What does it mean that there is "healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2)?

The first we take from Malachi, where the title is found. He says, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." By the expression — with healing in His wings — we understand that all (the promise is specially addressed to the faithful remnant) who come under the influence of Christ in that day will be the subjects of divine healing, and that this will be effected by the communication of a fuller life. There is a remarkable illustration of this given in the prophet Ezekiel. After the vision of the waters which issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward ' and the description of their ever-increasing volume as they flowed onward in their blessed mission, the angel said to the prophet, "These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh." (Ezek. 47:8-9.) Thus life and healing are explicitly connected; and we learn moreover from the Book of Revelation that the leaves of the tree of life (and this is Christ risen) will be for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 22:3.) When we read therefore that the Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, what is it but that He will be the source of life for all that are drawn to seek blessing under His protection? And receiving of His abundant life, sickness and disease will be banished, even as Isaiah says, "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick:" and again, "As the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." (Isa. 33: and 45) This will enable the reader to comprehend a little of the force and beauty of the expression.

Nor let it be forgotten that we may even now morally anticipate something of this blessedness. Is it not true that our spiritual weakness and "diseases" are to be traced back to defective spiritual life? Christ came that we might have life, and have it abundantly; and if this abundance of life is not expressed by us, it is because we are not completely under His influence, because some part of our life here is excluded from the rays of His blessed sunshine. Let us listen to His own words, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me," as the scripture hath said, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." If this were but true of us, we should indeed present every mark of spiritual health, and thereby it would be proved that no part of our hearts was shut off from the shining of Christ. Paul thus calls upon the Ephesians to remember the word, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (shine upon thee). And just as we can in this way enjoy now in anticipation this action of Christ, so will those who fear His name in that day enter in large measure into the eternal blessedness of relief from everything which might cause Borrow and distress here, as described of the eternal state in Revelation, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21:4.)

Moreover, Christ, as the Sun of righteousness, will be the source of light and heat. We name these two features together because of their relation to life. Even a plant cannot live without light and heat, and much less the people of God, whatever the character of the period in which their lot is cast. Hence John says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7.) As without light a plant could not appropriate its suited nutriment, and without heat it could not grow, so the Christian must be in the light in order to receive, and he needs warmth if he would daily grow in the likeness of Christ. These two essentials he finds in the company of Christ, and in the enjoyment of His love, that love which, proved to the uttermost in His death, He is ever ready to minister to us when we are walking in the light of His blessed presence. So will it be when He shines forth with undimmed lustre as the Sun of righteousness. As the Psalmist says, speaking of the sun in the heavens, but doubtless with a veiled allusion to Christ, "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof;" so when Christ shines forth in the day of His glory all nature even will break forth into song, for then it will be that creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. His light will penetrate into the remotest corners of the earth, scattering all the mists and clouds which have gathered over and darkened the souls of men during their bondage to the evil one, and wherever His light falls the warmth of His rays will be felt, for nothing will be hid from the heat thereof. It is in view of this that the prophet, describing the effect of the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon Jerusalem, says, "Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." In this way men of every clime and nation will be drawn out of their dark hiding-places that they also may share in the blessedness of the light and warmth of that heavenly Luminary which has appeared in the heavens.

After this He will heal them. His own, poor, blinded, paralyzed and miserable people Israel will be the first of the nations of the earth to receive complete healing for soul and body. They will leap and shout for joy like the lame man in the third chapter of Acts. Therefore it says in Malachi 4, where it speaks of the Son of Righteousness with healing beneath His wings, "Ye shall go forth and leap for joy (correct translation) as calves of the stall." "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Is. 33:24). The 103rd Psalm illustrates most beautifully Israel 's coming praise. It is not only "who forgiveth all thine iniquities," but also "who healeth all thy diseases." The diseases in this psalm are generally spiritualized, but that is incorrect. They are bodily diseases. The healing of the paralytic has been put by the Holy Spirit in a special place to be in harmony with the whole scope of the Gospel of Matthew. What the Son of Man did in humiliation to one paralytic, the Son of Man in exaltation, coming again, will do to the whole nation and others in the earth in that coming age of millennial glory.

If righteousness be fully established it must mean the elimination of all that is wrong. Hence the beams of that glorious 'Sun' will burn like an oven destroying the ungodly, while bringing healing and fertility to those who fear God.

"But to you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall" (Mal. 4:2).

Under this striking figure we have the promise of the appearing of the Lord. He is the Sun, i.e. the centre, the source of light and warmth of authority and rule and power. He is the Sun of righteousness, since appearing in a scene of moral chaos and unrighteousness, that must necessarily be His outstanding characteristic.

But when He arises as the Sun of righteousness will it not be for all? Truly; but He will not arise for all with healing in His wings. To many His arising will mean the very reverse of that. He will arise with fierce and scorching heat: "For behold the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch" (Mal. 4:1). He will arise "with healing in His wings" only for those that fear His name.

Now were there nothing in the order in which these luminaries manifest themselves, I do not see why it should not have been the star for Israel and the sun for us, for we are, even at this present moment, more in the light of the coming day than Israel will be when the sun is risen. The light that will illuminate God’s earthly people, and spread its healing wings over the whole wounded earth, will be the light of Christ radiant in the church. The saved nations will walk in the light of it, and the leaves of the tree of life, growing within its jasper walls, will heal their woes (Rev. 21:24; 22:2). I cannot doubt that the wings of the Sun of Righteousness, in which there is this gracious healing, are His saints, who come with Him through the opened heaven.

Look then, the wicked are going to be dealt with by God, "But to you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." That is very simple. The godly are looking for deliverance — for the appearing of the Saviour, the Messiah; looking, as many a man, who has gone through a black night of tempest, looks. Look at the mariner passing through a terrible storm at sea, in the darkness of night. How he longs for the morning, and he takes hope and says, It will not be long before daylight comes, and by-and-by the sun arises, and what a comfort there is in the light. Do you not think it will be a great comfort for the people of God upon earth in that day, when the Saviour — Jesus, their own Messiah, their Deliverer, comes? Immense comfort! "And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob" (Rom. 11:26). It will be very wonderful comfort, and therefore the figure here, "the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."

Yet, while there are striking contrasts, we notice that certain things mark them both. For instance, the coming of the Lord is mentioned in both. In the Old, He is the Sun of righteousness; in the New, the bright Morning Star. When He arises as the Sun, it will be with healing in His wings. Many people today are emphatic on the healing power of sunlight, and I dare say they are right. When Jesus comes in His glory He will bring healing for the godly and those who fear His Name, as stated in verse 2. For the ungodly, as stated in verse 1, that day will burn as an oven. As you know, there are regions, such as Mesopotamia, where the sun can beat down with terrible heat, and the temperature sometimes rise to 120 degrees in the shade. So when Jesus comes as the Sun of righteousness it will be a burning oven for the wicked, who will be as stubble, though it will be healing for His saints. God will draw the line in that day between those that fear His Name and those that fear Him not. The coming of the Lord is equally spoken of in Revelation 22, though from a different aspect, and the line of demarcation between the godly and the ungodly is just as clearly drawn, particularly in verse 11.

When the Sun of Righteousness arises, He will bring healing and blessing. His waiting earthly people, the remnant, will be filled with joy and gambol as calves, while the wicked will be trodden under foot.

But, best of all, immediately following it the conquering and glorified Lord Himself will appear — no longer now as the Star of Bethlehem, but as the Sun of Righteousness "with healing in his wings." What promise of fulness of blessing is contained in that one word — healing. It is just what this poor earth stands most in need of, after centuries of sin and strife, ruin, and want, and war.

"He shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, like the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain. This advent of the Lord Jesus at the beginning of the millennium is also depicted in Malachi 4:2 as "the Sun of Righteousness" arising "with healing in His wings." In a very real sense the sun reigns over the earth: without it everything would be left in a total deep-freeze at absolute zero, and in darkness. The rule of the sun is by no means simply the rule of authority, but provides welcome light and warmth, as well as living chemical action that produces growth in vegetation.