Sending a Messenger (Malachi 4)

Posted by Chris on May 29, 2005 under Sermons

Israel had sued God. They had taken Him to court. As is common with such breakdowns in arelationship, they dredged the past and brought a lot of old garbage to the surface …

Lord, where were you when the Edomites profited from our exile?
Lord, why haven’t you done anything about them?
Lord, you always say you are for righteousness and justice, but you really are not!
Lord, you said you would provide for us and protect us, but you don’t seem to be doing it!
Lord, we come to worship to give you what you have asked, but you never seem happy with it!
Lord, we might as well do what’s wrong because doing what’s right doesn’t seem to be any good!
Why don’t you keep your promises God? Why don’t you love us anymore?

God goes to trial and makes His defense. He has His own perspective on the matter.

I love you and I always have!
You have despised and dishonored me with your half-hearted, apathetic worship!
I am tired of your “by-the-book, rule-keeping” attitude when you really don’t care about me atall!
I am tired of you giving me your leftovers and your excess and walking away from worship proudof what you have done for me!
I am tired of you claiming that you are my people and talking about the privilege of knowing thetruth when you don’t live by it!
I have had it with the way you break your promises with one another so easily. I have had it withthe way you mistreat one another and betray each other!
I am so tired of the way you use words to excuse your motives and your actions! I am tired ofthe way you try to redefine what’s right and wrong so you can do what you want to do instead oftrusting in me!
I am tired of the way you claim everyone else does what you do but you won’t own up to ityourselves!
I love you and I always have, and it hurts me that you claim I haven’t!

And that’s how the trial with God has gone. God ended the trial and assumed the role of judge. He passed sentence: God’s people need to return to him. But how do you do that with all thisslimy, smelly garbage dredged up from the past and it fills the room?

Have you ever had one of those arguments that seems to leave an indelible mark on therelationship? You know the sort. Some word is used that can never be forgotten. A mistake ofthe past is brought up like case law to justify lack of trust. Old hurts are taken out of the damp,moldy box they have been stored in for just a time as this. Cruel jokes or unkind statementsbecome shields that protect us in our fear of being disappointed.

These sort of arguments that dredge up the past leave the room filled a silence in which wewonder if the relationship can ever be repaired. The unspoken question is “Well now what?” You know these arguments. They happen in friendships, in marriages, in the workplace, inchurches, and even among nations.

What do you do with the past that has been dredged up?

God takes the first step at reconciliation and restoration. He has faith that a better day is coming. He ought to, because it is they day he is working toward – the day of the Lord … Read Malachi 4

All through the preaching of the prophets, the day of the Lord is spoken of as great and glorious. It is a day to be feared and hoped for at the same time. On the day of the Lord, justice will prevail… “For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done toyou; your deeds shall return on your own head.” – Obadiah 1:15 The day of the Lord is the turnof the ages. The age of corruption is burned up and the new age of righteousness begins.

For the wicked and evildoers who prefer the cover of night, it is the end of their rule. For thosewho welcome the dawn of the sunshine of righteousness, the day is the beginning of the world asit is supposed to be.

And for God, burning up the wicked isn’t as easy as scraping off old wallpaper … The destructionof the age of wickedness and corruption means that some of the people God loves who haveinvested themselves in the darkness are going to perish with it. Like a tree that is completelyremoved by a wildfire – neither root nor branch is left. It will be as if they never existed. Therewill be no future for the wicked in the home of righteousness, and there will not be a past todredge up.

God wants his children, all of them, to withstand the day of the Lord. He wants them to havedeep roots and strong branches. He wants to provide past and future for them.

Past – Remember the teaching of Moses. The commands and the law are a source of orientation. We have a great tradition of faith that nurtures us. They are deep roots that feed us and nurtureus and will nurture generations to follow. The speaker at the seminar I recently attended said hesat in a class and the speaker said “Forget everything you learned in Sunday school.” Heapproached her and said, “You didn’t really mean that, did you.” We don’t really mean it when wesay we need to chuck out the past and start over again, do we. We have learned some greatthings in Sunday school and when we were young. We have learned some important things fromour past – not just our past but THE past. We learn that God loves us, that Jesus is the Son ofGod, the Holy Spirit gives life and gifts for living to the people of God, that the church is thewitness of God is doing on earth. Where did we come up with this? When did we come up withit? This comes from a tradition of 2000 years, some of it even older than that. We dare notdispose of the past or tradition! It is our root system.

But when people say forget everything you learned in Sunday school, they do not mean tradition,they mean traditionalism. They mean the dead faith of living people, not the living faith of deadpeople. Traditionalism is the encrusted cake of ideals that cries out “The Old Paths are best” butinstead of walking the old paths into the future, they call a little cul-de-sac the Old Paths and theywalk around in a circle. That’s not the Old Paths; that is the Old Rest Home. The Old Pathscontinue into the future. The ancient commands are made new everyday by the mercy and love ofGod.

Notice that God calls up another figure from history – Elijah. Elijah is the prophet of prophets inIsrael’s memory. The prophet keeps the law of Moses from becoming old and tired. He brings itto life for each generation. Even in our time, we cannot rest lazily on the work of theRestorationists or of a generation ago. Every generation has the need to live out the word of God- right here and right now. We can look back and see what our parents did in their generation, orwhat the pioneers did 200 years ago, we can see what the first century church did and what Israeldid. But they will ask us, like good witnesses, now what will you do?

God is sending a messenger so that his people will be aroused from the idea that God did nothingmore than leave us a book. God is not interested in building a “by-the-book” bureaucracy. Hedesires a family in which the parents and the children, every generation, is connected with aheartfelt faith that keeps alive the message of the messenger.

This is the hope for the future that God gives us after the past has been dredged up. The day ofthe Lord is yet to come, but the messenger has arrived. If the folks who put the books of theBible together in their current order had been paying attention, the first gospel would be Mark,not Matthew. Mark’s gospel opens where the last book of the Old Testament leaves off … “See, Iam sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying outin the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ “

The messenger, the Elijah, was John the Baptist and his message was about the one who cameafter him, Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh come to save us, but also to form a relationship with us. We are called to know Jesus (not just know about him, but know him). Jesus, the Son of God,can turn our hearts back to our heavenly Father as he himself is the turning of Father God’s heartto his children.