(REFLECTIONS ON Malachi 3:1-18)

1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord, to make paths straight so that those that came in repentance would turn from their ways, back to the heart of God. Jesus said in Matthew 11 regarding John the Baptist,

9 “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet.
10 “This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’
11 “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John the Baptist was the messenger Malachi referred to. He came to clear the way before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said that among those born of women there had not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he, not because we are greater people than John, but because through Christ we have entered into the kingdom that John came to announce.

Back to today’s Scripture in Malachi 3,

6 “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statues and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

The Lord does not change. His call remains the same for us today, to return to Him by turning away from the sin of the world and of self. And through Christ, we will be brought back into fellowship with God.

The Lord does not change, so today, even today, if we repent and turn back to the Lord, He is faithful and just and will forgive us by His Son, Jesus Christ, that died for us on the cross.

God’s people asked, “How shall we return?” By giving to the Lord what is His. No, this isn’t just money and material possessions, but our very lives. Our lives have been bought with a price, and it is no longer ours, but to be offered to the Lord. Let us then be a living sacrifice, living, but no longer for ourselves, but for the Lord.

16 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.
17 “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 sons who serves him.”

Let us fear the Lord, for those that fear the Lord and who esteem His name will be in the book of remembrance, and the Lord of hosts says, “They will be Mine.”

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Malachi 3