Malachi: a better day is coming!
Return: the Minor Prophets - Malachi: A Better Day is Coming!
Revd. Emma Racklyeft - Vicar at All Saints
We began our Return series at the end of July, since then, week by week, we’ve travelled through a different minor prophet, considering their message and words of wisdom from God. We’ve looked at:
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah – today will be Malachi….but on to him in a minute or two!
Over the weeks, as I’ve spoken with many of you, listening to your thoughts and feedback, I think it would be fair to say that we’ve found these minor prophets quite challenging… maybe even hard work at times, particularly as we’re not used to reading them regularly.
And so, we’ve had to get used to them, as it were. Familiarise ourselves with the context, the circumstances they were speaking in to; getting used to the language and the imagery.
But as we’ve done so, we’ve realised just how powerful their warnings were, how poignant their insights were, we’ve witnessed their great passion as they conveyed something of God’s own anger and rebuke at sin and injustice, and His compassion and comfort for the poor and needy.
We’ve heard repeated the message, the invitation to return to the Lord your God… leave behind your mess, stop worshiping other gods, don’t follow evil practices, turn away from sin, return to the Lord your God, a God who loves you and desires your salvation, a God who is just and good and longs for relationship, a God who will guide you, and give you all that you need to follow Him faithfully.
This same message has resonated throughout – that God is gracious and abundant. A God who had a deep abiding love for his people and his compassion for them, which drives him beyond his anger at their sinfulness, through their deserved punishment and correction, to their heartfelt repentance, forgiveness, healing and joyful redemption. He only wants them to return to him and to love him as he loves them.
There have been other sub-themes too. God shows his concern for other nations and for their place in his grand plans; how his people relate to and treat other people affects their relationship with God. And the matters of wealth, idolatry and injustice have been repeatedly raised, making some of these ancient stories quite hard to read without feeling uncomfortable about what this ought to mean for us today.
So today, we turn to our last minor prophet – Malachi.
So, Malachi lived about a hundred years after the Israelites had returned from their Babylonian exile.
And so, his message was directed to the people who had been living in Jerusalem again for some time now.
The temple had been rebuilt a while ago, but things were not going well – Ezra and Nehemiah tell us how difficult and tricky things were.
When the people first returned from exile, their hopes were high. They had thought if they returned, rebuilt their lives and the life of the temple, all the hopes and expectations of the prophets would soon be realised. They thought the Messiah would come and he would set up God’s kingdom and there would be a unified Israel, a unity across the wider nations and that there would be justice and peace for all.
But that’s not what happened. The Israelites that repopulated Jerusalem were just as corrupt, unfaithful and unjust as their ancestors. Resulting in poverty, evil practices and unfairness.
In Malachi we see just how bad this new generation has become.
The book is designed as a series of disputes. Each section begins with God making a claim or an accusation, and then Israel follows with disagreements or questioning God’s statement, and then God will respond and offers the last word. This happens six times in total.
The overall impression that you get from these arguments and disputes is that the exile didn’t fundamentally change anything in the people. Israel’s hearts are as hard and as cold as ever.
You can follow these disputes in detail through chapters 1-3…but in summary we see dishonest practices in society and across the temple, the priests are just as bad as the people. There is idolatry left, right and centre. We hear that families are broken and divided with marriages in ruins. The people have neglected God and done their own thing. The people have stopped giving to God, tithing. The people feel it is pointless serving God, they are arrogant and full of pride.
Today, we’ve picked up on chapter 4, the conclusion of this book. Here Malachi develops imagery about the coming day of the Lord.
In verses 1-3 we learn that God has appointed a day of purifying judgement that will consume the arrogant, the evildoers, the wicked from among his people, not a root or branch will be left BUT there will be hope for the faithful remnant – there will be a better day to come!
Because for them, the day of the lord is not a threat, but rather a cause for joy. It will be like the rays of the rising sun, and it will bring healing and life, and hope for the future.
‘For those who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in his wings.’ (4:2)
What a glorious, wonderful future kingdom to wait patiently, and faithfully for…
But we’re not finished quite yet, in the last three verses Malachi concludes not just his book, but offers what is like a concluding appendix, bring closure to the whole of the torah and the prophets.
First the reader is reminded to remember the law, the Torah, of my servant Moses. This recalls the story and the law of the covenant that you find in the first five books of the Bible – the statues and ordinances that God gave his people so that they might live in right relationship with God and with one another.
And then we hear this summary of the books of the prophets: ‘ I will send the prophet Elijah before the day of the Lord, who will restore the hearts of God’s people.’
And so, this conclusion summarizes the Torah and the prophets as a unified story that points to the future…
Israel was redeemed by God, and then they betrayed him through their rebellion and hard hearts and breaking the law of the Torah, but the Scriptures anticipate a future day, when God will send a prophet, a new Moses, a new Elijah, who will restore God’s people and heal their hard hearts – taking into account all the promises made in Deuteronomy 30, Jeremiah 33 and Ezekiel 36 and time and time again in the words of our minor prophets.
This concluding appendix presents all of the Scriptures as a divine gift, to read, and to ponder, and to pray over.
For they tell the truth about the human condition, about our selfishness and sin, but they also announce God’s promise that one day he would send a messenger, and then show up personally to confront evil and to restore his people and bring his healing justice - salvation, rescue for all.
It is that great and glorious future hope to which Malachi, all the prophets, and indeed the Torah itself point towards.
Conclusion:
Personally, for me, as I’ve read through, and thought about the prophets’ words, I’ve reflected on my own life and faith, and indeed on the life and faith of our nation and world.
Let me explain a little more, these words, in so many ways have felt like they’ve been written fresh, new for us today, warnings to the nations broken at war or in civil strife, warnings to faithfully steward our environment, warnings to care for those in poverty or dis-advantaged, warnings to our western world that has forgotten and lost our Christian roots, warnings for our own lives to think carefully about when and how we spend our money, countless insights applicable to the church, to our homes, to our lives today
God has reminded me that must not be complacent, but rather be brave, to take heart, to root myself firmly in God’s truth, His commandments, the pattern and example of Jesus, the guidance and direction that Scripture gives us on so many issues, and then to seek afresh to proclaim, and declare the glorious news of a God who is jealous for our hearts, a God who hates all that is evil, a God who is just and true and good, a God who invites us to be His disciples and to walk faithfully in accordance with Scripture and the guidance of His Holy Spirit, a God who has prepared a great and glorious Kingdom through the death and resurrection of Jesus, a God who beckons us all, come follow me, come taste and see that I am good, come, receive my forgiveness and healing, come, know fulness of life.
I wonder have you too taken some time to reflect on all that we have heard and to ask God to speak to you directly?
As we finish this series can I encourage you to perhaps re-read the prophets, one by one, to meditate on the message they shared, to reflect on their words – and if you’ve missed a week or two, or need some extra help, all the sermon notes from the last 11 weeks, and also from today are on our website, these will help remind you of what we’ve considered, and then please will you pray, and keep praying, ask God what is it you want to say to me, what would you like me to change, where might I need to modify my behaviours, my attitudes, my actions, that together we might radiate God’s love, his light, his truth to this community – that we might be those who lives are distinctive and different, that we might be God’s saints in this place – for His praise and glory. Amen.