Revelation 1:10-11
¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, ¹¹ Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

THE LAST WORDS OF THE OLD COVENANT
MALACHI 3:13-18; 4:1-6

“Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is pointless to serve God; and what benefit is it for us that we have done what He required, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of armies? ¹⁵ So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also put God to the test and escape punishment.’”¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened attentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. ¹⁷ “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of armies, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.” ¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. Ch 4 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branches. ² But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall.³ And you will crush the wicked underfoot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing,” says the Lord of armies.⁴ “Remember the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel⁵ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.”

Vs. 13-15 “Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You? ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is pointless to serve God; and what benefit is it for us that we have done what He required, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of armies? ¹⁵ So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but   they also put God to the test and escape punishment. The people are unchanged after all their force to be great and bring God into question because they think they have not spoken against Him but merely pointed out what they thought about events taking place. But God knows differently Your words have been arrogant against Me,” says the Lord. Notice their pride and hostility towards the Lord, what have we spoken against You? The people refuse to acknowledge their error, and after years of their fathers being warned and chastened, they follow suit. Listen to what they say: It is pointless to serve God; and what benefit is it for us that we have done what He required, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of armies? We have been humble and obedient, but they say, but look at who God blesses we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of not only are the doers of. The point is powerfully made by these complaints of the people who are feeling sorry for themselves like little children that feel mistreated in the family, look at what so and so is getting after all my efforts at obeying. It’s not fair. This last comment, not only are the doers of wickedness built up they also put God to the test and escape punishment, can only be described as blasphemy. God is unjust, He doesn’t love them, and He is not worthy of the best sacrifices, He doesn’t deserve the full tithe, it is unreasonable to call them to repentance as they have to provide for their own. 

Vs. 16-18   Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened attentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. ¹⁷ “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of and armies, “on the day that prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.” ¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. Malachi speaks to the people; he writes of a people that feared the Lord, esteemed His name, that were listening and spoke to one another about the situation. The Lord was listening to their conversationattentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and

esteem His name. The Lord does not forget anything that takes place being an all-knowing omniscient God, but an illusion to kings that keep chronicles, registers, and records of matters of importance is made in our text. He further says they will be Mine,” says the Lord of and armies, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him. They are already His by grace, and the regeneration they have received, His own peculiar possession. It clear that Malachi means for this conversation to contrast with the harsh words spoken against the Lord.

INFORMATION:The books of the Hebrew Bible do not have the same order as the books in our Bible.  Our Bibles end with the minor prophets. The Hebrew Bible has the prophets in the middle, its order being: (1) the law, (2) the prophets, and (3) the writings. Second Chronicles actually ends the Hebrew Old Testament. Now the Greek (Septuagint) and the Latin (Vulgate) versions have our order, which is where the English order comes from. So, the majority of all Bibles, weather measured by the number of languages into which the Bible has been translated or merely the number of Old Testaments Bibles in existence, end with Malachi. The Masoretes, who have given us most copies of the Hebrew text we have and also added the vowel points to the Hebrew text, were so bothered by the Old Testament’s ending of Malachi’s final words or else I will come and strike the land with a curse that they repeated the next-to-the-last verse. Similarly, the Septuagint reverses the last two verses, so the Old Testament ends not with a curse, but with a blessing.

Chapter 4, Vs. 1-3 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branches. ² But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall.³ And you will crush the wicked underfoot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing,” says the Lord of armies. Because God is unchanging in His holiness and justice, it follows that His judgment on the wicked does not change either. Here in verse 1, He says behold, the day is coming, judgment may be postponed but not forgotten, delay is not elimination. Judgment will come. Notice, it will be burning like a furnace, object of the burning is not purification but rather the destruction of the wicked. Notice all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of armies. This is a judgment that is to be feared, notice it will leave them neither root nor branches. But there is an encouraging note even though we find the years of unchanged character of the people. But as we see in Malachi 3:16, there are those that constitute a godly remnant. Here in the midst of a terrible reminder of God’s judgment, God speaks of those that revere His name upon whom the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. The   church fathers from Justin onward have almost universally understood this the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; Martin Luther wrote, “Under the law there is weakness and condemnation, under the wings of Christ, under the Gospel, there is strength and salvation.” This is proper theology, and the earlier prophecy of God’s sending a messenger to prepare the way before Him (Malachi3:1). It encourages us to think forward to the coming of Jesus. Still, it is probably not the correct interpretation of sun of righteousness. Carl Friedrich Keil,author of one of the most analytical commentaries on the twelve Minor Prophets argues that the context does not support this interpretation and it simply means that righteousness is itself to be like a sun in the day of God’s judgment. As the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over the earth for the growth and maturity of the plants and living creatures, so will the sun of righteousness bring the healing of all hurts and wounds which the power of darkness has inflicted upon the righteous. Then you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall.And you will crush the wicked underfoot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am preparing,” says the Lord of armies.

Vs. 4-6 “Remember the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel⁵ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction (curse)” Notice God tells the people to Remember the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel and obey them. John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah the prophet, it was before the great and terrible day of the Lord. John came to prepare the way for Christ. He turned the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, by a baptism of repentance. But God’s judgment is not forgotten, that day is coming, the day of judgment, that terrible day of the Lord.

Catechism Question 53

Q: What are we especially taught by these words, “before me” in the first commandment?
A:  These words, “before me” in the first commandment teach us that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God.

Psalm 44:20-21
²⁰ If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;  ²¹ Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.