Click Here – Malachi 3:16-4:6.
This passage begins on a different note. One not of complaint against God, or a defensive response justifying what they were doing, but of repentance, the people returning to their fear and honor of God. This is what God desires. That is the purpose of the law, to show us our sins, our wrongs, and to turn us back to Him.
Chapter 4 looks forward to what will come – that final judgment day. God warned the people what would happen. He had given them His law. He would send a prophet like Elijah to turn their hearts back to Him (this was fulfilled through John the Baptist). Notice the purpose of all of this, even this whole book – to turn their hearts back to God.
I have always been struck with the final words of the book of Malachi, and the whole Old Testament, “…lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” For those who don’t return, for those who continue to trust in themselves instead of in the one true God, the end will be destruction. What an amazing call to repentance this book of Malachi was for the people of Israel back then, and for us today!