Well good morning. This morning we come to the last sermon in our series on the Minor Prophets. Studying the Minor Prophets in a gloomy January and February practically makes you look forward to Lent. But this is our last sermon, and we're going to look at the prophet who is chronologically the last. We are going to look at Malachi.

Of all the prophets God sends to Israel and to Judah, Malachi comes at the very end. He is about fifty years after Zechariah that we considered last week. This passage is also not only last chronologically but it is also last canonically. That is, it is the last book in the Old Testament and as such, I think, plays a unique role in the Old Testament, both in bringing things together and in pointing forward. So, a lot of lasts today-last sermon, last prophet, and last book-all coming to conclusion this morning.

I really wish that I had time to read the whole of Malachi to you. I have been reading and re-reading it in preparation for this sermon, and I have come really love this book. But we have nowhere near enough time, and so I won't do that. But I would encourage you to read it on your own. I am going to read just the last chapter. Chapter Four is just six verses long. But as I go through the sermon, I'll be referring to some verses from earlier portions of the book.

Malachi 4

I actually have appreciated this series in the Minor Prophets. Let me just remind you what Dan has said several times along the way. These are called the Minor Prophets, not because they contain messages of minor importance, but because they are short-just smaller books relative to what we call the major prophets: Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But they are really just part of the overall family of prophets and I have enjoyed them because it is, as far as I can recall, the first time I have had the ability to stand back and see the prophets as a whole and in moving from them one after another week after week. It has been helpful that way.

One of the things that impressed me as we have gone along is the commonality between them. In each case, God sends a messenger to speak on his behalf to his people. In each case, the message has elements of both judgment and hope-different proportions by different prophets, but judgment and hope.

There are many ways in which you can see some common threads running through these prophets. But the thing that has actually most impressed me, as we have gone through the series, is the way in which these prophets are dissimilar one to another. The way it seems that God makes the decisions to specifically reach out to people where they are.

The purpose of all the prophetic writings seems to be the same. In every case, God is trying to find a way to bring his people back to himself. That is why it was, I thought, great to start with Hosea and to focus early on that passage, "Return to me." Because that whole notion of returning to God-bringing his people back to himself-is the underlying purpose of all the prophetic writings.

However, God customizes his words. He customizes his strategy in each case to try to find words that are best able to reach the people where they are. And that's why, as we have gone through this series, we've spent so much time trying to position each of these books historically and to talk about the setting into which the prophet is speaking.

Historical Context

So, let me just quickly remind you of where we have been in this regard. Remember we have had three prophets at the beginning - Hosea, Amos, and Micah-and they were all speaking to Israel or Judah before the exile. That is, before other nations had taken them over. And they were speaking to leaders. And at the time they were speaking, the leaders were feeling pretty good about things. The nation was in a bit of a politically precarious situation, but things were going okay for now. There was a lot of material wealth, a lot of abundance, and there was smugness.

So when God needs to speak into that setting, He sends some of the harshest words in all of scripture.

Hosea says, " Israel, God sees you as a whore."

Amos say to the women of the day, "You are like cows of Bashan."

Micah says some the hardest words of judgment.

And, it is as if God says,

In order to get the attention of these sort of smug-feeling-good-about-themselves people, I need to go in and almost hit them upside of the head with a two-by-four to get their attention.

And so he speaks really hard words into that setting.

Now, as you know, as the history unfolds these nations continue to decline because they do not turn to God, nd there reaches a point where they are on the very brink of extinction. They can sense everything unraveling around them. The foreign armies are in their backyards. And God sends prophets to speak to them in that condition as well.

Here you can think of Habakkuk or early parts of Jeremiah. And the message isn't so much God having to really get their attention with hard words. It seems that God is doing more explaining. He is trying to explain to them how these things can happen, why they are happening. In a way, that is consistent with a God who still loves them and holds out in some very distant future some hope of restoration.

And then these nations have slid into exile. Remember that the Northern Kingdom is taken away by the Assyrians. The Southern Kingdom, Judah, is taken away by the Babylonians. And any time a people group is lifted out, ripped out, of its own place of belonging it's a tragic and terrible thing. But it was doubly so for the Jews, because for the Jews, their whole identity was wrapped up in the fact that their God had given them the promised land. In their minds, God had given it to them forever.

And so when they were actually not protected by their God and allowed to be removed from their land with no particular hope of getting it back...sent off into exile...it threw everything up in the air. Their whole identity was cut off from the past. The future was unclear. Their current situation was chaotic. They were lost. They were in the dark. They were in exile.

And God sent prophets to speak to them as well. We didn't read these prophets in the series because they tended to be the Major Prophets, but the second half of Isaiah and the latter chapters of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are spoken to people in exile. And here again, the message is customized. It changes. It's not hitting them hard. It's not even a lot of explanation. Here the message is how to live faithfully in this dark place and then lots and lots of promises and hopes for the restoration that is to come. And that's how God reaches out to the people in exile.

And then as Lynne told us last week, you reach a point where Cyrus of Persia takes over and he releases the people in captivity and he says the Jews that they can go back to Jerusalem. A small remnant returns to rebuild the temple. They actually have a charter from Cyrus to do that.

Emotional Context

Now think about the emotions they must have had. They have been living as a people in exile for 70+ years and they've heard all during this time from their parents and their grandparents about the days in the past.

• The Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey.
• The temple of Solomon and all its glory.

Now they are going back to rebuild it. I picture them as full of idealism, filled with hope, a sense of great potential:

They get back to Jerusalem.

They start the effort of rebuilding the temple.

They run into opposition.

They run into problems.

And it begins to stall.

And God sends prophets to them in that situation, too. He sends Haggai and Zechariah. Remember Zechariah passage, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord. This was a word of encouragement that he gives to them as they pursue, in their idealism, this goal, this dream of rebuilding the temple.

Reflection

And that's kind of where we've come so far. And it struck me as I was thinking about it, that in a way God has sent prophets to speak to almost every condition of human existence.

• He speaks to them at the top of their game.
• He speaks to them at the bottom of their game.
• He speaks to them when they are on their way down and in despair.
• He speaks to them when they are on their way up in optimism and hope.

He has a customized loving message, in each case designed to bring his people back to him.

So one of the things I thought about is that may be, when we read scripture...particularly the prophets...we should try to think what prophet we ought to be reading right now.

For example, think of our community. You could think of it as our nation-the United States; or you could think of the church or even at an individual level. Is it your perception that we are kind of at the top of our game? Things are going pretty well? We're doing things pretty right? Maybe a little smugness?

We'll maybe we ought to be reading Hosea and Amos and Micah.

Or perhaps your characterization of our country is that everything is falling apart, or in your own personal life you are filled with despair. Things are coming undone.

Then perhaps the word for us in that place is from Habakkuk and the early part of Jeremiah.

Or some of you may be feeling really in your own personal exile. It may be that something that has given you identity has been taken away. Maybe you had your identity in a job, and you lost it. Or in a relationship and you've been betrayed or maybe there's been some terrible things that have happened to you in your life and it's made it very difficult to listen to or find God. You feel in a dark place, in a lost place, in exile.

If so, maybe the passages for you are those hopeful passages from the second half of Isaiah and the latter portion of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and Daniel.

Or maybe you are filled with idealism. I tend to think of this as youthful but it doesn't have to be. Maybe you are youthfully full of idealism. You sense God calling you to big things, great dreams. You are pursuing them, but you are starting to run into obstacles. You are feeling frustrated.

Well maybe for you, you need to hear Zechariah again say, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit," says the Lord.

It seems that God throughout this whole series has been speaking unique words to people in unique places. Which brings us to Malachi.... What is there that Malachi, or the people Malachi is speaking to, that adds to this spectrum of human experience? We've already got high and low, we've got down and up.

What is there about the Malachi people that adds to this picture?

Well I am going to just paint a quick picture for you as to what I think is going on there, but I have to say at the front end, I am drawing this from tiny little hints and I am trying to read between lines and connect things, so please hold this a little lightly. There is a tad of conjecture in here, but this is what I see as the condition of the people as Malachi speaks to them.

Malachi's Message

These are people in Jerusalem. They have lived there for about seventy years. The temple has been built for about fifty years. They have sort of settled there, but they are still a very small people group and very beleaguered.

Opposed by their neighbors.

Scratching out an existence and really existing at all just by the sufferance of the Persian Empire.

So they are kind of a huddled beleaguered people, and I think they are tired. I think they are weary. In fact, in chapter one there is a phrase attributed to them, "This is all weariness." They are weary because they have tried to faithfully follow their God for a long time and they are wearing out.

• Disappointments have come across their path.
• They anticipated going back to this land flowing with milk and honey, but it has not worked out that way.
• Locusts have come and devoured their crops.
• Their vines have come up barren.
• They anticipated Solomon's temple and all of its glory.

But we know historically that when they finished rebuilding the second temple, it was-compared to Solomon's temple-a very, very modest structure. And you can imagine them at the end of this whole thing looking at it and saying, "Wow. That's it huh?"

And there is a sense of disappointment and a sense of worldly cynicism that kind of is creeping in here. They are beginning to say,

Well we've always said God is just, but you know, those of us that live in the real world see frankly an awful lot of injustice day in and day out.

And we've always said that God will provide for us, but frankly those of us that live in the real world know that in this world you better look out for yourself and it's starting to creep into their worship.

Their worship is changing. We are told in Ezra, when they first came back to the land, they laid the foundation for the temple. The whole nation was either shouting for joy or weeping because of the incredible awe and reverence of what God was doing.

But now there's a drift.

Now you sense instead of this sort of intimate reverence for God, religion has become kind of a thing they do. Oh, they still bring their sacrifices. They still bring their tithes and offerings. But it is a little bit more out of a sense of duty...just what we normally do, how we do it. It's our culture. We've always done it this way. It has become a somewhat more empty ritual for them.

And they have drifted in their obedience as well. Malachi says,

You know that you were called to give the best lamb as a sacrifice, but instead of that you are beginning to bring the blemished lamb, the runt of the flock.

And you can easily imagine them saying

Oh, it's all symbolic anyhow. I am just symbolizing my commitment to Yahweh and we need that best lamb and this one will do.

They are beginning to hold back a little bit on their tithes.

Oh, we'll still bring an offering but its been kind of a tough year and I'd like to hold a little back in reserve just in case.

They are drifting. And the one thing that is most clear from the text is they don't recognize the drift.

At six different times in this text, God (through Malachi) says something like: you're robbing me, or you're wearying me with your words, or you're not honoring my table

And the response, every time, from the people of Israel is something like: "Huh?" We are? How are we doing that?”

Over and over it's clear they don't see the drift. And so it's a weary people. Kind of a cynical people. A people who have caught in a little bit of a drift. And they don't see it.

Now if that's a fair picture as I played it out, I thought about it and I said, "You know what I recognize in this picture? I think Malachi is maybe God's messenger to those in midlife. Or perhaps to parents of small children. The piece of the picture of human experience that's been left out before Malachi. We've had the high, we've had the low. We had the coming down, the going up. But we haven't had the sort of steady state of sort of just trying to hang in there and the weariness that comes with that.

And it has been my experience trying to live faithfully that you get tired sometimes. You just kind of feel like you are wearing out. And it's been my experience that dreams that you had can begin to dry up. Visions - Ideals.

I know for example that now I will never be President of the United States.

I am even more sure that I will not star in the NBA.

And I am absolutely positive I will never lead a popular rock band. So, many dreams of my youth…

But there are other dreams that were more significant, more of what I thought was really a central calling.

When I was in my twenties I read the book “Born Again” by Chuck Colson. Many of you probably have read this. For those of you who don't know, Chuck Colson was an advisor to President Nixon during the Watergate era and eventually was convicted of crimes he committed during that time. He began the process, not as a Christian, but became a Christian through the process and he wrote his book, “Born Again”, as an autobiography and a discussion of how he became a Christian.

And he became a Christian because he was led to Christ be a guy named Tom Philips. Tom Philips was the president of a big electrical company, Raytheon. And Chuck Colson describes going to see Tom Philips. I remember reading this passage.

Just before he goes in to see him, one of Tom's assistants pulls Chuck aside and tells him that he should know Tom has changed. He's become a Christian. And so this is the warning Chuck gets before he goes in to meet him. Now this is Chuck Colson's description of meeting Tom Philips.

This was surprising news. Tom Philips had always been such an aggressive businessman.

When I entered his office - it was the same old Tom. Jet black hair. Athletic build. Stripped down to shirt sleeves as always.

But the smile was a lot warmer. Radiant, in fact. And he looked more relaxed than I had ever seen him.

In the old days, though always genial, he had had a harried look, with phones ringing, secretaries running in and out of the office. His desk piled high with paper.

Now there was something serene about his office as well as about Tom."

Now when I read that in my twenties, it just grabbed me, that passage. And I felt like saying, "Yes, God. This is what I want to do for you - this is what I want to be for you. I want to be an island of calm in the midst of a chaotic sea. I want to live my life so that people just coming around me will catch this aura of serenity."

Now, admittedly, there was a lot of youthful ego. But there was also a piece of that that I think was really genuine, that was really a call that God - a picture that God was giving me of what I could become.

Well I am thirty years later now. And I am really no closer to that image. You could come see me at work and meet me in my office. There are many adjectives you might use, but calm is probably not one of them. And this sort of sense of idealism - the sense of, "Yes, that is what I want to be..." It just gets battered a little bit. As you just kind of go on in life.

I also sense this drift. It isn't necessarily tied to old age, but it is just a drift. Sometimes I feel close to God. My quiet times are rich. I feel an intimacy. But then there are other times when either in worship or in quiet times I can do all the things I normally do and I can do them for days, and weeks, and even months on end and realize in retrospect, looking back, "Oh, you were just checking the box.." Okay. Quiet time. Check the box. It had become sort of an empty shell. And I didn't even recognize it while the drift was going on.

If any of this resonates with you, Malachi may be God's messenger for you. So what does Malachi have to say? What does God have to say to these Malachi people - to these wearied, world cynical trying but wearing out kind of people? Well, very quickly, it seems to me he brings four words to them.

Words that I want to leave you with.

1. The very beginning of the book: An oracle. The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. And now the very first thing he says, ""I have always loved you." says the Lord."

That's how the whole book begins. Everything else that happens in Malachi comes underneath that umbrella that God says, "I have always loved you."

And as the last book of the Old Testament, it seems fair to read in that not just a summary of Malachi but of the whole Old Testament. Everything that transpires in the Old Testament is under the umbrella of God saying, "I have always loved you." " I loved you first".

Before there was a world, God loved one into being. Before he had a chosen people, before there was anything special or remarkable or cool about Israel at all, God loved them and chose them. Even when he calls his people to obedience like in the Ten Commandments, where he says, Thou shalt not and thou shalt not. It begins with, "I the Lord God, am the one who took you out of Egypt and brought you to safety .” I loved you first.

And the first word that God gives to this weary Malachi people is, "I have loved you."

2. God has Malachi hold up a mirror. He says to them, "You've robbed me". The people say, "Huh? How have we done that". "Here, I'll show you. You have despised my altar." "Huh? How have we done that?" "I'll show you." He just holds up a mirror.

Now, as I thought about it, I really like this. Because you see what it suggests is that God believes in the heart of these people. He doesn't need to get their attention by smacking them real hard. He doesn't need to let them go off into exile. He doesn't need to raise their future hopes with lots and lots of assurances. He says they've drifted and they don't know it, and all He needs to do is to show them the drift and their hearts will come to it.

And in fact you read on in chapter three it says, "Then those who revered the Lord (after all these little mirrors) spoke with one another." They got together and they said, "Yes. This is the God we want to follow." And it says, “ The Lord listened and took note."

3. He gives them an image. He gives something to re-ignite their imaginations.

In the fourth chapter it begins, "See the day is coming." And it is speaking of this day of apocalypse. In most of the prophetic writings the apocalypse is a scary hard day of judgment, but here in this book it's primarily written as an encouragement to the believers. So there's a little bit of the fire that will burn the wicked but the main thrust here is the promise to those who persevere. So the image he gives them , "For those who revere my name, there will be a sun of righteous rising with wings of healing."

Now this picture of a sun with wings would have been a traditional Egyptian symbol that the Israelites would have recognized. And it was a symbol for protection and blessing. So when the day of the Lord dawns, this sun of protection and blessing will come. But in its wings it will be beating down healing on a weary and broken people. And as the healing comes over them, he links another image, just a very earthy image. He says,

You will leap for joy as if you were a calf an animal with all sorts of energy that had been cooped up in a stall and suddenly let out.

That's what it's going to be like on this day of the Lord, when the wings of healing beat down on you. You're going to leap for joy. He gives them this image to hold on to...to imagine.

One of the ways God speaks into our weariness... into our sort of ongoing faithfulness... is to give us pictures to hold on to. And we need to do that for each other. We need to keep holding up pictures of the promise of God...what it's going to be like... and let it capture our imagination.

But it's not enough.

I've always loved you.

Here's a mirror, I call you back from your drift.

I give you a picture to imagine.

He gives them one more thing. He leaves them with a promise-the very last two verses of this book and indeed the very last two verses of the whole Old Testament:

Lo, I will send my prophet Elijah. I will send another messenger who will go before and prepare the people.

The whole book ends pointing to the future. It ends with a finger that dangles out - pointing out that way. And we know historically in fact it's a finger that dangles over a four hundred year chasm.

Four hundred years of silence.

Four hundred years of no new prophets from God.

Just this finger saying I will send one, and then the silence is finally broken in the Gospels, a voice crying in the wilderness,

Prepare the way of the Lord.

This is a finger that points to Jesus, and Jesus becomes the love that has always been there. Jesus becomes not only the mirror that calls people back, but also even the obedience to which he calls them. And Jesus comes as the one who inaugurates this final day; the day that sets us loose to leap with joy as calves let go from their stalls.

This is the word of the prophet Malachi to the Malachi people.

Let us pray.