Malachi 4
Vs. 1-3
For behold, the Day [of the Lord] 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 Hosts. ...
But for you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, ... and you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the Day which I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts.
This Day of the Lord encompasses the time when Jesus returns to rule the Earth. It includes all the geological and geographical and weather and sociological and governmental and relational upheavals surrounding His arrival and setting up His Throne to rule.
And part of that will be fires and explosions and earthquakes that will reduce all the cities of the World to rubble (Revelation 16:19: and the cities of the Nations fell). So the rubble that will be used to pave new roads will include the ashes of the people who burned up in it. What a picture!
Vs. 4-6
Remember the Law of Moses ...
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord:
And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the Earth with a curse.
We know that John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah (Matthew 17:11-13), and it is still before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord.
And we today are to do what we can to mend our family relationships, as our enemy has been hard at work to destroy our families, knowing that they form the foundation of our society. I do not know of a family that has not experienced dysfunction in some way.
And this Earth is already under the curse of death, as is the whole Universe: things wind down and wear out, the Second Law of Thermodynamics. We certainly do not need any other curses.
O my Father, to end Your Old Testament with a curse is very disheartening. We had no hope until Your Son came to be our Lamb of God, so that we could be made fit to enter His Kingdom and live with You. Now everything You wrote about that will happen, has happened; and Jesus can return any time now.
There are wars and rumors of wars, there are famines, there are weather anomalies, there are volcanoes and earthquakes, there are divorces and abuse within our families, Israel is back in her Land, and Jerusalem is her capital again. And every other prediction that is to preceed His coming in Your written Word has come to pass.
So I pray for Your children, Father, that we will pay attention to the promptings of Your Spirit to obey Your Law by loving You and loving one another as You have loved us.
Help us, Father, to not consider all the pressures this World presses upon us to conform us as though they're real, but show us how to transform our minds to think Your thoughts toward us (Romans 12:2).
Continue to send out workers into Your fields of the World that are ready for harvest; and draw every lost lamb to Yourself, and into the safety of Your one fold with one Shepherd.
And help me, Father, to "occupy" while my Lord is in His "far country" (Luke 19:12-13ff). Teach me how to use the "pound" You gave me to make "ten more pounds" to finance Your Kingdom here; and help me to accomplish all the plans You have planned for me to do during my few days I am living in this World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
