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Malachi 4:1–3 (NVI)
1 »Miren, ya viene el día, ardiente como un horno. Todos los soberbios y todos los malvados serán como paja, y aquel día les prenderá fuego hasta dejarlos sin raíz ni rama—dice el Señor Todopoderoso—.
2 Pero para ustedes que temen mi nombre, se levantará el sol de justicia trayendo en sus rayos salud. Y ustedes saldrán saltando como becerros recién alimentados.
In the final section Malachi outlined the separation within the people of God.
He said that within Israel there was coming a day when they would be divided into two. The prophets called it ‘the day of the Lord’.
It is mentioned in other prophets such as Zechariah, Amos and Joel.
It’s a day of settling accounts and of judgement.
On that day there will only be two groups: those who serve God and those who don’t.
COWS:
This passage includes a lovely description of life for the righteous.
David Pawson tells the following story:
I used to get up at four in the morning to milk 90 cows on a farm in Northumberland. During the winter we kept the cattle indoors and fed them on cake and hay for months. Then came the day when we let them out for the first time in the spring. If you know anything about country life, you know what happened next. Even the oldest cow gambolled like a lamb. Large, lumbering cows would jump around the field for joy.
Malachi says this is how it will be for the people of God. They too will leap for joy on the day when God comes to bring final salvation to his people. Those who are rejected on that day are described as ‘like stubble burned after harvest’. In the days when this was legal in the UK, all that would be left was ash. Just as the calves leaping in a green field under the sun is a picture of the righteous, the ashes of stubble is a picture of those who have not responded to God.
4 »Acuérdense de la ley de mi siervo Moisés. Recuerden los preceptos y las leyes que le di en Horeb para todo Israel.
5 »Estoy por enviarles al profeta Elías antes que llegue el día del Señor, día grande y terrible.
6 Él hará que los padres se reconcilien con sus hijos y los hijos con sus padres, y así no vendré a herir la tierra con destrucción total.»
Postscript (4:4–6)
The last three verses are built around the two greatest men in the Old Testament – Moses and Elijah.
This is God’s last appeal to his people of Israel in the Old Testament – his last word for 400 years, before the opening of the New.
God calls the people to remember Moses and return to the Law, for God is their great king.
Then he says that God will give them another chance. He will send one more prophet to them – an Elijah figure who will come to challenge them.
Elijah was the first major prophet to challenge the idolatry and immorality of Israel, while Moses was the prophet who led them out of Egypt and who gave them the Covenant and the Law.
So the Old Testament closes with these words: ‘If they don’t listen to Elijah, then the land will be smitten with a curse.’
They would get one last chance before the day of the Lord – one more prophet to prepare the way of the Lord.
For over 400 years they waited for that to happen. They were occupied by Persians, Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks and Romans, and finally the chance came.
Suddenly there was a man dressed like Elijah, eating locusts and wild honey, just like Elijah. The country flocked to hear this man who preached the message that Malachi said he would preach. He called people back to wisdom and back to family life. But he’d only come as a forerunner to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus.
13 Porque todos los profetas y la ley profetizaron hasta Juan.
14 Y si quieren aceptar mi palabra, Juan es el Elías que había de venir.
12 Pero les digo que Elías ya vino, y no lo reconocieron sino que hicieron con él todo lo que quisieron. De la misma manera va a sufrir el Hijo del hombre a manos de ellos.
13 Entonces entendieron los discípulos que les estaba hablando de Juan el Bautista.
Jesus said that Elijah was his cousin John (Matthew 11:7–14; 17:9–13).
This was the revelation of God’s next move.
When Jesus reached a watershed after two and a half years of his ministry and took the disciples to the foot of Mount Hermon and asked, ‘Who do people think I am?’ they said, ‘Well, some think you’re a reincarnation of Jeremiah or somebody else.’ But Jesus asked who they thought he was. Peter saw the truth and said, ‘Well, you have lived before, haven’t you? But not down here – you’ve lived up there. You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.’
Then Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain, and Moses and Elijah appeared and talked to Jesus. Malachi promised it, and it all came together.
1 Corinthians 10:6–12 (NVI)
11 Todo eso les sucedió para servir de ejemplo, y quedó escrito para advertencia nuestra, pues a nosotros nos ha llegado el fin de los tiempos.
12 Por lo tanto, si alguien piensa que está firme, tenga cuidado de no caer.
Christian application
We are told in 1 Corinthians 10 that all these Old Testament examples are written for the use of Christians. What happened to the Jewish nation can easily happen to us. Apathy, disbelief, immorality and heartlessness can afflict the Christian believer too.
We must let the New Testament interpret the Old. We are not under Sabbath or tithing laws, but we are under the Law of Christ, which is stricter than the Law of Moses on divorce and remarriage, and on many other issues.
Temamos al Señor: El juicio comenzará en casa
No seamos complacientes
Oigamos lo que el Señor nos ha dicho
On the other hand, we must not be libertine in the way we treat God’s grace. Too many Christians effectively lose the fear of God – if we do that, we have not fully grasped the gospel of Christ.
We must remember that judgement begins at the house of God. The New Testament writers follow the same pattern as Malachi when it comes to judgement. When God comes to judge, he first judges his people and then he judges everybody else.
There will be a separation even of people in church.
We mustn’t be complacent, assuming that because we made a decision for Christ in the past we are OK.
We must be eager to ‘make our calling and election sure’ and to persevere in the things of God, if we do not want to face the judgement that came on the people of Malachi’s day.
Pawson, David. Unlocking the Bible (pp. 782-785). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.