Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
turn . . . heart of . . . fathers to . . . children, etc.--Explained by some, that John's preaching should restore harmony in families. But Luke 1:16-17 substitutes for "the heart of the children to the fathers," "the disobedient to the wisdom of the just," implying that the reconciliation to be effected was that between the unbelieving disobedient children and the believing ancestors, Jacob, Levi, "Moses," and "Elijah" (just mentioned) (compare Malachi 1:2; Malachi 2:4, Malachi 2:6; Malachi 3:3-4). The threat here is that, if this restoration were not effected, Messiah's coming would prove "a curse" to the "earth," not a blessing. It proved so to guilty Jerusalem and the "earth," that is, the land of Judea when it rejected Messiah at His first advent, though He brought blessings (Genesis 12:3) to those who accepted Him (John 1:11-13). Many were delivered from the common destruction of the nation through John's preaching (Romans 9:29; Romans 11:5). It will prove so to the disobedient at His second advent, though He comes to be glorified in His saints (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).
curse--Hebrew, Cherem, "a ban"; the fearful term applied by the Jews to the extermination of the guilty Canaanites. Under this ban Judea has long lain. Similar is the awful curse on all of Gentile churches who love not the Lord Jesus now (1 Corinthians 16:22). For if God spare not the natural branches, the Jews, much less will He spare unbelieving professors of the Gentiles (Romans 11:20-21). It is deeply suggestive that the last utterance from heaven for four hundred years before Messiah was the awful word "curse." Messiah's first word on the mount was "Blessed" (Matthew 5:3). The law speaks wrath; the Gospel, blessing. Judea is now under the "curse" because it rejects Messiah; when the spirit of Elijah, or a literal Elijah, shall bring the Jewish children back to the Hope of their "fathers," blessing shall be theirs, whereas the apostate "earth" shall be "smitten with the curse" previous to the coming restoration of all things (Zechariah 12:13-14).
May the writer of this Commentary and his readers have grace "to take heed to the sure word of prophecy as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn!" To the triune Jehovah be all glory ascribed for ever!
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Isaiah 40:3
Isaiah 40:4
Isaiah 56:1
Zechariah 5:3
Zechariah 14:11
Malachi 4:1
2 Timothy 1:3
Revelation 11:3
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