A Faithful Remnant - Malachi 3:16-4:6
INTRODUCTION:
This morning is our seventh and final week in the book of Malachi. Throughout this book the LORD of hosts has spoken to the people of Israel through the prophet Malachi. He has shown how the people have broken the covenant with Him by questioning His love for them, by disobeying the law of the covenant, by defiling His altar and despising His name, by questioning His justice and robbing Him of His tithes and offerings and declaring Him unfaithful and untrustworthy to keep His promises. The LORD of hosts pronounced judgment on them and warned them that He was coming in judgment.
Malachi ends on a brighter note as we are reminded that it was not the whole nation that had turned away from God and the covenant He had made with them. Within the nation there was a faithful remnant of Jewish people who had not followed the way of the rest of the nation, they had stayed true to the LORD and to His covenant with them. The closing verses focus on this faithful remnant with the encouraging words of the LORD that they are not forgotten and the day of the LORD will look much different for them then it will for the wicked. Let’s pray and get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Malachi 3:16-4:6 our final passage. Again, in Malachi we have a chapter break where it breaks the flow of the passage. Interestingly, there is no chapter four in the Hebrew Bible, the six verses of chapter four are verses 19-24 of chapter three. So why someone decided to put a chapter break here is baffling to me. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Malachi 3:16-4:6,
“Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. ‘They will be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ ‘So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.’ ‘But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.’” (Malachi 3:16–4:6, NASB95)[1]
THOSE WHO FEAR THE LORD (Malachi 3:16-17)
We are informed at the beginning of this passage that there is a group among the Jewish people that fear the LORD. This word translated fear refers to a reverence or a respect and awe of God and Who He is. Mixed in with that respect and awe is a little of what we understand fear to be because after all this is God, the Creator of the universe, the Sovereign Lord of everything and everyone. This is the All-powerful, all-knowing God who is everywhere at all times, this is where the fear comes in, but that is tempered with respect and awe because even though God is all of those things, He is also faithful, compassionate, merciful and gracious. These in Malachi’s day who feared the LORD of hosts understood these things about God and as they heard the words of the LORD through His prophet, words of judgment we are told they spoke with one another. We do not have recorded for us what it is that they spoke to one another but with all the talk of judgment they might have feared that they would be swept away with the wicked.
To encourage this faithful remnant of God-fearing Jews Malachi assures them that God was paying attention, He knew who they were, they had not been forgotten or overlooked by God. He had heard them talking with one another and Malachi says that a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and esteem His name, literally this means those who thought about His name, they understand Who He is and for this reason they seek to honor Him.
This book of remembrance may be a reference to the book of life mentioned elsewhere in Scripture where the names of those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ are recorded. The Jews of Malachi’s day would have quickly understood the importance of this book of remembrance because the Persians had a custom of recording in a book all acts of a person that should be rewarded in the future. If you remember the book of Esther, you will remember that one night when the king of Persia could not sleep had the books of his reign brought in and read to him and in the reading it was discovered that Jewish man named Mordecai had uncovered a plot to have the king assassinated. When the king heard this, he asked how this man had been rewarded, he had not been rewarded so the king rewarded him that day because the book of remembrance had reminded him of this man’s service to the king.
In this same way, the LORD will remember those who are faithful to Him and seek to live according to His covenant because of their faith in God’s promises to send a Redeemer.
The LORD of hosts declares to these who are the faithful remnant that they shall be His, in the day when the LORD comes to set up His kingdom He will prepare or make up His treasured possession which is those who have feared Him and esteemed His name. My Bible just says His possession, but the Hebrew is a word that means a treasured possession, something that is precious to you. It is not material things that God considers as treasure, rather it is people who have been redeemed through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. God promises them that in the midst of the judgment of the day of the LORD he will spare them as a father spares a son who serves him. This word translated “spare” is a Hebrew word that means “to show mercy or to show compassion.” Literally, it is an act of showing concern for another, resulting in an act of kindness or compassion. Because this remnant is fearing the LORD, He will show concern for them and spare them in the day of judgment, just as a father would have concern for his son that is obedient to him and spare him from judgment. Just as our Scripture reading this morning said, the last verse of our reading, Psalm 103:13 reads, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103:13, NASB95)[2]
Have you ever considered yourself as a treasured possession of the Lord? The apostle Peter in describing the privileges of believers uses phrases that were once applied to the Israelites in the Old Testament, but in 1 Peter 2:9-10 he applies them to us. Listen to the words of these two verses as they echo what Malachi was saying. 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9–10, NASB95)[3] Just as God promised to make the faithful remnant of Malachi’s day His treasured possession and to spare them from the coming judgment, Peter calls us a people for God’s own possession who were not a people, but have become God’s people from all over the world and we have received mercy and will be spared from God’s wrath against sin because of our faith in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection for us.
DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND UNRIGHTEOUS (Malachi 3:18-4:3)
The LORD declares that there will be a clear distinction between the godly and the ungodly when He comes, between those who serve the LORD and those who do not serve Him. This distinction will be clear to all. Israel’s history was full of examples of when God intervened and the wicked were judged and the righteous were spared. The exodus from Egypt was one such incident, when the people of Israel departed from Egypt the nation and people had been harshly judged and the country was devastated. The Israelites had seen how the LORD destroyed the nations before them as they came into and took possession of the promised land. These events pointed to a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. The future day of the LORD will be even more distinct as the LORD will completely destroy the wicked and the righteous through physical deliverance and a bodily resurrection will be God’s treasured possession in His kingdom, fulfilling God’s original intention for Israel. This distinction that was coming was to produce hope which would encourage the righteous and strengthen their faith in the LORD.
The LORD goes on in verses one through three of chapter four describing what the day of the LORD will be like for the wicked and the righteous, how this distinction will be seen. These three verses are a continuation of verse 18 of chapter 3 so this chapter break here is really unfortunate. The LORD declares, “’For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.’” (Malachi 4:1, NASB95)[4] The prophets often describe the judgment of the LORD against the wicked as a fire. When this day comes no distinction will be made between Jew and Gentile, but only between the righteous and the wicked. The LORD declares that His coming will be like a furnace for the wicked, the arrogant, this is a word we looked at last week that describes a class of persons who are proud, conceited, self-willed and self-righteous and not at all humble before the LORD. The LORD says the arrogant and all evildoers will be chaff, chaff is the hull that contains the seed of grain, it is thrown away once the seed is removed. The ESV translates this as “stubble” instead of “chaff” the Hebrew word can mean either as both are waste products from the harvest of grain. I believe “stubble” fits better with the context since chaff does not have branch or root. Stubble is what is left in the field from the grain after it is harvested. The fire of the LORD’S judgment will set this stubble ablaze and it will burn it all up even the roots and the stalks that did not get cut. It will all become ash, completely destroyed. We read of this destruction in the end of Revelation, the blood bath that it will be for those who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming.
This is not the fate of the righteous, those who fear God at His coming, those who revere God’s name. The LORD of hosts declares that instead of being devoured by the heat of His wrath like the wicked, those who fear Him will feel His warmth with healing in His light, He will be the Sun of righteousness risen with healing in His wings. We sing of the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings at Christmas in the third verse of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. This is a reference to the Messiah. His coming will be much different for those who have put their faith in Him. The reference to the healing must not be limited to physical recovery from the harm done by the wicked, but the healing is inseparably linked to the sickness of sin, with healing coming only through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Sun of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. The LORD says the righteous will leap like calves released from the stall. Calves, after being penned up for a long period of time leap and romp for sheer joy when released out into the sunlight. The righteous in the kingdom will have a joyful, vigorous life.
The LORD continues to speak of the righteous and says they will tread down the wicked, because they have been reduced to ash by the fire of the Lord’s wrath. No longer will the wicked inflict pain upon the righteous, instead the righteous will tread upon their ashes on the day of the LORD, the day of His coming. What a day of rejoicing that will be for the one who fears God, but what a day of horror it will be for the one who has refused to acknowledge God and repent.
FINAL EXHORTATION (Malachi 4:4-6)
As we come to the close of the Old Testament the LORD of hosts gives an exhortation to the faithful remnant and a promise of a return to the LORD before He comes. This exhortation is just before the nation of Israel enters into what is called the intertestamental period, or the 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. When Malachi closes Israel does not receive another prophetic word from a prophet of God for 400 years, God does not speak until John the Baptist is seen on the bank of the Jordan preparing the way for the Lord.
The LORD exhorts the faithful remnant to remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and the ordinances which I commanded Him in Horeb for all Israel. There would be no prophet to remind them and call them to return to the LORD, they had to remember the law and do it, obey the statutes and the ordinances. The LORD is reminding the people that He is the same God who gave the law at Mount Sinai (Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai), and as the LORD of hosts who gave the law through His faithful servant Moses, they needed to remember it and obey it so that they follow and fear Him.
Secondly the LORD of hosts closed the Old Testament with a promise for the future. He promised to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day the LORD. He would come with a message of repentance to turn the people back to the LORD before His coming, He was to announce the coming of the LORD. John the Baptist was a type of Elijah at Christ’s first advent. Moses and Elijah appeared together at the Mount of Transfiguration during Christ’s earthly ministry. They may be the two witnesses during the first part of the tribulation that we looked at in Revelation 11. Possibly it will be an Elijah-like person like John the Baptist was, or it will be Elijah the prophet himself. In that day his task will be to preach a message of repentance and reconciliation to God so that many will believe and be saved from God’s curse. He will be effective. The LORD says that he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. This did not happen at Christ’s first coming, the opposite occurred as the nation turned against Christ as their Messiah and crucified Him. This verse anticipates a general societal repentance by the nation of Israel before the Lord’s return so that complete destruction can be averted. Paul speaks of this repentance of the nation of Israel in Romans 11. I will not go there now, but we will look at it in the days ahead when we are in Romans.
The end of verse six speaks of the LORD smiting the land or the earth with a curse if at His return He did not find a repentant remnant of the nation of Israel. This term curse is a phrase in Hebrew that means a “decree of utter destruction.” It is a phrase that refers to the practice of devoting things or persons irrevocably to God, often by total destruction. The cities of Canaan were put under this decree when the Israelites entered the land, all the people were to be exterminated so that the Israelites would not be lured away into the idolatry of the nations living in the land. They did not fulfill this decree and idolatry was found throughout the land. Its use here suggests that the LORD would make the earth a whole burnt offering if there was not a repentant, faithful remnant found on the earth when He returns.
CONCLUSION:
As we come to the close of this chapter and this book we must pause and reflect on the promises that the LORD has made to this faithful remnant of Jews that were living during Malachi’s day. The LORD promised that they were not forgotten, that they would not be swept away in the judgment that was coming upon those who refused to repent and continued in their rebellious ways.
The LORD promised those that feared His name that in the day of the LORD the Sun of righteousness would arise with healing in His wings. As I said this is a clear and definite reference to our Lord Jesus Christ as the “Sun of righteousness” who will dispel the darkness of the time of Jacob’s trouble, or the Great Tribulation. When the earth’s darkest moment arrives, and it seems that all is lost, the Lord Jesus Christ will rise as the Sun of righteousness setting everything right and peace and righteousness will be ushered in.
But just as Christ will come after the Great Tribulation to the nation of Israel as the Sun of righteousness to deliver them, in the same way He will first come as the Morning Star to catch away His Church, the Bride. In Revelation 2:26-28 we read, “‘He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” (Revelation 2:26–28, NASB95)[5]
Notice that in this letter to the church, that the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as the morning star waiting for His Bride. But to Israel in the end of Malachi He is presented to them as the “Sun of righteousness.” The morning star is one of the brightest stars in the heavens. It always rises just before dawn, and is followed by the darkest hour of the entire night, the hour just before the dawn. The morning star heralds the nights darkest hour, but also proclaims the promise of the soon coming sunrise. After this darkest period of the night, after the morning star rises, the sun shows itself, dispelling the darkness awaking all nature and bringing in a new day.
This is the Bible revelation concerning our Lord’s return also. The next event is the rising of the morning star for the church when Jesus returns to take us home to be with Him. This is the rapture of the Church when the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive and remain will be caught together with them to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. After this event the darkest hour of earth’s history will begin, the Tribulation, the day of the Lord, the time of Jacob’s trouble, the 7 years of the Tribulation will be the blackest time in human history, a time of intense suffering. After these seven years, when everything seems to be lost, the Sun of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, will suddenly return with His glorified Bride, the church and usher in the joyous millennial kingdom and the earth’s redemption from the curse, Israel’s restoration and universal blessing upon all the earth. Are you ready for the appearance of the morning star? It is the next scheduled event in prophetic history. If you are not ready, please speak to me after the service.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995