That Day

Malachi 4:1-2

(1) "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

(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.

This is at the end of the English Old Testament. The Hebrew Old Testament actually ended with Chronicles, but this is still a high note for us to end on. Here we see that there is judgment coming, but that there is a way out of it. I take the "sun of righteousness" to refer to Christ.

Whose name do you fear? Your boss? Your spouse? Your parents? It is of course good to treat folks with respect. Ultimately we need to fear the name of the Lord. Is that where your focus is? If not, what is stopping you?

Building Sandcastles

Malachi 1:4
(4) If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,' and 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'"

When I read this I think of my daughter building a sandcastle a little too close to the ocean. She can get all kinds of sand piled up. Yet nothing will stand against the waves when they come in. No matter how hard she tries the ocean always wins.

It's the same way when we fight against God. He is always going to win in the end. We may build up what He wants to be torn down and in the end He will tear it down. The verses before this passage talk about how God loved Jacob, but He hated Esau. This does not refer to emotions in the sense we would usually take for "love" and "hate," but refers to preference.

This is a reminder to me of what an incredible privilege it is to be a chosen child of God. If you are His, rejoice in that fact. As we come off the time for national Thanksgiving, this is something for which we all should be particularly thankful.