The Day of Yahweh Comes!
Malachi 4:1-6
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says Yahweh of hosts.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In the days of the apostles, the Christian life centered around two things – one past, and one yet to come. These two events were obviously the First and Second Coming of Christ. The First Coming, which included everything from Christ’s Incarnation to His Ascension, was the very foundation of their faith. Through Christ’s First Coming the early Christians gained the certainty of their redemption from sin, death, and the devil. The Second Coming was the very basis of their hope. Through it they gained the joyous hope for their complete redemption and for the establishment of God’s kingdom of glory.
As it was for the early Christians, so also it was with Martin Luther. After God had clearly revealed to him the truth of Scripture and the great comfort of the pure Gospel, his life was a constant enjoyment of the fruits of Christ’s First Coming; but he also lived in constant and eager expectation of the Great Day of the Lord when Christ would come again.
How very different it is today. People today still hold fast to Christ’s First Coming in one way or another, as evidenced by the Christmas preparations in which the world engages. But the Second Coming is almost completely denied or ignored. All too many Christian people have lost their desire for the kingdom that is to come, and instead have focused on an earthly inheritance at the expense of the heavenly one. Thus it is appropriate to have our text for today frankly proclaim, “the day is coming,” meaning the day when Christ shall finally appear. May God bless our meditation that it may be a warning to the scoffers and self-righteous, and a comfort to those who are troubled in spirit. May it arouse our desire for Christ’s coming so that it will again be a power in our lives.
The setting and context of the Old Testament reading for today is as follows… Since Israel’s return from bondage in Babylon, 100 years had gone by, and Israel had been purged of its idolatry. Those who had returned wanted deeply to worship God again. But when their earthly hopes were not realized – when their establishment as a mighty nation did not come to pass – and when they saw that they still had to live under a foreign ruler and that things were not as they had expected, their enthusiasm waned and they began to complain to God that He had not kept His promises.
As a result, two groups arose from among the people. One group completely abandoned its obedience to the law, lived like the devil, and mocked that the Great Day of Yahweh would never come. The other group was much larger; although they observed the law, they also believed that God owed them some special reward for their obedience to it.
These were the self-righteous, the ones who gave no thought to the idea that the fault might just possibly lie within themselves. They perceived that divine worship meant nothing since the wicked, who observed no special commandments, lived in ease and comfort. Since the wicked seemed to go unpunished, and the self-righteous seemed to go unrewarded, the conclusion was that there will be no Great Day. Oh, boo-hoo!
Yet in contrast to the words of these scoffers, Malachi delivered God’s message: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up”, says Yahweh of hosts, “that will leave them neither root nor branch. This was a stern and very grave warning! God warned them in order that they may still be saved.
God’s warning comes to us today also, for the mindset which precipitated God’s words through Malachi still unfortunately prevails. Man still scoffs at and ridicules God and His Word, perhaps more so today than ever. There are still those who are so rooted in the things of this world that they secretly if not openly mock any mention of the Second Coming of Christ. There are still those who believe that by their own goodness and works they will be saved from God’s wrath. There are still those who, when God visits them with suffering and sorrow, say, “God has lied to us! The message of Christ’s Second Coming and the promise of righteousness and judgment are not true!” Nevertheless, “Behold, the day of Yahweh is coming.” And all those who do not believe will be caught off guard and burned up, whether or not they believed. What they chose not to believe is still true.
“Behold, the day of Yahweh is coming.” As this was and is most certainly a word of warning to those who do not believe, it is also a word of comfort to those who do believe and are still troubled. In Israel there were those who were greatly troubled – those who had waited in faith for Yahweh’s coming in power and glory. But as they waited and saw that His coming was delayed – while they witnessed that evil prospered and the faithful suffered numerous afflictions – they began to lose heart and to doubt. They began to wonder whether God would be able or was still willing to stem the tide of unbelief and wickedness, and whether these things were going to rule. They feared that their final deliverance would not come about.
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It is true enough that wickedness seems to have the upper hand over righteousness. We don’t need to pay too much attention to newscasts to see the uncomfortable truth of that. But “Be of good cheer”, says God, “My Great Day will indeed come!” As the sun breaks through the darkness of night, so shall God’s day of judgment break through the world’s darkness, and it shall shine forth in all its glory. Then “healing”, in other words, salvation and deliverance, shall be “in His wings.” There will indeed be salvation for all who fear and honor the name of the Lord and hope for His coming, but there will be ruin and destruction for those who mock His promises and insist on living in their own wickedness. That Great Day will make complete and total amends for all suffering, trouble, and hardship.
Are you troubled in spirit today? Do you have doubts? Does it seem to you that the wicked in this world are having their way? Do you think or feel that God does not hear your cries for help and mercy? Does it seem that the righteous are getting the short end of the stick? Does the ridicule and persecution of unbelievers seem too hard to bear? Does it seem to you that, in spite of the fact that you believe you are in obedience to God’s Word, things are not getting better but worse?
If the answer to any of these questions or ones like them is “yes,” then, dear friends, you are right where God wants you to be. You are rightly calling out to God for deliverance, for help, for patience, and for strength, which is the exact result God desires when His people struggle in any way. Your cries to God do indeed ascend to His throne and His ear, and you desire all the more the coming of the great Day of the Lord for deliverance.
Just this past Tuesday morning our Bible class opened with a reading and discussion of Psalm 77. Here are the opening nine verses of Asaph’s psalm:
I cried out to God with my voice – to God with my voice; and He gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever and will He be favorable no more? Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?
If you haven’t prayed or cried out to God like that recently, you will. It is right to express your doubts and fears to God, for He alone can and will address them to His glory and your good. It is right for you to be mindful of God’s promises in your prayers to Him. It is right to continue to long for and have an intense desire to be free and to serve God in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. You are right where God wants you to be: totally dependent on Him and clinging to His promises like a cocklebur sticks to a dog’s tail. You can pray with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Paul knew in no uncertain terms what we constantly need to believe, understand, and be reminded of: that God has already sent deliverance from all our woes. He did so in His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord who’s First Coming we soon will celebrate and whose Second Coming we fully anticipate. God has delivered on ALL His promises through Jesus, our Savior. For it is He who fully bore all your sins on the tree of the cross. It is He who took upon Himself your human nature and suffered full punishment for all your sins. It is He who comes “with healing in His wings” as He delivers to you again and again the benefits of His victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil by means of the Holy Gospel, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Supper. Therefore, be of good cheer, you troubled in spirit, for “the Day of Yahweh comes!”
And all that awaits you now is the final deliverance prepared for you by Almighty God. He has promised to be with you wherever you go and in whatever you do. He has sent the Spirit of His Son to you in your baptism so that you can, by His power and strength, remain faithful to the end. The day of Yahweh has come and will yet come to all who are His.
In the meantime, dear friends, we cling to God’s Word, His promises, and His Sacramental gifts. We do not cling to our circumstances or even our feelings, for these can be deceiving and misleading, and most certainly will be used by the devil to draw our attention and faith away from Christ and onto our troubles and fears. Our circumstances may overwhelm us and be used by the devil to take our focus away from Christ and His work for us. Our feelings may also be used by the devil to make us think that God has forgotten us.
To the devil we say No! Our hope and our trust is in the sure and certain Word of our Lord and what He has done to back it up. Our trust is in God who is fully able and perfectly willing to bring about His Great Day for all who believe. Our salvation and deliverance has been declared by God, and no feelings or circumstances can ever be as sure and certain as God’s Word to us.
“Behold, the day is coming…” The Day of Christ, for YOU!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
