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There remain three minor prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi, who prophesied at the close of the captivity. Of these
Haggai more openly prophesies of Christ and the Church thus briefly:
"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet one little while, and I will
shake the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and
I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come."
The fulfillment of this prophecy is in part already seen, and in part
hoped for in the end. For He moved the heaven by the testimony of the
angels and the stars, when Christ became incarnate. He moved the
earth by the great miracle of His birth of the virgin. He moved the
sea and the dry land, when Christ was proclaimed both in the isles and
in the whole world. So we see all nations moved to the faith; and the
fulfillment of what follows, "And the desired of all nations shall
come," is looked for at His last coming. For ere men can desire and
and wait for Him, they must believe and love Him.
Zechariah says of Christ and the Church, "Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Sion; shout joyfully, O daughter of Jerusalem;
behold, thy King shall come unto thee, just and the Saviour;
Himself poor, and mounting an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass:
and His dominion shall be from Sea to sea, and from the river even to
the ends of the earth." How this was done, when the Lord Christ on
His journey used a beast of burden of this kind, we read in the
Gospel, where, also, as much of this prophecy is quoted as appears
sufficient for the context. In another place, speaking in the Spirit
of prophecy to Christ Himself of the remission of sins through His
blood, he says, "Thou also, by the blood of Thy testament, hast
sent forth Thy prisoners from the lake wherein is no water."
Different opinions may be held, consistently with right belief, as to
what he meant by this lake. Yet it seems to me that no meaning suits
better than that of the depth of human misery, which is, as it were,
dry and barren, where there are no streams of righteousness, but only
the mire of iniquity. For it is said of it in the Psalms, "And He
led me forth out of the lake of misery, and from the miry clay."
Malachi, foretelling the Church which we now behold propagated
through Christ, says most openly to the Jews, in the person of
God, "I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept a gift at
your hand. For from the rising even to the going down of the sun, my
name is great among the nations; and in every place sacrifice shall be
made, and a pure oblation shall be offered unto my name: for my name
shall be great among the nations, saith the Lord." Since we can
already see this sacrifice offered to God in every place, from the
rising of the sun to his going down, through Christ's priesthood
after the order of Melchisedec, while the Jews, to whom it was
said, "I have no pleasure in you, neither will I accept a gift at
your hand," cannot deny that their sacrifice has ceased, why do they
still look for another Christ, when they read this in the prophecy,
and see it fulfilled, which could not be fulfilled except through
Him? And a little after he says of Him, in the person of God,
"My covenant was with Him of life and peace: and I gave to Him
that He might fear me with fear, and be afraid before my name. The
law of truth was in His mouth: directing in peace He hath walked with
me, and hath turned many away from iniquity. For the Priest's lips
shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at His mouth: for
He is the Angel of the Lord Almighty." Nor is it to be wondered
at that Christ Jesus is called the Angel of the Almighty God. For
just as He is called a servant on account of the form of a servant in
which He came to men, so He is called an angel on account of the
evangel which He proclaimed to men. For if we interpret these Greek
words, evangel is "good news," and angel is "messenger." Again
he says of Him, "Behold I will send mine angel, and He will look
out the way before my face: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come into His temple, even the Angel of the testament, whom
ye desire. Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who
shall abide the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His
appearing?" In this place he has foretold both the first and second
advent of Christ: the first, to wit, of which he says, "And He
shall come suddenly into His temple;" that is, into His flesh, of
which He said in the Gospel, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up again." And of the second advent he says,
"Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall abide
the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His appearing?" But
what he says, "The Lord whom ye seek, and the Angel of the
testament whom ye desire," just means that even the Jews, according
to the Scriptures which they read, shall seek and desire Christ.
But many of them did not acknowledge that He whom they sought and
desired had come, being blinded in their hearts, which were
preoccupied with their own merits. Now what he here calls the
testament, either above, where he says, "My testament had been with
Him," or here, where he has called Him the Angel of the
testament, we ought, beyond a doubt, to take to be the new
testament, in which the things promised are eternal, and not the old,
in which they are only temporal. Yet many who are weak are troubled
when they see the wicked abound in such temporal things, because they
value them greatly, and serve the true God to be rewarded with them.
On this account, to distinguish the eternal blessedness of the new
testament, which shall be given only to the good, from the earthly
felicity of the old, which for the most part is given to the bad as
well, the same prophet says, "Ye have made your words burdensome to
me: yet ye have said, In what have we spoken ill of Thee? Ye have
said, Foolish is every one who serves God; and what profit is it
that we have kept His observances, and that we have walked as
suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we call the
aliens blessed; yea, all that do wicked things are built up again;
yea, they are opposed to God and are saved. They that feared the
Lord uttered these reproaches every one to his neighbor: and the Lord
hearkened and heard; and He wrote a book of remembrance before Him,
for them that fear the Lord and that revere His name." By that book
is meant the New Testament. Finally, let us hear what follows:
"And they shall be an acquisition for me, saith the Lord Almighty,
in the day which I make; and I will choose them as a man chooseth his
son that serveth him. And ye shall return, and shall discern between
the just and the unjust, and between him that serveth God and him that
serveth Him not. For, behold, the day cometh burning as an oven,
and it shall burn them up; and all the aliens and all that do wickedly
shall be stubble: and the day that shall come will set them on fire,
saith the Lord Almighty, and shall leave neither root nor branch.
And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise,
and health shall be in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and exult as
calves let loose from bonds. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and
they shall be ashes under your feet, in the day in which I shall do
[this], saith the Lord Almighty." This day is the day of
judgment, of which, if God will, we shall speak more fully in its
own place.
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