Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
But (And) unto you, who fear My Name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise - It is said of God Psalms 84:11, "The Lord God is a sun and a shield, and Isaiah 60:19-20, The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory; thy sun shall no more go down, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light;" and Zacharias, speaking of the office of John the Baptist in the words of Malachi, "thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way, speaks of Luke 1:76, Luke 1:78-79. the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness." "He who is often called Lord and God, and Angel and Captain of the Lord' s host, and Christ and priest and Word and Wisdom of God and Image, is now called the Sun of Righteousness. He, the Father promises, will arise, not to all, but to those only who fear His Name, giving them the light of the Sun of Righteousness, as the reward of their fear toward Him. This is God the Word Who saith, ' I am the Light of the world,' Who was ' the Light of every one who cometh into the world." ' Primarily, Malachi speaks of our Lord' s second Coming, when Hebrews 9:28. "to them that look for Him shall He appear, a second time unto salvation."
For as, in so many places (As Psalms 1:6; Psalms 2:12; Psalms 3:7-8; Psalms 5:10-12; Psalms 6:8-10; Psalms 7:16-17; Psalms 9:17-20; Psalms 10:16-18; Psalms 11:6-7; Psalms 17:13-15; Psalms 20:8; Psalms 26:9-12; Psalms 31:23; Psalms 32:10-11; Psalms 34:21-22; Psalms 35:26-28; Psalms 36:10-12; Psalms 37:38-40; Psalms 40:15-17; Psalms 50:22-23; Psalms 52:5-9; Psalms 55:22-23; Psalms 58:10-11; Psalms 63:10-11; Psalms 64:9-10; Psalms 73:27-28; Psalms 104:33-35; Psalms 112:9-10; Psalms 126:5; Psalms 149:9.) the Old Testament exhibits the opposite lots of the righteous and the wicked, so here the prophet speaks of the Day of Judgment, in reference to the two opposite classes, of which he had before spoken, the proud and evil doers, and the fearers of God. The title, "the Sun of Righteousness," belongs to both comings , "in the first, lie diffused rays of righteousness, whereby He justified and daily justifies any sinners whatever, who will look to Him, i. e., believe in Him and obey Him, as the sun imparts light; joy and life to all who turn toward it." In the second, the righteousness which He gave, lie will own and exhibit, cleared from all the misjudgment of the world, before men and Angels. Yet more, healing is, throughout Holy Scripture, used of the removal of sickness or curing of wounds, in the individual or state or Church, and, as to the individual, bodily or spiritual.
So David thanks God, first for the forgiveness Psalms 103:3-5, "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;" then for healing of his soul, "Who healeth all thy diseases;" then for salvation, "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;" then for the crown laid up for him, "Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies;" then, with the abiding sustenance and satisfying joy, "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things." Healing then primarily belongs to thin life, in which we are still encompassed with infirmities, and even His elect and His saints have still, whereof to be healed. The full then and complete healing of the soul, the integrity of all its powers will be in the life to come. There, will be "understanding without error, memory without forgetfulness, thought without distraction, love without simulation, sensation without offence, satisfying without satiety, universal health without sickness." "For through Adam' s sin the soul was wounded in understanding, through obscurity and ignorance; in will, through the leaning to perishing goods; as concupiscent, through infirmity and manifold concupiscence. In heaven Christ will heal all these, giving to the understanding light and knowledge; to the will, constancy in good; to the desire, that it should desire nothing but what is right and good. Then too the healing of the seal will be the light of glory, the vision and fruition of God, and the glorious endowments consequent thereon, overstreaming all the powers of the soul and therefrom to the body." "God has made the soul of a nature so mighty, that from its most full beatitude, which at the end of time is promised to the saints, there shall overflow to the inferior nature, the body, not bliss, which belongs to the soul as intelligent and capable of fruition, but the fullness of health that is, the vigorousness of incorruption."
And ye shall go forth - , as from a prison-house, from the miseries of this lifeless life, and grow up, or perhaps more probably, bound as the animal, which has been confined, exults in its regained freedom, itself full of life and exuberance of delight. So the Psalmist Psalms 149:5, "The saints shall exult in glory." And our Lord uses the like word , as to the way, with which they should greet persecution to the utmost, for His Name' s sake. Swiftness of motion is one of the endowments of the spiritual body, after the resurrection; as the angels, to whom the righteous shall be like, Luke 20:36, Ezekiel 1:14 ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning."
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Malachi 4:2:
Isaiah 18:1
Isaiah 60:1
Haggai 2:6
Zechariah 9:9
Luke 2:32
Luke 24:27
Hebrews 1:3
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