Today’s reading: Malachi 4
Have you ever been part of a project where current state and future state are considerably different? Or maybe a project where there is a longer than ideal time gap between the wind down of current state and the official start of future state? If you have, you know these circumstances require a bridge – specific tactics to help the organization successfully get from point A to point B without things falling off the rails.
Malachi 4 is a bridge. This, the last chapter in the last book of the Old Testament, serves as a bridge between the Old Testament and New Testament. After the prophet Malachi’s death, God’s prophets were silent for 400 years. Talk about the need for a bridge, 400 years is a long time between current state (Old Testament Law) and future state (salvation through Jesus Christ)! Focus here on the last two verses of this short chapter:
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction” (Malachi 4:5-6).
God promised to send a great prophet, like Elijah, to prepare the way for future state. Because we have the benefit of hindsight, we know this prophet was John the Baptist. After 400 years of being left to their own sinful ways, God sent John the Baptist to prepare God’s people for the coming Messiah by guiding them to repent from their sins.
The message of hope the prophet Malachi shared with God’s people in Malachi 4 is the same message of hope John the Baptist spoke of in the first century and the same message of hope for Christfollowers today. God controls the future. In his time, everything will be made right. Those of us who love God and put our trust in his son Jesus can look forward to a victorious and glorious future.
“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 calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 4:2-3).