Pay attention to this please: The Purifier was not coming to pamper or flatter these Priests. Rather, His mission was to refine them and make them a better vessel that could be used by God so they would stop embarrassing God here and there.
Looking at verse 1 very well, we will find out that Malachi was referring to two messengers.
The first was to prepare the way for the second…
“In my covenant I promised them life and well-being, and this is what I gave them, so that they might respect me. In those days they did respect and fear me. 6 They taught what was right, not what was wrong. They lived in harmony with me; they not only did what was right themselves, but they also helped many others to stop doing evil. 7 It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty. Mal 2:5-7 Good News Translation.
But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!
And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in my sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. Romans 5:8-9 (The Passion Translation).
Prophet Malachi noticed the level of decadence, immorality, and corruption among religious leaders and of course the people of Israel. Both the Priests and the people were cheating God by not honouring Him with their offerings; neither were they ready to follow the instructions in God’s Word.
When Jesus rules over this earth, His reign will be universal. The entire earth will be under His authority. Many Bible scholar refer to this reign as the millennium reign, the thousand-year reign of Jesus on this earth. Here is the curious question: will Israel’s rejection of their King last forever?
So, consider today’s message as a continuation of the four sermons produced from the answers Zechariah gave to the Israelites through their delegates. We have dealt with two already in the previous chapter 7.
If you claim to be fasting and praying and you are very good in being bitter towards your fellow human beings, perverting justice, keeping malice, planning on how to harm one another, engaging in all forms of immorality, oppressing the widows, orphans and even foreigners living among you, then your fasting and prayer are mere exercises and are definitely in vain.
He was instructed to make an elaborate crown and set it on the head of Joshua, the high priest.
This sounds odd as it is odd to crown a priest as king and vice versa.
As a matter of fact, the king that tried to function as a priest in the bible was stricken with leprosy according to 2 Chronicles 26. This happened because fundamentally speaking, there was a clear dichotomy between the responsibilities of a king (political) and a priest (spiritual) in the land of Israel.
In fact, it would have made more sense humanly speaking if it were to be Zerubbabel (the governor) who was nominated to be crowned the king instead of Joshua the high priest.
However, looking at that statement figuratively…
God is always speaking but man isn’t always paying attention. What has God said concerning the Year 2021?
2021 Prophecies
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