Daily Lesson for September 28, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Malachi chapter 2 verse 17 and chapter 3 verses 1 through 4:

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

We've come to the end of the Old Testament, which closes with a prophecy of the coming again of God's "messenger" -- later identified as "Elijah", the one who will be sent to purify the priests and the offerings of the Temple. He is the one sent "to prepare the way" and make ready the people. He is a "refiner's fire" and a "fullers' soap".

Malachi is a book about a nation needing integrity. In the bible it is often describe as "holiness". But the Greek word "holy" means with complete integrity or "wholeness". Malachi says God is weary with a people lacking integrity -- doing evil, which a people celebrate as good. And some even wonder if there is such a thing as a "God of Justice".

The things of God require more than a tip thrown into the offering plate. That's a bought-off god; and Malachi laments so many priests serve him.

But the God of justice demands more. The God of justice calls for the integrity and wholeness -- wellness -- of the whole nation and all its priests and people. And so the messenger will be sent to prepare the way.

The messenger will be sent to ancient Israel -- and also to us.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow we pick up with the New Testament reading Luke 1-2, John 1, and Matthew 1.