DIGGING DEEP NO. 965 – December 27th, 2022 THE SINS OF GOD’S PEOPLE (PART 4) Mal.2: 17; 3: 1- 6

We have studied God’s love, God’s name (honor), God’s teaching about marriage and divorce, and now God’s justice.

Questioning God’s justice. “You have wearied the Lord with your words,” the prophet said, and they replied, “How have we wearied Him?” Of course, God never gets weary in a physical sense because God doesn’t have a body Is.40: 28, but He does grow weary of some of the things His people say and do. Their words were cynical and skeptical. But these skeptical Jews had forgotten the terms of the covenant and the conditions laid down by the prophets: If the people obeyed God’s law, God would bless them. But they were divorcing their wives, marrying pagan women, offering defiled sacrifices, robbing God of tithes and offerings, and complaining about having to serve the Lord. The Jews didn’t need justice; they needed mercy! Malachi answered their question “Where is the God of justice?” By speaking about two messengers.

“My messenger” – John the Baptist. Mal.3: 1a The messenger referred to in this statement is John the Baptist. While Malachi was the last of the writing prophets, John the Baptist was the last and the greatest of the Old Covenant prophets. John was given the unique privilege of ministering at the close of the old dispensation and the beginning of the new, and it was John who presented Jesus to Israel Jh.1: 29- 31. The image of John the Baptist is that of a messenger preparing a way for the King to come; leveling the roads and removing the obstacles so that the King may enjoy an easy and comfortable trip. John prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ by preaching the Word to the crowds, urging them to repent of their sins, baptizing them, and then introducing them to Jesus.

But how does this answer the question “Where is God’s justice for His people?” When Jesus Christ came and died on the cross, He completely satisfied the justice of God. He paid the penalty for the sins of the world and vindicated the holiness of God. Nobody can ever truthfully say God isn’t just. The cross of Christ is proof that the same God who ordained the law of sin and death Gen.2: 15- 17; Rom.6: 23; 8: 2- 4, also took His own medicine and willingly died for sinners. Because of Calvary, God is both just and the justifier of all who trusts Jesus Christ Rom.3: 26.

The messenger of the covenant – Jesus Christ Mal.3: 1b- 3. The first prophecy refers to our Lord’s first coming in grace and mercy, but this prophecy speaks of His second coming in judgment. When He comes, He will prove that God is just by purifying His people and judging rebellious sinners. Jesus Christ is the “Messenger of the covenant” in that He fulfilled all the demands of the covenant in His life, suffered the penalties in His death, and rose from the dead to usher in a New Covenant of grace Jer.31: 31- 37; Heb.8: 6- 13. All the covenants in Old Testament history unite in pointing to Jesus Christ and His marvelous work of redemption.

An unannounced coming – Mal.3:1- 3. Messiah’s second coming will be sudden and unexpected, and its purpose will be the judging of sinners and the establishing of His kingdom on earth Matt.24: 36; 1Thes.5: 3. When the Jewish remnant of that day read the prophets, they saw only the promises of blessing and not the warnings of judgment. These Israelites were not unlike some Christians today who talk about the coming of the Lord as though seeing Him will be more like beholding a visiting celebrity and basking in his or her glory. Mal.3: 2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears?” He would purify the Jewish nation, especially the priests, and bring swift justice to the sinners who arrogantly disobeyed His Law. In the Law of Moses, God provided three ways for people and things to be cleansed and made acceptable to God: Water, fire, and blood. There is no mention here of blood because Jesus Christ died for sinners at His first coming. But He would wash the unclean nation like a launderer washes dirty clothes. He would purify the tribe of Levi the way a jeweler purifies precious metal in his furnace Zech.13: 1. Once the nation is cleansed, and the priests are purified, then they can become an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord Mal.3: 4, and He will be pleased with them. The priests in Malachi time were offering sacrifices that were unacceptable Mal.1: 7- 8, and the priests themselves were unacceptable, but on that great day, God’s Messenger would make His people “Living sacrifices” that would be acceptable to the Lord Rom.12: 1.

Mal.3: 5- 6 gives us some idea of the kind of practices that were going on in Malachi’s time and will be going on in the end times. All of them are contrary to God’s law. What was the reason for this decadence?  The people who committed them had no fear of the Lord. The Jews should have been grateful that God was unchanging in His nature, His purpose, and His promises; for if He were not, He would have consumed them for their sins Numb.14: 11- 21. The same principle applies to believers today 1Jh.1: 9.