Today in God's Word—January 2025
East Tallassee Church of Christ
January 3, Malachi 3
"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. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”
- Malachi 3:1-2
The child thinks he or she wants something. They saw it at a friend's house or on a television commercial. They beg, they cry. And when they get what their little heart had so earnestly desired, they find out it was not all they imagined it was going to be.
We adults aren't immune that that either, are we? Haven't you experienced the letdown, the disappointment or the buyer's remorse when some object of our desire, once it is acquired, turns out not to be what we imagined it would be?
Chapter 2 ended with the people asking, "Where is the God of justice?" In Chapter 3, God assured them that he was on his way. And he showed them that when he came, he would not be what they expected or desired him to be.
The post-exile Jews wanted Messiah to come. They wanted the God of justice to come and judge the nations around them and re-establish the glorious Davidic kingdom. The Lord told them that when he came, he would come to purify and consume like a refiner's fire. These Israelites (in name and bloodline) did not know that the God of justice for whom they longed would indeed come and condemn them. He would judge them because they had forsaken and despised their covenant with God. They would answer to the God of justice for their cruel mistreatment of the weak and helpless ones among them.
God had not changed. He had not abandoned his covenant vows. But the people had done so, time and again. They started early in their history and continued to forsake God through the centuries of their existence. Even after their serial apostasies, God still offered them the opportunity to return to him, and promised that he would return to them.
A remnant of faithful believers had always been present in Israel. Even in the dark days of Ahab and Jezebel, God told Elijah that he had 7,000 people who had not bowed to Baal. And when the messenger (John the Baptist) came to prepare the way for the Lord to appear, there were individuals still trusting, still waiting, still anticipating. Old Simeon and Anna who saw Baby Jesus were people like that. Some people did listen to John's preaching and were prepared for the Lord when he appeared. Joseph of Arimathea was looking for the kingdom of God. But the nation as a whole rejected Jesus when he came as the messenger of the new covenant. They could not endure the day of his coming. He was not the Messiah they wanted, and they hated Jesus. They officially renounced him before Pilate and demanded his execution. They thought they had won. But they would learn they were the most miserable losers when Rome destroyed their city, their temple and their way of life just forty years later.
The people of Malachi's time defied God. They did not tithe, they did not treat their fellows as they should and they talked back to God when he rebuked them. But even among them, God still had a remnant who feared and honored him. God remembered and blessed the faithful ones. God spoke to them of a day when they would be his special possession and spared from his wrath.
When the Lord returns and we all are judged, we will witness the final and greatest distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who do and those who don't serve God. I want to be like those faithful ones who were committed to God in Israel’s dark last days. I want to be like those disciples who heard John and followed Jesus. And I want to be among those the Lord will welcome home instead of those who will be forever banished from God's presence on that last day. Don't you? Jesus did come and die for us and rise again. He invites us to put our faith in him and follow him. Let's live for him today, so we can live with him forever!
Copyright © 2025 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Comments