Advent 2
Mal
4:1-6
12/7/14
There is probably no place on earth
where you can choose to live that does not have the possibility of a natural
disaster. Tornadoes, hurricanes,
typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires – you aren’t going to be
able to escape the possibility of at least one of them. And if there is a place that fits this
description, my guess is that it is not somewhere anybody wants to live.
So, as I live in Marion, IL I know
that I am right next to the New Madrid fault and that I live in area that
regularly experiences tornadoes. But I
still think this is a little different than choosing to live on the side of a
volcano that has been active since 1983 – a volcano that regularly pours forth
lava.
During November news reports told
about the plight of the Pahoa village on the slope of the Kilauea volcano in
Hawaii. Since June 27 a lava flow had
been moving towards the village. This is a 2000 degree wall of molten rock that
is basically unstoppable. It incinerates everything in its path – it is a
moving wall of fiery destruction.
Naturally the village was evacuated when the threat appeared, and so no
one has been hurt. But on November 11 it
reached the first house of the village and set it ablaze. It turned it into ashes.
The Kilauea lava flow provides an
illustration from the present day that helps to capture the sense of what our
Old Testament lesson says about the Last Day.
The prophet Malachi writes, “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.” It is a
frightening scene and certainly does not fit with the Christmas season – after all,
nothing says, “Merry Christmas!” like burning furnace. But as we prepare to
celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ, our text helps us to keep our eyes
fixed on the final outcome of our Lord’s work.
The prophet Malachi wrote during the
fifth century B.C. – so think, ballpark,
four hundred and fifty years before the birth of Jesus Christ. It was for many in Judah, a time of
disappointment. In 538 BC the decree by
the Persian king Cyrus allowed the people of Judah to return from exile in
Babylonia.
Encouraged by the
prophets Haggai and Zechariah the temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt and
dedicated around 516 BC. When the foundation for it was laid, those who
remembered Solomon’s temple wept because the new one was far less grand – you
build what you can afford.
The temple had been rebuilt just as
Haggai and Zechariah had directed. And then … nothing happened. Judah continued on as a province of the
Persian empire. The people tried to get
by as they resumed life in a land from which they had been absent for seventy
years.
It was discouraging. Where was Yahweh? Why wasn’t he doing something? People began to complain. They said there was no point in being
faithful. Their actions began to reflect this view. They committed adultery. They lied.
They oppressed and abused the helpless – the hired worker, the widow,
the orphan, the foreigner living in the land.
And they stopped bringing a full tithe to the Lord – they stopped
bringing their offering to God.
God noticed – he always does. In chapter two he said, “You have wearied the
LORD with your words. But you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘Everyone
who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.’ Or by
asking, ‘Where is the God of justice?’”
And then just before our text God said, “Your words have been hard
against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You
have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his
charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? And now we call
the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test
and they escape.’”
There are times when we feel this
way. It doesn’t take long to recognize
that being faithful to God brings difficulties to life. Saying what is true; acting in ways that are
different from the world; serving others instead of yourself – these are all
more difficult. They are the narrow way Jesus described, not the broad and easy
way.
And let’s face it. It’s easier to keep as much money as you can.
It can be hard to give an offering that reflects the blessings God has given to
you. But God’s says it’s not yours. It’s
his. That’s exactly what he said to
Judah. Just before our text Yahweh says,
“Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed
you?’ In your tithes and contributions.”
And then God challenged the people by saying, “Bring the full tithe into
the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the
test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you
and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
Those who feared God’s name
listened. They spoke with one another
about it. And in the verses right before
the start of our text Malachi tells us, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke
with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of
remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed
his name. They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up
my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who
serves him.’”
Those who feared God were written in
his book of remembrance. They were his
treasured possession. And this was
important, because God was going to act with a finality that would sweep away
all the complaints. Malachi writes, “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.”
This day of the Lord would be a day
of judgment and destruction for those who rejected God. Yet the prophet went on to say that it would
be one of healing and joy for God’s people. He wrote, “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. And you shall tread down the wicked,
for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act,
says the LORD of hosts.”
When was this going to happen? Yahweh gave one sign as he said, “Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD
comes.” God had already said in the
previous chapter: “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.”
God said he would do it. And he
did. In the first century A.D. God sent John
the Baptist to prepare the way. He
prepared the way because God was doing something we would never expect. At Christmas we will rejoice in the fact that
God himself entered into our world.
Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh – that’s why the New Testament calls him
“Lord,” the word used to translate Yahweh in the Greek Old Testament. And he
did awesome things. He stilled storms.
He healed diseases. He cast out
demons. He raised the dead. He did
things, as we will hear next Sunday, that Jews expected to occur in the last days. He did it because he was the beginning of the
Last Day.
The Lord did come suddenly to his
temple. He did it one final time during
Holy Week. And then, the day of the Lord
came – the day of judgment. It came as
Jesus Christ hung on the cross and bore your sins – all of that stuff we talked
about earlier – and God damned him in your place. Jesus drank the cup of God’s
wrath for you.
But if that was all there is to it,
Jesus would be like the stubble consumed by the furnace in our text. He would
be like the land scoured by fire of every root and branch. Yet, thanks to be God there is more! So much
more! For on the third day he rose from
the dead. The day of the Lord arrived when
God the Father raised Jesus through the work of the Spirit and began the
resurrection of the Last Day.
That’s right – the event described
in our text has already started.
Judgment has been exacted against your sin. Resurrection life has
already begun in Jesus the second Adam. And because of this, you are
different. Through the work of the same
Spirit who raised Jesus you have been given new life in the waters of Holy
Baptism. Because of baptism you are
God’s treasured possession, a royal priesthood.
Yes, you still see the sin,
suffering and hardships of this world.
But Christ’s Spirit now supports you through the Means of Grace so that
you can continue through life as those who fear God’s name – as those who
believe and trust in God.
You do this now as people who have
hope, because you know how it ends. You
know that the end has already started.
God sent his Elijah. The Lord
came to his temple. These things that
Malachi speaks about have happened. And something else has happened –
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. His
resurrection is the exclamation point that leaves no doubt that the final day
of the Lord is coming.
So take comfort. Be encouraged. The day of the Lord has already started. And the consummation of the day of the Lord
is coming. In our text it’s like Malachi
can’t drive home the point enough. In
the Hebrew he begins one line by saying “behold the day is coming” and he
starts the very next line by talking about “the coming day.”
It is coming and it will bring
vindication for God’s people. It’s a
stark image, but that’s what Malachi means when he says, “And you shall tread
down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the
day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.”
But for God’s people – for you who
have become his treasured possession through the water of baptism there will be
no fire. There will be only the warming
rays of the sun of righteousness which rises with healing in its wings as you
rejoice in God’s presence forever.
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