The prophet Malachi wrote for his fellow Israelites around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. It had been over a hundred years since they returned from the exile and they had become apathetic about their relationship with the Lord. Malachi conveyed God’s view of this through a series of imagined conversations with Israel.

It’s harder to say exactly when Joel wrote his book of prophecy, but he was so well-versed in the Old Testament writings that he must have written after the Exile. Joel also referred to people of Judah and Jerusalem being sold to the Greeks (Joel 3:6) and the Greeks came to power during the time following the Exile.

Joel wrote to Israel following a series of disastrous locust plagues. He wanted God’s people to think about why God allowed the plagues and what they should do in the aftermath.

God Hates Unfaithfulness

Malachi was amazed at his fellow Israelites. Hundreds and hundreds of years into their history they were still struggling to be faithful to God.

“Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?” Malachi 2:10

Malachi addressed this unfaithfulness on two levels, the national level and the personal level. First he pointed out that the men of Judah had violated their covenant with God by marrying women who worshiped foreign gods.

“As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob – even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.” Malachi 2:12

A man who said he belonged to the God of Israel, yet brought foreign gods into his home didn’t deserve to appear before the Lord. The offerings he presented at the temple couldn’t mitigate that kind of spiritual hypocrisy. Malachi pointed out that he shouldn’t be included in the assembly of God’s people anymore.

God Hates Divorce

The men of Israel who solved the problem of having foreign wives by divorcing them also offended God. They had made a covenant with their wives and then broken it when it caused them problems. God wasn’t pleased with their empty show of pious emotion at the temple.

“Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, ‘Why?’

“It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.” Malachi 2:13-14

God wanted marriages that produced children who would grow up knowing him. When the Israelites chose foreign wives with foreign gods, they jeopardized the spiritual health of their children. Nevertheless, they had made a commitment and were responsible to be faithful to their families.

“‘The man who hates and divorces his wife,’ says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘does violence to the one he should protect,’ says the Lord Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.” Malachi 2:16

Faithfulness to God meant starting with a wife who loved and worshiped the one true God. But if a man chose an ungodly wife, faithfulness required him to protect and care for her and her children — no matter what – even if it meant separating from the congregation of the righteous in Israel. A man’s salvation lay in being right with God, not in showing up to services at the temple.

What God didn’t want was for a man to be an idolater at home while pretending to be faithful to him at the temple. He also didn’t want a man to divorce his wife and forsake his children for his own convenience.

The Coming Day of Judgment

In case anyone thought God’s point of view didn’t really matter, Malachi reminded the Israelites that an inescapable day of judgment was coming.

“‘So I will come and put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me.’ says the Lord Almighty.” Malachi 3:5

Besides all the sins in that list, God’s people had turned away from him when they stopped bringing their tithes to the temple. They were robbing the One who gave them everything they had. They even asked what good it did to serve him.

“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty?” Malachi 3:14

What an insult to God who had given Israel everything! They were as callous toward the Lord as some of them were toward their wives.

But not everyone thought that way.

The Lord’s  Own People

“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.

‘On the day when I act,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.’” Malachi 3:16-18

God will know who belongs to him on the Day of Judgment and he will set them aside as his treasured possession. They will be blessed.

“But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.” Malachi 4:2

The final words in Malachi’s book bring the Old and New Testaments together.

God had once sent a prophet named Elijah to call his people back to wholehearted worship of God. Now he was getting ready to send a new Elijah who would do the same thing.

The new Elijah was coming to speak to the children of the Old Testament Patriarchs and turn their hearts back to the faith of their fathers. If the children failed to respond, God would come and strike the land with total destruction.

Tomorrow we will meet the new Elijah.

Joel and the Plague of Locusts

The book of Joel opens with a series of locust plagues that consumed every living plant in the land. Locusts can travel 100 miles a day, in swarms of up to 150 million insects that eat an amount equal to their body weight every day. A swarm of 80 million can consume enough food to feed 35,000 people.

Desert locusts live up to five months and they mate and lay eggs as they swarm. When conditions are right their eggs hatch and new swarms develop. That’s why Joel described four plagues that came one after the other.

People and animals starved when the locusts devoured all of the plants in the fields. They stripped the bark off trees so they died and farmers and vine growers were left in despair. The animals groaned with hunger.

“How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.” Joel 1:18

Call to Repentance

Joel compares the devastation of the locusts to the day of God’s judgment. The Lord will arrive with a mighty army when that day comes.

“The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” Joel 2:16

As he had done throughout the Old Testament, God offered his people the opportunity to repent, return to him and escape destruction.

“‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning’ . . . Return to the Lord for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing.” Joel 2:12-14

Farewell to the Old Testament

The end of Joel is a great place to finish our reading of the Old Testament. Our gracious God extends a final, wonderful offer of forgiveness and the promise of an everlasting relationship with himself.

“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls . . . The Lord dwells in Zion!” Joel 2:32, 3:21

Tomorrow we will read “the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” Mark 1:1