Several months ago, Rudy Ross and I began a study of the Minor Prophets. We both agree that the Minor Prophets have a major message, and I hope that either reading or watching our videos has been a help in your spiritual life.
Today is the last article on the Minor Prophets, and tomorrow we will begin a study of the Gospel of Matthew.
I’d like to draw your attention to three verses in Malachi 4 as we conclude this study.
Sunrise after a Long Night
Can you remember a time in your life when you experienced a ‘sunrise’ after a long and sleepless ‘night’ — a time when God’s healing tangibly touched your life?
God’s promise for those who live in the fear of the Lord is that they will have a time when the dark night of the soul will turn to the brightness of the noontime sun.
But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall (Malachi 4.2).
This promise is for a certain kind of person. The promise is reserved for people who love God, live in a humble relationship with Him, and follow His direction.
Take a look at your life and ask if you’re following that kind of pathway towards God. If so, no matter what is going on, you can count on God’s eventual sunrise happening for you.
Don’t Forget
God gave the Ten Commandments through Moses. These commandments were designed to help people live with God in a life-giving way and to live well with other people.
By remembering these commandments, we have the best opportunity to live the full life that God has designed for us.
Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel (Malachi 4.4).
Jesus expanded on the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). As we conclude this study in Malachi, we will soon be considering the Sermon on the Mount.
The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are God’s gift to us. God comes to teach us how to live in a way that will be best for us and the people around us.
We cheat ourselves if we don’t take the time to learn from Him and then follow His direction.
The Prophecy about John the Baptist
Malachi was the last prophet in the Old Testament. Four hundred years elapsed between the time of Malachi and John the Baptist.
The last word of Malachi, which was also the last word of the Old Testament, was to look for someone who was John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Savior of the world.
See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse (Malachi 4.5-6).
John the Baptist and Jesus announced the coming of God’s kingdom and the proper response, which was repentance.
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1.15).
Repentance is the wholehearted surrender of our lives to God’s direction. One of the things that we find about this kind of behavior is that it changes our relationships with others, exemplified by parents and children living in harmony with one another.
Not a Steel Door
Rudy Ross is a Jewish follower of Jesus. He has often told me that the book of Malachi does not have a steel door preventing people from leaving the New Testament and learning from the Old Testament.
When we read the Gospel of Matthew, we will find numerous examples where the New Testament is built on the foundation of what God did in the Old Testament.
Thank you for taking the time to read my articles and listen to our videos on the Minor Prophets. I hope they have been helpful.
Please join us tomorrow as we begin to study the Gospel of Matthew. Thanks for listening and reading.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It can be found on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 