The Good News of Judgment Day

How quickly we forget.  How fast things can turn upside down.  Wasn't it just yesterday that we were reading about God's people rejoicing in their new-found freedom?   Everything was bright and shiny. Apparently, the honeymoon is over.

In this week's text, Malachi is writing to people who have recently returned from exile (587 - 539 BCE).  For many of us in the United States, it's difficult to understand this concept.  What does it mean that your country was rounded up and marched somewhere else to live?  Or a tyrannical occupation by outside forces?  Or in some of the more strategic hostile take-overs in ages past, that the leaders and those who were educated were rounded up and taken away, so that those who were "left behind" would have no choice but to assimilate into the culture forced upon them.  The difference?  Yahweh is not just the God of a certain country.  Or geographic area.  He is God.  This was a brand new way of the thinking for people.  While over-simplifiying the concept and thinking of the time, "gods" had specific boundaries where their authority, power, and rule stopped working.  So when the people of God were put into exile, taken from their homes and relocated, the words God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 29 of that particular book in the Old Testament, have an entirely different understanding that what is common place today.  In this revolution of culture and kingdom understanding, God tells his people to live where they are in the midst of captivity.  To flourish even in the midst of exile because even "that" will stand as a testimony to who Yahweh is.  He has a plan to prosper and not to harm.  Plans for a future and hope.

Years pass.  And so the people of God find freedom again.  As they are trying to rebuild their community, there is a series of leaders that God puts in place.  Haggai and Zechariah are called, and the temple was rebuilt by 515 BCE.  Ezra was called next, and he was the priest in charge of helping to start worship in the temple again.  Ezra also wanted the people to understand that faith does not stop at the waters' edge.  Rather - it is a part of each and every aspect of a person's life.  It is an entire identity.  While Ezra was at work, Nehemiah was the leader called and charged with the security of the people.  As the city was rebuilt,  he was named governor, and it's important to note that he was not serving as a priest.  Rather, he embraced God's call to use his gifts in a different way.  He understood who God had made in him to be.  With the Word of God in one hand, and the tools of trade in the other - he played a critical role in the reinstitution of the city.

Miracle after miracle before their eyes, freedom, and the justice of Yahweh clearly displayed, it would seem that everything should be on track.  It would seem like things were set up to succeed.  And yet, once again, everything was in shambles.  For so many years, the people of God had spent their time yearning for freedom.  When they received it - they didn't know what to do with it.  Those who focused on the mission at hand that God had given did well, but the others?  They turned in on themselves and began fighting.  Things turned to chaos quite quickly.  Does this sound familiar?  The cry of the people who had just been freed from Israel in the Exodus had the same problem.  They wanted to go back to Egypt.  They thought slavery would have been better than "this."  Throughout history, the cycle continues to repeat time and time again.

As the story continues, Malachi was the next one called specifically by God to serve and lead.  His name means "my messenger."  In the words Malachi shares with the people of God, according to James Limburg, the book of Malachi can be broken down into 6 short sermons which are critical to the understanding of the text in Malachi 4 assigned for this week.

Sermon #1:  1:1-5  ---->  A reminder that Yahweh's power extends beyond the territory lines of Israel.

Sermon #2:  1:6-2:9  ---->  The clergy (pastors, priests, leaders of worship) have a sermon directed towards them.  Instead of giving their best, they were simply checking off items on the to do list.  That is no way to lead the people of God.

Sermon #3:  2:10-16  ---->  A metaphor of the people's unfaithfulness to God: divorce, scandal, and intermarriage were wreaking havoc on society.

Sermon #4:  2:17-3:5  ---->  Rather than dealing with the consequences of their own actions, people were complaining that God was unjust and blaming Him.

Sermon #5:  3:6-12   ---->  Instead of proportional giving, people were cheating God (and themselves).  The clergy that modeled this behavior (as mentioned before), had filtered down and influenced the people.

Sermon #6: 3:13-4:3   ---->  People complained that their faith was a waste of time as they witnessed bad things happening to good people and how evil people prospered.


The fresh and new start that that God's chosen people had been given disappeared quickly.  The admonitions that we read here echo those of Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets.  The words of Malachi are timely and echo over us this day, as well.  The charges against the people of Israel could be an exact description of us.  The call to repentance that Malachi begs the people to receive is the same call to repentance that we have.

But we end this week in the same spot that the Israelites did.  Where is the good news?  No matter how hard we try, it seems that evil reigns.  Why will this time be any different?  The remnant of the faithful begins to loose hope waiting for God to move.

Malachi writes: "But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings..."  Throughout Scripture, the idea of healing and forgiveness are inseparable.  Translating the word used here from Hebrew (or Greek) into English can be difficult.  Our challenge is understanding that in Hebrew this word does mean both healing and forgiveness.  To understand this - we have to look forward to a story in Mark's Gospel.  We read that as Jesus was on his way from one place to another, and that a woman who had suffered bleeding for many years was desperate.  She had lost everything, and so had nothing to loose.  She reached out and touched the hem of Jesus' robe.  We read that Jesus felt "power go out from him."  He stopped where he was and asked who had touched him.  Not a reaction of anger, but one of compassion.  One of joy.  For this daughter of Abraham had shown great faith.  A prophecy was fulfilled.  The Messiah had come and there was great healing in his wings.  (The same word and idea used in Malachi 4:2.)

Jesus did not want this woman to be afraid.  Nor does he wish the same for us.  The Day of the Lord is coming.  It is true - there will be judgment.  It is because of this that we have radical security.  In Deuteronomy 7, we read that we are loved because we are loved.  It is not conditional.  And on this judgement day, all of the wrongs will be redressed and set right.

As Dr. Tim Keller writes: "If there's no judgment day - what hope is there for the world?  BUT if there is a judgment day, what hope is there for us?  When Jesus came the first time, he didn't come to bring judgment, he came to bear it."  The light of the world descended into darkness.  And as darkness covered the land in the middle of the day during the crucifixion, the judge was judged for us.  The good news is that for those who believe, for those who have been sealed with the cross of Christ, our judgement day has passed.  Our judgment day happened on the cross.  All that we deserved fell on Him, and He bore our sins in his body on the tree.  Forsaken for us, so that healing was found in His wings.  "Therefore we do not lose heart...for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)