Today’s readings: Malachi 3-4, Luke 1, Psalm 118
Malachi 3:1; 4:5–6
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Luke 1:16-17, 76-79
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The readings above barely scratch the surface of prophetic allusions and promises that are picked up in Luke 1 and beyond in the ministries of both John the Baptizer and Jesus himself. Consider these:
Malachi 3:1a — I will send my messenger to prepare the way → John (Luke 1:17, 76)
Malachi 3:1b — The Lord is coming → Jesus
Malachi 3:2–3 — He comes with refining fire → Jesus as the coming one who purifies and judges
Malachi 3:6–7 — Return to me → John calls Israel to repentance and prepares a people for the Lord
Malachi 4:1–2 — The sun rises with healing → Luke’s identifying Jesus as the “sunrise…from on high”
Malachi 4:5–6 — Elijah will come and turn hearts → John comes “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17)
It’s almost as if Malachi’s closing words erupt with prophetic promises. But then come 400 years of silence! Why was God silent? Why don’t we have more witnesses from those years pointing to God’s faithfulness, humanity’s need for a Savior, and prophets calling Israel back again and again to God?
One answer has to do with the timing of God, as Paul says in Galatians 4:4–5: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” And that’s probably all we need to know. But we’ve already read in Daniel 10 how things are occurring behind the scenes, such that history doesn’t always unfold as neatly and fluidly as we might wish.
But it does unfold according to God’s purposes. And here we get a dramatic glimpse into the ways and means of God’s grace. These beautiful prophecies – along with their fulfillments recorded just in Luke 1 – amaze me. I can’t get over how God inspired Malachi to put forth these promises that are so clearly seen coming to fulfillment in the promised births of John and Jesus.
It’s not only that we’re finishing up with the Old Testament with its accounts of delightful and dramatic events, tragedies of sinful proportions, long lists of names, and prophetic exhortations and promises. It’s that now Luke opens with such expectant words as he begins his “narrative of the things that have been accomplished” in the days of John and Jesus. It’s as though Malachi is saying, “Just you wait!” And God is saying, “Now is the time.”
Follow the Word is a daily Bible reading and devotional ministry of St. John Lutheran Church, Cypress, Texas.
Click the image below to watch the Bible Project video for the first half of Luke’s gospel. Or click this link: https://bibleproject.com/videos/luke-1-9/
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