Welcome to Moore in the Word, a podcast of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, that seeks
to glorify God through biblically sound, thought-provoking and challenging talks and interviews.
In this episode, from a chapel service held on Tuesday 1st of April 2025, Paul Williamson, lecturer in Old Testament, Hebrew
and Aramic at Moore Theological College, speaks on the Book of Malachi 3:13-4:6, and Malachi's final appeal to turn back to God.
Paul reminds us that the day of the Lord is coming.
Those who have placed their confidence in God and God alone have nothing to worry about.
But those who fail to repent can expect to one day face the terrifying, all consuming inferno of God's wrath.
We hope you find the episode helpful.
Good morning.
Please turn back with me to Malachi.
Malachi chapter three in verse 13.
I was just thinking this morning, I began my little series on the minor prophets in my first year here 25 years ago.
And I was thinking not many of the faculty, the present faculty were here then.
And I thought, well, Dan, he'd have been the first year, but I asked him just before chapel and he didn't start for another two years.
Um.
And not the way I'm going.
I've only got, I haven't even got halfway through.
I've got about a third of the way through.
So I don't know if I'll ever get this series finished, but I will get Malachi finished today.
So, uh, please have a look at Malachi three
before we consider this passage.
Let's pray.
Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight.
Oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
Amen.
I'm sure we've all seen movies with surprising endings.
The standout one for me is the sixth sense.
I must confess I didn't see it coming, and yet as you re-watch that movie, you think, how did I miss that?
So many clues, so many details staring you in the face.
So many little things that only really make sense when you reach the end, which isn't that surprising at all.
Well, spoiler alert, the book of Malachi is a bit like that.
At first, its ending may seem surprising or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.
Sure, we expect some resolution.
We hope the book will end on a high note, especially after all that's been said.
Yet the book ends on this surprising note.
It's not quite the happy ending we may be expecting.
It's not all doom and gloom, and yet the book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger and some may be left.
Wondering whether malachi's ministry has been all that effective?
He's taken the community to task for doubting God's love for dishonoring.
God's name for defiling.
God's Covenant.
For denigrating.
God's justice for delaying God's blessing.
Yet little, if anything, seems to have been taken on board.
Indeed.
Here in this final section, the audience is still making disparaging remarks about God.
Now they're deriding God's integrity.
Have a look with me at the foolish sentiments we see expressed there in verses 13 to 15.
You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord.
Yet you ask what have we said against you?
You have said it is futile to serve God.
What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty?
But now we call the arrogant blessed.
Certainly evil doers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.
This final disputation starts same way as the others.
We have a, a prophetic declaration that evokes the audience's rebuttal, and this prompts a, a more detailed accusation that follows, in this case,
the, the charge sheet relates to the Oregon sentiments that they've expressed in considering it futile to serve God as far as they're concerned.
Serving God is simply not worthwhile.
It's not worth the effort, nevermind the cost.
What profit, what benefit is there in carrying out God's decrees or repenting and sackcloth and ashes?
These people are clearly thinking transactionally.
They're treating God as a vending machine that has turned out to be a bit faulty.
They've inserted their cash, they, none of the goodies have dropped down.
These people believe God owes them something, but he isn't paying up.
He's not treating them as he should.
He's not treating them the way they deserve their worship.
Makes no difference.
After all, it's the arrogant who are blessed.
It's evil dear who prosper rather than a vending machine.
God's behaving like one of those coin pusher machines.
You know the ones, I mean.
Same at the amusements arcades.
You, you put your coins into the slot and the, the tipping point has all these coins in it, and you're, you put
another coin in, in the hope that that coin pushes them over the edge and you get a whole lot more coins back.
I. Yeah, you've seen those.
I was preaching this sermon in my own church on Sunday.
I made a mistake of, uh, talking about what I did as a kid with, with these slot machines, horror shock,
and my wife told me afterwards, don't call them slot machines.
Those are pokies
anyway.
To get back to the point
when I was a kid and I'd exhausted all my coins, and, uh, the thing had got closer, closer to the tipping point, but no coins had dropped.
I had no coins left, and then this other guy would've come along and stuck in one coin and sure enough, all these coins would've dropped.
I, is that fair?
It's not.
That's how these people were feeling.
It's not fair.
God was not paying out to those who deserved it yet.
It was rewarding though.
He simply didn't deserve it.
Indeed, even when such evil doers test God, they escape unpunished.
It's a clear echo here of what Malachi said in chapter three and verse 10, where he encourages the people to actually test the Lord.
It's the exact same terminology that's used here, but with a very different nuance.
The idea is trying to force God's hand in effect.
These people are pushing the boundaries to see just how much they can get away with.
And, you know, they seem to be getting away with a, an awful lot.
Hence this logical inference, this deriding of God's integrity.
What's the point in trying to please a God who's clearly not doing right by us?
Turning a blind eye to what's going on, while allowing decent people to suffer a God who's clearly unreliable.
Whatever his promises and threats, clearly he's not following through on them.
And Malachi's audience was now the first nor the last to think such thoughts that I'm sure we've all met or know people who think exactly this way.
They point us to disasters like the Myanmar earthquake, and they say, why does God allow
that purely a good and a powerful God wouldn't allow such a thing to happen with a highlight.
Many examples of evil triumphing over good where oppressors get rewarded and their victims are penalized.
Don't have to think hard for examples of that today.
Hence the retreat into cynicism just like these people in Malachi's Day, or at least like some
of them, it's clear from verses 16 to 18 that not everyone traveled down this particular path.
Rather as the little interlude reveals there was a clear dichotomy, chapter three, verse 16.
Then those who feuded the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard.
A School of Remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name on the day.
When I act as the Lord Almighty, they will be my treasured possession.
I will spur them just as a father, as compassion and spurs his son who serves him.
And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not.
Thankfully, Malachi's ministry was not a complete flop.
We're not told how many, but we see here that some people responded positively.
Now what they actually said to one another is left unstated.
It's almost a an open invitation to preachers to let their imagination just run wild.
Indeed.
One commentator who I have great respect for even suggest that the following phrase should really be understood.
Within quotation marks, Yahweh has paid attention.
They say he has listened.
Their words, but the grammar in the syntax suggests otherwise.
The start of verse 16 is best translated.
Then those who feared the Lord started discussing these things, or they talked to one
another about this, but whatever they actually said, it clearly met with God's approval.
The Lord listened and heard.
So a scroll of remembrance was recorded in his presence for or with respect to those who feared him and honored his name.
Now, this scroll has generated quite a lot of debate.
Some think it's the Book of Life.
Others consider it a covenant renewal document like we read about in Nehemiah chapter 10,
or an official record like Xerxes consulted before rewarding Mordecai in the book of Esther.
However we understand this scroll of remembrance.
Its focus.
Its focus is what really matters.
It concerns those who feared God and honored his name previously.
Malachi has rebuked the people and the priests for doing the very opposite, for dishonoring,
for profaning, God's name, the name that was or would be feared among the nations.
Yet here, the situation is reversed Here, at least some people are doing the right thing.
Responding as they ought giving God the honor that he deserves.
And God takes note of this indeed, on the day that God will act decisively, these people will be God's possession.
That's a promise God made way back in Exodus 19 verse five, before the covenant was even ratified.
Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then you will be my possession.
It's a promise that God reiterated some 40 years later to the next generation,
Deuteronomy, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his people, his possession.
It's re reiterated later by the psalmist.
The Lord has chosen Jacob or Israel to be his possession, and here at the end of Malachi is repeated once more.
This righteous remnant will be God's possession, like a, like a signe ring.
On a king's finger.
Accordingly, just like a father has compassion and spurs his son, God will spur them on the day that he acts.
Those who fear and serve the Lord have absolutely nothing to worry about.
That's not because it's some mistakenly think God's gonna treat everyone alike.
No, quite the opposite is true.
On that day, you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not.
Just as there's a clear difference between them in the here and now.
There'll be an even clearer dis distinction on this coming day, a day that Malachi portrays here in terms of cataclysmic judgment.
Chapter four, one to three.
Surely the day is coming.
It'll burn like a furnace.
All the arrogant and every evil dear will be stubble and the day that is coming will
set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty, not a root or a branch will be left to them.
But for you who revere my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing and its Ray and you'll go out and folic like well fed calves.
Then you will crumple on the wicked.
There will be ashes under the soles of your feet.
On the day when I act as a Lord Almighty.
As far as the Old Testament goes, this is surely one of its most graphic, most terrifying portrayals of God's wrath.
A day of farry judgment that will burn like a furnace.
The image of extreme hate, like being stuck inside a a huge pizza oven.
Or like getting caught up in those bush fires that ripped through la an then tents all consuming inescapable inferno.
That's the horror that's being depicted here and it's fuel.
The burning stubble will be all the arrogant and every evil do.
The day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord Almighty.
Brothers and sisters.
It's not a pretty picture.
It's a horrifying one and it's meant to be not a root or branch will be left to them.
Like some of those mansions in the Palisades, the only thing that's gonna be left will be ashes.
Not an encouraging prospect.
It's stomach churning.
It's something to be avoided at all costs.
That's the main point of the Bible's graphic depictions of hell Fire.
It's a somber warning to flee from this coming WR to repent of our sin, to put our hope in the Lord, to place our confidence in God and
God alone, to do what this righteous remnant did in Malachi's Day to honor and serve the Lord as he has demanded on what God still demands.
As at verse from Acts 17 reminded us earlier, God commands all men every word to repent.
For, he has set aside a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed and he has given proof of this to everyone.
By raising him from the dead.
Jesus, the one who came to earth.
The save us from God's coming WR is coming again to preside over this terrifying judgment.
And on that day, only those who revere God's name, only those who have trusted in the name of Jesus will be saved.
Malachi, Malachi puts it there in chapter four.
For you who revere my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing as rays and you'll go out and follow like well-fed calves.
I don't often quote Spurgeon, but he's a Baptist, so I probably should.
Spurgeon famously remarked the same son that melts the wax gardens, the clay, and he was using the illustration negatively.
To note how the same gospel, same message, brings some people to repentance, but hardens others in their sins.
Perhaps something similar is going on here in Malachi, the Son of Righteousness, which like a furnace,
incinerates the wicked rises with healing in its res for those who revere God's name in the case.
The image of this, this point is clearly a positive one, one of healing and blessing when this new day dawns in all its fullness.
God's righteous people, those who have served God that are robe in the righteousness of Christ, we will jump for joy.
We'll go out and frolic like well fed calves like a triumphant army will crumple on what's left of the wicked.
It's an image of joy and freedom, and it's an image of ultimate victory,
but it stands in more contrast to the fate of the wicked depicted in these verses as utter destruction.
And if this was all the Bible had to say about hell, annihilationist would surely be correct, but unfortunately it's not.
All the Bible says on this topic, God's revelation is progressive and the New Testament
presents hell as a fate, worse than death, a blazing furnace, but with weeping.
Gnashing of teeth, inextinguishable, fire, perpetual smoke, but no rest day or night mented, day and night forever.
Whatever we make of that graphic imagery, it's a terrifying prospect.
It's an scatological nightmare that truly moves us to warn to, to implore, to
urge people around us to flee from God's coming Roth before it's forever too late.
So as we go on mission next week.
Let's keep this firmly in our minds, the punishment that awaits those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Well, like all good evangelists, Malachi concludes his message with a final appeal, chapter four, verses four to six.
Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decre in laws I gave him at for all Israel.
See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and grateful day.
If the Lord comes, he will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of
the children to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.
Throughout the book, Malachi has functioned as a covenant enforcer, calling these people back to their roots and obligations.
And this is precisely what happens again in this closing appeal.
Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees in laws I give him at hob for all Israel.
That's a fairly good summary of the response and courage throughout the book.
Remember your covenant obligations, return to me and I will return to you as the Lord Almighty.
As well as this reiterated call to repentance and covenant loyalty, there's a further reminder of that great and
dreadful day of the Lord that day that will burn like a blazing furnace that will bring about everlasting destruction
to all who have failed to turn to God and repentance to all who have failed to be transformed by God's prophetic word.
What's depicted there in verse six is much more than a simple bridging of the generation
gap or the reconciliation of estranged fathers and sons understood in his wider context.
The thought is surely that of covenant loyalty.
Parents, again, loving their children and children again, honoring their parents as they ought.
And
the key to such transformation is turning in repentance to God the father who loves his children.
He expects respect and honor from his children.
In other words, what we have here is not just the hope of genuine repentance,
but an illustration of what this entails and why it's absolutely necessary.
However, we interpret the book's final clause, whether or less, or else, or less or otherwise begins that clause.
One thing is certain, without repentance, the only prospect is total destruction.
I. The Hebrew word is em.
The word used to depict the fate of the killer knights, but it's also used as here to depict the punishment of rebellious Israelites.
Those who, by fighting God's commands, express their contempt toward him.
Yes, it may be a negative note on which to end the book, and yet it serves a very positive purpose.
Evidently, total destruction is not what God desires.
Rather, this is what this Elijah figure is going to be sent to prevent.
It's what genuine repentance will avert.
It's what Malachi desperately wants these people to avoid.
Like all faithful preaching of the gospel malachi's message involves both good news and bad news, and both are inextricably linked.
Without the bad news, the good news might not seem quite so amazing.
But without the good news, the bad news would be absolutely awful.
So let all who derive God's integrity.
Take note on that day when God acts, the distinction between the righteous and the
wicked between those who serve God and those who do not will be patently obvious.
Those who have trusted in obey God will leap like calves.
Those who have not will burn like chaff.
Nobody will be left in any doubt on that day.
The judge of all the Earth will most certainly do what is right.
Amen.
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