Malachi 45-6 “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”.
The final lesson of this
short bible study through the book of Malachi begins with the conclusion that Judahites
living in the middle of the fifth century BC found themselves in what seemed to
be a hopeless situation. Though back in their land, they were not in charge of
their own destiny, as they were but a small province of the mighty Persian
Empire. The temple was rebuilt, but God’s presence had not yet returned to the
Holy of Holies. David’s line had no throne in Jerusalem. In sum, none of the
great restoration promises seemed to be coming true. Thus, we are not surprised
that the Jews who lacked faith looked around them and said, to paraphrase it: “What
is the point of serving Yahweh? We are getting no blessing from it”.
Those of faith such as
Malachi, however, saw the real problem. God was not unfaithful to His promises;
rather, the nation as a whole remained unfaithful to the covenant. Full restoration
was dependent upon true repentance, but this repentance was not forthcoming.
Blemished sacrifices were being offered. The tithe was being withheld from the
Lord. The poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner living in the land
were being oppressed. By and large, the people were no longer worshiping idols.
But this was merely superficial, for they were not truly worshiping the one
true God.
By the end of Malachi’s
ministry, the prophet understood that the restoration could not come without
God’s mightily and dramatically intervening as He did in days of old. It would
take a prophet no less than Elijah, whose miracles and boldness proved without
a shadow of a doubt that He was God’s spokesman, to preach the message that
would bring about true repentance. The day of the Lord, the day in which He
completes salvation, sets Israel over the nations, and defeats all of His
enemies would come, but not before Elijah returned. He would be the messenger
to prepare the way of the Lord. Immediately following Elijah’s ministry, the
Lord Himself would come to His temple, to His repentant people, and He would
refine them in glory that they would serve Him all of their days.
With the end of the ministry
of Malachi, the voice of prophecy fell silent in Israel—but not forever. The
great day of the Lord in which He reveals His mighty arm of salvation would
come. David would return to His throne. The conditions of exile would be ended.
But the faithful old covenant believer would have to wait just a little bit
longer to see all this.
What we learn for our
application today is that the hardest thing about the life of faith is that the
Lord often seems slow to keep His promises. Sometimes we feel like we must
wait, wait, and then wait some more for God to intervene. Faith, however,
trusts that God is not slow but is working out all things in His time. It was
hundreds of years after Malachi’s day that the Messiah came—but He came. As we patiently
and obediently wait for His return and for answers to prayer, we must remember
that all this will come as well.
Blessings
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