Fri.’s Devo - The Message

Read: Malachi 1:1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27: Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24 Malachi is the transitional book between the Old and New Testaments. Malachi is the name of an office rather than a person. It means “my messenger”. He announces the coming of the Great Messenger and Messiah, Jesus Christ. Malachi speaks as if the Temple has already been built and speaks of the abuses of the people, the profane character of the priests and the people’s marriages with foreigners, the lack of paying tithes, and the lack of sympathy toward the poor by the rich. It had been 60 years since Ezra had first come to build the Temple and the people had mingled with the heathen around them and become like them. A second restoration and revival was much needed to re-establish God’s holy law and the holy city. Daniel had talked about a seventy weeks in Daniel 9:25. This began with the 7th year of Artaxerxes who allowed Ezra to go to Jerusalem and ended when Jesus began his work. Malachi’s prophecies began around the second return of Nehemiah from Persia around 424 B.C. In today’s reading, Malachi charged Israel for being insensitive to God’s love. God loved them because they belonged to Jacob. Esau, his brother had been rejected because Esau rejected God. Esau’s descendants became the Edomites and thought they would try to rebuild their nation but, God would not allow it. Their land would be known as “the Land of Wickedness” and their people would be called “the People with Whom the Lord is Forever Angry.” The priests had profaned their office by offering animals that were deformed and sick. They had no respect for God’s name. They were given the choice to repent or take the terrible curses. God also reproved them for their mixed marriages and the wrong they did to their faithful Jewish wives. God sees everything and nothing goes past him. In Revelation, God saw the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. God will wipe every tear from his people’s eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or pain. God announces that he is making everything new. He told John to write down that it was finished and He is the Alpha and the Omega - the Beginning and the End. All who are thirsty will be given the water of life. All who are victorious will be blessed. All the evil-doers will face the lake of fire and that will be their second death. One of the angels took John to see the bride, the wife of the Lamb. God took him in the Spirit to a great, high mountain and showed him the holy city, Jerusalem coming down from heaven. It sparkled and shone with God’s glory. The wall had twelve gates guarded by twelve angels and the name of a tribe was written on the gates. The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones which had the name of an apostle on each of them. The angel held a measuring stick to measure the city, its gates and its wall. The length, width and height were each 1,400 miles. the walls were 216 feet thick. Each wall between the gates was made a a different stone that matched the stones on the priest’s ephod. Each stone stood for a different tribe The gates were made of pearls and the main street was pure gold. There was no temple in the city because the Lord and the Lamb were the temple. They lit the city with their light. The gates stood open because were was no night there. Nothing evil would ever be allowed to enter the city, only those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Lord, thank you that our names are written in your book.