A day to remember. Malachi 2

The Apostle Peter wrote, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Advent is a time of great expectations, a time to wait and a time to prepare for a Day to Remember. Peter encouraged the early church to take particular note of their scriptures, the words and work of the prophets, being as relevant to their day as they are in ours. We too in our day have the prophetic word confirmed as a light that shines in a dark place until a Day to Remember dawns. So let’s examine what the prophet Malachi had to say to Israel in his day, and what he has to say to us in our day.

The people of the Malachi’s day, in the 5^th century BCE, were encouraged to prepare for a Day to Remember. So says the Lord, See I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can endure his Day to Remember?

Malachi, and the prophets before him, spoke about a Day of the Lord. There will be a Day, a day of reckoning reserved at God’s own choosing. In Old Testament times, that Day was expected to be a divine visitation within history, and in later New Testament times, particularly as expressed in Paul’s letters, the Day of the Lord was also understood to be the time of the end of history as we know it, when Christ will return to put all things under his feet. But in the immediate context, and this is Luke’s take on it in his chapter 3, the Day of the Lord meant the day of his visitation within history, the first Christmas Eve.

Malachi says there will be a messenger who will prepare the way, and that the Lord himself will suddenly appear in his temple, in person, the Day of the Lord within history. And Luke, being the careful historian he is, pin points that day to be in the year 29 CE, the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar.

Luke and the other gospel writers clearly identify Malachi’s messenger to be John the Baptist, who preached repentance as the required preparation for the Lord’s appearance in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And then of course one day the Lord did visit his temple, and what did he find, or more to the point what did he not find? He did not find it as a house of prayer, but as a house of commerce. Then as you all know Jesus proceeded to throw everyone out.

Just imagine it, a bright sunny Sabbath morning in Jerusalem, verger is polishing the pews, sacristan is getting the goats ready, the exchange rate is decided – no Roman denarii welcome here only shekels will do, welcomers are ready at the door, and suddenly God himself walks in. He looks round and asks what do you think you’re doing? This is my house, not Wall Street. Everybody out! The verger goes up to God and says excuse me would mind leaving, you’re creating a disturbance. But God turns round and says, on the contrary, you’re the ones creating a disturbance, and it’s not your temple, it’s mine.

The Day of the Lord actually happened in history, in the year 29, and God actually visited his temple, just as the prophet Malachi said he would. The year 29 was during the Roman occupation of Israel, and the people’s great expectation was to see God’s justice, to set the captives free, bind up the broken hearted, the poor are blessed and not trampled under foot by Roman tax collectors.

Now, we need to ask, what is justice? Is it a lust for retribution, eye for an eye, stiffer sentencing? Or perhaps a longing to see just deserts? If it’s a longing for just deserts and the like, none of us would be able to stand before a perfect and holy God. Which is why Malachi says of the Day of the Lord, who can endure it, who can stand? Yes, there will be banishment from God’s presence of those who refuse him, of those who scoff and mock, of the fools who say in their hearts there is no God. But then fools will not follow the cross of Christ. And the cross is where justice is to be found.

After Jesus cleared the temple, that was the beginning of the end game, as it were, for Jesus. The temple authorities began to plot how to get rid of him. Let’s get rid of God. We don’t want him visiting in our temple again. Let’s sell him out, and 30 pieces of silver later that’s exactly what they did. Money changes par excellence. They exchanged God for money with the help of the insider trader. And with it they nailed God to a cross.

But there were those who mourned and wept at that; there were those who fled in fear; there were those who honoured him by anointing his body with very expensive myrrh and burying him in fresh new tomb fit for the rich. And there were those who kept watch at the tomb early on the Sunday morning, and were rewarded with seeing his risen self.

Did not Jesus say, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. These are the ones who are made right with God, who are justified before the Lord. That’s why they are blessed. God’s justice is about the raising up of the faithful obedient to eternal life. They are the ones who shall see God on the Day of the Lord. They saw him risen and they shall see him again in his glory when the last day of history arrives, the Great Day of the Lord, the final Day to Remember.

So getting back to Malachi’s words. There will be a day within history when God’s justice will be seen, and a messenger will precede it. That messenger of course was John the Baptist in 29 CE. Malachi also says, as I’ve already mentioned, there will a question of endurance, a question of who can stand when the Lord appears. And then Malachi goes on to say he will be like a refiner’s fire and like a launder’s soap. He will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

Now Malachi, in the context of his own time, was referring to the old priesthood, which had become corrupt and therefore no longer effective. But by the time John the Baptist comes along, Malachi’s words are now coming to pass in history. John the Baptist, Malachi’s messenger preparing the way, says of Jesus, he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and that he will exercise justice by separating out the good from the bad and the ugly. In other words, Jesus brings not only God’s justice and the cross, but also a time of refining fire and separating out of the good from the bad and the ugly. And since God’s justice is found at the cross, so is the refining fire for those who would be faithful and obedient to the end.

The cross will more than likely take you, for a time, where you don’t want to go. For there is a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to be silent and time to speak. The place where the cross takes you may be emotional, relational, a lonely place, an anxious place, a fearful place, a powerless place. But wherever the cross takes you, God is there with you, as Psalm 23 expresses so beautifully, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me, your rod and your staff comfort me.

Why does the prophet advocate a spirituality of struggle before the Day of the Lord? Why must a messenger come to prepare the way?

The essence of struggle, in whatever form it takes, is not found in endurance without hope. Unrelenting endurance can drain the spirit and drive a person away from God. Where’s the justice in that? That doesn’t raise up the faithful. Those who mourn don’t look very blessed like that. Rather, the essence of a spirituality of struggle is your decision to say yes to God in the face of that struggle. It is an opportunity to grow in relationship with God. That’s why the messenger Malachi spoke of had to come. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare, turn and be baptised. Get ready because the opportunity for your yes to God is at hand.

The essence of struggle is God’s opportunity for a new creation in you. Are you not a new creation in Christ? Is God not the potter and are you not the clay? Be assured, God is not in the business of driving people away from him. Does his word not say I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry. For the spirit would grow faint before me, the spirit of man whom I have created? God is in the business of creating afresh faith obedience for his children as they await the Day of the Lord.

God is not going to leave you to your own devices, to your own fate, to struggle on ad infinitum until there’s nothing left of you. God is all about building you up, not tearing you down. He’s there, and the psalms are rich in that testimony. Jesus has already been to the cross for you. He knows what it’s like to be crucified, and you can’t get much more forsaken and in despair than that. Through him, God knows what it’s like to be human. He knows we are faint of spirit, and we are not abandoned as if a lost cause. But try telling that to outsiders. Show them a cross and tell them about the narrow way and hard yards, and they’ll say no, we don’t want it. What we want is the bells and whistles of religion and the wide road that goes with it. And they will choose poorly.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Those words from Ecclesiastes reflect a spirituality of struggle and endurance, with hope. They are the times when faith obedience is forged ready for the Day of the Lord. Such faith obedience can stand sure and secure when the Day of the Lord comes calling. Then will those who mourn turn their mourning into dancing; those who are broken will be lifted up; and they shall all be blessed. The righteous ones; the justified ones. And it shall be a Day to Remember with great expectations.

Philip Starks

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