20230702 Malachi 3:13-4:3 Justice, Part 2

We all make mistakes. Mistakes can lead to great things. The pharmacist who made Coca-Cola had intended it to be medicine for headaches. Christopher Columbus thought he was going to Asia when he discovered what Europeans call, “the New World!” Some mistakes are more embarrassing. In 1631, there was a mistake in the printing of the Bible. The word “not” was missing in the seventh commandment. This edition is the "Adulterer’s Bible." Sometimes mistakes are more personal. I fell for a scam once. It cost me 300 euros. I know a couple who planned an expensive lake cruise vacation but showed up a day after the boat had left.

As embarrassing or as life-changing as these mistakes may be, there is a worse mistake. Malachi 3:13-4:3 addresses the mistake with eternal consequences. It is the worst mistake. It is being wrong about God. It is not believing who he says he is. In a similar manner to Mal 2:17-3:5, Mal 3:13-4:3 corrects a misconstrued view of God’s justice. In Malachi 2:17, the people were saying that God delights in those who practice evil. They were wearying the Lord by asking, “Where is the God of Justice?” Mal 3:13-15 again addresses God’s justice. They did not understand the consequences of being right with God. Our text explains eternal bliss and eternal damnation. Mal 3:13-15 uncovers attacks on God’s justice. Mal 3:16-4:3 vindicates God’s justice.

1 Mal 3:13-15 God’s Justice Distorted

Malachi is a call to devotion for the disappointed. Six times in the prophecy, the prophet uses a literary device called a disputation. The prophet makes a statement. The people object. The prophet proves the original statement. The goal of these disputations is to call Israel back to the covenant. Malachi begins by convincing them that God loves them. He wants them to care about their worship and teaching. They need to stop harming their wives by divorcing them to marry unbelievers. They need a proper understanding of God's justice. They need to find their refuge in him since he is the God who does not change. They need to honor him with the tithe. Now, in the sixth and final disputation, the accusation is, “Your words have been hard against me.” The people object and ask, “How have we spoken against you?” As they did in the fourth disputation, the people deny God’s justice.

Mal 3:14 presents a first deception. Some believe that there is no benefit to serving God. The people claim that “Those who serve the Lord serve in vain.” The second half of this lie occurs in Mal 3:15. It is that there are no consequences for sin. They say that the arrogant are blessed. Evildoers prosper and escape God’s judgment. These lies play out in our lives. People think religion is superstition. It restricts people’s fun. It oppresses and controls.

Christopher Hitchens in his book, “god is not Great,” tries to show that there is no benefit in godliness. He argues that the religious do not behave better than the non-religious. In fact, he argues that religion has disastrous effects on the world. He describes the corruption of religious institutions. He also notes its long history of child abuse. From a logical statement point, Hitchens commits the “False Cause” fallacy. This fallacy assumes that when two things happen together, one must have caused the other. He never actually proves a connection.

We can agree on the wickedness that Hitchens notes. As God’s church, we want to be above reproach. We always want to operate with transparency and accountability. When we fail, we will confess our sins and repent. When a crime occurs in a church context, we must not cover it up. We must seek legal help. God gives us the government to protect the innocent and judge the wicked (Rom 13). Churches have kept crimes secret, like the abuse of children and women. They claim to do it to protect God’s reputation. I accept Hitchens' accusations that religious organizations have been guilty. But Hitchens commits the same mistake as the people in Malachi’s day. He claims that it is in vain that people serve the Lord.

What about the good that comes from religion? The Christian church has been behind the founding so many schools, hospitals, and orphanages. There is great joy in enjoying communion with the God of the universe through prayer. It is beneficial to gather weekly with God's people for worship. The fellowship that we taste is one between people who are born again. We are new creatures in Christ. So our fellowship is new creation fellowship!

The lie that there are no consequences to godlessness is also alive today. Christians believe that the commandments of the Bible come from God. God is the moral creator of the universe. These laws help us to thrive in the world God created. Critics of Christianity claim that the laws of the bible are arbitrary. Another charge is that they are primitive or old-fashioned. They say that people should not live by the standards of a 2000-year-old book. Those who are anti-religion would rather live according to the following statement. “As long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, then who are we to judge?” This is their standard of morality. I would argue that if you do live true to this, it would look close to what we have in the Bible. Of course, we must understand the laws in the Bible in their redemptive, covenantal, and cultural contexts.

One of the highest values in our culture is being true to our authentic selves, as defined by us. In their pursuit of authenticity, people do not have a problem hurting others to get what they want. We could consider that adultery is just two consenting people not hurting anyone. Yet, the consequences can be sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, and abortion. Divorce leads to a less stable environment for children to grow up in. Abortion is the killing of the innocent made in God’s image. At the root of every sin is believing a lie. We believe that we can put God to the test and escape his judgment (Mal 3:15). Christians also believe this lie in times of weakness.

In Christ, we read these verses differently. We identify as those who are righteous and enjoy our relationship with God. We also know that we are by the flesh, the arrogant and evildoers for whom Jesus died on the cross. We are the evildoers who escape judgment!

2 Mal 3:16-18 God’s justice for the Righteous and the Wicked

Mal 3:16-4:3 proves the accusation in the disputation. The people’s words have been hard against the Lord. They have misrepresented him. Mal 3:16-18 corrects the first lie, that it is in vain that people serve the Lord. Malachi 3:16 teaches that God will bless those who fear him. Throughout history, trust in God or fear of God is what puts one in the right relationship with God. The fear of God can have a component of actual fear, our knees shaking before the infinitely holy God. I find it most tangible to think of the fear of God in contrast to the fear of man. Who are we trying to please when God’s will goes against the grain of cultural pressures?

Despite the belief that it is in vain to serve the Lord, Mal 3:17 teaches that those who fear the Lord escape judgment. Mal 3:18-4:3 marks a clear contrast in outcome between the righteous and the wicked. Malachi is not all harsh. The prophecy began with God's love. Now in Mal 3:16, God's word to believers is that he hears them, and a book of remembrance is written for those who fear the Lord. They will be the Lord’s and his treasured possession. The book of Remembrance records the good deeds of the saints.

This means that nothing we do for the Lord is in vain. Knowing this encourages us to persevere in doing good even if it is the wicked who seem to prosper. When things get hard, when things do not go as we would have hoped, Mal 3:16-18 ministers to us. God hears us, listens to us, and remembers us and our service to him. We can know that we are his. We are his treasured possession means that we are valuable to him. He cares for us. Mal 3:17 assures us that God will spare us from the judgment to come. Let us not let our circumstances teach us differently.

We know this even more now that we live on the other side of Calvary. God sent his only Son to die for us so that he would forgive those who trust in him. The sacrifice of Jesus shows us how precious we are to God.

3 Mal 3:18-4:3 God’s justice in the final judgment and salvation

The first half of the lie was that serving God is disadvantageous. The second is that wickedness leads to prosperity. It may seem true for a time. Mal 4:1-3 shows the working out of God’s justice for the wicked and the righteous on his schedule. There will be a final judgment and salvation.

The truth of Mal 4:1 corrects Mal 3:15. The arrogant and the wicked will be stubble. We have a picture of eternal damnation with a fire that leaves neither root nor branch. Those God judges will lose all hope of restoration and the possibility of doing any more evil. Mal 4:3 pictures the righteous crushing them under their feet.

The lie of Mal 3:16 is that serving the Lord and fearing God was in vain. The truth in Mal 4:2 is that those who fear God will experience healing and be like calves leaping in the stall.

A group of students was doing an intensive study of the Old Testament. On the first day of class, the teacher invited them to ask every hard question of which they could think. He would write them on a whiteboard. He noticed that a young woman in the class had not said anything. During a break in the class, she asked the teacher about a passage in the Law. She asked why people with disabilities could not enter the temple. They could not draw near to the presence of the Lord. The teacher did not know what to say. When she walked away, he noticed that she had a limp. At the very end of this intensive OT class, they got to Malachi and Malachi 4. They read in Mal 4:2, “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.” The teacher looked at her and said, “I think you may have an answer.”

If we look at the world in its current state, we can get the wrong idea of God’s justice. Things are not as they should be. The wicked prosper and will continue to prosper. Those who fear God are persecuted and suffer. This is what it is like when we follow Jesus. This passage offers a picture of the Christian hope. God will one day make all things right. It is our hope because Christ was raised from the dead. We can now endure suffering in this life. We know that when Christ returns, we will enjoy eternal bliss. The image of calves leaping from the stall portrays health and joy. We know that one day, God will set all things right. This includes all personal, emotional, relational, and societal problems. We may want Jesus to return already. The good news about this delay is that the longer he waits, the more people come to know Jesus (2 Pet 3:9)!

Conclusion

We all make mistakes. Mistakes come with different levels of consequences. The couple who got the date wrong for their holiday did pay thousands of dollars to fix their mistake. Our passage deals with the eternal consequences of misinterpreting God’s justice. If the wicked prosper, it is by God’s grace. God’s kindness is to lead them to repentance.

When we suffer well, we show the world that God is more precious than comfort and possessions. Based on our observations of the world, we could conclude that God blessed the wicked, and serving him is in vain.

Our passage presents the final state. The righteous will experience eternal bliss, with no more death, mourning, pain, or diseases. The wicked will know justice and be destroyed. The bad news is that no one deserves the bliss God offers. The good news is that it is available to all today. Jesus lived a perfect life. In his ministry, he reversed the effects of the curse. On the cross, he bore our sins. He accepted the punishment we deserve. For anyone who trusts in Jesus and fears God, the blessings of this text are yours.