Martin Luther wrote that Malachi's book contains beautiful sayings about Christ and the gospel. "He calls it a pure offering in all the world, for by the gospel the grace of God is praised, and that is the true pure thank-offering. Again he prophesies of the coming of John the Baptist, as Christ himself in Matthew 11:10-14 interprets that of which Malachi 3:1; 4:5 writes, calling John his messenger and Elijah."Luther's comment takes us to the lesson for this Sunday. Quick overview: Malachi lived and worked some 430 years before Christ in Judah. The name "Malachi" literally means "my messenger," and the prophet's identity is never revealed. He was likely a priest who witnessed the corruption and indifference he rebukes.
Malachi expresses the deep love of God for His people. That's why he calls on the Judeans to repent. The LORD does not want to punish you, he said. Yet they were indifferent to his warning. The priests and levites continued to live immoral lives, divorcing their wives and being unfaithful in their duties. The people did not support the worship of God with their tithes. The message is harsh. Arrogant evildoers will be stubble thrown into a blazing oven. Everything will be burned. Nothing will be left.
However there is good news for those who "fear" the LORD. They will leap like calves turned out from their stalls on that awesome day of the LORD. I love that image. Because I grew up on a farm I can see in my mind the young calves locked up in their stalls in the winter. When my Dad would turn them loose on a mild day they'd go out into the barnyard, jumping high into the air, racing around with their tails sticking straight out. How great it was to be set free.That's how all of the LORD's people will feel when "the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings."
So another warning and another word of hope for these last days. God will tolerate immorality, godlessness, unbelief and hatred only so long. The "awesome day of the LORD" is coming; that great moment in history when Christ returns as Judge of all is upon us. Yet for those who humbly repent and accept His sacrifice, this will be a day of great rejoicing. They will finally be set free. All pain, suffering and sorrow will cease. All wounds will be healed. And all will go leaping out into the new world our LORD Christ has prepared like calves turned free from their stalls.
Dear Brother Al; you and I can appreciate the Scripture writers' metaphors and similes, often in agricultural terms. We have experienced with our own senses some of those Scriptural pictures, having grown up in a rural atmosphere many years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how the Bible uses 'natural' disasters to picture the coming 'end " of 'this age'.. I am reminded on this day, Nov. 11, of the great Armistice day blizzard that hit central Minnesota and the upper Midwest 70 years ago, 1940. my sister and I (she a h.s. Sen. and I, a soph.) with 11 other kids were stranded in the great blizzard on a school bus out in the country, and by God's grace, got through the blizzard in the blinding snow and cold, 13 kids and bus driver with arms locked, trudging through the fierce winds a half mile to a country store where we had to stay for two nights, sleeping on the floor around a wood stove, no communication with the outside world until the second day. The Scr. gives pictures of great natural upheavals to picture the last days, as Jesus does in Matt. 24 (Mk.13.,Lk.22. i believe, though, that most of Jesus' words in Matt. 24 really picture the natural and political upheavals that would take place before the destruction of jerusalem ( 70 A.D).. But even that is a "microcosm" of the last days.
.... I go on too much... Blessings. Harold
I was a little boy of seven years when that blizzard hit. I can still quite distinctly remember it. A cattle trucker unloaded his cows into our barn for the duration and stayed with us. My father had to brave the storm on the second day and battle his way down to a general store a half mile away because, with the trucker and a couple others stranded at our farm, we were running out of food. It was days before the great snow plows made it past our farm on Hwy. 52 heading south toward Rochester before everyone was able to move on. It was both an exciting and scary time. —Al
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