Days 273 & a bonus day—We are in the NINTH month of Bible reading, finishing the Old Testament with the prophecy of MALACHI,

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Monday.

    Day 273 – Malachi 1 – 4 (Jews become complacent and hard-hearted while Nehemiah is back in Persia; Malachi addresses their polluting sacrifices, marrying foreign wives, withholding tithes, and committing social injustice. When God often accuses them of sin, they respond arrogantly, HOW have we sinned?)

Malachi 1.  God tells the backsliding Jews, “I have loved you.”  They say, “HOW have you loved us?” And God reminds them of His choosing of the younger twin, Jacob (their ancestor) over Esau, and how He has cared for them as a father for a son.”

God then confronts the priests, “Where is my fear, O priests, who despise my name.”  And they answer belligerently, “How have we despised your name?”    “By offering polluted food upon my altar,” God says.  “How have we polluted you?“ they wonder.  When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?  I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.”   “Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it…..and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished!”

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Malachi 2. God continues through Malachi. “And now, O priests, if you will not listen, if you will not take to heart to give honor to my name, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.  Indeed, I already have cursed them.”  God had made a covenant with the tribe of Levi for life, to set it apart for Himself. These priests deceived themselves by claiming the covenant’s privileges while neglecting its conditions as if God was obligated to bless them.

“A second thing you do,” says the LORD. “You cover my altar with tears,  weeping, and groaning because I no longer regard the offering or accept it with favor from your hand.”   The people respond with, “Why do you not?”  And the LORD tells them why.  “Because I am a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your wife by covenant.  What was I seeking? I was seeking godly offspring.  The man who does not love his wife but divorces her…covers his garment with violence.  SO, GUARD YOURSELVES in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”  (NOTE: They were divorcing their Jewish wives to marry pagan wives.)

‘You have wearied the LORD with your words.  But you say, “How have we wearied him?”    By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them.”  OR by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

(What cantankerous, hard-hearted, arrogant people?  (Oh, LORD, am I like that sometimes?)

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Malachi 3. The king is coming and sending his Messenger before him to prepare for and announce Him.  This is the voice of “one calling in the wilderness” (Isaiah 40:3) and the Elijah of Malachi 4:5 who initially comes before the Lord.  (The New Testament says he is John the Baptist. (Matthew 3:3, 11:10, 17:12+, Mark 1:2, Luke 1:17, 7:26-27, John 1:23)). The prophecy extends to the second coming of the Lord too, when judgment will come on all who have broken all God’s laws.

God calls to the ‘children of Jacob,’ “Return to me, and I will return to you.”  But they say, “How shall we return?  God accused them, “Will a man rob God?  You are robbing me.”  They say, “How have we robbed you?  

God answers them with a challenge.  “In your tithes and offerings, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you!”  

THE CHALLENGE:  “BRING THE FULL TITHE INTO THE STOREHOUSE, THAT THERE MAY BE FOOD IN MY HOUSE. AND THEREBY PUT ME TO THE TEST, SAYS THE lord OF HOSTS, IF I WILL NOT OPEN THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN FOR YOU AND POUR DOWN FOR YOU A BLESSING UNTIL THERE IS NO MORE NEED. I WILL REBUKE THE DEVOURER FOR YOU SO IT WILL NOT DESTROY THE FRUITS OF YOUR SOIL OR VINE.  AND ALL THE NATIONS WILL CALL YOU BLESSED, FOR YOU WILL BE A LAND OF DELIGHT….. says the LORD of hosts.”

Some feared the Lord, and He heard them. “They shall be mine in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.”

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Malachi 4. This last chapter features prophecies about the great and terrible DAY OF THE LORD when He will come in judgment to “set ablaze all the arrogant and evildoers.”  There are links to Isaiah, Joel, Zephaniah, and Revelation.  All who refuse to repent will be cast into the fire of hell.

And the “the Sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.”

Malachi closes with a promise of fulfillment. They can prepare by remembering the law of Moses, the statutes, and the rules.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers….” (opposite of what happens in Christ’s first coming)  (Matthew 10:34-36)

NOTE: John the Baptist is a type of Elijah at Christ’s first appearance. Moses (the law) and Elijah (the prophets) appear with Jesus at the transfiguration, and they may also be the actual two witnesses in the great tribulation (Revelation 11:1-3)

THE END OF OLD TESTAMENT

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    Bonus Day – A Free Day for Leap Year.

Spend this day thumbing through the Old Testament, remembering all you have read, reviewing the passages and verses that touched your heart (or conscience), and preparing your heart and mind for the New Testament and the story of Jesus Christ and His followers.