A momentous day - the end of the Old Testament!
Intermarriage rebuked
Nehemiah 13:23-29
Priesthood cleansed
Nehemiah 13:30-31
The Lord’s love for Israel
Malachi 1:1-5
The Lord reprimands the priests
Malachi 1:6-14, 2:1-9
The people’s unfaithfulness
Malachi 2:10-16
The Lord will judge His people
Malachi 2:17, 3:1-5
The payment of tithes
Malachi 3:6-12
God’s promise of mercy
Malachi 3:13-18
Greece the world power 333-63BC
Coming Day of the Lord
Malachi 4:1-6
Nehemiah is fierce to the end. When he comes across priests who have married foreigners, who should have known better, his rage is fearsome. He manhandles them, kicks them out of office, and will not tolerate impurity among the people’s leaders.
And so the baton passes to Malachi. He’s an uncompromising person as well. He attacks the priests for their lack of faith, offering second rate animals as sacrifices, rather than giving God the best. He also criticises the people for mixed marriages.
His warning is that God will come suddenly and surprisingly, and he will not spare the wicked, but will cleanse Israel from top to bottom. That will be a great and fearful day - wonderful but terrible, and he wants the people to be ready.
So leader and prophet together urge the people to a new standard of faithfulness. God has given Israel a new chance - they don’t want the people to blow it.
We have to look outside the Bible to find what happens next. In books that I have been brought up to call the Apocrypha, the story of the next 400 years is told. I’m wondering about reading these books next year. But for now, tomorrow brings the start of the New Testament.
Bring it on!
Intermarriage rebuked
Nehemiah 13:23-29
Priesthood cleansed
Nehemiah 13:30-31
The Lord’s love for Israel
Malachi 1:1-5
The Lord reprimands the priests
Malachi 1:6-14, 2:1-9
The people’s unfaithfulness
Malachi 2:10-16
The Lord will judge His people
Malachi 2:17, 3:1-5
The payment of tithes
Malachi 3:6-12
God’s promise of mercy
Malachi 3:13-18
Greece the world power 333-63BC
Coming Day of the Lord
Malachi 4:1-6
Nehemiah is fierce to the end. When he comes across priests who have married foreigners, who should have known better, his rage is fearsome. He manhandles them, kicks them out of office, and will not tolerate impurity among the people’s leaders.
And so the baton passes to Malachi. He’s an uncompromising person as well. He attacks the priests for their lack of faith, offering second rate animals as sacrifices, rather than giving God the best. He also criticises the people for mixed marriages.
His warning is that God will come suddenly and surprisingly, and he will not spare the wicked, but will cleanse Israel from top to bottom. That will be a great and fearful day - wonderful but terrible, and he wants the people to be ready.
So leader and prophet together urge the people to a new standard of faithfulness. God has given Israel a new chance - they don’t want the people to blow it.
We have to look outside the Bible to find what happens next. In books that I have been brought up to call the Apocrypha, the story of the next 400 years is told. I’m wondering about reading these books next year. But for now, tomorrow brings the start of the New Testament.
Bring it on!
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