October 5 - Prophecies of Malachi

The message of Malachi's prophesies is very instructive. God addresses few issues of the heart.

1. Sacrificing to God

God challenges us to evaluate what we sacrifice to Him. Like the priests we read about, we are called to give our best to God. If He has called us to sacrifice in some area of our lives, do we do it with the best of what we have, with the best eagerness in our heart? These verses are certainly challenging us to:

Read Malachi 1:8 and Malachi 3:10

2. God's messengers

When we know God's love and grace through Jesus Christ, we become God's messengers. Like he called the Levite priests, He calls us to instruct others in truth, instead of causing them to stumble.

Read Malachi 2:7-8

3. Marriage

God gives very definite statement here of His design for marriage:

- to marry in His name; in the faith (not marrying a daughter of foreign god)

- He is witness between husband and wife

- not to break the faith of the marriage covenant

- He hates divorce

- God made husband and wife to be union of one; and that union belongs to God.

Read Malachi 2:10-16

4. Justice and the Lord

We humans fear that there is no justice in the world. We fear that following God is a waste of time and that there is no reward in it. God knows these fears we have. People asked the same questions during Malachi's time but what God does is to promise them righteousness and salvation in the great day to come: which came through Jesus Christ, through His sacrificial death on the cross.

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.” (Malachi 2:1-2)

The covenant God made with Levi was broken, but the description of it in today’s reading reminded me of the new covenant God gives us all in Christ and the awe we have of God's son.

"My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. (Malachi 2:5)