And Then There Was Silence

Today we finally conclude our series on Malachi, and to be honest, I’ve been waiting quite a while to preach this particular message. Although this message may be very different from any you have heard or any I have ever preached, it is a critical message for you to understand.

This is going to be either an eye-opening experience or a total dumpster fire of a message. As I say that, I’m sure some of you are filled with anticipation and wonder and are ready to jump in. Others of you already have a sense of dread, wondering what the heck I’m going to do, and you’re still a little bitter that we didn’t sing any Christmas carols this morning. So – without further ado – let’s finish the book of Malachi.

Conclusion of the Old Testament

I encourage you to open your Bibles to the last three verses of the book of Malachi – the last words of the Old Testament. We recapped the book of Malachi last Sunday, and if you missed that message, I encourage you to listen to it. In the beginning of chapter 4, Malachi describes the coming Day of the Lord when the righteous will be joyfully trampling on the ashes of the wicked. And following that imagery, Malachi gives one final imperative to the Israelites.

Malachi 4:4-6 – ⁴Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. ⁵“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.

And that’s the end of the Old Testament – 39 books describing:

• The creation of all things by God’s spoken word.
• God’s special relationship with humanity, which He made with His own hands and gave His own breath.
• What is known as “The Fall,” the first time Adam and Eve disobeyed God and opened the door for sin to enter into humanity.
• God’s promise to Abraham to make a special family for Himself on this earth.
• The rise of the Israelite people, their deliverance from Egypt, their wandering in the wilderness, and their eventual conquering of the nations in the Promised Land.
• The law God gave to the Israelites along with blessings and curses.
• The Israelites’ desire for a king, and then the long list of good and bad kings who led them from peace to war and back.
• Seventeen books containing the words of prophets who warned the Israelites to return to God, and also told them what was going to happen because God knew they wouldn’t obey.
• The eventual conquest of the ten northern tribes of Israel by the Assyrians and, later, the exile of the tribe of Judah to Babylon.

And so it all ends here with the prophet Malachi again warning them to give their whole hearts to God. Malachi’s final words to this people who have been through so many ups and downs command them to be obedient to the law and to wait for a prophet like Elijah to arrive.

What a fitting conclusion to all 39 books! I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two aspects were highlighted as the concluding remarks of the entire Old Testament. At the time of Jesus, the Jews referred to the Old Testament as “The Law and the Prophets.” “The Law and the Prophets” concludes by referring to itself and commanding the people to focus on one and wait for the other.

And then nothing.

The phone line went dead; God went silent.

My Bible has a page after the end of Malachi that is blank except for the words “New Testament.” Then, when you flip the page you are reading Matthew chapter 1. But that blank page covers 430 years of history – 430 years of waiting for God to make His next move. Lots of things did happen, and these are covered in other books that are not considered part of our Protestant Bible.

Here’s an aside that may interest some of you. The short story is:

The bibles of the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox (such as Greek or Russian Orthodox) contain seven more books than our Protestant Bible, and several of those books contain some of the history of what happened during those 430 silent years.

The reason the Bibles of Catholics and Eastern Orthodox include these books and ours don’t is that the books were part of the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. This was the common version of the Old Testament Jesus and His peers would have had access to.

However, when the Old Testament canon was being put together, the translators knew these seven books were not included in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament (which the Septuagint was translated from). These were written after Malachi’s book, during the silent years, and sometimes contained pieces of information that appear to be fanciful, inaccurate, or meant to serve a specific purpose different from the telling of God’s story.

Intertestamental Period

It’s important to our message at hand that we have historical records of what happened on that blank page between our Old Testament and our New Testament.

• 430 BC – Malachi Written. This was during the reign of the Persians, the powerful nation that God led to show favor to the Jews. The Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem, rebuild their temple, and continue sacrifices to their God. During this time the Jews experienced peace and a hands-off approach from the nation ruling them.

• 333 BC – Greeks Defeat the Persians. This victory, led by Alexander the Great, ushered in an era of growing Greek influence all around the Israelites. The Jews still had freedom to worship, and relative peace, but many of them grew sick of waiting for God to act and began to mix their religion with worship of the Greek gods.

• 214 BC – Seleucid Dynasty Control. This continued the reign of the Greeks all through the area, but a different dynasty was in control of Israel. The leader, Antiochus IV, persecuted the Jews and forbade the practice of Judaism. He forced the people to woship Greek gods and ordered the destruction of Jewish scriptures. These regulations went too far, and as a result many Jews were no longer willing to accept this heavy-handed Greek rule. This culminated in the next important event.

• 167 BC – Maccabean Revolt. The Maccabeans (followers of Maccabeus) were the group of Jews who were tired of the assimilation of the Jews into Greek culture and were ready to be free from the controlling grip of the Greeks. Judah Maccabee led the rebellion that overthrew the Greek rulers. This entire period, recorded in the first book of Maccabees, ushered in what is known as the Hasmonean Dynasty when the Jews were once again allowed more autnomy.

• 63 BC – Romans Invaded Jerusalem. This marked the turn in power from the Greeks to the Romans, and again led to many years of shakeup around Jerusalem. Eventually Herod the Great, an Idumean (descendant of Esau, the family line God rejected) gained power over God’s people in Israel and was still in conrol when Jesus was born. He was the ruler who tried to have Jesus killed by drowning all baby boys.

Imagine living during any of these years. Imagine having God’s last words to you be “I’m going to send the prophet Elijah.” You wonder, “When is He coming?” You ask yourself why God allows your people to be under the rule of another sinful nation that is drawing the hearts of your own people to their false Gods. Maybe you survive the Maccabean Revolt and believe God is finally standing up for you, but then the Romans take over again and all your hope is dashed. It’s a life that can become hopeless very fast if you take yours eyes off God and His proven faithfulness.

Waiting

With all these ups and downs and through it all, the Jews simply had to wait for God to speak again. Interestingly, the entire history of Israel has been one of waiting.

• Galatians 3 tells us there were 430 years between the promise God made to Abraham until the Exodus event when the Israelites headed to the Promised Land.
• The Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness without getting into that Promised Land.
• King David waited 15 years to become the rightful King of Israel
• The tribe of Judah waited 70 years in Babylon before being freed to head home.
• Finally, the Israelites returned to Jerusalem to build the city walls and rebuild the temple, only to be reconquered by the Greeks and then the Romans.

And again, for 430 years they waited for a prophet like Elijah to come. (Notice: this is equal to the amount of time that elapsed between God’s promise to Abraham and the Israelites’ release to move to the Promised Land.)

During that time, I’m sure, many grumbled and many stopped believing God would fulfill His promise. History tells us that many began to worship the Greek and Roman gods of the culture all around them.

As we will see next week, God remained faithful. His timeline might not have matched up with the Israelites’ expectations, but He made good on His promise and sent a prophet like Elijah.

Our Wait

Today we sit and wait for something different: not for the appearance of the coming Messiah, but for His return.

And, just like the Israelites, we have watched for hundreds and hundreds of years as wars and conquering kingdoms have come and gone

It’s easy to become desperate and lose faith. It’s easy to give up what we have been taught to believe and instead take on the beliefs of the culture surrounding us. It’s easy to hear all the negative news and wonder why God seems so silent in our world. YET, even though we can’t see it and we don’t know exactly when, Jesus will return. God remains faithful.

And so we wait. We hold on to hope. And we obey – not necessarily the Old Testament law, but the law of love – to love God and to love others like ourselves. Jesus said this was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. If that was the right thing for the Jews during their lengthy wait for the Messiah, then it’s exactly what we should be focused on today.

Unfortunately, too often many Christians find themselves focusing on other things – the news, prophecies, what’s going on in Israel – and they try to decipher exactly when Jesus will fulfill His promise to return. But here’s the thing: all your focus on WHEN won’t change anything.

However, if you choose to love God and love others, if you choose to share your hope with those who are struggling in this dark world, if you encourage your church family going through tough situations, then you are changing something for God’s glory, and that’s exactly what God wants you to do while you wait.

The difference between our waiting and that of those who waited for the first coming of the Messiah is that we wait with the Holy Spirit inside of us. We can never say we haven’t heard from God in years because God still speaks to us, not through a single prophet to the entire nation, but by His very Spirit to each of us individually.

God is no longer silent. He will speak directly to each of you if only you give Him your obedience, time and focus.

Conclusion

So that’s how the book of Malachi and the entire Old Testament end: with a command, a prophecy and a really long wait. Like the rest of the Bible, it continues to be extremely relevant to our lives as we follow the command to love.

The last book of the New Testament, Revelation, is also a prophecy about the coming return of Jesus. We now have a really long wait filled with wars, rising and falling nations, and rebellions against government, among other things. Yet, through it all, we have a hope-filled expectation that God will faithfully follow through on all His promises.

Here’s my final encouragement to you: wait well; wait in faith and obedience. Wait in communion with the Holy Spirit inside of you. And as you wait, look forward with great anticipation to the scene described in Revelation 19: After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in Heaven shouting, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgments.”