Malachi 3:1
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Malachi 3:1-5
Malachi is the last prophetic book in the Old Testament. Most scholars believe that Malachi was an actual person but we know close to nothing about him. Since Malachi means “my messenger”, some scholars believe that Malachi was simply the title of an anonymous author. But we have no reason to suspect he wasn’t a real person.
Malachi wrote his book most likely around 425 BC. At that time, Judah was no longer a kingdom. The people had returned from exile in Persia and had rebuilt the Temple already. Sacrifices were regularly offered there as they were before Babylon destroyed it. A governor now ruled over the Judah. Most likely this book was written after Nehemiah returned to Persia and before his second stint as governor of Judah.
Malachi was mainly concerned with the abuses of God’s law upon their return to Jewish life after being in exile. They weren’t tithing correctly and they were marrying foreigners who worship other gods. Malachi was calling the people and the priests of that time back into obedience to God as was the job of a prophet. Malachi would be the last prophet sent to Judah before the Messiah would arrive – some 400 years before.
In Malachi 3, God tells Malachi about the Messiah and echos an earlier prophecy given by Isaiah in telling him that a messenger will prepare the way for his arrival:
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me” (Mal 3:1).
“A voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord’” (Isa 40:3).
We know this was fulfilled by John the Baptist because both the angel Gabriel and Jesus said so:
“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).
“As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you’” (Matt 11:7-10).
Jesus directly identified John the Baptist as the messenger prophesied by Malachi. Jesus and John were related and many think they were cousins of some sort. We know this because we are told that their mothers – Mary and Elizabeth – were related again by the angel Gabriel:
“Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month” (Luke 1:36).
Jesus made an interesting statement about John the Baptist recorded by both Matthew and Luke:
“Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt 11:11).
“I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).
Think about that amazing statement. Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest human who ever existed. Of all the prophets, kings, conquerers, John was the greatest. Jesus considered him greater than Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, etc. John stands at the top of the list of the most elite people who ever lived.
All those people had done great things for God, but none of them had ever announced the arrival of God himself. As God’s messenger, John the Baptist was uniquely chosen to prepare the way for God to become a man and to walk the earth among us. Jesus said that made John the greatest of all people for all of time.
But then Jesus goes even further and says that anyone can be greater than John if they can just get into the kingdom of God. The least greatest person who gets into God’s kingdom is greater than the greatest person to ever live. John the Baptist possessed the Holy Spirt. We know this because yet again the angel Gabriel told us:
“He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born” (Luke 1:14-15).
John was great in the sight of the Lord because Jesus called him the greatest. And he was also filled with the Holy Spirit. But he wasn’t in the kingdom of God – yet. Entrance into God’s kingdom requires new birth:
“Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit’” (John 3:5).
And new birth can only come by accepting Jesus’s gift of forgiveness through the blood of his sacrifice. So long as Jesus walked the earth, his kingdom was at hand but entrance into it hadn’t been established until he went to the cross.
Now that we are on this side of the cross, we can become greater than John the Baptist if we simply choose Jesus. When we are born again, we are given the Holy Spirit just like John the Baptist. But even more we are made right with God and that is more than John had:
“However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness” (Rom 4:5).
Being born again clothes us in righteousness. God gives us the Holy Spirit and opens the door to His kingdom so that we can take part in His mission. Peter tells us that by being born again, we get to enter God’s eternal kingdom and participate in His divine nature:
“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Pet 1:4).
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:10-11).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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