Daily Dose of Hope March 10, 2025 Day 2 of Week 50 Scripture: Malachi 1-4; Psalm 2 ; Revelation 9 Welcome back, everyone, to the Daily Dose of Hope. This is the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan. For our Old Testament reading, we are reading the book of Malachi, all four chapters. Malachi is the very last book of the Old Testament, a really short book, yet it gets its point across. Malachi is the Cliff Notes of the Old Testament. In these four short chapters, the author gives a brief summary of the whole Old Testament. One of it’s most famous verses, Malachi 3:7, in one verse, gives us a picture of the dynamics of the Old Testament. God is basically saying, “Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” Your ancestors turned away from me, you have turned away from me. It’s time to come back and let me bless you, let me love you, says the Lord. That’s basically the whole Old Testament in a nutshell---keep in mind over and over again throughout the Old Testament (over hundreds of years), God’s people would commit to following God and then fall away. Eventually, they were so rebellious that God lifts his hand of protection and allows the people of Israel and Judah to be conquered by other nations. We’ve read through all of that. Malachi prophesied about 100 years after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon (400-450BC) As we learned in Nehemiah, only a small portion of people returned to Jerusalem. They rebuilt the city, the temple, and the wall around the city. Yet, after living in exile for 70 years, the people were still corrupted by the pagan culture in which they lived. They were far from God. So, as we read over the past few weeks, Ezra and Nehemiah both had instituted reforms, the people had sincerely agreed to follow God. But within a generation, all the reforms, the promises the people had made were forgotten. What’s interesting is that the people were still going through the motions. They were externally religious–they went through the religious tasks that they were supposed to do but it was ALL about outward behavior. This is the period of time in which the Pharisees & Saducees came into being---there was this emphasis on outward religiosity, doing things which make it seem like you are a good religious person. But their hearts were far from God. And we know, what matters to God is not what’s on the outside, it’s not our religious busyness, but it’s our heart. Basically, the people are in no better place than before the exile. No matter how religious the people appear to be, their hearts are not right with God. They have allowed the things of the world, their own selfishness, their own distrust, to lead them a drift, seeking fulfillment in anything BUT God. Thus, God will do a new thing. As we read through chapters 3 and 4, we begin to see Malachi point to something that is to come. No rules or reforms will change the hearts of the people. Rules and reforms don’t change our hearts. We don’t need external changes. Rather, we need someone who will come into our own hearts and transform us from the inside out. We need a Savior, someone to draw us back to God and back to one another. We need Jesus. Malachi 3:1-2,“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. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. After the book of Malachi ends, 400 years pass before the people get another word from God. 400 years! These were called the silent years. But then, in God’s perfect timing, God arrives on the scene in a new way, through the person of Jesus Christ AND Jesus picks up right where Malachi left off. In fact, Jesus’ very first message to the people in Mark 1 was to “Repent.” Repent, the kingdom of God is here. Yes, your hearts aren’t right with God. Yes, I know you are selfish, self-absorbed, distracted by the ways of the world, I know your heart through and through. Turn away from your ways and come back to me. Allow me to cleanse you, be the refining fire, to purge out all the impurities, all that’s harmful, all that’s led you astray. Let’s take a look at Revelation 9. Things are beginning to get kind of hard. Let’s do our best to unpack it. The fifth trumpet blows and a star falls from the sky. The star unlocks the key to the abyss. When the abyss is opened, all kinds of evil things come out of it. The people without the seal of God are forced to go through five months of torture at the hands of the scorpion-like locusts who have come from the abyss (five months is the life cycle of a locus). It’s all very graphic ...
