Have you ever wonder what "wings" Malachi was talking about in Malachi 4:2?
In the midst of a passage on judgment and destruction for the wicked, the prophet Malachi promises healing, joy and deliverance for those who reverence God's character. But what sun - s-u-n not s-o-n - has "wings" and how on earth do wings heal?
The context of the Malachi passage helps us understand the sun metaphor and two other passages, Isaiah 6:1 and Luke 8:43-47, explain the "wings"/healing connection.
What is the "sun" to which Malachi refers?
1. We can deduce it is a metaphorical sun, a personification, because he or it has "righteousness", a quality of character not capable of possession by inanimate objects. Whoever heard of a sincere chair or a fickle rock?
2. The sun and its elementary constituent, fire, are a mixed blessing to humanity. The sun and fire both burn and warm. God Himself uses this metaphor in describing His appearance to Israel.
"Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant . . . But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner's fire . . . Mal. 3:1b-2.
The fire metaphor resumes in Chapter 4:
"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble and that day that is coming will set them on fire." Mal. 4:1a.
The contrast to consuming fire and judgment - a benign sun and healing - then appear in Mal. 4:2.[1]
"But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings."
Thus Malachi 2:17 through 4:6 (the end of the book) form a unit promising destruction for evildoers and deliverance and healing for those who reverence His name when the Lord Himself (the metaphorical sun) appears in his temple. Contrast fulfillment of Malachi's prophesies: Jesus' cleansing the temple (John 2:13-17) with Jesus in the temple recognized by Simeon and learning with the rabbis (Luke 2:25-32 and Luke 2:41-47).
If Malachi does refer to the Messiah, what about those "wings"?
Maybe this alternative translation will help:
But the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in the fringes [of his garment] (my translation).
Still confused? Not to worry. The Hebrew word Malachi uses in 4:2 "kanaph" is often translated "wings" but MessianicArt.com, citing Strong's concordance, recognizes a broader meaning:
Kanaph (kaw-nawf);
Noun Feminine, Strong #: 3671
Wing, extremity, edge, winged, border, corner, shirt
- Wing
- Extremity skirt, corner (of garment)
Thus, Malachi 4:2 standing alone and in the fuller context of Malachi 3-4, is most sensically and best translated:
"But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in the fringes of his robe."[2]
Support for this interpretation comes in the Messianic writings through the account of a woman who had been experiencing vaginal bleeding for years. She was unclean and who was not to touch others and, therefore, make them unclean. To no avail, she had spent all that she had on doctors. One day she heard that Yeshua Ben Yosef was passing by. You've probably read the story:
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, [3] and immediately her bleeding stopped.
"Who touched me?" Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you".
But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."
Healing power emanated from Jesus when she touched the fringes of his garment.
When a paper napkin touches water, it draws the liquid into itself. In much the same way, this woman, thirsty for God's healing flow, absorbed "living water" when she touched the fringes of his cloak.
I think this woman recognized or had some familiarity with Malachi's messianic prophecy because she had enough faith/desperation to recognize Jesus as Healer and to push through the crowd and touch the fringes of his robe.
Isaiah also encountered Yahweh Rapha (the God who heals):
"In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, and the hem of His garment filled the temple Is. 6:1 [3].[4]
The Lord that Isaiah beheld was either so large, perhaps 500 feet tall, that just the fringes of his robe filled the temple or the Lord was human sized with the hem or tassels (tzitzit) magnificently outsized. In either event, the picture the text paints is the Lord exalted, holy, and majestic. Isaiah realizes he is in big trouble!
"Woe is me. I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips . . . " Is. 6:5.
Isaiah had good reason to fear. Uzziah had been a good and powerful king, ruling Israel for 52 years; yet when he became prideful and offered incense on the altar of the temple (only Kohanim were allowed to do so), the Lord put leprosy on him. Yet Isaiah's attitude differed from Uzziah's. Isaiah was humble and repentant. God's response was loving; a seraph takes a burning coal, perhaps from the same altar Uzziah had desecrated, and imparts atonement to Isaiah by touching his lips with it. Is. 6:6-7.
Thus, unclean Isaiah, like the unclean woman, is made clean by a touch from God or by touching Him.
How do we use these passages to receive healing or impart it?
Here are six healing principles from these texts:
- Revere, fear and worship the character of God - holy and exalted;
- Know that healing - the ability and desire to heal us- is a part of that character we worship;
- Recognize, confess and turn from our uncleanness/sinfulness both in our actions and nature (Woe is us!). Do so in the personal, family, church and national levels;
- Let our desperation become faith with singularity of purpose - only God can heal and save; all health and salvation are from Him;
- Let the Holy Spirit soften our hearts and break our pride;
- Visualize the Lord exalted and let Him touch you or the Lord passing by reach out and touch Him.
[1]As I wrote in "The Healing of Jabez", the sun has different effects depending on the nature of the object shined upon: Butter melts and mud hardens. Does the love of God shone at the cross soften or harden your heart?
[2]The color and decoration of the fringes/hem of the robe of the High Priest are carefully described in Ex. 28:33-34 and Ex. 39:24-6. All Jewish men were also commanded to wear tassels on the fringes of their garments Num. 15:38. Thus, the hem of the garment was an important part of dress although until the Isaiah 6:1 passage there is no biblical association of the garment hem with healing.
[3] Dan Gruber in The Messianic Writings translates "the edge of his cloak" as "the tzitzit of his garment"
[4]Alternate reading found in several translations.
