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Malachi |
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| Chapter 1 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 3 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 2 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 4 | Prayer | Devotional |
Prayers
Lord of Glory, You have spoken through Your messengers the prophets. You revealed Your love for Israel. Yet Your plans have always been great even beyond the borders of Israel. Father, You sent Your Son to be the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles. He accomplished His work as our High Priest with full integrity. He did everything perfectly. His offering was pure, for He gave Himself as a holy sacrifice. In Him there was no blemish. Now He is our great King, and His Name shall be exalted throughout the earth.
Great God, we will honor Your Name. We humble ourselves under Your almighty hand. We are to be priests before You. Your priests should be different from the world. We should guard knowledge, give good instruction to one another, and follow in the way that we teach to others. Please forgive us, for we have corrupted Your word. Particularly within our homes we should be good examples of love and sacrificial commitment. We should seek You and serve You as we train up our children in the way they should go. Have we spoken thoughtlessly and acted as if You do not care about justice? Have mercy on us, O Lord.
Father God, You have sent Your Son as the Mediator of a New Covenant. He has provided a way for those who fear You, but He will come again to judge the wicked. We must return to You. We must be faithful with the wealth that You have given to us. We will generously support the work of Your church. We will give to the poor within our midst. Grant to us true joy in Your service. Bless us with a deeper repentance. We have committed ourselves to the way of righteousness. We will serve You.
O God, the Day of Judgment is surely coming. Yet, the sun has risen in our hearts through the gift of Jesus Christ. In Him we have the greatest blessing. You have turned our hearts back to You, our Father. He has destroyed the destruction that was coming against us. United to Him we have a most secure peace and hope. Come soon, Lord Jesus!
Devotionals
The Lord has had things to say to His Old Covenant people through many messengers over many centuries. We now come to the last of these, at least for some period of time, the prophet Malachi. As with others who have come before him, the Word that he brings is not his own. It is the Word of Almighty God. It can be counted on to be right and true. It is the Lord’s Word to seal up the Scriptures until the coming of John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah.
With the heritage of Israel in mind, and this special closing moment of Old Covenant revelation, we are interested to see what these words, that are something of a conclusion to the Scriptures from the age of the Law, will say to the Lord’s people. The Lord begins with His electing love. Throughout this book He speaks to His beloved Israel as an older child, one who has come to ignore or reject everything that his Father is saying to him. The Father says, “I have loved You.” The son does not believe it, and so he questions this. The Father points to the difference between Jacob and Esau recorded in the book of Genesis by Moses so long ago. The difference between the two boys who were born essentially at the same time and of the same parents is that one was chosen by the electing love of the Father and the other was not. This is the difference of being loved by the Father because of the work of Messiah on behalf of the elect, and being hated by Almighty God because of His righteous indignation against sin and the absence of a perfect Mediator. That is why God has loved Jacob, the ancestor of Israel, but He has hated Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites. People may try to build up that realm again, but the Lord’s final plans are for an “Israel” from all the nations, not for a new Edom coming down out of the heavens. There is no blessed future in being an Edomite.
The Lord has a Word against His levitical priests. They have not honored the Lord as a Father, and they have not served Him as a Master. Again there is an indignant response of challenge and unbelief: “How have we despised Your Name?” They have not followed the Word of the Lord according to the system of sacrifice that He established for them under the Law. Even according to the dictates of their consciences they should have felt that they were in the wrong, for they gave things to God that they never would have offered up to a human governor. The civil leaders over them were more real to them than the God who loved them.
The Lord indicates that it would be better to have the whole sacrificial life of the Old Covenant brought to an end than to have it continue in this way of hypocrisy and rebellion. He does not want them to have fire on His altar any more. Their ceremonies are just empty and worse than useless, and they will not be acceptable to a holy God. This settled determination signals the end of any future for the Old Covenant ways. This is not a new message, but there is a note of finality throughout Malachi that is appropriate for this occasion in the life of God’s people.
That is not to suggest that God’s purposes of love and grace are over. In fact, as He has spoken through His prophets for many centuries, His plans will be fulfilled and His covenant will be expanded to include the nations. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the Lord’s name will be great among the nations, and there will be a pure offering to His Name in the sanctified lives of His people, blessed by the prayers of a perfect Mediator who lives forever to give the incense of acceptable intercession for us to the Father.
This certainly does not describe any future day of a renewed Old Covenant life for this Israel. They consider the ceremonies of His Law to be a weary system. They show their lack of regard for Him by their offerings of what they have stolen from others, or by their giving to God what was otherwise useless among men. They have made vows to God promising to give the best, and then they sneak in something less than that as a payment of their vows. Because of this, they deserve the curse of the covenant.
Their day will come to a close, though the Lord will not forget His everlasting love for His chosen ones. Yes, their day is coming to a close, but the glory of the Lord of hosts will never pass away. Though He would first come as One who was despised and rejected by the people of Israel, He would be the perfect sacrifice and the fulfillment of the richness of the Old Testament ceremonies. He would come as the Davidic King, and a great King over all the nations. He would come as the perfect Man, a worshiper who would pay His vow in full for our sake.
Because the Lord Jesus Christ has done this, though God’s Old Covenant system has ended, the Lord’s Name is feared among the nations. We do not see that completely now. We see Christ, and we see the church that He has established. We see her coming to the point of flaunting her own rebellion and disobedience to His holy will. Her apostasy, her rejection of His perfection and His Word will only mean the closing of another age one day, the age of the gospel. But the Lord will come with a great host of Jews and Gentiles who have been perfected in holiness, and with a powerful angelic host who will do His bidding, and He will be feared among the nations.
To be a priest in the Old Covenant was a very important position. The existence of this class of mediators between God and men was a testimony to the distance that existed between the Lord and His own people. They could not simply enter into His presence. They had to respect the methods that God had established for communion between Him in all His holiness and the people He loved in all their sinfulness. The priest was a part of that system. The people needed to bring their offerings to God in accord with the established ceremonial law, but they could not go to God directly. They brought the appropriate sacrifice to the priest, who then approached the Lord on behalf of the worshipper.
There were some severe limitations with this system which made it less than ideal. First, the sacrifices could not ultimately take away sin, since an animal could not bear the burden of human guilt. Second, the man who served as priest had to atone for his own sins through these imperfect means before he could offer up sacrifices for others. In this way it was obvious that the offerings of the people were not the perfect sacrifices and that the ones who served as priests were not the perfect mediators. A holy God would certainly demand a sacrifice without any blemish and a representative who would have the righteousness necessary to stand in the presence of God for others on the strength of His own holiness. The solution to this need could be nothing other than the provision of the perfect Savior who would be both Sacrifice and Priest in accord with the perfect plan of God.
These problems of imperfection in both the sacrificial system and in the priesthood were compounded by the fact that the men who served as priests in the days of Malachi were guilty of serious personal and ceremonial offenses against God that demanded His response. The Lord was aware that these men did not really honor His name. According to the terms of the Sinai Covenant they deserved the curse of God against the people, and not His blessing. The Lord insisted that His judgment would come upon them and their offspring.
It was the Lord’s intention to be faithful to His covenant, even though he was fully aware of the sin and disobedience of his people. He had plans for life and peace to come through His priests. They should fear the Lord and stand in awe of His Name. They should teach the people according to His holy word, as those who walked according to the righteousness that they preached. The priests were a grave disappointment in that regard. They should have been guardians of the truth and teachers of the right knowledge of the Lord’s Word. When people wanted to know the way to go, they should have been safe bringing their inquiries to the Lord’s appointed priests. These men needed to be the Lord’s forthright ambassadors, the messengers of the Lord of hosts.
Instead the priests were rightly indicted by God as a group that caused many to stumble by their instruction and their living. They had not held true to the way of the covenant granted to them in the Lord’s Word. They were men who had become partial in their judgments and instruction. They were serving themselves rather than the Lord, and were obscuring the unity of the people of God because of their faithlessness. Meanwhile the people were wandering away from the Lord in their devotion to false gods from other nations.
This faithlessness in devotion was expressed in their false ways of treating one another. Within the families of God’s people there was much treachery in forgetting the covenant of marriage. Here again, God’s plan for His people was one of fruitfulness through the raising of a godly offspring, but the people had chosen the pathway of divorce, sacrificing the blessings that could have been for the coming generations, and choosing their own desires for freedom and pleasure. The Lord of justice calls His people to be faithful to Him and to reflect that faithfulness in their care for their wives and their children. He expects us to care about the obvious difference between what is evil and what is good. He expects His beloved people to guard their spirits from wickedness and to give themselves faithfully to Him and to one another.
When Christ, our faithful priest and teacher came to atone for our sins, He came not only as the Lord’s messenger. God also revealed His Son to be a Husband. He did what Israel and her priests would not do. He was true to His covenant word and faithful to His pledge of love. He demonstrated the sincerity of His commitment through His death on the cross. Even beyond that death, He now lives forever as our faithful High Priest, and He is sanctifying His church as His holy bride. As those who trust His faithfulness, it is ours to distinguish daily between that which is good and that which is evil. This is not legalism or moralism. It is the appropriate response of a grateful bride to the most heart-warming actions of covenant faithfulness by our perfect Husband, the great Man of grace, who has proven Himself as the true holy Sacrifice, and the only acceptable Mediator between God and man.
The identity of the messenger referred to in the first verse of this chapter is known without question to be John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Matthew’s gospel cites this verse and identifies this man, known as John the Baptist, as the one who prepared the way of the Lord, who came in the spirit of Elijah, the great Old Testament prophet. It is somewhat more difficult to see that the man called in the same verse, “the messenger of the covenant,” appears to be Jesus, the One for whom John prepared the way. He is the Lord who will suddenly come to His temple.
Jesus fulfilled this in His first coming, particularly at the end of His earthly ministry, but a more profound and sweeping completion of this prophesy will take place in connection with a better temple than the building in Jerusalem. During the gospel age, the Lord has been building His church as a temple of the Holy Spirit. When He comes in judgment and salvation on the Day of the Lord, He will suddenly appear in power to His body temple as the One who fills all in all. He will be the ultimate messenger and agent of the Covenant of Grace in bringing us resurrection salvation. He will also be the ultimate messenger and agent of the judgment that the wicked deserve according to the Covenant of Works. For some who are longing for His coming, those who delight in Him and in His grace, His arrival is the best of all possible days. For others His coming is not only unexpected but unwelcome in the extreme. Malachi states with absolute assurance as a messenger from heaven these great words: “Behold, He is coming.”
On that day the Lord will purify His church, the priesthood of all believers. The Old Testament levitical priesthood was only a placeholder for the ultimate High Priest and Messiah, Jesus Christ. We who are found in Him on that day will be the true priesthood of the faithful, those who have believed in His Name, and who have thus served Him with the love that is born of true living faith. We could not endure the day of His coming were it not for the fact that He first offered the pure sacrifice of His own life and death for us. He will remove from the church all false brethren, and from all of the elect He will take away any remaining defects from the former power of sin in our lives. By His perfect offering we have been redeemed. It shall be ours to serve Him in perfect faith and love in the coming age.
But for those who have hidden within the protection of the visible church and have yet been devoted to sorcery, adultery, lies, and oppression of the weak, they will be exposed as strangers to the covenants of promise made with our forefathers in ancient days. These have not truly feared the Lord, and they have not loved the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace, who has not only died as our atoning sacrifice, but who also reigns forever as the King and Head of the church. Regarding these hypocrites and lawless professors of holiness, we are told our Christ will draw near for judgment, which is a most frightening prospect to consider.
This combination of salvation for the elect and judgment for the reprobate is settled decree in the eternal purposes of Almighty God. He does not change, and His purposes do not come and go with the shifting of the wind. Because of the settled faithfulness of God so perfectly displayed in the obedience of Christ to the revealed will of the Father, we will not be consumed. If we had to stand in our own righteousness before Him without the covering of His holiness credited to us, we and our forefathers in the faith would be utterly and eternally convicted of heinous transgressions, for we have all turned aside from His holy Law, and have not kept His statutes.
Do we need proof of our sin? He has said that we are to serve Him with all the substance He has granted to us, and yet we have often begrudged Him a simple tithe. Others have presented their giving before the world with trumpets. They have already received their reward from the passing praise of men. In the depths of our hearts we have robbed the Lord of the perfect praise and obedience that He deserves. We should have obeyed Him outwardly and inwardly and enjoyed His blessing amongst us, but we have not dared to put Him to the test on this matter as He commanded, because the hearts of Israel and His church have not been truly faithful.
We have also spoken ill of Him, as if there would be no gain for us if we had been more holy. We presumed that we could be judges of God and judges of everyone else around us, and our arrogance has spoken a word against us, for all have sinned. Yet for the sake of the elect that He has loved with an everlasting love, the Lord sent not only a messenger of preparation, but also He came Himself as the very Lord of the Covenant. Amazingly He has visited His beloved as the humble Servant of the Lord, even suffering to the point of death on the cross for our sake.
Because of Him, all those who have been granted a holy fear of the Lord, have a hope and a future. Our names have been recorded in the eternal covenant of God. We belong to Him, for we were purchased with the blood of our Redeemer. Our Father in heaven did not spare His only Son. Therefore, we have been spared and are rightly called sons of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Because of this great plan of grace, and with the blessings of our obedience openly displayed as fruits of His gift of faith to us, there will one day be a firm distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the ones who know and serve the Lord, and those who do not.
The arrogance of the lost should make us weep. How sad it is when people are so sure that they are right, so very sure that they need not receive the gift of salvation that is freely offered in the preaching of the kingdom of God. Those who would rightly expound the Scriptures and proclaim the story of the coming resurrection have urged all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. Christ, our Redeemer has been patiently presented as crucified and risen. The words of the prophets and apostles have been read and explained, so that people everywhere would know that all who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. Yet many stubbornly refuse. They reject the only Savior of sinners for no good reason. This is very sad. The Old Testament closes with the announcement again that a day is coming when they will face the burning wrath of God.
They may have amassed great fortunes on earth. They may have even been considered men and women of unusual and wonderful qualities in so many ways. Yet this will not protect them on that awful day. All that they hold dear in the present age may be consumed in a moment by the power of the victorious Son of God when He comes again to judge. They will be left with less than nothing, and with no defense against the righteous accusation of the King of kings.
There is an alternative. They could humble themselves before the Almighty. For those who will fear His Name, who will believe and repent, the great Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. Have you ever considered why Jesus healed so many people when He came to proclaim the kingdom of God? He was displaying to us the greatness of His resurrection power. None of His beloved children will have bodily or emotional difficulties in the present heaven or in the age to come. He has shown us His great capacity to heal. When He comes again with such glory that the only thing that we can compare Him to is the rising sun, He will surely come with healing in His wings.
In that day, the people of the Lord will be so full of vitality that we could be compared to calves that come leaping out of their stalls. In the present age, however well-meaning we may be, our bodies cannot keep up with our best intentions. We get tired, and we get cranky. Different parts of us wear down or break. We become less and less functional as we move past our best years. But when He comes, we will have perfected desires, glorious bodies, and entirely sound minds.
The Lord will even use His people to judge men and angels in that great day. Are we alright with that? Are we aware of the brokenness of the world all around us? Do we hear of those who abuse the poor, and who slaughter the innocent? Do we know of many who have destroyed the reputations of people they unjustly accused? Have we heard of those in civil or religious authority who have used their positions to take advantage of the ignorant or the young? Isn’t it right that God would judge the wicked? When we have had all of our sins removed far from us, the Lord will use us in some way to bring His justice upon those who have loved wickedness and have spurned the Messiah’s free offers of full redemption.
Consider the people of God back in the day of Malachi a few hundred years before the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. While they waited for the revelation of their Messiah, what were they to do? What was God’s instruction to the faithful? First, they were to attend to the Law of Moses, that great system of commandments designed to protect the Lord’s beloved during the era of preparation. They were the church under age, and they needed to stay close to the Law, which was a schoolmaster guiding them away from danger in the midst of a world of trouble and sin.
Eventually the Lord would send forth a prophet in the spirit of Elijah to prepare a later generation for the arrival of the Messiah. With the preaching of John the Baptist, and then with the coming of Jesus, the age of the Law would be completed, and the beginnings of the age of resurrection would come. That new age would first shine forth in the personal ministry of the Messiah and then in the proclamation of His good news of the coming fullness of His kingdom.
The best thing that the leading people of God could have done in the first century would have been to listen to John the Baptist. Most did not. His message would have clearly told them what to do in order to restore right relationships within families and within the entire covenant community of the nation of Israel. Yet when that day came hundreds of years after the preaching of Malachi, the leaders of the people were so fully corrupt, that those who responded to his message were not the priests or the teachers of the Law, but the prostitutes and the tax collectors. The Old Covenant age came to a close as the Lord brought His decree of utter destruction not only on the Sinai Covenant way of worship and life, but upon the person of His own Son, who died to plant the seeds of an entirely new life even beyond the borders of Israel.
Beyond the brutal story of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, we are presented with something powerfully new. We hear the accounts of the fact of His rising again as the firstfuits of a whole new world; a world that first shined forth from the light of an empty tomb. In the resurrection of Christ the disciples of the Lord were made to see something of the wonder of a new creation that would be preached among the nations, and would one day be seen and heard by all God’s elect.
Those who heard Malachi with obedient hearts would have to wait many decades for the Lord of glory to come in humility. As always, the just needed to live by faith. This is how we still live today as we wait for the resurrection of the dead coming at the shining of the great Sun of Righteousness who will surely come with the fullest measure of divine healing for those who trust in Him.
Here we are today, at the close of this chapter at the end of the Old Testament. We have seen the message of Christ and the resurrection age clearly in the words of the prophets. If there is some answer to the mysteries of the Old Testament other the story of the love of God through the cross of His Son I am unaware of it.
Yes, the arrogance of the lost should make us weep. So what can we do? We must preach Christ and Him crucified and nourish souls in the hope of the resurrection while it is still today, until that moment when the trumpet sounds, and the dead in Christ are raised. On that day, the time for preaching will be over, and the time for the final judgment that the prophet Malachi wrote about so long ago will be here. Then it will be too late for the lost to be found, and too late for the condemned to be saved.