WEDNESDAY, 17 February, 2021 “Final Chapter”

Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,

Do you enjoy reading the final chapter of a book, or watching the final episode of a long running TV show? As you understand the history of our world, do you suppose we might be nearing or even now LIVING in the final chapter of the story of the human race, before Jesus Christ returns, as God promised, to gather up to heaven all living people of God, on planet earth? Acts 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 are some of the places you’ll find reference to ‘the rapture’ in the New Testament.

Today I invite you to join me in the final chapter of the Old Testament, the little book of Malachi. Why? Because we have followed the chronological story of Israel from the days of the prophet Samuel to the days of Nehemiah, over the past several months together in our “Walking with Jesus” journey. That’s about 600 years of time in Israel’s history! We’ve done so to learn important lessons about how God works in our world when our human race faces things like a global pandemic, and society changing actions of people like you and me, and world impacting leadership changes. God has spoken to us through His record of what He has done in the history of Israel.

The past several days we’ve been fascinated by the remarkable story of Mr. Nehemiah, in the city of Jerusalem, beginning in 445bc. Yesterday we saw Nehemiah had returned to the most powerful man in the world, king Artaxerxes, who was King over the vast Persian kingdom, after Nehemiah had spent 12 years accomplishing amazing things in Jerusalem. It appears Nehemiah was only back in Susa a relatively short time, when he again requested another sabbatical to revisit Jerusalem. Amazingly his request was granted and Nehemiah’s story ended with him back in Jerusalem around 430bc, but finding things had sadly declined significantly in his absence.

As you look at your part of the world, how much have things changed since let’s say the year 2000? What is better and what has declined, and what is dismally dark in your society? As you look into 2021 and beyond, do you see better days ahead or increased darkness? Why do you suppose?

I have these three important questions to contemplate today as we think about the past and future of where you and I live in this world:

1. Who are the people who have contributed to the betterment of your city, your society over the past few years? What have these people done to affect positive change, improvement in life where you live?

2. Conversely, who are the people who have contributed to the decline, the moral decay, the darkness of your city and society? What have they done to achieve this demise where you live?

3. How have the changes where you live affected you, your family and friends, the children, and the elderly of your city, your society?

We know very little about Mr. Malachi, the author of the final message from God to the world recorded for us in the Old Testament. We presume he wrote his little book in about 425bc or maybe a little later, about the time Nehemiah had returned to Jerusalem for the second time. Was Ezra the scholar still alive and still preaching in Jerusalem? If so, that tells me the people had become bored with him, calloused to Ezra’s preaching, his challenges to right living. It also means the people were disregarding even Nehemiah’s challenges to their moral decay.

Look around, do you see evidence of apathy toward God today, despite the fact that some of the most powerful preachers that have ever lived live in recent days? And Christian television and Christian radio and all kinds of publications are available challenging our world.

Malachi’s messages from God are straightforward, confrontational. The people could not ignore the combination of Malachi, Nehemiah and Ezra… all three challenging God’s people, Israel, to look closely at their lives and see what God saw in them. What the people didn’t know is that they were living in the ‘final chapter’!! When Malachi finished his brief series of messages the sky grew silent!

There was no further word from God. No prophet, no teacher, no scholar, no person stood up to say they had a fresh word from God. SILENCE… for more than 400 years! 4 centuries of time passed and nothing happened to give the people any indication that God was active among them… nothing! Day after day, year after year, decade after decade… life went on, but God seemed uninterested in planet earth, far distant and silent!

Could it be we today in 2021 are on the precipice of such a time of prolonged silence from God?

Malachi’s messages are a conversation that God imagined with His people, a stern warning: “I have loved you,’ says the LORD. ‘But you ask, How have you loved us?” (Malachi 1:2) Do you see God saying that to our world today? And do you see most everyone in our world responding just like that? What is the evidence you see of God’s daily love for humanity, and humanity’s neglect, rejection, confusion about God?

Have you ever thought about what would happen if our planet slowed in it’s rotation or moved a few degrees off its axis? Or what if God chose to stop the miracle of conception everywhere in the world? What if God concluded humanity hates babies because we kill so many, and He simply decided no woman on the planet would become pregnant for the next 100 years? Or what if God decided to stop sending rain, everywhere in our world. Not a drop would fall from the sky for the next 10 years? Or what if God reduced the production of oxygen by all the trees in the world, by 50% for the next 5 years? How would our world change if any of those things happened?

How do you SEE, HEAR, TASTE, FEEL, the love of God that HE is lavishing upon our world, upon your city, upon your family, upon YOU… everyday? And how are you responding to this unconditional, unearned, unreasonable outpouring of the endless love of God for the humanity He has made in His image and He sustains without charge, without demands?

What do you suppose would be a fair price God should charge us for the privilege of receiving and living LIFE? Now ponder that question for a moment! What is your body, that you didn’t make and you don’t keep alive… what is your body worth to you? $1000, $50,000, a million? What is breath worth to you? What is a brain that can remember wonderful memories and think and plan and choose worth to you? What is love worth to you? How much do you and I owe God for the privilege of living life as He has made it possible for you and me?

That’s as far I’m going today in Malachi’s first message. Hear God’s words again: “The word of the LORD to us from Malachi. ‘I have loved you’, says the LORD. ‘But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?” I challenge you to ponder that deeply… all day today! What is the evidence of God’s love for you, your family, your city, your nation, our world?

And what has been the response to God’s great love in your part of the world?

I have a song to help you consider “The Love of God”, but today I have it in two versions. One sung by George Beverly Shea many years ago, the other sung in an Asian language recently… oh my friends, how do you measure the Love of God??

Today’s Scripture is Malachi 1.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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