A gumdrop fairyland paints an image of the perfect life for many small children.
However, real life is somewhat pricklier. We have bills to pay; jobs to attend; neighbors who don’t care for how we maintain our yards. Our credit card is over its limit, and the battery on our car goes dead just in time to make us late once again.
Malachi 4:1-5 shows us the horrendous devastation that will overcome the world in the final days. However, Malachi also tells us how we can jump from the fire into the frying pan.
First, the Ungodly Will Be Destroyed:
Malachi gives us a list of those who will burn in the final days, those who are proud; and those who behave meanly toward others. God will prepare an oven of unimaginable proportions, and he will burn them, both root and branch.
Malachi is telling us that even their family lines will be gone, unable to sprout anew.
Second, the Righteous Will Find Salvation:
For those who fear the name of the Lord, his righteousness will be their balm and consoling companion. He will come to them on wings of healing, and they will break forth from their sorrow as calves released into the field.
Malachi is telling us that when we fear the Lord, we will find joy in each new day, just as a calf skips for joy when released from its captivity.
Third, the Wicked Will Find Their End:
Those who revel in evil will fall and be trampled under the feet of the righteous.
As a forest fire levels the mightiest of oaks, and they become ash upon the ground, so those who treat us sorely will be humbled at the second coming of the Lord.
Malachi is telling us that God’s vengeance awaits, and in his time, he will right all wrongs.
Fourth, the Righteous Must Obey God’s Laws:
We are to remember that God’s laws are given to us both as instruction and chastisement. In Malachi’s time, he instructed the people to adhere to the Law of Moses, for the New Covenant had not yet been established.
Malachi is telling us to follow God’s instructions as revealed to us by our Father in heaven, for by doing so, we prove our faith in Christ.
Fifth, the Final Advent:
Elijah lived 500 years before Malachi, yet Malachi prophesied that Elijah would return in the dreadful day of the Lord.
The coming of the Christ was the First Advent. The Second Advent will be in the End Time. What is Elijah’s role in the End Time? He will turn the hearts of the fathers and the children to each other, so that God does not smite the land with a curse.
Nowhere in Malachi 4 does God proclaim he will give us a fairyland of gumdrops and perfection. What he does tell us is that we have a way out of the fire of destruction. When we follow God’s laws, we jump from the midst of the fire into the frying pan. Then God can place his protecting hand over us.
When we remember the Law of the Lord, he will protect us in that final day, and we will abide with him.
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Code: FD.FGO.E.24.13b.vp