Malachi 3:1-14 NLT… “Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 2 “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. 4 Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.
Peace – Take Me Back (Pulpit Manuscript/Devotional)
Malachi is the last of the prophets, with a very clear message from the first chapter, God is in love with Israel and desperately desires to live in productive and peaceful covenant with them. Post their Babylonian exile, Israel is without a king and Edom has been razed. They are a people restlessly in transition, in need of divine aide.
It is unclear as to weather or not Malachi is a proper name or a positional title, but with fifty-five verses this minor prophet reveals that peace is the missing link in their relationship with God. What’s interesting is the implication Israel hasn’t always known life without having peace with God; in fact, the reason they know they are missing peace is because they’ve had it and enjoyed it before. Take me back!
Israel hears from God in Malachi chapter three, that a day is coming when peace will be restored. Fast forward with me Romans 5:1 “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is the advent of Jesus Christ (our salvation/deliverer/righteousness) that takes us back to a time we were accustomed to and comfortable with. A time where we enjoyed peace with God.
A few months ago Nicole and I were on vacation in a mountain house. We love coffee; it is a necessity in the morning, and we consider ourselves coffee connoisseurs/snobs. The cabin has a drip coffee pot that was nothing like the Keurig and Nespresso machines we’re used to. It was there in the mountains that I learned I’m horrible at waiting. I have no patience whatsoever. It took the drip coffee pot roughly thirteen minutes to make a pot of coffee! My Nespresso machine (which makes the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life) just over two minutes to brew my personal cup at home. See, what I’ve got is a cultural and generational lack of patience, and waiting just isn’t our thing.
The prophecy of Malachi of the arrival of Jesus is centuries away. The return of peace was about seven hundred years away, and the wait seemed unbearable. Asa matter of fact, the WAIT became a WEIGHT. It’s torture, like pacing in the kitchen of a mountain cabin with a mug in your hand, waiting on a slow/old/drip coffee pot.
Peace is valuable to our health, to our sanity. Thank God for sending us peace that surpasses understanding, and that endures for all eternity. This peace is heavens gift, and the world can’t take it away. O God, take us back to the place of productivity and peace with you.
Antonie E. Walker Ministries 