Let’s continue our study of the book of Malachi using the “4S” study approach: spread, sort, structure and summarize. As we did in the first two chapters we’ll use four points to organize what we find in Chapter 3: things to appreciate, to avoid, to appropriate and to anticipate.
Under things to appreciate, notice in verses 1-4: “The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” declares the Lord Almighty. He has kept covenants He made with His people in the past and will continue to do so in the future. It’s been said, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.”
This is amplified when God in verse 6 declares, “I the Lord do not change.” Theologians call this, God’s immutability. Though we often are unpredictable and unfaithful, God being faithful is predictable. When we trust in Him He is committed to be our faithful friend and master. Even when we fail, He never fails. Paul declared in 2nd Timothy 2:13, “He cannot deny Himself.”
In case you think He might forget you and His promises to you, the prophet Malachi declares in verse16, “A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. ‘They will be mine,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up my treasured possession.’”
Do you appreciate these precious promises and especially the one who gave them?
