"Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:4-6)
Today's text is from the last passage of my Minor Prophets reading.
First: "Remember the Law of Moses...." You know that I am not a, "Whew! Glad the Old Testament is over with." It is not. It is fulfilled, and continues to be fulfilled, in Jesus Christ and His Purposes for this Present Age and the Age to Come. "REMEMBER THE LAW...." What's the alternative? "Forget the Law?!?" I have said and written many times before. Which of the Ten Commandments should we not obey?
Second: "I will send you Elijah...." Jesus said that John the Baptist was Elijah. I think this is mostly an allegorical reference, but I wouldn't "break fellowship" over this interpretation. There is a teaching in Judaism that since Elijah never died, but was taken up to Heaven, he is still alive and will come, "before the coming dreadful day of the Lord." Regardless, whoever this "Elijah" is, he will have a reconciliation service for humanity, "....he will turn the hearts of," both fathers and children to each other. If this reconciliation is rejected, "....I will come and strike the earth with a curse."
Each day brings us closer to, "....the coming dreadful day of the Lord." It is, "dreadful," in that it is a "day of reckoning" for humanity. Those who are walking in obedience to Jesus Christ, however, submitting to His Purposes in the Earth, and who are "under the Blood of Jesus," will, as our Lord Jesus promised, "escape all these things that will come to pass...." Our King and Savior, Jesus, shed His Blood, died, and rose from the dead to give us Eternal Life, life "protected" from, "the coming dreadful day of the Lord." The days ahead, while they are, "dreadful," are also full of joy and anticipation for you and me. They mark the Day when, "....the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout...." I say with John, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
Father, in Jesus' Name, by Your grace I am being prepared for, "the coming...day...." Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
