J. Deering

The Book Of Malachi
Introduction The Book of Malachi - Chapter 3

"The Sin of Self: Self indifference, Self righteousness, Self seeking, Self indulgence, Self centeredness"

Rebuke of Restored Remnant with Announcement of Future Purging and Blessing.

The Word of the Lord through Malachi

MALACHI – Israel’s Problem and God’s Resolution

The Problem, 2:17

The purpose of Malachi was to assure his people that God still loved them, but He demanded honor, respect, and faithfulness from them. Malachi pointed out religious and social abuses and warned that judgment would come to purge the people of sin unless they repented.

The Hebrew Bible treats Malachi 3 and 4 as a single chapter. The first section (Malachi 1:6-2:9) contains a stern rebuke addressed to the priests who had despised the name of Jehovah, and been leaders in a departure from his worship and from the covenant, and for their partiality in administering the law.

In the second section (Mal. 2:9-16) the people are rebuked for their intermarriages with idolatrous heathen.

In the third section (Mal. 2:17-4:6) he addresses the people as a whole [with special interest still upon the priesthood], and warns them of the coming of the God of judgment, preceded by the advent of the Messiah.

These last chapters are full of prophetic disclosure concerning the first and second comings of the Messiah.

God’s Resolution, 3:1-7a

Concerning John the Baptist

3:1a “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.

Matthew 3:3

Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven [a person] is at hand.” 3 For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

‘Make ready the way of the Lord,

Make His paths straight!’”

Concerning the Messiah – The Lord of hosts in both the first and second coming

3:1b And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight,

behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. 2a “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?

His Day of His Coming

The Day of His Coming, The Day of the Lord, The Day of Jesus Christ, and many other terms relate to the revelation by many prophets of the full program of the “end times.” Those times are divided up into two distinct parts of the same “end times.”

The program of the “end times” according to what God told Daniel is counted as being “Seventy weeks, measured from the decree to rebuild the temple.” (Daniel 9:24). Sixty-two weeks (a week being a period of 7 years) after that time Messiah will be “cut off.” Adjusting for the various calendars involved that would be a total of 173,880 days, or April 6, 32 A.D.

Then Daniel leaves a period of unknown time (the unforeseen age of the Church – The Body of Christ gathered).

Followed by a single week (7 years) that is divided into two in the middle. 3.5 years given to the Minor Tribulation, 3.5 years given to the Major Tribulation – followed by the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ as His 2^nd Coming.

God and His wrath (the 7 year Tribulation)

2b For He is like a refiner’s fire and like the fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.

The Millennium – 1000 years of His Rule on earth

4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.”

Back to the Tribulation

(Remembering that the Day of the Lord is one event that contains both wrath and blessing)

5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress… the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien… and [those who] do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts.

6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change;

therefore you, O sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.”

7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and [you] have not kept them.

Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.”

It will take the 7 years of Tribulation to turn the nation back to her God. At the end of that period, costing the lives of hundreds of millions, a believing nation of Israel will emerge into the 1,000 years of blessing – promised to Abram (Abraham), Isaac, and Jacob.

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