True Fear Brings True Joy :: Malachi 4:1-6
Behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble. The coming day will scorch them, says YHWH Sabaoth, so that it will leave them with neither root nor branch. But for you all who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise [with] healing in its wing. And you all will go out leaping like calves from the stall (vv 1-2).
The church year is definitely the creation of people who live in the northern hemisphere. If you pay attention to how the church year flows, you’ll notice that all of the important festivals fit nicely with the seasons in the northern hemisphere. Epiphany ... a season of light and revelation ... begins just two weeks after the darkest day of the year. Lent begins in the cold and dark of waning winter and is climaxed by the warmth and joy of Easter in the spring. The fire of Pentecost is celebrated just as the fullness of summer heat consumes us. And now, late in the fall, as winter challenges us with frosty mornings, we continue to hear that Judgment Day is coming. Darkness is closing in on us. It is beginning to wear us down, and the gray skies are a reminder of death, despair, and destruction.
Now put yourself in the southern hemisphere. Suddenly, Easter comes as the days grow short and cold. And Judgment Day looms just before the summer heat.
That would be weird, wouldn’t it? But if we turned our calendar around like that, maybe then we could focus a little more on the hope and the promise the prophet Malachi is offering during Advent by reminding us that Judgment Day is coming.
TRUE FEAR OF GOD BRINGS REFUGE AND JOY
How about that for a theme?
You also could say it this way: Thank God for his judgment!
Before we really get into that, please turn to page 321 in your (Lutheran Service Book) and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the First Commandment.
As the head of the household should teach it in a simple way to his family: What is the First Commandment? You shall have no other gods.
What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
I.
And that’s really the point of Malachi’s preaching. Fact is, when Malachi, the last of God’s Old Testament prophets, wrote his book, the kingdom of Judah did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. They thought they did. They liked to say they had no other gods. They paid a lot of lip service to doing that.
But as Malachi reminds us, what they actually did is whine and complain and grumble and mumble and put themselves first. Listen to what Malachi hears the people saying ...
How have you loved us, God?
How have we despised your name?
How do we despise the Lord’s table?
How much more weary can our lives be?
Why must we offer endless sacrifices?
How have we robbed you, God?
How have we spoken against you? (Mal 1:2, 6, 7, 13; 2:17; 3:8, 13)
That is a summary of the faithlessness of God’s people in the short book of Malachi from chapters one, two and three. The people were putting themselves first. This was most evident in their tithing ... They had either stopped tithing or they offered only second-hand sacrifices that showed nothing but faithlessness. They were going through the motions. They kept the best animals for themselves. Meanwhile, the priests failed to rebuke the people for lax living and they instead praised them for simply offering something ... anything. They all stopped fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things. They despised marriage, which is a picture of the church.
So God sent Malachi ... his messenger ... literally, because My Messenger is what the word Malachi means. He was sent to call the people to repentance.
II.
True fear of God brings us refuge. And this message of Malachi is still relevant today.
Behold, the day is coming. The evil in the world ... the malaise and faithlessness of people ... will be consumed by the fire of God’s furnace. Evil will be consumed in such a way that ... not only the branch will be cut off and burned ... but the root will be destroyed too.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, do not allow yourself to become conformed to the way of the world, to the traditions of your fathers. Stop despising marriage. Do not become weary and afraid of returning to the way of God.
Instead ... repent, everyone of you in the name of Jesus! That is, take heed to what you are doing and not doing ... take heed of your thought, word, and deed ... mourn your iniquity ... and then listen to the beautiful Gospel of God’s messenger! Behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when everyone who is arrogant and doing wickedness will be stubble. The day is coming, and they will be scorched, says YHWH Sabaoth, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch (v 1).
III.
Talk about Good News! That will be a day of vindication for those who love and serve the Lord ... for those who long for and share the forgiveness of sins. Then we will have the answer to the question, how has God loved us?
The day of the Lord is coming when all that Christ did for us in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension will become clearly seen, heard, known by the entire world. The day is coming when the faithful will remember that they are God’s own who have been called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified to be forgiven and to forgive. They will see the fulfillment of his promise that sin, sorrow, and death will be no more. They will find refuge under his wings.
Knowing that Day of the Lord will be burning like a furnace, there is nothing to fear, at least in the sense of terror. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It leads you to meditate on God’s Word. They will be mine, says YHWH Sabaoth.
Those who fear God cling to him in the faith he gave you. Those who fear God have nothing to be afraid of. The fear of God is, in fact, closely associated with faith. The fear of God leaves us standing in awe ... the awe of God’s creation ... the awe of God’s redemption ... the awe of God’s sanctification. We are left in awe of Christ crucified and risen. We are left in awe that God loves us in this way: Destroying the body of our sin on the cross of Christ. The Father poured out all of his wrath for sin upon Jesus on the cross.
This is what Saint Paul is getting at in his epistle to the Romans. He writes: For I tell you that Christ has become a servant to the circumcised for the sake of God’s truth for the purpose of confirming the promises to the fathers, and [in order that] the Gentiles might glorify God for [his] mercies, just as it is written: On account of this, I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name. And again it says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, together with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all the nations, and let all the people praise him (Rm 15:8-11).
III.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, now you can find comfort in God’s promises of healing, protection, joy, and gladness because evil will be so thoroughly consumed that it will never be allowed to take root and grow again. For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise [with] healing in its wing. And you all will go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you all will tread upon the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I am making, says YHWH Sabaoth (v 2-3).
With the promise of future vindication, and with the assurance of present forgiveness, you and I can face the coming day with great joy, hope, and anticipation. The Sun of Righteousness has risen. The power of reconciling love is upon us. God has reconciled himself to us through the Lord of Righteousness. He has reconciled you by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He has washed away your sin in Holy Baptism, and he shares the forgiveness of sins in the Lord’s Supper. He has sanctified you, setting you apart, so that you can let your light shine in the midst of these darkening days. He is turning the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and the hearts of the sons to their fathers (v 6).
That’s cause for joy. Fear of God brings refuge and joy. Then you can remember the Torah of Moses, [YHWH’s] servant, and the statutes and judgments that [he] commanded at Horeb for all Israel.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s Good Law is good for you. And it isn’t onerous. As you go forth leaping for joy, think about how you get to live when you keep it before your eyes, treasuring his Word. There will be no more dishonor, no more murder, no more hate, no more adultery, no more theft, no more dishonesty, no more covetousness. No more sin. Christ our joy and sun of righteousness has risen. And he has given us hope for this better life.
Behold the day is coming and it is coming soon ... in Jesus’ name.