In 1963, Bob Dylan released a hit song titled, Blowin’ in the Wind. Blowin’ in the
Wind was written as a plea to his generation to make a change for the good in a
time of war, division, and uncertainty. For those unfamiliar with the song, listen as
I read the verse from this song,
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
And how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
These lyrics like the rest of the song, consist of a long series of questions with a
possible solution to cause listeners to evaluate for themselves if they live in
consideration of the world around them. Are you the kind of person who has eyes
to see and a heart to feel for others? This is the kind of question Bob Dylan is
begging people to consider and realize that the answer their looking for has been right in front of them the whole time. All they need to do is choose to recognize it
for themselves.
This unique song was written by an artist who lived an even more unique lifestyle
who regularly used his platform to convey messages to people of all kinds for the
better or worse.
In the story of the Bible, we read examples of men and women who are used by
God to proclaim messages of many kinds, specifically, messages that reveal the
way of truth and life. These messages transcend anything you can find in any
bookstore, podcast or streaming platform.
A particular message from scripture I want us to turn to this morning is one
overlooked but is as special as the rest of them. The message that we will be
turning to this morning comes from a special messenger that is referred to as the
prophet Malachi. If you haven’t done so already, go ahead and open your Bibles to
the book of Malachi. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament and can be
found on page 801 in the pew Bibles underneath the seats.
Before we dive into what God has in store for us today, let’s pray one more time to
prepare ourselves for is about God to communicate,
Lord, clothe the facts from the book of Malachi with fascination. Help us crawl
into the skin of these people – to see through their eyes, touch with their hands,
feel with their hearts and experience life with minds such as theirs. Enable us with
everything we need to love you more today than we did yesterday. – Amen
The person of Malachi is hotly debated as there are some with opposing views
concerning his identity. Some scholars consider it possible that he was an angel
sent from God in the form of a man while others even think that he is a person with
a different name but handed the title of “Malachi” since Malachi literally means
“messenger of God” in Hebrew. The consensus view however, is that he was an
actual person with that given name. Why it so difficult to pinpoint who Malachi
was is the fact that his name is mentioned just the one time in the opening verse of
the book,
Malachi 1:1
The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.No other time in the Old or New Testament is his name ever mentioned again.
Regardless of who he was, the book of Malachi is far less concerned with who he
is but more concerned with what the content of his message was to Israel.
Malachi is likely dated around 539 BC to 333 BC. Malachi also existed during the
time of Nehemiah, who was a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, all of which can be
found in the book of Nehemiah in our Old Testament. Nehemiah played an
essential role under the King and was used by God to rebuild city walls that were
torn down in Jerusalem after Ezra’s return and reforms. Around the time of 432
BC, Nehemiah had left Jerusalem to return to Persia where he served under the
king and didn’t come back to Jerusalem until 425 B.C. Scholars assume that it was
during this time that Malachi’s message was proclaimed to correct the people in
their wrongdoings in the hopes of directing them back to God with hearts of love
for their Lord.
The crux of Malachi’s message to Israel is best summarized with four reminders
(one reminder for each chapter of the book). The first reminder he gives is to fear
God for His name is great. The second reminder is that living a life of foolishness
has great consequences. The third, is that the faithful return to God always. The
fourth and final reminder is to never forget the law in anticipation of what is to
come.
- Fear God
- 3. 4. Living a life of foolishness has great consequences
The faithful return to God
Never forget the law in anticipation of what’s to come
My sermon today will be different from what we are used to. Instead of directing
our attention to one verse or passage, we will attempt a brief survey of the entire
book. Lord willing, if communicated well, you will discover the beauty of the
message from Malachi that is as applicable to us now as it was to the people of
Israel.
Let’s begin our survey of Malachi with Malachi’s first reminder to fear God.
We first discover this in the opening passage of Malachi 1:2-5. Listen as I read,
“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not
Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I
have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of thedesert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD
of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the
wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’ ” 5 Your
own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of
Israel!”
These opening verses rightfully should strike fear in us for God as God’s love is
incomprehensible. This is most striking of course, when God discusses of His love
for Jacob and hatred for Esau in verses 2 and 3.
The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans in Romans 9 gives clarity on this
contentious point of God’s love by explaining how God has mercy on whomever
He wills and does as He pleases. God is able to do as He wills because He sees all
things and knows all things.
When God speaks of His love for Jacob and hate for Esau and how the wicked may
rebuild and He will tear them down, what He wants the people of Israel to be
confident in is His love for them. This love should embed a fear that is not
necessarily afraid of God but one that is in awe of Him. Fear for God in scripture is
not always synonymous with fears that we have like fears of spiders, snakes, or
heights. God is not suggesting that you be scared of Him exactly, what He is
expecting in our fear is that we recognize that He is the King on the throne over
everything.
Malachi 1:2-5 point us to multiple truths in relation to God’s love and fear for
Him,
- 2. He will always protect His people
His name will prove to be great among the nations.
Throughout the history of Israel, there have been many ups and downs. They have
just returned from exile and have also rebuilt a second temple. They have grown up
hearing the stories of God’s deliverance in the Exodus, David’s defeat of Goliath,
and Solomon’s mighty rule over the kingdom. They have tasted glory but have
taken a few hits along the way as a consequence of their sin. Despite facing those
consequences, however, God has remained with them at their side in preventing
them from becoming a wiped-out nation.
He has promised them blessing and will continually remind them of what’s to
come as we will further explore in this book. During this time of the prophetMalachi, God is close to accomplishing His plan of redemption and is demanding
that Israel would remember what has been accomplished up to this point. He has
protected them, and He has revealed Himself as the God of Creation with great
power.
As much as they have seen God at work, the Israelites still question Him and ask
how have you loved? Throughout this book, there are a series of questions that
begin with how or why God? These questions show us that Israel is playing the
role of a victim and accusing God of forsaking them. They feel that God does not
love them and that He has left them hanging out to dry.
Do you ever feel this way? Have you ever asked God questions like how do you
love me or why have you left me? God’s response to His own people in this
opening passage proves that we like Israel, need to be reminded of what’s true.
Without reminders we have nothing to lean on. We have nothing to steer us in the
right direction when we feel low. When we arrive at a time of difficulty, we want
answers or solutions with instant feedback. We don’t like reminders necessarily in
the moment because those reminders just point us back to what has happened
without affecting what will happen in the moment.
When I was kid, I had a bad habit of losing things. Even to this day I do! One thing
I would lose a lot was my wallet. Whenever I lost it, I would ask my parents if they
knew where it was and their response was always the same, “do you remember
where you last left it?” I never liked that response, and the reason why I didn’t like
it was because it didn’t point me to the direction of where I needed to go to find it.
Their response just demanded that I recall a prior memory that may have been
helpful or not depending on how great my memory was. More often than not, I
couldn’t remember where I last placed my wallet because if I did, I wouldn’t have
asked them about it in the first place.
But here’s the thing reminders, while I may not have liked their answer, the better
the memory I would have had, the greater the impact my memory would have had
on my future. What we choose to remember most, may not always provide a
solution to our problems, but they will shape how we choose to think and act
moving forward.
When God reminded Israel of what He has done, He’s using His divine
sovereignty as proof of His love for them. Instead of seeking favor on their own
terms, their lives should hinge on the favor He’s demonstrated over them as well astheir promised blessings to come. Even though they did not feel loved in the
moment, they needed to realize that what they felt doesn’t align with what’s true.
What is true is that God loves them and that His love should cause the people to
fear Him and proclaim that His name is great among all the nations.
In verses 2-5 of Malachi 1, the people of God asked how have you loved us? That
answer we found was through God’s faithfulness and protection over them.
Moving further in the book of Malachi, just one verse down, Israel asks God
another question but this time concerning what they have done,
Follow as I read verse 6,
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is
my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you,
O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your
name?’
Here in verse 6, God compares Himself to a father and master. He also compares
the people to sons and servants. He uses these comparisons because sons and
servants all have fear and honor toward their fathers and masters. Fear and honor
are what the people lack for God.
Earlier I described that fear according to Malachi is best described as having an
awe of God. This definition is further proved in verse 8 of Malachi which is just a
couple verses down. There, in verse 8, God compares Himself to a governor. He
uses the example of a governor because the people think more highly of their
political leaders than God Himself. If a political leader had seen how they were
living, the people would have thought twice to present themselves better than they
did before God. Having fear for someone (being in awe of them) informs how we
choose to show honor or respect towards them.
How exactly has Israel failed to show fear and honor for God? We get the answer
to this question in the verses to follow that explain how they have presented lame
offerings to God.
Remember the law given to the people through Moses? It is there where we see the
command to present offerings to God as a mode of worship. With these offerings,
the people were commanded to present the best of animals without blemish as a
means to atone for their sins.They followed one part of the command to present animals as offerings but no
longer chose to present their best. As a result of this, they were disobedient to God
and treated Him not as one to be feared or honored, but one to be mocked. What
was once an act of worship to the almighty God of Israel became a drag and lost all
its significance.
None of us today participate in offering up animals to God like Israel did. If you
look around this sanctuary, it is clear that none of us brought animals to be
sacrificed and there is great reason for that. We no longer live in the age of the Old
Covenant bound by the Mosaic Law. Instead, we live in the age of the New
Covenant where the Law has now been fulfilled by the Son sent from the Father,
Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Messiah that the Law and the prophets looked ahead to. When God
gave Moses the Mosaic Law, it’s primary function was to be as a guide that would
separate them from the other nations. They were subject to a list of commands to
walk in holiness and cleanliness. Israel regularly failed to keep God’s law which
exposed their failure to measure up to God’s righteousness. Their failures
reminded them to look ahead to an individual who would measure up to the Law
and reconcile them with their Creator.
That person that the Law looked to was Jesus. Having been born of Mary through
the virgin birth, performing great signs and healings, proclaiming the gospel of the
kingdom, and teaching as one with great authority, lived the perfect life (without
sin) that the Law expected of God’s people.
Christ’s righteousness lived up to the standard of the Law and fulfilled it as well in
His life, death, and resurrection. The coming of the Son sent from the Father was
necessary so we would never have to sacrifice animals again and work hard to
obtain God’s righteousness. It is in Christ alone where we are deemed righteous
because His holiness and sacrifice on the cross was the sacrifice of all sacrifices.
We like Israel, need the reminder to fear God and one of the best ways we can
regularly remind ourselves is by going to a special table. Not a table like Israel
attended to offer animals as sacrifices, but a better table that they wish they
could’ve been to. The table I’m speaking of is Lord’s Table where we participate
in the Lord’s Supper. It is there we gather to partake of the body and blood of
Christ to remember and celebrate His sacrifice while looking ahead to His eventual
return.The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace but not in the way that if we don’t do it we
won’t earn salvation. Remember, in Christ alone, we are saved. There is no ritual,
practice or list of rules that make us right before God. The Lord’s Supper is a
means of grace as in it’s a practice that allows us to enjoy the salvation through
faith, that God has given His people.
When we take the Supper today, remember Christ’s death, celebrate His
resurrection then look ahead to the future day when He returns because our God
loves us as He said He did to Israel 2000 plus years ago.
God’s name shall be proclaimed as great among the nations. He is the God who
loves and shall be feared by all which is what Malachi has reminded us of in
chapter 1,
We must fear God.
In continuing through Malachi, let’s now turn our attention to the second reminder
he gives us in chapter 2. That second reminder is that living a life of foolishness
has great consequences.
At the beginning of chapter 2, God continues to communicate to the Priests of the
day and provides a direct command to listen and take to heart what He expects of
them.
In the opening two verses God says,
Malachi 2:1-2
“And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2 If you will not listen, if you will
not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will
send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already
cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.”
As a small side note, specifically about the end of verse two, notice how God
doesn’t just speak of a future curse but adds that He has already cursed them. What
makes this addition to the verse a little tricky is there is no clear knowledge of how
that is so. It appears to me, that the people of God were cursed in that God had
prevented them from experiencing more blessing from His hand for some time.Regardless of how they might’ve been cursed, God was dissatisfied with how they
treated Him less for who He is and for that, they did not deserve God’s favor.
This verse however, should cause us to wonder then if God can still be dissatisfied
with us and curse us as well? The short answer to that question is yes and no.
Whenever we get sick, injured, or something bad happens, don’t be quick to
assume that it is God’s way of placing a curse on you. When Job (Job of the OT)
lost everything, was that God’s way of cursing him? Absolutely not! He was a
righteous man who deserved no condemnation at all but ended up going through
what He did as a testament of his faithfulness to God!
Also, we live in the age of the New Covenant which means that God is still the
same as He was then but chooses to operate differently than He did before. The
greatest sin we could ever commit is to choose to reject Christ as Lord. It is
essential that we believe in Jesus because if we don’t, we are saying that He is not
God and are replacing Him with some pathetic idol. The result of one’s rejection of
Christ is a cursing that no one wants to face and that is an eternity in hell. God is
just and judges accordingly. He protects the faithful and condemns the wicked.
Christian, place your hope in Christ and look to Him as your savior. He will protect
you and if you doubt that, remember that He is protecting you through the
empowering of His Spirit!
Moving back into our text and away from that small tangent…
The priests of Israel were undoubtedly important men of God. They were tasked to
keep the people clean like doctors and ensure they were in step with God’s law.
The responsibility they bore was to be treated with seriousness and love. If they
stumbled, then God’s people stumbled with them.
Remember how the people were offering lame animals to God? Remember how
God asked them to fear Him? The priests were responsible for how the people
lived and worshipped God and failed to lead them well. They no longer bore their
responsibilities with seriousness. They forgot how to listen and take to heart what
God bestowed upon them.
The opening passage of Malachi 2 mirrors the beginning of James 3 when James
speaks directly to his audience about leaders being judged with greater strictness. If
you aspire to lead and hold a position where you communicate the word of God
before others, God expects you to listen to Him and love Him like your lifedepends on it because it really does. Not only is it your life that depends on it but
also the lives of others. When others looked to the priests of their day, what they
should have seen, was the nearest reflection of the image of God. God rightfully
judged them with greater strictness because it was their calling given from Him to
teach the people and be as shepherds over their sheep.
They brought dishonor to God’s name and since God judges His leaders with
greater strictness, He was ready to bring a curse to them and rebuke their offspring.
In turning moving along with our text, God continues to bring up a past covenant
that He made with Levi. A covenant of fear and honor because Levi is an example
from the OT of a leader who stood in awe of God. God describes Levi in verses 6-
7 saying,
“ True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He
walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7 For
the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction
from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.”
Levi is the standard of excellence. He was the example for the priests to follow as
they were to listen to God, be in awe of Him, and walk in righteousness.
When the people heard the voice of the priest, they heard the voice of God and
likewise when they saw priest walk daily, they should have seen a man who
walked in peace and uprightness for this was is aim of the man who possessed the
greatest responsibility of all.
Now… What happens when that responsibility is mistreated? The rest of Malachi 2
from verses 8 to 12 explain the rest for us,
8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your
instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, 9 and
so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not
keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless
to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless,
and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has
profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughterof a foreign god. 12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of
the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!
This middle portion of Malachi 2 teaches us two things: 1, that corrupt leaders
cause others to stumble and 2, they produce division among families.
The first lesson concerning leaders causing others to stumble should be no surprise
to us given what has already been discussed. The leaders were to instruct their
people well which they have not done and has caused them to lose fear for God.
As the people of God lacked fear, they abandoned their own spouses which is what
is expanded upon more in the concluding paragraph of Malachi 2. We won’t read
that together for the sake of time but take note, that a lack of fear and love for God
corrupts not only the heart but also the family. The breaking of one covenant leads
to the breaking of another.
Instead of living in faithfulness, these people were living in rebellion entirely.
They were fleeing from God relationally and were leaving their spouses to marry
women from other nations. They reached a stage in their life that was completely
against everything they were taught.
One of the most recognized stories in scripture is the story of the prodigal son in
Luke 15. The prodigal son came from a wealthy home and took his inheritance
early to flee from his family and live recklessly. We know that in the end despite
his recklessness, he returns home to a father who welcomes him with open arms.
What makes this story beloved is it is a story of redemption. It explains that no
matter how far away you run from your home, your father is always ready to
embrace you when you return.
I bring up one of the most well-known stories in scripture in a sermon on a book
rarely ever preached on because I believe there is a connection to be made. Israel,
like the prodigal son, had their inheritance (a promise given). They took it and ran
away with it as far as they could. They said thanks God for what you have given
us, but we desire something better and aspire to trade what we have for what we
want. So let us go and let us enjoy ourselves by trading what we own for what we
want now: temporal happiness.
Friends, let this be a lesson to not trade eternal rewards for earthly pleasure. Your
temporal happiness will never compare to the eternal joy that God has in store for
you. A specific encouragement I want to give you this morning is to not lose sightof God’s awesomeness. He is the provider for us and has done so in Christ! He
calls us into His family which gives us purpose, direction and a future in heaven.
He is the awesome God who loves us.
Living a life of foolishness has great consequences. Whether it be swearing,
looking at pornography, not following through on a promise kept, choosing to be
lazy, you fill in the blank. We understand how one sin can cause us to stumble then
eventually be overwhelmed by its power. It may feel like it is eating us alive but
know that as powerful as sin may appear, the blood of Christ and His work on the
cross is far more powerful to make you clean and free from sin.
The end of Malachi 2 shows how deceived Israel was. They continued to ask more
questions about how they have wearied God and where He has been? They were so
blinded by their wickedness they no longer knew how to see.
But God being the God He is, the God who loves, (like the father of the prodigal
son) anticipated the return of His child.
The book of Malachi first reminded us to fear God, then secondly living a life of
foolishness has great consequences… And now, in chapter three, Malachi is
reminding us that the faithful ones return to God.
Look with me at Malachi 3:1-3 that reads,
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the
Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the
covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2 But
who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he
is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and
they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.
Malachi 3 marks a strong transitioning point not just in the book of Malachi, but
the Bible as a whole. Malachi 3 draws a comparison to Isaiah 40 which also
prophesies of the one who would prepare the way for the Lord.
If you’ve been in church long enough to hear this phrase repeated “prepare the
way", you’ll recall that this prophecy is fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist
who prepared the way for Jesus. Malachi 3 doesn’t just provide us with a prophecyabout John the Baptist but also another messenger, a messenger of the covenant in
whom the people will take delight in.
Who must this messenger be? None other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our
Lord and Messiah who was said to come.
These opening verses in Malachi 3 are what make me so amazed to how rich this
book is. In the book of Malachi we discover everything we need to know about
life’s most foundational questions.
- Who is God?
- Who are we?
- How do we live in relation to God?
We find that God is all-powerful and is the God to be feared by all. Then we find
that we are a people subject to God corrupted by sin longing for restoration. Then
finally, the last answer to our third question is that we are to live in awe of God
loving the One who loves us enough to send His Son to redeem us.
Malachi solidifies the foundation of the Old Covenant while looking ahead to the
answers we long for.
Israel had an identity crisis. Their sinful actions revealed that they failed to
understand the character of God and failed to understand who they were in relation
to Him.
It’s the reason why they were asking questions that we have likely asked before…
Questions such as:
Why God?
How could you God?
Where are you God?
These questions imply that we are in season of testing and that we are left with a
choice to find our identity in Christ or in something else that provides us with no
foundation at all.Remember always that God sees His people and He understands exactly what we
need.
We are weak, we stumble, we waiver all over the place feeling every gust of wind.
However, with each time we ache, fall, or get beat down, Our God makes a way
for us to know that He cares. He cares so much that He followed through on the
promise given to prepare the way for the messenger who would purify and cleanse
us from sin. Christ has made us whole and worthy because He is worthy.
He is the One we are to delight in as what Malachi 3:1 says. He came offering
Himself as the bread of life who would fill our spiritual hunger. He came to reveal
the way, the truth, and the life. In a world and age of darkness, He is the ultimate
source of light who the Father sent to so we may see His glory.
The very person the nation of Israel longed for is the one we get to read about and
enjoy today…
But we don’t end there!
We continue in Malachi 3 by dropping down to verses 5 and 6,
5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the
sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who
oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those
who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. 6 “For I
the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
There will be a day when a distinction is made between the faithful and the faithless.
Israel has lived like the faithless one, but God intends to expose Israel’s heart and
speaks of a day of judgement in the hopes of seeing His people return to Him. For
those who do return to Him, He will honor them and bless them for their reward
shall be great.
What do you think makes living a life of faith so difficult? What needs to happen in
our lives, so we won’t repeat the mistakes Israel made?
Given what Malachi has laid before us today, what makes a life of faith so hard is
we are tasked to do things that seem boring. Faith demands that we follow and live
a simple life.Everything around us demands that we run away from the simple life. Take this next
trip, find this next job, chase after your dreams and change the world! All these
suggestions in our day demand that we take matters into our own hands and avoid
the simple life. I’m not suggesting that any of these things are bad but what I am
saying is that the minute everything becomes about creating our little kingdoms, we
are removing ourselves from arriving at a point of trusting God to take the throne of
our lives.
Even when our world says one thing, we must be reminded of God’s truths and
continue in faith. In faith we shall return to God regularly even when things don’t
make sense. Faith never requires that we figure out how God will work. What faith
does require is that we would be willing to trust that He will work. Once we fix our
gaze on Christ and allow God to take matters in His own hands and not ours, we will
finally perceive God for who He is as the Lord above all. God is not a problem to be
solved but rather the Lord to be trusted and enjoyed.
When I first met my wife, I never tried to figure her out like a science project. As
much as I would have wanted to take matters into my own hands, my relationship
with her was solely dependent on whether I would be willing to trust and see how
things would play out. I needed to be faithful yes, and I needed to put in effort
absolutely. However, for things to have happened the way they did, I had to
humble myself and allow her to pursue me in love. Love is never something forced
but pursued and sought after.
When God demanded Israel to return to Him in love, this is what He meant. He
wanted them to trust Him. They forgot what it was like to pursue Him. They
treated their relationship with Him as a chore, something to check off on their to-
do list and move on with. They didn’t want God for God’s sake, but desired to get
something out of Him instead.
God wants His people to return to Him and pursue Him. This is why we read our
Bibles, pray and go to church. We don’t do these things for the sake of feeling
great about ourselves. We participate in them because it is a practical way we can
actively return to God and be in the presence of Him and His people. The faithful
return and cling to God as Malachi reminds us in chapter 3 of his book.
Reminder 1 from Malachi was to fear God. Reminder 2 from Malachi was that
living a life of foolishness has great consequences. Reminder 3 from Malachi wasthe faithful return to God. And reminder 4 for us is to remember the law in
anticipation of what’s to come.
Chapter 4 of Malachi proves that Malachi is the perfect ending to the Old
Testament. It explains how a day is coming when the wicked will be judged, and
the righteous will prevail. It also directs us back to the beginning of the Old
Testament with the Law that was given to Moses. The law was the life source of
God’s people that guided them in how they must live.
After telling them to remember the law, Malachi ends his book in verses 5 and 6,
with what was to be anticipated,
Malachi 4:5-6
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of
the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the
hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of
utter destruction.”
Malachi’s ending is like the book itself, short and direct but also dense. It provides
us with the greatest reminder of all, that just so happens to be the simplest of
reminders: to remember the law while anticipating the day God fulfills His
promises to His people.
Today, we no longer sit waiting for the prophet Elijah because He has already
come in the person of John the Baptist. John the Baptist as we mentioned, prepared
the way for the Lord but we still anticipate another day when we see Christ declare
His throne in full glory.
That will be day when the wicked are judged and sin is no more. It will be the day
when we get to enjoy all of God’s blessings and see our fears and worries put to
death.
The strong description in the early verses of chapter 4 show how the wicked will
be as ashes on the soles of the feet of the righteous as a testament to how God will
demonstrate His justice.
It is hard for our Western minds to see the beauty in God’s wrath, but this verse
should communicate to us how God is just and will follow through on every
promise He has made. Every person who has been mistreated, persecuted in thename of Christ will be exalted and everyone who has ridiculed the faithful shall be
brought low. God’s wrath is proof of God’s strength, righteousness and love for
His people.
I mentioned before we are no longer subject to the law because of Christ, but that
does not mean it’s no longer useful. We have the Law and the scriptures as the
Word of God since it binds the people of God with Him. It removes the
complexities of this world and guides us into living simple, yet different lives from
those around us.
If there is anything that I’ve learned from the last 6 years of my life with college
and seminary, it’s that obedience is hard but also, simple. It’s all about showing up
and following through on what’s expected. God has laid out everything we
possibly need to be in fellowship with Him and offers us with a choice to either
follow Him or leave Him.
A life of obedience is still important for us today as it was to people of Israel. We
should read our Bibles, we should pray, we should worship God, we should come
to church but never for the sake of obtaining righteousness.
Righteousness is not earned but given to those with faith in the one who is the
answer to all our questions. The answer my friends is the person of Christ. He is
the one we delight in, the one who makes us free, gives us sight to see, ears willing
to hear the cries of this world and present them with the good news of the gospel. It
is in Christ where we shall no longer see death because Christ reigns victorious
over it and gives life to the lifeless.
Malachi reminds us to fear God. He then reminds that a life of foolishness is not
worth it. Then He adds a third reminder that the faithful return to God and lastly
reminds us to remember the Law in anticipation of what is to come. Those
reminders stand the time of time and prove that we should fix our gaze on Christ
and look forward to the future coming day when He returns.
Amen
