Major Points from the Minor Prophets

Father, we ask that you would open our eyes tonight to see wonderful treasures. Lord, we pray that you would cut with that sharp sword. To divide soul and spirit joints and marrow, or that you would lay bare the motives of our hearts that you would, expose to us what is really going on in there and, and do surgery on us with your word. And we ask this that the name of the lord Jesus Christ would be glorified overall. Amen?

Well, please have, Malachi open in front of you. We're going to be, overviewing this whole book, the last book in the Old Testament. And actually, god's last word really in that time period. This is where it ends, really, with Malachi, the last word to the nation of Israel. So we're gonna look at that together and see where it goes.

We will hold off on that slide just for a second. Let me just tell you about, a German, German based at least pop sensation of the eighties, the late eighties, Millie Venilly. Who remembers Millie Venilly? They shot to fame yet. It have to be down in my age at least to remember them.

The late 1980s, they shot to fame. They won the Grammy Award for best new artist in 19 90, and the vocal duo Fab, Morvan, and Rob Pilatus gave a great names. They gave a live performance that same year, which was recorded by MTV Live. It was done at the Lake compounds theme park in Connecticut. But during the performance, something interesting happened, the recording of the song girl, you know it's true, jammed and began to skip over and over resulting in 1 of the most embarrassing moments in popular music history.

You can watch it on YouTube. It's brilliant. Actually, I watched an interview with with 1 of these guys, and he just said, he tried to just keep maiming, whereas it luke's hoping someone would come to their rescue, but after 12 times going over the same phrase, He just put his mic mic down and walked off in embarrassment. The truth was revealed, Millie Vanilli's sound was actually created by Frank Farion featuring the vocal talents of other singers and, more Van and Pilatus did not sing at all on any of their records. Imagine that.

Well, I suppose it's probably still true today, isn't it? After this, the Grammy award they received was stripped from them, and at least 26 different lawsuits. Were filed under various US consumer fraud protection laws. Now, that story raises a lot of questions in my mind. I don't know about you.

How could nobody have noticed up until that point? How is that actually possible? Did the sound engineers know, at least? You know, the people plug in the stuff in and, and pumping it through the system. Obviously, they didn't know enough to be able to run over and quickly stop the thing from skipping and save the embarrassment.

How do you manage, though, to be in that industry for several years without Anyone noticing that every performance is a fakery. How do you do that? Obviously, you would have to be a very good mimic. And a worrying worrying truth about the church Certainly in the west. And I would say, yeah, you look at the, our brothers and sisters in Sudan.

I bet it's not as true there if it's true at all. But certainly in the west is that the church is likewise plagued by mimics. The great puritan pastor Jonathan Edwards fought furiously against what he wrote books about the the topic of nominalism in the early eighteenth century in his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. Nominalism meaning Christian name only churches full of people that just bear the name Christian. Eventually, his battle against this had got him thrown out of his church as pastor.

People in his day thought, and this is if you read through his books, this is his analysis of their thinking. They thought there were Christians just because they've been brought up in a Christian colony as members of the Christian British empire Therefore Christian, British. They've been baptized as infants and had attended church all their lives and how dare this upstart start casting aspersions as to whether we are actually the genuine article or not. But Edwards was looking for something else in his congregation. This is what concerned him.

He was not convinced by a mere outward show of religiosity, just pitching up every week. He was concerned about the state of their hearts, and we should be concerned about the state of our hearts too. That's what god's looking at. He asked the question, had they been transformed by god's grace through the power of his holy spirit? And was there evidence that that had happened?

Did they truly love the lord they claimed to have allegiance too. Now church history is plagued by that that same problem. It always has been. Whenever there's peace and security in a country, when persecution eventually stops, and people start to actually notice that the church is a warm, lovely, wonderful community of people. They want to be part of it, especially in a culture like ours today where communities hard to come by.

And the trouble is is that all too often, then these people become over the years, if nothing else happens, they become imposters. They want the blessings of being part of that wonderful church community without being willing to deny themselves take up across daily and follow the lord Jesus Christ. And without, I think, often, even knowing it their Christianity becomes a mere front. They are lip synching along with those around them. This is true, isn't it?

They'd hate to be referred to this way, but it all comes down to a form of what I'm gonna call tonight practical atheism. Practical atheism. Confessing with your mouth that there's a god that you follow, but living like there isn't. Actually living like there isn't, a practical atheist. Now why do I say that?

Because they might say that they believe in god, but it's only as a concept, it no impact whatsoever on their hearts and on their lives. They live like there's no god. Now as we read through the book of Malachi, you'll notice it takes the form of, like, a series of questions and responses. That's how the book sort of seems to be structured. It's a series of questions that the people of Malachi's Day are certainly asking in their hearts if not actually vocalizing with their mouths.

But god knows the heart and he exposes them with some incisive exposing of the question and then answering it. That's what we're gonna see tonight. Now, this book is interesting because it reads I don't know, as you noticed it, It reads just like the earlier prophets in the old testament. You sort of be reading through it and think, yeah, this this sounds like 1 of the minor prophets got the same sort of sound to it all the way through. Those prophets who railed against the people because of their their empty worship, their idolatrous behavior, all of these issues of immorality and unfaithfulness all of those problems going on before the exile before the hammer fell, and god took them off into Babylon.

But the somewhat surprising thing is as we had that diagram up just a minute ago. The surprising thing is it's actually written a long while after they've returned back from exile. It's interesting. Judah had been taken to slavery and captivity by the Babylonians. And then only a few decades later, they're back under the authority of the Persians.

We've seen this in the past sort of weeks, haven't we? They've come back to Jerusalem. They've rebuilt the temple. They've had the walls of the city, the sacrificial system is now back up and running, as you probably just read on your tables, you can see that, can't you? That's not the original, and that's that's it's restarted again.

They've got a new temple that the the whole system's up and running. The dust is settled. They've returned to everyday life, normal life in judea. And the whole community they're, you know, they're trundling along, got it all up and running, and they're waiting. Now you've got to try and get under their skin to try to to get this.

They're waiting in anticipation of all the amazing prophecies that the Lord has made to them through numerous prophets. It's an amazing thing. You know, when you look through the old testament, you notice all of these colorful, wonderful sort of things about God's king coming, the Messiah coming, the Savior, the Circant crusher, all of these names for him, all of these things start to come more and more and more rapidly. As you get down towards the days of these people, towards the end of the old testament. You noticed that?

Lots and lots of illustrations of this wonderful deliverer this amazing future for the nations. Let me just recap some of it for you that we've looked at in the in the the minor prophets. The nation that they've been told by the prophets would be prosperous and blessed. The mountains would drip with wine and the harvest would be abundant everyone would sit in their gardens eating fruit. That's Amos 9.

It's an amazing picture, isn't it? Then they would enjoy the shade of their own fig trees and vines, their own, all have their own garden, No 1 would make them afraid, obviously, a big emphasis on garden. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it a blessing abundant sort of greenness? No 1 would make them afraid, Micah, 4 4. Sitting in their garden.

The glory of their currently makeshift sort of temple would 1 day there'd been promised be more splendid than in the days of Solomon. The nations would come to it and worship says Haggiye the prophet. Why? Why all of this? Why this wonderful, you know, vibrant, wonderful, future for them because god is going to send his king.

Out of Bethlehem, Him in Judea, Micah tells them in Micah 5. He will be a shepherd to the nation He will protect them in the strength of the lord, and the greatness of this king will reach the ends of the earth. He will bring peace. Now imagine, that you are 1 of these people. You're returned to Jerusalem.

That promises come true. The temple's been rebuilt. That promises come true. Everything's up and running again. And the huge expectations that you're living under, we are going to be the world dominating abundant blessed nation in the whole earth, and you're excited.

And then the years trundle on with this expectation. They roll on and on and on and on. And, well, nothing seems to be happening, actually. It's easy to get impatient, isn't it? Silence from god.

It's like, you know, a firework that's gone up into the ground and then nothing. No pop. No bang. Just the big expectation and then oh, that's a bit disappointing. All they had to do was to hang tight, stay faithful to god and wait for those promises.

But waiting is hard. Have you noticed that? Waiting is so hard. And as the years rolled on, they started to lose the faith that that had been started to be rekindled by these prophets with these colorful imagery. And especially, for them, they began to drift away from true worship into a sort of empty form of ritual and fakery.

Fakery. The book contains a timely warm warning for us, and for, I, maybe some in this room, particularly, as we wait for the arrival of our king. It's a direct parallel, isn't it? We're in a waiting period too, just like them. And waiting is still hard.

Waiting's hard. And especially hard if you are only faking it, especially hard. It is very possible as the years roll by, if you're faking it, that you too will like them as we're gonna see just now would drift into a practical atheism in actual fact. So take a look closer with me at the 7 causes of practical eighties, and I'm gonna try and work through these quickly and take us right through the book, but it's gonna be fast. So you gotta be ready.

So let's do this. Chapter 1 verse 1. Good place to start. A prophecy, the word of the lord to Israel through Malachi. I have loved you, says the lord, but you ask, how have you loved us?

First problem. First thing that pulls them into practical atheism is doubt. Doubt. How have you loved us? God, you say you love us But we actually, right now, today, we're not seeing any signs that that is true.

What what are you doing to show that you love us, god? It's a pretty shocking question to ask, isn't it? God's love for his people is what brought them out of Egypt into the promised land, defeated their enemies, provided all of their needs for nearly a millennium so far, but they just can't see it. They can't see it because they're here and now it just doesn't feel that way. And god answers their questions.

By going back even further than that, right to Jacob, the father of the nation of Israel. Jacob was 1 of Twin's sons born to Isaac, the son of Abraham. And even though Jacob was the younger twin of the twin, he saw being the older, and the inheritance privileges should have gone to his brother It was Jacob that god chose to carry on the line of his promise and his plans of salvation. God continues in verse 2. Was not esau Jacob's brother declares the lord, older brother, yet I have loved Jacob, but he saw I've hated.

And I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert Jackals. Now, get this clear. It was not because Jacob was a nicer bloke. It was not because he was a more stand up guy. He was not a trustworthy man.

He was actually a liar and a cheat if you read his story. It was not because there was something admirable about Jacob, that god chose him. It was simply that god excited to do so. He said, I'm gonna I love you. I'm gonna love you.

That's actually how god always loves, by the way. He chooses to, he decides to, and he commits to it. He chooses to love and he loves. And god resolved back then, gave his word, I will love Jacob. I'll love Jacob.

Whereas, Esoar, I've hated. I will keep on relentlessly loving Jacob, later named Israel. But my hand will be consistently against esaw and all of his offspring, the edomites. That's where the rest of verses 1 to 5 goes if you're reading it. You see that?

God's hand's always against them. Easter, I've hated. Israel had always had god's steadfast unchanging covenant promised love. And though they've been disciplined and judged, clearly in their history, but god that felt the hand of god in judgment because god does not let wickedness go unchecked. God is a god of justice.

He had never failed to love them. Always loved them. Love, love, love. That's why they are where they are now in Jerusalem. But because things weren't presently happening the way that they had expected and hoped, now they've become full of doubt.

How have you loved us? It's amazing, isn't it? First question, is that what you're like? Looking your heart. Is that what is that what you're like?

You think that you only really think God loves you when your life is meeting your expectations. Then you think God loves you. Is that the only thing that gives you assurance of God's love? Interesting question to ask, isn't that the first problem? Second problem is no fear of god in verses 6 to 14.

God reveals the next symptom, which is a growing or of of this growing unbelief. It's in verse 6. Have a look. A son honors his father and a slave is master. If I am a father, where is the honor do you, If I'm a master, where is the respect, Jimmy says the Lord almighty?

It is you priests who show contempt for my name, but you ask Well, how have we shown contempt for your name? By offering defiled food on my altar. There was a growing lack of respect for god in the nation. Versi tells us they were playing fast and loose with the sacrificial system that had just been restarted up again. See, they knew that their religion required for them to take sacrifices and offerings and bring them to god.

Gifts to show honor to him to thank him for things. And so what they did was to go through all of the livestock that they had and pick out the duds. That's it, you know, the, they they find a man just crippled and deformed animal in the flock. Give it a bit of sprucing up and then take it down to the temple. You know, there's no sense wasting a perfectly good lamb if all you are going to do with it is slaughter it and burn it on the altar.

Why would you waste? Well, you know, why why all that waste? Right? But the law stipulated When you bring an offering to god, it is a lamb without defect, a perfect lamb. They were to give their best to god.

Not their rejects. The whole thing betrays a heart, doesn't it? That says What will it matter? God don't care. God won't know, actually, will it?

The important thing is just do the ritual, get down there, down the temple, get it done. But god does know. It's what Malachi is telling us, isn't it? He does know. He does see.

He does care. Look at the second half of verse 8. Stinging this, isn't it? Try offering them to your governor, says God. Will he be pleased with you?

Will he accept you, says the lord almighty? Go on take that mangy deformed the goat and give it as a payment to the governor. See what response you get there. You know, it's a bit like, you know, phoning up the inland revenue and saying, look, I know I owe you, you know, I've got this a couple of thousand pounds out here. But I've been cleaning out, I've been cleaning out the garage, and I've got this box of junk.

I I'll it's probably worth about the same. So look, I'll just take it in. Will you accept that? Try that on, says God. You give your best to a mere man, and yet to your creator.

Your creator, the 1 who gives you life and breath and every blessing to him, you give your rejects, you're rubbish. Credible, isn't it? Not only that, though. It gets even worse this second point. The priests themselves Well, they have an attitude of, well, we can't really be honest.

You know, we can't be bothered to be honest. That's their attitude. You see how it was worded? It's quite strong. Again, In every place, verse 11, the incense and pure offerings are brought to me because my name will be made great amongst the nation says the lord almighty, but you profane it by saying The Lord's table is defiled and its food is contemptible.

And you say, what a burden? And you sniff at it contemptuously. Says the lord almighty. See that little attitude? Nothing at the temple is being done thinking, god sees, and we must give our best, and the attitude of our hearts matters We must do our best.

We can how can we serve the living god from hearts. Is that you? Do you do the things you do simply because, well, it's what people expect of you, people expecting. What do you do then because you wanna please god? Why do you do set down?

Is it because, you know, you just wanna make sure you're on that rotor? People see you, you know, scurrying around, getting it done. Or do you do it because, you know, it honors god to do it. He's serving his people. Do you know that he sees and he cares?

That's what Malachi is telling us isn't it? He sees and he cares. Third thing, no care for god's word. Chapter 2 starts with a section verses 1 to 9 concerning the priests. He singles them out.

God compares them with their forefather Levi who faithfully taught the law to the people. Let's pick it up at verse 6. True instruction was in his mouth, Nothing force was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and turned many from sin. For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge because he is the messenger of the lord almighty, and people seek instruction from his mouth.

But you have turned from that way by your tea and by your teaching have caused many to stumble. That's a very strong word to anyone who preaches the word of god, actually, isn't it? You see, if god effectively doesn't exist, doesn't see, doesn't notice. If he's absent and unevolved, uninvolved in our lives, then why bother to act actually accurately teach his word? Why bother?

After all, nobody really likes god's word, have you noticed that? Nobody out there really likes the word of god. It doesn't scratch where they're itching. Are you like that? When you talk about god to friends, Do you only ever tell people the things that you know they will like?

Do you only ever do that? Do you sort of paper over those harder truths that maybe they need to hear about their lives? Fourth problem unfaithfulness And the second half of chapter 2, we see a people who are characterized by unfaithfulness, and it is seen most clearly in their relationships. Think about your relationships. Look at verse 11.

Judah has been unfaithful. It's just a characteristic. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the lord loves. By marrying women who worship a foreign god. You think, oh, wow, that sounds interestingly cultural, doesn't it?

Does god really care who I marry? Surely, that is my personal business. God's not looking at that bit of my life, surely. Wrong. Now, this is particularly interesting because only a few short decades earlier, Nehamaya had taken them to task over this issue.

He writes in near my 13, it's like his personal journal. Listen to this. Listen near my 13, he's from his journal. He says this. I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair.

And I made them take an oath in the name of god saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women. Among the many nations, there was no king like Kim was there, and he was beloved by his god, and god made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our god by marrying foreign women?

You couldn't put it more clearly, could you? But obviously, he had not made a strong enough impression on the people. God's people And let's be fair, especially the men, the men just could not stop being enticed by the exotic foreign women around them. It's just how it is in in history, isn't it? Now, the people were complaining that god was not looking with favor at their offerings.

What's why god, why are you not favoring us? But god replies in verse 13, you ask why, why am I not favoring you? It is because the lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth, your first wife. You have been unfaithful to her Though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. I wish I could go into the theology theology of this, but we don't have any sort of time, but just get the point here.

It's this is a people that have embraced a divorce culture. That's really what's going on. A cheap marriage divorce culture. Growing up in their community. They're discarding their wives so that they can marry foreign women.

More exotic. And god makes it clear for this wickedness, he will withhold his blessing. Look at verse 16. For the man who hates and divorces his wife says the lord, the god of Israel. Does violence to the 1 he should protect?

So pee on your card. Do not be unfaithful. Are you faithful in your relationships? Does that characterize your relationships? You're a faithful 1.

Are you kept faithful by the knowledge that god cares about your relationships and god cares about you being faithful? God sees the marriage vow as binding, even if you don't, even if you don't. Fifth problem, unbelief will will go quick now. Unbelief verse 17. It's a very short section.

You have wearied the lord with your words says Malachi. How'd they ask? And it's by the constant accusation of injustice See, you've got a people here all day long. They're looking around at the world around them. They pick up the newspaper.

They flick through it. They and all the wicked things going on in the world and all that injustice, and they point it all out. And then they say, do you know, if there is a god, why isn't he doing anything about that? He certainly, this god doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between good and evil. Have you noticed?

That's what it's saying in the text there. Where is the god of justice they're asking? Now that's an a lack of belief in the absolute rule of god over the world. Isn't it? Either that or probably actually worse.

It's actually to judge god. It's incredible, isn't it? As if you know how the world should be run and you could do it better. I know the difference between good and evil, but apparently god doesn't? It's incredible, isn't it?

Well, chapter 3, as we move quickly into that, tells us the last 2 signs of this drift into a practical atheism. And they are robbing god and murmuring. First of all, robbing god, number 6. Verse 8, look, will a mere mortal rob god yet you rob me, but you ask, how are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings.

See, the the the tithes were the required 10 percent of all the produce that they were supposed to bring to god by law. So as you're counting through your sheep at, at tax time as it were, is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, for me, 1 forgot. So it's every tenth, you know, sheep or goat or chicken, every tenth sack of grain was all to go to god. It was offered to god. It was used in god's house.

It was used to look after the levites, but it seemed that the people were not just picking off the worst and mankiest animal, the nastiest sort of odds and sods from the crops. But they were, in fact, also short changing god on top of it. It's the equivalent of fiddling your tax return, isn't it? Except that here, you know, for that, you'd be doing it to a mere human government. But now they're trying it on with god himself.

And the irony is, Scott points out they're hurting only themselves because god doesn't need anything from any of us. Does he? He owns all of it. So look at verse 10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, test me in this, says the lord almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing, then I'll be room enough to store it. You're shortchanging yourself when you shortchange god.

Now that's a wonderful promise, isn't it? It's a televangelist kind of promise. Please bear in mind it was made to old abstinent Jews living in Jerusalem in 400 BC and not to us today. But it does remind us of the unchanging generous character of the heart of god, which has never changed. We are not commanded to even tide our income, actually, but the New Testament does instruct us to be cheerful givers.

To trust him to supply our needs every day and to be growing in generosity. But that was not the heart of these people that Malachi was writing too clearly, is it? They were just interested in what they could get away with and what they could keep for themselves. The story of Annanias and Safire in Acts 5 comes to mind, doesn't it? Who would really know how much profit you made this year?

Who would really know? Well, Phil Cooper, probably. Who would know if you only declared that you had a flock of 500 sheep when you really had 550, a saving of 5 sheep on the tax bill. 5 more sheep for me, 5 more for the barbecue. And it's not like the temple police are gonna come round and check Who would know?

Who would care? Godward. Finally, the seventh thing murmuring. Verse 13, have a look. You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord.

That you ask, oh, what have we said against you? You have said, it is futile to serve god. What do we gain by carrying out all of his requirements and going around like mourners before the lord almighty, but now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly, evil doers prosper. And even when they put god to the test, they get away with it.

It's the world view, isn't it? It's basically a denial of god completely, isn't it? It's the it's the age old sin really here of grumbling that god's people have done all the way through the Bible. We would be better off jacking it all in and joining the pagans because they at least seem to be prospering and doing well and having fun. Right?

Where is all of this serving god getting us? Sitting in a hot room on a Sunday night? Where's that getting you? And they would be saying we have to obey all of these burdensome laws, but the evil doers down the road, they just say and do what they like with impunity and life is rosy for them. So there's your 7 issues that draw you into a practical they're slim symptoms of practical atheism, aren't they?

Now, when you When you look at all of this waning belief, this sliding into apostasy that's going on here, It reads a little bit like the book of Ecclesiastes, if you're familiar with it. It's like a man who looks at the world from the point of view that there is nothing except what is under the sun. There's nothing unseen, nothing eternal, nothing heavenly, just what we've got here. It's complete materialism, isn't it? He's a practical atheist.

And it is deceptively easy to go down the same road if you are just faking it as a Christian. Believe me. Please examine yourself in the light of the warnings of god's word through Malachi. Are you a practical atheist? Are you?

Do you constantly doubt God's love for you? When you contemplate that Christ died for you on Calvary, do you still not know that you're loved? Do you think on some level god's not watching that you can pull the wool over his eyes that your sin will, in fact, not find you out. When you talk about god, is it the god of the Bible that you're talking about? Or a god of your invention.

How would you know? Do you actually know the god you profess to follow? Do you actually understand why you need to be any different from the world around you? Does that make any sense to you? Why faithfulness is so important?

Are you committed to the covenants that you've made in god's sight What did you mean husbands when you said till Deathas DuPont? Are you quick to say in your heart That's not fair, which really means god you're not fair. Or have you learned to be content to let god be god? And accept that he sees the whole picture, and you're only seeing a tiny little patch. Are you tight fisted with your money?

You might wanna call it being careful. But do you find yourself reluctant to give? Reluctant to give to god? Do you serve out of wrong motives, caring only really what other people would think who are looking at you? When you see the pleasurable things of this world around you and people enjoying them.

And the way that non Christian friends can live, are you battling constantly? Against the temptation to just chuck it all in and join. Is that you? Now to an extent, Those are some of the struggles of being a Christian. I get that.

We all have moments of doubts. We're all growing. We're all on, you know, on a journey. We're on a race. But they could also be signs that you're faking it.

You're faking it. Why? Because once you really grasp the reality of life above the sun, Once you really understand the incomparable worth of Christ and the passing poverty of all that the world offers as an alternative Once you grasp the difference between 80 years maybe here and eternity, if you really understand some of the horrors of hell and the unsurpassing joy of heaven, then you would give it all for Christ. Never turn back. See now, the Psalmists struggled with these issues.

It had begun to appear that the Psalm it's actually a Sam written by a guy called Asaf. He says it has begun to appear that evil men have a much better deal, a much more enjoyable life they do much better than those who stay faithful to god. And he wrote in Psalm 73 these words. Listen. My feet had almost slipped I'd nearly lost my foothold for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

But listen, the breakthrough for him came, he says, when he finally grasped those over the sun realities. He continued. It troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of god. Then I understood their final destiny. And that is how Malachi ends his prophecy.

Chapter 4 reminds the reader that the day is coming. Look at chapter 4 verse 1 just briefly as we finish. Surely the day is coming. It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubborn.

And the day that is coming will set them on fire, says the lord almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left of them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays, and you will go out and frolic like well fed coughs. Wonderful image. We are to wait.

Yes. Waiting is hard. It's hard, but we wait with hope. You see, these are the last words of the old testament, aren't they? And if they are just held on as a people, for a few more short centuries.

They would have seen the fulfillment of the last 2 verses of the book. The arrival of Elijah, also known as John the Baptist, who came to prepare the hearts of the people for the arrival of that great, an awesome king, Jesus Christ. And we should hold on. The day is coming. Should we be able to hold on?

When that same king will return in glory and meet and greet his chosen 1, to say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. For your great love shown to us in giving us your son to die for our sins on Calvary's cross, Help us to know your great love for us. Help us to examine our own hearts, to see if there is any fakery in them.

May we live under the knowledge of your watchful eye? May we know you daily better through your word? May we be faithful? May we grow in holiness and be salt and light in this world? May we trust you completely.

May we grow to be generous just as you are? And will you please help us to walk in step with your spirit as we await the return of your king. Help us to live each day under your watchful eye, knowing that you see that you care. Please help