Week of 12.18.2022 | Day Two
As the days of the prophets came to an end, God’s people had grown weary of waiting and their hearts were far from God. To break through the careless hearts, God speaks once more through a prophet. Malachi reminds the people of God’s faithful love and warns about the coming judgment of the Messiah (the promised Deliverer). He uses images of God’s plan to refine His people like a “refiner’s fire.” God will once again make them His treasured possession, if they turn to Him. The righteous will be separated from the wicked. Malachi also prophesies about John the Baptist–a messenger who will prepare the way for the Messiah. But many generations would pass away before that messenger would come. After Malachi, there were 400 years of silence. Hearts were longing for God to hear their prayers for His presence to return to His people and restore His kingdom back to the way He designed it to be.
Read
Here are several suggested passages to read from Malachi. Guide your family through as many as you see fit, focusing on how the prophet points us to Jesus:
Malachi 3:1-7; 16-18; 4:1-2; 5-6
Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall…
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Discuss
What stood out to you about this section?
How does Malachi point us to Jesus?
What does this teach us about God?
What does this teach us about man?
How should we respond to what we read?
Pray
Lead your family in a time of prayer.
Consider the ACTS model (Adoration- Adore or praise God, Confession- Confess sin, Thanksgiving- Thank God, and Supplication- Ask God to supply our needs)