MALACHI 3 - GOD’S GRACIOUS JUDGEMENT
Malachi 3
Malachi is a compact but intense look at man’s relationship with God. Chapters 1 and 2 were God’s lamentations against man’s faithlessness and man’s dishonor and defamation of His good name. In chapter 3 we see God’s response. Surprisingly and counter to man’s unfair characterization of God, God responds in grace; with the promise (but also the warning)—the justice we seek will come.
Justice, however, is a two edged sword. We so often want justice when it benefits us, but want grace when justice requires judgment on us.
It is this conundrum that God addresses in chapter 3. The good news of the Gospel is God reconciling His justice, which would mandate judgment against us for our sins, with His desire to show us His mercy and grace. So good is this news that God wants to make sure we don’t miss it. “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple…” (verse 1). And yet God recognizes that His coming will be tinged with unease, because God, in the person of Jesus, did not come to allow man to continue in unrighteousness. No, Jesus’ salvation includes saving us from ourselves and refining us (with the fire of the Holy Spirit) which cleanses us and makes us into whom God intended us to be (as personified by Jesus Christ).
While man in our sinful state flees from God (as did Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden), God in His goodness and love, pursues us. And so we read in verse 5, frightfully, that God is drawing near to us, but for judgment. And yet, he tells us in the same verse “do not fear me…” How are we to find comfort in a God who draws near to us, but for judgment? Verse 6 tells us: “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” God says don’t be afraid because we can count on His goodness not to consume us. But how do we know God is good? Well, if we are unsure, we can simply look to the cross.
The cross reminds us of the unwavering and unchanging love of God.
As Jesus declared in the most famous of all bible verses, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And so God declares in verse 7 “Return to me, and I will return to you, ...” What an amazing statement. God is waiting for us. Return, or in other words, repent, and God promises that he will accept us. And then, using our finances as an easy example, he says tests me; tests me and see if my promises are not true. He says he knows the rumors that there is no benefit to serving Him. But God closes chapter 3, with this promise: the day is coming he declares when “once more you shall see the distinction between … one who serves God and one who does not serve him”.
The invitation and the encouragement is to see this day as a friend of God and not as His enemy. Will you come, today? Will you trust and put your faith in the unwavering and unchanging love of God. God waits for you.