OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT - Tertullian’s description of Malachi as "the skirt and boundary of Christianity," sees this little book as the perfect segue into the Christian Scriptures. As a prophetic book Malachi records fifty-five verses of Judgment and salvation. The words form familiar images of God who utters oracles through a human agent. What’s interesting about Malachi are the various voices that we hear: God, the messenger, the people, and the priests.

SUSPICIONS - Commentators are suspicious with our lesson; it seems to be an added section or at the least that it underwent considerable development and expansion. [1] The meaning, however, announce the coming of a "great king" (1:14) for whom a messenger is needed to prepare the royal processional way (Isaiah 40:3). Yet the king draws near not for comfort (as in Isaiah’s vision) but for judgment. [2]

GOD’S MESSENGER(S) - God’s messengers come through the conversations of good people, or from sermons, or through the reading of good books; and there are many other ways . . . in which God calls. Or they come through sicknesses and trials, or by means of truths which God teaches us at times when we are engaged in prayer; however feeble such prayers may be, God values them highly.[3]

What messenger/s has God sent to you bringing you challenge or hope?

What answer from a Christian’s perspective could you supply to the prophet’s strong word: "Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he comes?

Since the genre itself is an argument between two parties both accusing the other, you might enter the text through that form. Recall debate teams rancor, arguments between siblings or friends that you encountered growing up; or move to the international scene and reflect the argumentative tension between the UN and the US over peace-keeping in Iraq, or the arguments that the people of Iraq seem to have against the US concerning the troops that to them seem more an occupation than peacekeeping mission.

Move to the passage and raise to awareness the tension in the text between the people and God; state the main points of the arguments; especially point out God’s answer: to send a messenger.

Suggest ways in the spirit of Teresa Avila (see above) in which messengers come to us to provide challenge, confrontation, and hope. Can you recall a specific example of this?

Conclude with Teresa of Avila’s quote and share the Good News that God has always sent messengers-prophets, kings, seers, judges, and a savior. That moves us finally to Advent. The messenger is John the Baptist who leads us to God’s final Message: Jesus Christ.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible VII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 868.
[2] Ibid, page 869.
[3] Teresa of Avila, quoted in The Spiritual Formation Bible (Zondervan, 2002), page 1267.