Malachi to Malachi

“I don’t usually think of myself as one of God’s messengers,” confided the local elder’s wife, “since I don’t give sermons or sermonettes.” Yet, she has sung in choirs and performed special music, which often impact a church service with a powerful message beyond spoken words. And here she was, not only commenting in a sermon chat about Malachi, but contributing the first comment, serving to get a good discussion going!

She was fulfilling God’s expressed desire in Malachi 3:16-18: “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. ‘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.’ Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (emphasis mine throughout).

If this “book of remembrance” is the same as the “Book of Life,” imagine having not only your name written in there upon baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit, but God having really liked something you said enough to treasure it—and you—as a gem! It makes me wonder how big a book God is talking about. Some brethren are so helpful in fellowship (Hebrews 10:23-25) that they might need their own book!

Today we as God’s messengers are taking the message of Malachi—and the whole Bible—to the entire world as His watchmen (Ezekiel 33), ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) and witnesses (Matthew 24:14). “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

But we are also God’s messengers when we call, write or visit brethren including shut-ins, widows or the ill. We certainly should be God’s messengers on social media! In short, we should be a malachi for God in all our everyday interactions.

It’s always exciting to find out what new doors God will open for His messengers!

All Glory to God, not to the Messenger

As a writer I can’t think of anything better than to have a Bible book named after you. Malachi is the last of 12 minor prophets which are lumped together as one book in the Hebrew canon. 

Surprisingly, scholars have widely varying ideas about who wrote this book; for instance, Ezra (Aramaic paraphrase, Targum of Jonathan) and Mordecai (Talmud). Josephus never mentions Malachi, nor does the rest of the Bible, even when Malachi is quoted in the New Testament. The Expositor's Bible Commentary says, “The suggestion that 'Malachi' is not a proper name but a title has ancient support in the [Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament], which reads ‘his messenger.’”

How appropriate that we as God’s messengers today must be ever mindful of our humble calling “that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:29).

The Coming Messengers

Malachi speaks of messengers to come who will prepare the way before the comings of Jesus Christ (Malachi 3:1-5). Verses 2-5 and 4:5 where God promised to send “Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” clearly refer to Jesus’ second coming.

In Matthew 17:10-13, Jesus’ “disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus 
answered . . . ‘Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already . . .’ Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.”

God’s Church has been an Elijah messenger before the second coming! As John the Baptist did, in all of our messages we must “make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). We should always make the truth plain!

Priests and Levites

Malachi has correction for priests and Levites (1:6-2:9). In the unique literary style of Malachi, where God says something and then states what His people argue back (or are thinking), we might retort, “What’s that got to do with me?”

We are called to be priests in the Kingdom (Revelation 5:10). But already we “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood . . . that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Like Levites, religious leaders, we are striving to be God’s servant leaders.

Consider studying what God warns in these verses about thinking “the table of the Lord is contemptible” (Malachi 1:7) and sneering at it as “Oh, what a weariness!” (verse 13). A few weeks ago I caught myself letting down because of feeling my age and had to let Galatians 6:9 restore needed zeal!

“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 2:7).

The Cornerstone of God’s Message: Family

God’s messengers must live, teach and promote godly families: faithful marriage—not divorce which God hates because it brings violence to lives (Malachi 2:10-16).

Verse 15 reveals the purpose of life: God “seeks godly offspring.” A key belief that sets us apart as a Church is the understanding that we will be actual members of the God family.

Malachi ends with a challenge God’s messengers must fulfill “lest [Jesus] come and strike the earth with a curse.” God’s Elijah messengers must “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers” (4:6). 

You might still think “This is good, but you don’t say how to do it!” Mentioning the “hearts of the fathers” first shows a most important principle: parents must set the example by going first.

Like in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the father (representing God our Father) had to let the wayward son make his own decisions, but he was ever watching alertly for his return. “When he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). At that point, he didn’t know that his son was repentant, but he humbly reached out for him! 

The parable should be called “The Parable of the Lost Sons” because both sons had a problem that separated them from their father. The father and oldest son had a very distant, not intimate relationship. This older son asked one of the servants what was going on—not his father—and then angrily refused to go to the celebration. But the father went first to him also: “came out and pleaded with him” (verse 28).

“Fathers” Includes Our Patriarchs and Founding Fathers

We must turn back children to God their Father and their parents. Also, in many places God says that Israel has been blessed, not for their righteousness, but because of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 9:5). And history books show how the founders of America knew that the new nation was being blessed because of God.

No wonder Satan’s forces are trying to cancel our heritage! He is the lead curser! Psalm 107:43 hits our modern situation right on the head: “Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord” (New Living Translation).

God will help us be His Malachis individually and as His Church and work. Let’s learn from what this minor prophet teaches, live it, teach and proclaim it!