Messenger
from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 3:1Have you ever noticed in the darkness of despair and disaster that the world asks, “Where is God?” and even His people question His love? Within the opening verses of Malachi, we see just that. Israel doubts God’s love for them.
“I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’” (1:2).
God loves by remembering His covenant! In Genesis He established an eternal covenant, a divine promise of blessing. And in Malachi God is still keeping His covenant, though the people did not (1:6-3:12).
The priests were superficial, the people sinful, but God’s promises remained sure. The Lord does not change (3:6). Nor does His message! He reiterates His radical love and rescue plan in Malachi, whose name means “my messenger.”
God promises to send two messengers. The first messenger, John the Baptist, will prepare the way for the second Messenger, Jesus! (3:1, Matthew 3:1-11)
Four hundred years passed and John arrived. At his circumcision his father Zechariah prophesied that his child was the messenger who will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him (Luke 1:76). Zechariah recognized God’s love and praised Him for sending a Rescuer to remember his holy covenant (Luke 1:72).
Jesus is the Messenger of the covenant! By His grace and mercy He poured out the blood of the covenant, which God commanded us to keep (Hebrews 9:20)! He died as a ransom to set us free from the sins we committed under the first covenant! (Hebrews 9:15)
If today is dark with disappointment and you’re asking God, “How have you loved me?” Remember the message of God’s Story and the Messenger—His Son.
What’s your story? In Malachi Jesus is the Messenger (Malachi 3:1). How does His Story help you tell your story?
Get in the Book: Read the book of Malachi.
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
