Outline
A. The Lord Will Come to Purify the Priests and Judge the People (2:17;3:5)
B. A Call to Repentance in View of the Lord's Coming (3:6-18)
C. The Day of the Lord Announced (ch. 4)
Hello:
Book of Malachi Challenge – Day 27 Malachi 1 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
7 “By offering defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 1:6-7)
It is crucial that we worship the Lord on His terms, and not on our terms. We must worship God in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1).
May the Lord richly bless you!
Hello:
Book of Malachi Challenge – Day 28 Malachi 2 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
15 Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth. 16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful. (Malachi 2:14-16)
The biggest obstacle to success in prayer is disunity between husband and wife. This was true under the Old Covenant (v. 13), it is still true under the New Covenant. Peter says to Christian husbands, “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (1 Peter 3:7). No one can disrespect their partner and have success in prayer at the same time. We must choose intelligently.
May the Lord richly bless you!
Hello:
Book of Malachi Challenge – Day 29 Malachi 3 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. (Malachi 3:16-18)
If all we knew about Malachi was Malachi 3:10, we would be missing out big. But not anymore. We rejoice reading the verses above knowing that the Lord takes note of those who fear him and honor his name? Nowadays, everything seems to be upside down, the wicked prospers and the righteous suffers. But the Lord reserves himself a day when everything will be straightened out. Maranatha! Come quickly Lord Jesus.
May the Lord richly bless you!
Hello:
We have reached the end of the Book of Malachi Challenge, tomorrow we start the Book of Proverbs Challenge, reading one chapter a day for the next thirty one days.
Book of Malachi Challenge – Day 30 Malachi 4 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” (Malachi 4:5-6)
The last verse of the last chapter of the Old Testament ended with a dire warning of total destruction. Struggles between parents and children will bring the destruction of a society. The Bible doesn’t buy into the current accepted idea that parents and teenagers should continuously fight each other. This is just a myth, as Ed Stetzer of Christianity Today pointed out.
God cares a lot about good relationships between parents and children. Parents must love their children, and children must respect and honor their parents. Unless the hearts of the parents and the children are in tune to each other destruction will result (v. 6). We should fervently pray for harmonious relationships within our families.
May the Lord richly bless you!