In Mal 3:7, we read:
Even from the days of
your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.
Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye
said, Wherein shall we return?
Note the following commentary from Pieter
A. Verhoef and how the verse is very strongly anti-Calvinistic, as it attributes to man, post-fall, a genuine free-will to seek after God:
The people’s reproach
that the God of justice approves of evildoers (2:17) is flatly denied. He does
not change, especially not in his awareness of sin. Ever since the time of
your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees; you have not kept them. God
was fully conscious of the total history of their waywardness. The construction
of the prepositions le and min with yôm denotes
the terminus a terminus a quo: “from the days of (and onward).” This expression
is also found in Judg. 19:30; 2 Sam. 7:6; Isa. 7:17; 1 Chr. 17:10. your forefathers
is literally “your fathers.” The scope of this concept embraces the whole
history of the covenant people, and therefore need not be restricted to a specific
period of Israel’s history (contra many interpreters, e.g., J.M.P. Smith, who
restricts it to the contemporary generation; Von Bulmerincq, to the time of the
settlement in Canaan, with the exclusion of the classical Mosaic period; Duhm,
Marti, Procksch, and esp. Jacob, to the era of the patriarchs, with reference
to v. 6 and the variant reading “your father”; others are convinced that
Malachi was referring to the generation prior to the Exile, in connection with
Zech. 1:2-6; 7:7-14). The point of reference is that Israel’s waywardness was a
pervasive theme through their entire history. They have sinned habitually and continually.
you have turned away
from my decrees. This expression is only found here, but a similar idea is
expressed in 2 Sam. 22:23 (par. Ps. 18:23 [Eng. 22]), where David asserts: “All
his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees” (NIV; cf. also
Deut. 5:31-33; Ps. 119:102; Dan. 9:5). The decrees (Heb. ḥūqqîm,
from the verb ḥа̄qaq, “engrave, inscribe,” “enact, decree”) denote something
that is prescribed, a rule, regulation, decree, given by God or man. When it is
given by God it is synonymous with mišpа̄ṭ, “decision, judgment,
justice,” and miṣwâ, “order, commandment” (cf. Deut. 5:31; 6:1; 7:11;
26:17; 1 K. 8:58; 2 K. 17:37).
The positive
assertion is followed by a negative one: you have not kept them. The
connection between sûr, “to turn away,” and lō šāmar, “not to
keep,” is also found in Mal. 2:8; Deut. 17:19, 20; 2 K. 18:6. It is
characteristic of Deuteronomy to combine šāmar with ḥūqqîm (6:17;
7:11; 12:1; 16:12; 17:19). Because šemartem is without an
object, various suggestions are made to supply it. BHK and BHS
suggest the insertion of mišmartî: “What is to be observed in regard to
me” (cf. KB, Sievers, Elliger). Wellhausen, et al., alter the Masoretic vocalization
to read: šemartûm, “You have not kept them.” This
suggestion seems preferable, because it accords with the implied meaning of the
text. The people of God have turned away from the decrees of God, and that
turning away consisted in their not keeping them.
Because of their sins
the people have turned their back to God. It is essential for the covenant
relationship that God and people should again turn to one another. This is the
key note of sentence 5 (v. 7c): Return to me, and I will return to you. According
to W.L. Holladay the Hebrew verb may have the opposite meanings of “to repent”
and “to become apostate.” Here it is the former, because the act of turning is to
me (‘ēlay). H.W. Wolff pointed out that the call to repentance in
the prophecies is usually accompanied by a Heilswort, a word of
salvation. Similar phraseology is found in Zech. 1:3 and 2 Chr. 30:6 (cf. Jer.
31:8; Lam. 5:21). If the people return to God, then he will surely return to
them. This aspect of promise is expressed in the syntactical structure. The cohortative
with waw-copulative is dependent on the preceding imperative and denotes
a consequence: “in order that I may turn to you,” or “then I will turn to you”
(GKC, § 108d). The transgression of the people were the cause of God’s turning
away form them, the reason why he was no longer pleased with them (1:8, 10; 2:13).
If they repent, he is eager to confirm by his own turning to them that he still
loves them and that he has not changed his covenant relationship to them (v.
6). (Pieter A. Verhoef, The Books of Haggai and Malachi [NICOT;
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1987], 300-2), emphasis in bold added
The entry from Gesenius’ grammar,
referenced above, reads thusly:
2. The cohortative in
dependence on other moods, as well as in conditional sentences: (a) In dependence (with wāw copulative;
Ps 9:15 after לְמַ֫עַן) on an imperative or jussive
to express an intention or intended consequence, e.g. Gn 27:4 bring it to me, וְאֹכֵ֑לָה that I may eat, prop. then will I eat; Gn 19:5, 23:4, 24:56,
27:25, 29:21, 30:25 f., 42:34, 49:1, Dt 32:1, Ho 6:1, Ps 2:8, 39:14, Jb
10:20 Qerê; Is 5:19 and let the counsel of the Holy One of
Israel draw nigh and come, וְנֵדָֽעָה that we may know (it)! Gn 26:28, 1 S 27:5. Also after
negative sentences, Gn 18:30, 32, Ju 6:39, and after interrogative sentences, 1
K 22:7, Is 40:25, 41:26, Am 8:5. (Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius'
Hebrew Grammar [ed. E. Kautzsch and Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley; 2d English
ed.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910], 320 [§ 108d])
An Examination and Critique of the Theological Presuppositions Underlying Reformed Theology