Malachi 3:13-4:6
Notes
Transcript
Wrapping up
Wrapping up
The final speech we have goes from 3:13-4:3
We start a new speech with the same pattern again of assertion rebuttal and response. In verse 13 we get the assertion.
“Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’
The words that have been “hard against me" do not mean mean or insulting words but hard or strong, as in words that overrule another's or prevail against them. In other words with a Micah paraphrase it would be “Your words have overruled my word” This is the assertion. The word of these people have become more important than the Word of God. They listen to their own words over that of God’s. Yet they have the rebuttal asking how have they spoken against God? It can be a dangerous thing to stop listening to the Word of God and listen to yourself while still believing you staying true to the Lord. You can be delusional in that belief. You can start reading the Bible to make sure you’re right instead of reading the word for the teaching, correction, reproof, and training in righteousness it provides to all of us who trip and fall along the way.
Now we get the rebuttal
You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?
If you treat the relationship with God like a business transaction there is no profit. When people follow God’s commands because they think it will benefit them they’re doing it out of the wrong motive. If you follow God’s commands because you love Him then they will benefit you. It’s like Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” But if you seek to gain the desires of your own heart by rote alone you will find no joy but burden. See what the people are saying in this verse? What profit is it to keep his charge - obey God’s laws - how is doing this stuff helping us? or of walking as in mourning - acting out the motions of repentance outwardly thinking this will get God’s attention. Of course it’s not going to work to get you the stuff you want.
Further the rebuttal/complaint continues
And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’ ”
So they’ve got a two fold reasoning here. The first we saw in verse 14, their actions don’t seem to gain them benefits. The second is here in verse 15. The arrogant are blessed and the evildoers prosper, not only prosper but get away with their wickedness.
Proverbs 11:21 “Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.”
Where does the true justice of God happen for the evil doers?
Matthew 23:33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
There is a lot more about Hell and judgment but that was very clear. Justice does happen. Let’s move on to the response.
Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.
This has a contrast to the claims of those against God who were apparently trying to get God’s attention by doing all the right things. These people instead feared God and spoke win one another. You see the actions weren’t the thing that got noticed but the attitude.
A book or record containing names of the faithful is not new.
But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
And this does not end but we see it repeated in the NT
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Revelation has another half dozen references to the book of life. What is the destiny of those written in the record?
“They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
We’re pointing again to the eschatological end here. God claims the people of of faith, they are the treasured possession mentioned here. The first time the phrase “my treasured possesion” is used is when the peole are at Mt Sinai in Exod 19 where he says if you obey and keep my covenant you’ll be my treasured possesion. In vs 18 we’re talking to the ones who had hard words against God. They will now see the difference between righteous and wicked. The answer to their accusation is an ultimate answer not a quick right then answer. But howso?
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
This is how those who spoke against God will know, the wicked will burn. But what about those who are faithful?
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
Quite a picture in words there. I get a picture of calves that have been couped up in a barn all winter and get taken out to pasture. If you haven’t seen that yourself it’s actually really cute. They jump around like bucking broncos in their excitement. Now imagine that the wicked are all over the ground under their hooves.
The wrap up of the whole book starts here in verse 4.
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
The call to remember is to all these people reminding them to return.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Here we have talked John the baptist who came before Christ and was Elijah if the people had believed. This comes before the great day. Others have also thought of this as a pairing of Moses and Elijah like at the transfiguration or as types of the two prophets who are sent in Revelation.
How do we wrap up Malachi? We had the speeches through the book and a call to return to the Lord.
assertion - rebuttal - response rhetorical device
Speech #1—1:2–5 God’s love
Speech #2—1:6–2:9 Unfaithful priests
Speech #3—2:10–16 Divorce
Speech #4—2:17–3:5[or 3:6] Divine justice
Speech #5—3:6–12 Tithe
Speech #6—3:13–4:3 [Hb. 3:13–21] Day of judgment
Appendix #1—4:4 [Hb. 3:22] Observe the Law
Appendix #2—4:5–6 [Hb. 3:23–24] Coming of Elijah