The Words of Malachi for the Nephites

In the book Knowing Why, 127 MORE Evidences That the Book of Mormon is True, the authors make an interesting suggestion about why the Savior quoted Malachi 3-4 when He was among the Nephites.  Both of these chapters speak about the last days, and so of course one reason that the Lord may have highlighted them was for our day so that we would understand their importance.  But these authors suggested that the Nephites, who had just experienced extreme destruction and turmoil at the time of His death, likely could relate very well with the message of Malachi.  Though Malachi’s prophecies seem to have been directed at the intense experiences of our time, they clearly could have been applied to the Nephites in their day.  Here are a handful of ways that these two chapters may really have struck home for the Nephites:

·        “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in” (3 Nephi 24:1).  This is a good description of what happened to the Nephites—the Lord literally came to His temple.  The Savior descended from heaven to the people when they were “gathered together… round about the temple which was in the land Bountiful” (3 Nephi 11:1). 

·        “But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap…. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up” (3 Nephi 24:2, 25:).  The Nephites just witnessed the signs of his death in which many of their people were killed, including by fire for their capital and most important city: “And the city of Zarahemla did take fire.”  The people lamented, “O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and then would our brethren have been spared, and they would not have been burned in that great city Zarahemla” (3 Nephi 8:8,24).  Indeed the events preceding His coming among the Nephites were like a refiner’s fire and the wicked became as stubble. 

·        “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger, and fear not me, saith the Lord of Hosts” (3 Nephi 24:5).  In this denunciation of the wicked the Lord promised that He would visit them in judgment, and surely the Nephites could witness that this is exactly what happened to the wicked among them when the great destructions came upon the land.  The Savior declared that they were destroyed “because of their sins and their wickedness, which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret murders and combinations” (3 Nephi 9:9).

·        “But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (3 Nephi 25:2).  The Savior came among the Nephites and healed them just as this verse promised He would do: They “did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their blind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him” (3 Nephi 17:9).  The Savior indeed rose from the dead and came among the Nephites with healing in His wings. 

·        “He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (3 Nephi 25:6).  The Savior repeatedly focused on the children when He was among the Nephites, and He sought to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, telling them, “Behold your little ones” (3 Nephi 17:23).  Later He also caused those children to teach their fathers: “He did teach and minister unto the children of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things” (3 Nephi 26:14).  Though we consider this prophecy about Elijah to be one that is being fulfilled now in the last days, for the Nephites they similarly saw this turning of the hearts happen for them. 

Clearly these words of Malachi, though generally seen as a prophecy about the last days, were meaningful and powerful for the Nephites who received them at the hand of the Lord.  They were brought unto the Lord just as we can be and these words no doubt applied to the Nephites: “They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (3 Nephi 24:17).