Nothing is known about Malachi except what we find in the book. When he appears on the scene, he is in Jerusalem about 100 years after the temple is rebuilt. His purpose was to chastise the priests people for their neglect of the temple, their false and profane worship and to challenge them to return to a love relationship with God.
Our focus today is chapters 3 and 4. What Malachi is saying in these chapters was not only for the Jews of his day but for us in our generation. Some thoughts about how what is being said applies to us….
In Malachi 3:1-5, he quotes the Lord Almighty saying He will send a messenger before Him, then He, who we desire, will come. Then He says who can endure the day? He will be like a refining fire and there will be judgement.
How does this apply to us today on the back side of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection? I think about how Christ exposed man’s sin both by word and His perfect example. I wonder what a person who was interfacing with Jesus thought and felt about their life. Was the person prompted into a decision-making mode?
It takes time and exposure to heat to be successful at the refining process. For a Christian, a follower of Christ, Christ is the refiner. The amount of time a person exposes himself to knowing about Christ determines how successful the refining will be. If little exposure, not much refining. If a lot of exposure, along with the Holy Spirit, a Christ-like life is attainable.
In Malachi 3:6, the Lord states He does not change; you are the ones who changed and turned from me. Return to me and I will return to you. That’s a promise. The question for a Christian today is, if god has not changed in His love for me, has my love for God changed, and why?
In Malachi 3:10, the Lord says, “Test me in the giving of tithes and offerings and I will open the floodgates of heaven’s blessing on you.” Another promise. This would apply to any promise God makes. Test Him and His promise will be fulfilled. A promise is not realized until it is fulfilled. Many times a promise requires a person’s participation to be fulfilled. If the person chooses not to participate as indicated, he or she will never know whether the promise would or wouldn’t be fulfilled. Biblical history shows God keeps His promises. As we go throughout our lives, it is vitally important that we test God’s promises and experience their fulfillment. The firmness of our faith in God depends on these experiences.
In Malachi 4:1-5, the Lord describes the day of His coming and how it relates to those who rejected Him and to those who loved Him and He would send Elijah before that great and dreadful day to help prepare our hearts for that event.
Verse 2 states that for those who revere God, “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.” What a description. It is imperative that we each one experience the fulfillment of this promise that God has made to us.
Read Psalm 64 and claim God’s promise of protecting you from those who would conspire against you and your relationship with God.
May you see God do something in your life today.
Lynn Creitz
has been married to Lucretia for 57 years, "since she was willing to put up with him for that long." In the good old days, he liked sports and backpacking, since that is what they used to do as a family, but nowadays he enjoys traveling, hiking, and just being outdoors. Professionally, he was a microbiologist. He and Lucretia have been actively involved as members of the Hood View church since 1971. They have two children and three grandchildren that live in the area.
The Word of Promise audio Bible is used by permission. For more information and to purchase the complete audio Bible go to https://www.wordofpromiseapp.com/.
Malachi 3
The Coming Messenger
1 “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,
Even 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 launderers’ soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.
4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
Will be pleasant to the Lord,
As in the days of old,
As in former years.
5 And I will come near you for judgment;
I will be a swift witness
Against sorcerers,
Against adulterers,
Against perjurers,
Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans,
And against those who turn away an alien—
Because they do not fear Me,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
7 Yet from the days of your fathers
You have gone away from My ordinances
And have not kept them.
Return to Me, and I will return to you,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“But you said,
‘In what way shall we return?’
Do Not Rob God
8 “Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”
Says the Lord of hosts;
12 “And all nations will call you blessed,
For you will be a delightful land,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
The People Complain Harshly
13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,”
Says the Lord,
“Yet you say,
‘What have we spoken against You?’
14 You have said,
‘It is useless to serve God;
What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,
And that we have walked as mourners
Before the Lord of hosts?
15 So now we call the proud blessed,
For those who do wickedness are raised up;
They even tempt God and go free.’ ”
A Book of Remembrance
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
17 “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts,
“On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
18 Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.
Malachi 4
The Great Day of God
1 “For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.
3 You shall trample the wicked,
For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
On the day that I do this,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
4 “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
With the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
6 And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Psalm 64
Oppressed by the Wicked but Rejoicing in the Lord
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation;
Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity,
3 Who sharpen their tongue like a sword,
And bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words,
4 That they may shoot in secret at the blameless;
Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter;
They talk of laying snares secretly;
They say, “Who will see them?”
6 They devise iniquities:
“We have perfected a shrewd scheme.”
Both the inward thought and the heart of man are deep.
7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow;
Suddenly they shall be wounded.
8 So He will make them stumble over their own tongue;
All who see them shall flee away.
9 All men shall fear,
And shall declare the work of God;
For they shall wisely consider His doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and trust in Him.
And all the upright in heart shall glory.