Chapter 25 continues the Savior’s dictation of Malachi. These verses continue the theme of Chapter 24, which was concerned with the end days. These also describe that time. In Chapter 24, verse 2, the triumphant Messiah of the final days would come as a refiner’s fire.
In Chapter 25, the focus is not on purifying Israel, but on the effect upon the wicked. This fire is a destructive fire: “all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day cometh shall burn them up, saith the lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”
That is indeed a fearsome prospect, therefore, the Lord notes that those who believe on Christ need not fear, as they “shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall,” calves who are cared for and in a comfortable place.
The significant difference between verse 2 and the Malachi 4:2 model is the difference between Malachi’s “Sun of righteousness,” and the “Son of Righteousness” that we see in 3 Nephi. Sun and Son are homophones. They sound exactly alike. Even though Malachi uses “Sun,” the title certainly is intended to point to Christ. When Joseph Smith dictated the text to his scribe, the scribe heard the word from the context supplied what a modern reader would assume, which is that it should be a title for the Son of God. In the printer’s manuscript there is an example of this very issue. During the dictation of the New World Sermon on the Mount, the scribe wrote: “for he maketh his son to rise on the evil.” That error was caught, and son crossed out, and replaced with sun, written above it.