Bible Story of the Day: Messenger of the Covenant

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Bible Story of the Day

Scripture is the story of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. There are over 400 prophecies and representations of Jesus in the Old Testament alone. The Old Testament pointed forward to the coming Christ, and the New Testament points back to Jesus. The Bible is a record of redemption through Jesus Christ who conquered sin and death when He died on the cross and resurrected three days later. The New Testament was written almost 2000 years ago. Some of the Old Testament was written over 4000 years ago. The Bible Story of the Day not only shows Jesus throughout scripture but shows how scripture is relevant to our lives today. Seeing Jesus in scripture is a major step into understanding who our God is, and how He impacts and affects our lives in every moment. I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your mind to understanding the verses and how they affect your life and gives you a better understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will post a link to the chapter that each passage is from, so that you can read further on your own.

Messenger of the Covenant

Malachi 3:1-2

“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear 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. (NASB).

Where is Jesus and What Does This Mean to Us?

It is beautiful how this ties in together. It can also be confusing, due to the redundancy. God tells us over and over what He wants us to know, but sometimes we do not have the ears to listen. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not put together in chronological order, but in the case of Malachi, it works out that way. Malachi was the last prophet to speak to Israel before John the Baptist appears in the beginning of the New Testament. These two verses are telling the people that God is sending a messenger. Here is where the redundancy comes in. Starting with the name Malachi, which means “my messenger”, or “my angel”. Next, Malachi was speaking about John the Baptist when he said God will send a messenger to clear the way. Malachi finishes in verse 2 by telling us that Jesus would be the messenger of the covenant. We can see in verse 2, Malachi changes who he is speaking about by the use of the word “He” (capitalized), which represents God or in this case Jesus.

What does this mean to us? First, it means that we were warned. We have been told. We were put on notice. Malachi foretold that Jesus would be coming over 400 years prior to Him coming. Malachi told us that right before Jesus came there would be another messenger clearing the way for Jesus. We see that in John the Baptist. After John came then Jesus arrived. This is not the only part of the Old Testament that speaks of the coming of the Messiah. We have no excuse for not knowing who He is. Second, He has already come just as the prophets said. The New Testament ends with a promise that He will return. He came once and told us prior; there is no reason to believe that He is not going to return. Finally, this is all good news. He is called the messenger of the covenant in Malachi. The new covenant is a covenant of grace, because of the blood of Jesus that was shed for us. Jesus brought us grace. Grace is defined as “a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior; mercy; clemency; pardon; and favor or goodwill” by dictionary.com. We have been forgiven, we have been redeemed, and we have been made righteous. Through Jesus Christ we have found favor in God’s eyes.

We can welcome the return of Jesus, but only if we have accepted His gift of grace that He has offered us through His new covenant. It will be a dreadful day indeed, to see His return and be out of time to believe. No one knows if we are given an opportunity after death or after His return to surrender our lives to Him and receive grace from the punishment we are all due. What I do know, is that is cutting it too close for me. This is not a game. This is not a fad. This is eternity. There is something after death and it will either be good or bad based on whether you know Jesus or not. There is still time to make the choice today to surrender your life to Jesus and gain a grace-filled life that is much more abundant.

Resource

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mal+3&version=NASB.