20230618 Malachi 2:17-3:5 Where is the God of Justice?
In Judges 6, Israel sinned against God, and the Lord allowed their enemies to conquer them. While in bondage, they cry out to the Lord. In response, the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and says, “The Lord is with you.” Gideon responds: “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” The evidence showed that God had forgotten Israel. Yet, the angel says, “the Lord is with you.” We know that God is all-loving and all-powerful and yet we see and experience evil. Evil and misery leads some to deny the existence of God. The Bible teaches that both suffering and an all-powerful-loving God co-exist. The Bible continually teaches that God is with his people while they suffer.
The prophecy of Malachi addresses a disappointed people. Their disappointment has led to cynicism. They were not acting like God’s beloved people. Malachi uses disputation literary forms to rebuke Israel. In Mal 2:17, the prophet announces, “You have wearied the Lord.” The people object, “How have we wearied him?” The Lord quotes them, saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” And they were asking “Where is the God of justice?” The prophet corrects their distorted theology. God does not delight in evildoers. He will judge them. As for “Where is the Lord of justice?” The answer is, “He is coming!” SIOS: Our circumstances lead us to question God’s justice and goodness, but the God of justice is coming with salvation and judgment.
In this life, evil people do prosper. Here is an obvious example. The dictator of North Korea always appears happy. Here are some of his deeds. In 2013, he had his uncle arrested and executed for treason. Apparently, he also put his uncle’s family to death. This includes his grandchildren. How is this dictator still leading? Does God delight in him? Where is the God of justice?
We need more nuanced theology. It cannot be that either God acts on my terms, or he does not exist. The Bible allows us to feel complicated feelings. We can mourn because of evil. We can come to God with our lament. The Bible does not offer a neat theology to protect us from dealing with the hardship around us. God is sovereign. His plans are good. He allows suffering. Some of it will never make sense to us. God gives us the books of Lamentations, the Psalms, and the book of Job. Mourning and lamenting are Christian practices. God delights in us when we come to him with hard emotions. It means that we are coming to him rather than going away from him.
We see in Malachi that lament is not always good. In our text, the prophet rebukes the people. As they voice their hurt and frustrations, they are blaspheming. They deny God’s goodness. Their cries are wearying the Lord. In the context of Israel’s history, the people had recently returned from exile. This is one of the great works of God’s salvation in history. We are so quick to forget the good from yesterday and sulk over the problems of today. Doubt is healthy. We must also be quick to remember God’s act of salvation in our own lives. In our doubt, we must act with care. We do not want our words and actions to make us liable to the charge that we are wearying God.
Hardships always offer at least one opportunity. “The Problem of Evil” or theodicy is the number 1 reason people give for not believing in God. Christians can rise to the occasion. Hardship is an opportunity God uses to shine bright. While we suffer, when we hold on to our faith, keep believing, and keep trusting, our witness can be more effective. In our trials, we show that God is enough to sustain us. It is not our good circumstances that make us the people we are. This is a way Christians shine in the darkness. A few years ago, I was friends with an atheist that attended the same church as me. One day, he pointed at a man, who was pushing his teenage daughter in a wheelchair. He asked me, "With everything his daughter is enduring, how can that man believe in God?" This man’s faith impacted the atheist. He did not have to say anything. He just showed up to church with his child. I told the Atheist about Gideon. I told him that people with doubts are in the Bible. Reasons for doubt are not a reason for disbelief, but further investigation.
In Matt 11:10, Jesus quotes this verse to describe the ministry of John the Baptist. In Malachi, the Lord was to come after the messenger. In the NT, Jesus shows up after John the Baptist. Therefore, Jesus is the Lord. Jesus’ first coming helps us make sense of a loving God amid our suffering. All suffering is a result of sin in some way. The Christian good news is that God has dealt with sin. He sent his own son. Jesus suffered and was crucified. Where was the God of justice when his innocent son was put to death? God was there saving us through weakness and suffering. Jesus was a vulnerable, suffering, and crucified Messiah. Those. who saw Jesus die, had no idea that they were witnessing the greatest event in history. God used pain and suffering on his son to save us from sin. By this, He has shown us that our pain and suffering are not out of his control. He uses suffering for his purposes. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he showed us that the ultimate fear we all have of dying will not have the final word. This is the best news.
The doctrine of Union with Christ means that in a mysterious way, we benefit from Christ’s perfect life, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. Because the pattern in Christ’s life was to go from suffering to glory, in Christ, this is also the pattern that we follow. Christ told his followers to pick up their cross. We will suffer before we are resurrected to life in glory.[i]As we learn to identify with Christ in his suffering through our suffering, we will also become more like Christ in other areas. We will love those who harm us. We will have more compassion for fellow sufferers. We will learn to be joyful in our suffering. As we experience suffering in Christ, we will learn that suffering fits in God’s plan. It was at the core of his plan to redeem his people. In ways we do not understand, God uses suffering in his people for his glory. We can now face death and suffering with hope. God will make everything right. Like Paul, we can consider, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
Healthy Christians do not avoid sitting with people through hard seasons of suffering. We do not either offer easy answers to grieving sufferers. In response to suffering, God offers himself. In response to suffering, we must offer ourselves, be present and remind people that God is with them. God offers a guaranteed relationship rather than guaranteed answers.
This story has been told for over 2000 years in Asia. There was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse runs away. And his neighbor comes over and says, “Bad luck isn’t it that your horse ran away.” And the farmer says, “What do I know about good luck and bad luck?” But the horse comes back the next day and he brings with him twelve wild horses. The neighbor comes back and says “Amazing, it’s not bad luck, it's good luck, you’ve got twelve more horses now.” And the farmer replies again: “What do I know about good Luck and Bad luck?” And the next day the farmer’s son is taming one of the wild horses and he is thrown off and breaks his leg. The neighbor comes back over and says, “Terrible isn’t it that your son broke his leg, bad luck that these horses came.” The farmer repeats: “What do I know about good Luck and Bad luck?” Sure enough, the next day a group of thieves come through their village and are recruiting young, able-bodied men to join their gang. They see the farmer’s son has a broken leg, so they say: “We don’t want him” and they go to the next village. The neighbor returns and says: “good luck isn’t it that your son’s leg is broken!” The moral of the story is that in one little series of events, we do not know what lies ahead. Why do we not wait to be with God, and it will be a lot clearer why things turned out as they did.
Malachi offers a message of hope. He announces the Lord’s coming. As a church, we await Jesus’ second coming. We have the same hope regarding all our pain and suffering. Revelation 21:4 promises the end of all pain, suffering, and death with Jesus’ second coming. As we await, in suffering, we can echo John’s last words in Revelation: “Come Lord Jesus come”!
Mal 3:2 begins with "Who can endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears?” The answer is the church, those for whom Jesus is coming to save. He is like a refiner and like fuller’s soap – it is the process of being cleansed and being made perfect. So that the sons of Levi will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. The Levites were the priests who offered sacrifices to God. In the New Covenant, all Christians have this responsibility. We can offer offerings in righteousness because, in Christ, God washed our sins away. According to 1 John 3:2-3, we are being made pure, and when Jesus returns, we will be like him.
Mal 3:5 is about those who will not be able to stand, for they will face judgment. It lists sorcerers, adulterers, liars, and oppressors. It names those who thrust aside sojourners (immigrants or refugees) and those who do not fear the Lord. This list is broad enough to include anyone who does not trust Jesus’ work on the cross for their salvation. It also instructs Christians on the behavior that should not describe us. Other Biblical texts provide a fuller picture of the judgment to come. The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes what the Bible teaches about the judgment, “The wicked, who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (WCF 33.2).
Mal 3:2-5 have two goals. The first is comfort. God comforts those who trust in him. Those going through a challenging time, do not need to question God's justice. He is coming. He will right every wrong. So, we can be hopeful. The second goal is to give a warning to those who do not trust the Lord. Unless they repent, God will judge them fairly for their evil deeds. Malachi offers the same message as John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. Believe and repent for salvation or perish! This message strengthens the faith and gives hope to the saints. It warns those not part of God’s people to repent and trust in God.
[i] https://www. ligonier. org/learn/articles/suffering-well-union-christ
The prophecy of Malachi addresses a disappointed people. Their disappointment has led to cynicism. They were not acting like God’s beloved people. Malachi uses disputation literary forms to rebuke Israel. In Mal 2:17, the prophet announces, “You have wearied the Lord.” The people object, “How have we wearied him?” The Lord quotes them, saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” And they were asking “Where is the God of justice?” The prophet corrects their distorted theology. God does not delight in evildoers. He will judge them. As for “Where is the Lord of justice?” The answer is, “He is coming!” SIOS: Our circumstances lead us to question God’s justice and goodness, but the God of justice is coming with salvation and judgment.
1 Mal 2:17 We doubt God’s justice
Mal 2:17 contains two statements that attack God’s character. First, they say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” It is a severe sin to mischaracterize God. It is blasphemy. In some way, we all mischaracterize God. In the context of this passage, it is as if they were seeing the wicked prosper. Because God is sovereign, he must approve of wickedness. The second option is that God is absent. Where is the God of justice?In this life, evil people do prosper. Here is an obvious example. The dictator of North Korea always appears happy. Here are some of his deeds. In 2013, he had his uncle arrested and executed for treason. Apparently, he also put his uncle’s family to death. This includes his grandchildren. How is this dictator still leading? Does God delight in him? Where is the God of justice?
We need more nuanced theology. It cannot be that either God acts on my terms, or he does not exist. The Bible allows us to feel complicated feelings. We can mourn because of evil. We can come to God with our lament. The Bible does not offer a neat theology to protect us from dealing with the hardship around us. God is sovereign. His plans are good. He allows suffering. Some of it will never make sense to us. God gives us the books of Lamentations, the Psalms, and the book of Job. Mourning and lamenting are Christian practices. God delights in us when we come to him with hard emotions. It means that we are coming to him rather than going away from him.
We see in Malachi that lament is not always good. In our text, the prophet rebukes the people. As they voice their hurt and frustrations, they are blaspheming. They deny God’s goodness. Their cries are wearying the Lord. In the context of Israel’s history, the people had recently returned from exile. This is one of the great works of God’s salvation in history. We are so quick to forget the good from yesterday and sulk over the problems of today. Doubt is healthy. We must also be quick to remember God’s act of salvation in our own lives. In our doubt, we must act with care. We do not want our words and actions to make us liable to the charge that we are wearying God.
Hardships always offer at least one opportunity. “The Problem of Evil” or theodicy is the number 1 reason people give for not believing in God. Christians can rise to the occasion. Hardship is an opportunity God uses to shine bright. While we suffer, when we hold on to our faith, keep believing, and keep trusting, our witness can be more effective. In our trials, we show that God is enough to sustain us. It is not our good circumstances that make us the people we are. This is a way Christians shine in the darkness. A few years ago, I was friends with an atheist that attended the same church as me. One day, he pointed at a man, who was pushing his teenage daughter in a wheelchair. He asked me, "With everything his daughter is enduring, how can that man believe in God?" This man’s faith impacted the atheist. He did not have to say anything. He just showed up to church with his child. I told the Atheist about Gideon. I told him that people with doubts are in the Bible. Reasons for doubt are not a reason for disbelief, but further investigation.
2 Mal 3:1 God Responds to our doubt – He is Coming
Mal 3:1 offers God’s Word for a people who question God’s justice. The message is, “I am Coming.” We read, “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.”In Matt 11:10, Jesus quotes this verse to describe the ministry of John the Baptist. In Malachi, the Lord was to come after the messenger. In the NT, Jesus shows up after John the Baptist. Therefore, Jesus is the Lord. Jesus’ first coming helps us make sense of a loving God amid our suffering. All suffering is a result of sin in some way. The Christian good news is that God has dealt with sin. He sent his own son. Jesus suffered and was crucified. Where was the God of justice when his innocent son was put to death? God was there saving us through weakness and suffering. Jesus was a vulnerable, suffering, and crucified Messiah. Those. who saw Jesus die, had no idea that they were witnessing the greatest event in history. God used pain and suffering on his son to save us from sin. By this, He has shown us that our pain and suffering are not out of his control. He uses suffering for his purposes. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he showed us that the ultimate fear we all have of dying will not have the final word. This is the best news.
The doctrine of Union with Christ means that in a mysterious way, we benefit from Christ’s perfect life, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. Because the pattern in Christ’s life was to go from suffering to glory, in Christ, this is also the pattern that we follow. Christ told his followers to pick up their cross. We will suffer before we are resurrected to life in glory.[i]As we learn to identify with Christ in his suffering through our suffering, we will also become more like Christ in other areas. We will love those who harm us. We will have more compassion for fellow sufferers. We will learn to be joyful in our suffering. As we experience suffering in Christ, we will learn that suffering fits in God’s plan. It was at the core of his plan to redeem his people. In ways we do not understand, God uses suffering in his people for his glory. We can now face death and suffering with hope. God will make everything right. Like Paul, we can consider, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18).
Healthy Christians do not avoid sitting with people through hard seasons of suffering. We do not either offer easy answers to grieving sufferers. In response to suffering, God offers himself. In response to suffering, we must offer ourselves, be present and remind people that God is with them. God offers a guaranteed relationship rather than guaranteed answers.
This story has been told for over 2000 years in Asia. There was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse runs away. And his neighbor comes over and says, “Bad luck isn’t it that your horse ran away.” And the farmer says, “What do I know about good luck and bad luck?” But the horse comes back the next day and he brings with him twelve wild horses. The neighbor comes back and says “Amazing, it’s not bad luck, it's good luck, you’ve got twelve more horses now.” And the farmer replies again: “What do I know about good Luck and Bad luck?” And the next day the farmer’s son is taming one of the wild horses and he is thrown off and breaks his leg. The neighbor comes back over and says, “Terrible isn’t it that your son broke his leg, bad luck that these horses came.” The farmer repeats: “What do I know about good Luck and Bad luck?” Sure enough, the next day a group of thieves come through their village and are recruiting young, able-bodied men to join their gang. They see the farmer’s son has a broken leg, so they say: “We don’t want him” and they go to the next village. The neighbor returns and says: “good luck isn’t it that your son’s leg is broken!” The moral of the story is that in one little series of events, we do not know what lies ahead. Why do we not wait to be with God, and it will be a lot clearer why things turned out as they did.
Malachi offers a message of hope. He announces the Lord’s coming. As a church, we await Jesus’ second coming. We have the same hope regarding all our pain and suffering. Revelation 21:4 promises the end of all pain, suffering, and death with Jesus’ second coming. As we await, in suffering, we can echo John’s last words in Revelation: “Come Lord Jesus come”!
3 Mal 3:2-5 God Comes for Salvation and Judgment
In Mal 3:2-5, Malachi describes the coming of the Lord for judgment and salvation. We now know that this refers to the second coming of Christ. In the Bible, judgment and salvation come together. God saved Noah and his family through the judgment of the flood. God saved Lot and his family through the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. God saved the people of Israel from Egypt through the judgment of Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea. With the cross of Christ, God saved us by judging Christ on our behalf.Mal 3:2 begins with "Who can endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears?” The answer is the church, those for whom Jesus is coming to save. He is like a refiner and like fuller’s soap – it is the process of being cleansed and being made perfect. So that the sons of Levi will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. The Levites were the priests who offered sacrifices to God. In the New Covenant, all Christians have this responsibility. We can offer offerings in righteousness because, in Christ, God washed our sins away. According to 1 John 3:2-3, we are being made pure, and when Jesus returns, we will be like him.
Mal 3:5 is about those who will not be able to stand, for they will face judgment. It lists sorcerers, adulterers, liars, and oppressors. It names those who thrust aside sojourners (immigrants or refugees) and those who do not fear the Lord. This list is broad enough to include anyone who does not trust Jesus’ work on the cross for their salvation. It also instructs Christians on the behavior that should not describe us. Other Biblical texts provide a fuller picture of the judgment to come. The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes what the Bible teaches about the judgment, “The wicked, who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (WCF 33.2).
Mal 3:2-5 have two goals. The first is comfort. God comforts those who trust in him. Those going through a challenging time, do not need to question God's justice. He is coming. He will right every wrong. So, we can be hopeful. The second goal is to give a warning to those who do not trust the Lord. Unless they repent, God will judge them fairly for their evil deeds. Malachi offers the same message as John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. Believe and repent for salvation or perish! This message strengthens the faith and gives hope to the saints. It warns those not part of God’s people to repent and trust in God.
Conclusion
If you live long enough, you will suffer! When we suffer and hear that God is in control, it seems contradictory. The Christian worldview takes suffering and doubt seriously. Malachi 2:17-3:5 gives us hope. It answers the question – where is the God of justice? He is coming. Malachi prophesies about John the Baptist’s preparing the way for Jesus. Jesus has come. Now, he will culminate this passage at his return to save his own and judge the wicked. Our suffering and pain ought to lead us to long for the second coming, where everything will be made right. The whole Bible ends on this note. With John, we can say, “Come Lord Jesus, Come" (Rev 22:20).[i] https://www. ligonier. org/learn/articles/suffering-well-union-christ
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