What is the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2)?

"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.

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.

The special promise given to those who fear Jehovah's name is that to them the Sun of Righteousness shall arise, with healing in His wings. To those who live in the glare of man's day no "sun" is necessary. They have their reward already. For such the future will bring darkness, not light. But to those who fear the Lord, the time of His absence is as a dark night. To them the promise is given of the Sun of Righteousness, which will turn their night to day.

Christ is the sun of righteousness. When He appears the dark night will be over. For those who are His, sorrow and sighing will be things of the past.

We would call attention first to Malachi 4:2, where our Lord Jesus Christ is designated “the Sun of righteousness,” in regard to His shining forth in His glory, healing and blessing by His beneficent rays the remnant of Israel—the earthly people of God. His rule will secure for them all the abundant blessings promised in the Old Testament; meanwhile we are brought into the faith of Christ, while He is rejected on earth and exalted to God’s right hand in the heavens. To walk in Him, therefore, at the present time calls for the constant exercise of faith.

The sun is the great centre of light, and the centre of our system. Round him the lesser orbs revolve. From him, too, they derive their light. Hence, he may, very legitimately, be viewed as an apt symbol of Him who is soon to arise, with healing in His wings, to gladden the hearts of those that fear the Lord. The aptness and beauty of the symbol would fully appear to one who, having spent the night in watching, beholds the rising sun gilding, with his bright beams, the eastern sky. The mists and shades of night are all dispersed, and the whole creation seems to hail the returning orb of light. Thus will it be, by and by, when the Son of righteousness arises. The shadows of night shall flee away, and the whole creation shall be gladdened by the dawning of "a morning without clouds," the opening of a bright and never-ending day of glory.

Sun - Supreme rule as ordained of God, in blessing or judgment. "The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings" (Mal. 4:1-2), but it is the time of judgment. In the Apocalypse we have Jerusalem, clothed with the Sun - Jerusalem, or the Jewish people clothed with supreme authority - the old reflection and image of it in the old covenant, under her feet; so, chapter 16:8, it is the supreme power in the earth of the beast. The source of the image is evident - the sun set supreme in the heavens. The full antitype will be when Christ, the Sun of righteousness, takes to Him His great power and reigns, Joel 2:10, quoted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, Acts 2, Revelation 6:12, and chapter 8:12 - in all these the idea is supreme rule in the sphere spoken of.

Another thing may be pointed out to establish the difference between these two important things. After describing the thorough character of the judgment which will be executed when "the day" cometh, the prophet, speaking in the name of the Lord, says, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings." (v. 2.) This figure entirely accords with the distinction we have made. The appearing of the Lord is, as already explained, the introduction of the day; and hence it is set forth here as the rising of the Sun of righteousness, as it will be for His earthly people. David uses similar language of the same event: "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." (2 Samuel 23:4.) On the other hand, this figure is never employed in relation to the Church, but another equally significant is used, and expressive of the truth it is intended to convey; viz., the Bright and Morning Star. (Rev. 22:16; see also 2 Peter 1:19.) Now these two figures, rightly understood, explain both the character and the order of the Lord's coming for His Church and His appearing. The morning star appears before the day, towards the closing of the night, at the dawn, and is thus the harbinger of the rising of the sun. So will it be when the Church is rapt away from this world. It will be caught up to be associated with Christ in His heavenly beauty, who has been displayed before the eye of faith as the Bright and Morning Star; and this event will be preparatory to the Lord's appearing as the Sun of righteousness, as set forth in this scripture. An interval — greater or less — there will be between the two events; but the relation between them, in regard to the earth, is that which is symbolized by the Morning Star and the Sun of righteousness.*

If you look at the end of Malachi, you will find it is not the gospel that is there spoken of at all, but He discerns between the righteous and the wicked, for the day cometh that will burn as an oven; and the rising of the Sun of Righteousness is Christ appearing in this world, and putting down the wicked under the soles of His people's feet.

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.

There is more however to notice here. "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. And ye shall tread down the wicked." Here is a twofold issue — mercy to the righteous, and judgment to the wicked. This is not at all applicable to Christianity, because every one is now judged by Christ's cross as wicked until they receive Jesus; and then, no matter what they may have been before, they are justified by faith and enter on an entirely new course. But there is no treading down the wicked yet, nor will it be at any time as long as Christianity goes on. It is wholly future, and will be when Jehovah takes up the Jews and judgment comes upon the world. "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says Jehovah of hosts."

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.)