Malachi Chapters 3 & 4

Malachi Chapter 3 & 4

Coming of the Lord

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap. 3:3 He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering. 3:4 The offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in former times and years past.

3:5 “I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the immigrant and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

The God of judgement promises to send the Lord of the covenant and his messenger to purify his people for spiritual service and to judge unbelievers for their sins.

We now understand Jesus first came to save, and will return to gather his church and judge unsaved sinners. We can even look back now in the prophesies of the Old Testament and see that the Messiah would be a suffering servant, and also a judge, but people during this time didn’t understand that. As you remember, even the Apostles didn’t grasp it until after the resurrection. They too were looking for a King to reign. These folks were looking for the “day of the Lord” in which he would save and judge at the same time.

In verse 1 the messenger who would prepare the way was referring to John the Baptist. The messenger of the covenant was Jesus. The people longed for his coming, but they were longing for him to judge the evil doers. But Malachi was trying to convince the people to get their lives in order also, not just assume judgement is intended for others. In verse 5 he lists sins in which the Lord will judge. Our desire today is for Jesus to return. At the same time it would do us good to review this list and make sure we are not doing things that greave God. Taking sin lightly is a sign of lack of fear of God. (verse 5)

Verse 3 says “He will act like a refiner and purifier” In doing so he would make the people more useful to the Kingdom of God. Sin in our lives hinders us from being as useful to the Kingdom as we might otherwise be. We have a similar call to be a messenger of God in our time just as did John the Baptist in his. For John it was for the first coming, for us it’s to the second coming. Calling believers to live righteous lives and calling unbelievers to repent and turn to Jesus. Do you consider yourself a messenger in anticipation of the second coming of Jesus? How do we prepare to be that messenger? We allow the word of God and the Spirit of God to refine and purify us. What is more important to us than to be an instrument God uses to save people who currently walk a path to eternal separation from God and punishment? I think they don’t even realize that is the path they are on. They are so focused on the matters of the here and now. I understand it, we are tempted daily to do the same thing aren’t we? As Malachi urged the people of his day to take stock of their live, we would do well in our day to do the same. It’s a sobering thought to me that Jesus told the church at Laodicea in Rev 3:17, people whom I assume thought they were ok, that they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Lord help us to see any such characteristics in ourselves.

Resistance to the Lord through Selfishness

3:6 “Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises, you, sons of Jacob, have not perished. 3:7 From the days of your ancestors you have ignored my commandments and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’ 3:8 Can a person rob God? You indeed are robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions! 3:9 You are bound for judgment because you are robbing me — this whole nation is guilty.

3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all. 3:11 Then I will stop the plague from ruining your crops, and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all. 3:12 “All nations will call you happy, for you indeed will live in a delightful land,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Here is a subject now in which you will get a lot of different thoughts and applications for in our day. This is one subject that really doesn’t speak directly to our day and time in the way it did to Malachi’s day. Their obedience to the tithe had a direct correlation to them getting or not getting the rains at the time they needed them for the crops. God promised if they were faithful in the tithe, he would be faithful in bringing the rains at the right times, however they also had to be faithful to the laws of Moses. Another thing is we think of their tithe as a 10th, however when you add up the ways they were required to give, at the different festivals, sacrifices, sin offerings, leaving some crops in the field for the poor, caring for the widows, orphans, strangers etc, some estimate it as much as 40%.

What about in our time? The New Testament doesn’t give us a particular percentage to give, only that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:6–7). Some use 10% as a guide, but there isn’t a hard and fast rule for us. However as Christians, we acknowledge that everything we have and everything we are belongs to God, and given to us in trust. We are stewards of what God has given to us. Our time, our talents, our possessions. So I don’t see it as an easier or lesser requirement in our time than in the Old Testament time. Some can afford to give much more than 10%, some much less. Remember the widow’s mites?(Luke 21:1–4). We live in the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. We choose where and how and how much we give.

Resistant to the Lord through self sufficiency

3:13 “You have criticized me sharply,” says the Lord, “but you ask, ‘How have we criticized you?’ 3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? 3:15 So now we consider the arrogant to be happy; indeed, those who practice evil are successful. In fact, those who challenge God escape!’”

3:16 Then those who respected the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. A scroll was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name. 3:17 “They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 3:18 Then once more you will see that I make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not.

Do we not ask the same question today? Why do the wicked prosper? Why aren’t they being punished? Why do good people sometimes suffer or die? Do the evil have life as good or sometimes better than those obedient to God? Seems that way doesn’t it? The people of Malachi’s time thought the same way. However in his time and in ours, there are faithful people who talk about God with faith and fear. To those God promised compassion and protection when judgement time comes. So God does reward the faithful. Ever consider God pays attention to how we think and talk about him? Do we criticize him when we don’t like what we see, or do we, through faith and fear, know that his ways are right and just? I heard about somebody in a doctor’s office telling the doctor just what medications they needed. The doctor’s response was…”apparently you and I didn’t go to the same med school”. When we disagree with how God is doing things and talk about what he should be doing, he probably thinks like that doctor did to his patient. It’s encouraging to know however as verse 16–18 says, God makes a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. We also know he is a merciful and long-suffering God, and his great patience gives those who are not yet his, time to repent and turn to him. People we would have written off long ago, God patiently waits for them to turn to him in repentance and faith. God has an eternal plan. He knows what he is doing and when and how it will be done. It’s ok to say “How long Lord?”, but it’s not ok to murmur and complain about God.

The promised coming of the Lord who will make things right.

4:1 “For indeed the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It will not leave even a root or branch. 4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication will rise with healing wings, and you will skip about like calves released from the stall. 4:3 You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord who rules over all.

4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, to whom at Horeb I gave rules and regulations for all Israel to obey. 4:5 Look, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives. 4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.

The return of Jesus will be total destruction and judgement for the wicked who refused to follow him. But for his followers the day will bring healing and freedom and victory. Christians in various times and places have been persecuted by the wicked, but at this time there will be deliverance. Until then, there is time for people to repent and turn to Jesus.

So what do we take from these chapters?

Jesus will return. Until then, believers should be preparing. We shouldn’t grumble and murmur about how things are and about how the wicked seem to win. Rather we should be doing what Pastor Matt has been preaching about. We should be busy at knowing, growing and sowing. We should endure in the times we are in. We should bear witness to the Lamb, bear witness to God’s plan to redeem and bear witness to the light, what God has done and is doing. This should be our focus until he returns. And we should be waiting and watching. We know how this all turns out, we should be watching with anticipation. It could happen in our lifetime!

Matt 24:42 “Therefore stay alert, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Matt 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Mark 13:33 Watch out! Stay alert! For you do not know when the time will come.

1 Thess 5:2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night.

Jesus teaches about the importance of being prepared in a parable, in this case in Matthew 25:1–13. This parable makes us think about the cost to those not prepared.