Malachi The Prophet
Malachi 1-4
The Jewish people had returned to the promised land, and they were ready for God to bless them. The people waited, but nothing happened. Sometimes their lives were hard, and they wondered if God really loved them. The people became lazy in how they worshiped God. The Lord loved His people, and He wanted them to be holy. He wanted them to obey Him completely. So God sent a message to His people through the prophet Malachi. God’s message told the people about their sins and called them to turn back to Him. The priests had disobeyed God. They were supposed to lead the people in worship, but instead of offering God the best animal sacrifices, the priests offered animals that were stolen, lame, or sick. God said, “I’m not pleased. I will not accept your offerings.” God also said to the priests, “It is your job to help people follow Me; they look to you for instruction. But you have turned them away from Me. You taught them wrong things.” God warned the people that a day of judgment is coming when God will punish sin and reward righteousness. God said, “I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.” The messenger would have a very important job: to get the people ready for God’s promised Messiah. Next, God talked about some of the wrong things the people were doing. “You are robbing Me!” God said. The people were not offering to God a share of their wealth. But everything they had was a gift from God. “Bring a tenth of your wealth to Me,” God said. “And test Me! See if I will not give you even more blessings—more than you can count!” Some of the people were saying things about God that weren’t true. “It is useless to serve God,” the people said. “People who live however they want to are better off than we are.” But other people did honor God, and God noticed them. “They will be Mine,” God said. “I will have compassion on them.” He said, “A day is coming when everyone who is wicked will be destroyed. But those who honor Me will go out and playfully jump like calves.” Malachi told the people to be patient. God had not forgotten about them. Life was not easy, but if they served God and followed Him, they would be happy on the day when God would keep His promise to rescue His people.
Christ Connection: Malachi was a messenger—a prophet— who told God’s people to repent. Malachi also told about another messenger God would send. This messenger, John the Baptist, would call people to repent and get them ready for a final Messenger, Jesus Christ. Jesus would bring good news of salvation.
**This is a lifeway lesson**