrifice, which is not offered now just in the one earthly city of Jerusalem, nor into that tabernacle which was constructed by Moses, nor in the temple built by Solomon. These were just "shadows of things to come." But "from the rising of the sun to its setting," it is offered as the prophets foretold, and as a sacrifice of praise to God, according to the grace of the New Testament. No longer is a victim sought from the flocks for a blood sacrifice, nor is a sheep or a goat any more led to the divine altars, but now the sacrifice of our time is the body and blood of the priest himself. About him, indeed, it was foretold so long ago in the psalms, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." That Melchizedek, priest of God the most high, offered bread and wine when he blessed our father Abraham, we gather from reading about it in the book of Genesis.

  SERMON 228B.1

• Malachi 2:5

  A little further on Malachi speaks of Christ, again in the person of God: "My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave him fear; and he feared me, and he was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and turned many away from iniquity. For the lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the laws at his mouth because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." No one should be astonished to hear Christ spoken of as "the angel of the Lord of hosts." He was called his servant because he came to humanity in the form of a servant; similarly he was called an angel because of the evangel, which he brought to humankind.

  City of God 18.35

• Malachi 2:17

  Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up. It was such complaints as these that compelled the prophet to anticipate, as it were, the last judgment in which the wicked will be so far from even a pretense of happiness that their misery will be apparent to all, whereas the good, untroubled by even transitory sorrow, will enjoy a manifest and unending blessedness. Malachi had already given a similar illustration of the kind of murmurings that wearied the Lord: "Everyone who does evil is [thought to be] good in the sight of the Lord and as such pleases him." The only point I want to make is that such murmurings against God were the result of an unspiritual interpretation of the law.

  City of God 20.28

• Malachi 3:1

  "For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God." John said this, of course, about Christ that he might diminish himself from him. Why? Did not God send John himself? And didn't John himself say, "I have been sent before him," and, "He who sent me to baptize with water," and about him it was said, "Behold, I send my messenger before you and he will prepare the way"? Does not he too speak the words of God, about whom it was said that he was more than a prophet? Therefore if God also sent John, and he speaks the words of God, how, in regard to the distinction [between himself and Christ], do we know that he said about Christ, "For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God"?

  TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 14:10.1

• Malachi 3:1

  Since then it is evident that many are to judge with the Lord but that others are to be judged, not however on equality but according to their deserts, he will come with all his angels. [At the judgment] before him shall be gathered all nations, and among all the angels are to be reckoned those that have been so perfect, that sitting upon twelve thrones they judge the twelve tribes of Israel. For men are called angels; the apostle says of himself, "As an angel of God you received me." Of John the Baptist it is said, "Behold, I send my angel before your face, who shall prepare your way before you."

  EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 50:11

• Malachi 3:1

  Speaking further of Christ in the same vein, Malachi says, "Behold, I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face. And presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament whom you desire, shall come into the temple. Behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts. And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? And who shall stand to see him?" In this text he foretells both comings of Christ, the first and the second—the first where he says, "And presently the Lord shall come into his temple." This refers to Christ's body, of which he himself said in the Gospel, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." His second coming is foretold in these words: " 'Behold, he comes,' says the Lord of hosts. 'And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? And who shall stand to see him?' "

  City of God 18.35

• Malachi 3:13

  Those who are spiritually immature put much stock in temporal promises and serve God with an eye to such remunerations. Then, when the people of evil life prosper, they are very much upset. For their enlightenment, Malachi goes on to differentiate the eternal blessedness of the New Testament, which only the good shall win, from the purely earthly good fortune of the old that as often as not comes to the wicked. He says, " 'Your words have been insufferable to me,' says the Lord. And you have said, 'What have we spoken against you?' You have said, 'He labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept ordinances and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts?' Therefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up, and they have tempted God and prospered. Then they that feared the Lord spoke everyone with his neighbor, and the Lord gave ear and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that fear the Lord and think of his name." The book in question is, of course, again the New Testament. Now let us hear the rest. " 'And they shall be my special possession,' says the Lord of hosts, 'in the day that I do judgment; and I will spare the man as a man spares his son who serves him. And you shall return and shall see the difference between the just and the wicked, and between him that serves God and him that serves not. For behold, the day shall come kindled as a furnace, and all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the day that comes shall set them on fire,' says the Lord of hosts." That day in question is, of course, the day of the last judgment, concerning which I will have a great deal more to say, God willing, when the proper time comes.

  City of God 18.35

• Malachi 3:14

  It was, in fact, of their purely material interpretation of the law and of their failure to perceive that its temporal promises were but symbols of eternal rewards that they broke into such rebellious resentfulness as to say, "He labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts? Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up." It was such complaints as these that compelled the prophet to anticipate, as it were, the last judgment in which the wicked will be so far from even a pretense of happiness that their misery will be apparent to all, whereas the good, untroubled by even transitory sorrow, will enjoy a manifest and unending beatitude. Malachi has already given similar illustration of the kind of murmurings that wearied the Lord: "every one that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and such please him." The only point I want to make is that such murmurings against God were the result of an unspiritual interpretation of the law.

  City of God 20.28

• Malachi 4:4

  After the prophecy, Malachi says, "Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel," and he makes a passing reference to "precepts and judgments." This emphasizes the declaration he had just made about the immense difference there is to be between the observers and the breakers of the law. The prophet's further purpose was that his readers might learn to give a spiritual interpretation to the law, finding in it Christ the judge who is to make the distinction between the good and the wicked. For it was not without reason that Christ said to the Jews, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for he wrote of me." It was, in fact, of their purely material interpretation of the law and of their failure to perceive that its temporal promises were but symbols of eternal rewards that they broke into such rebellious resentfulness as to say, "He labors in vain that serves God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts? Wherefore now we call the proud people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up." It was such complaints as these that compelled the prophet to anticipate, as it were, the last judgment in which the wicked will be so far from even a pretense of happiness that their misery will be apparent to all, whereas the good, untroubled by even transitory sorrow, will enjoy a manifest and unending beatitude. Malachi had already given a similar illustration of the kind of murmurings that wearied the Lord: "Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and such please him." The only point I want to make is that such murmurings against God were the result of an unspiritual interpretation of the law.

  City of God 20.28