Malachi 4 - Introduction

The Work of John The Baptist

Malachi Four

The last words of the Old Testament pointed to the New Covenant and the coming Messiah who would bring redemption. The coming of the Christ to the earth had to do with the destruction of wickedness. Some wickedness will be destroyed by forgiveness of sins and sinners becoming new creatures in Christ. Paul wrote, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Other wickedness will be destroyed at the final judgment. John recorded these sobering words, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15) This little chapter looks at both the destruction of sin by forgiveness and by judgment.

Malachi 3:18 closed with the words, "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." The thought of this verse was that those under the New Covenant would have a much better understanding of right and wrong. They would live under the perfect law of liberty. James wrote, "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James 1:25) The people of Malachi's day had so mixed good and evil that they could make no distinction between the two. The people said they were doing good when they were, in fact, doing evil. They wearied the Lord with this attitude. (Malachi 2:17) Malachi four begins with the word "for" or for this reason God would send his strict gospel and people would easily understand the distinction between right and wrong. Malachi wrote, "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1)The Messiah would make salvation possible. But before his coming John the Baptist would come in the likeness of Elijah.