In this series, we’re verifying Peter’s words—all the prophets foretold his generation, its events, and the consequences of those events (Acts 3:24). In roughly chronological order, we have confirmed that Moses, Samuel, Obadiah, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai and Zechariah did so. Now, let’s look at Malachi; did he, too, speak about the days in which Peter lived?
Malachi, along with Haggai and Zechariah, spoke the word of God to Israel after their return from Babylon. The first wave of Jewish exiles had returned in 538 BC. Haggai encouraged the people to finish the temple, and Zechariah concentrated on its future. However, Malachi provides a pregnant pause.…
Dramatists sometimes emphasize a line or situation by pausing the dialogue. Such a pause builds anticipation for what follows. It gives the audience time to contemplate what might follow. John takes the microphone and asks Sarah to marry him in front of 75,000 people in a football stadium. If she hesitates, John (and we) anxiously study her face while we wait for an answer. The pregnant pause creates suspense.
The prophet Malachi spoke, and a pause of over 400 years followed, during which God did not speak to Israel. He seems to have designed this break in prophetic revelation to emphasize Malachi’s message and to increase anticipation as our forefathers waited for the fulfillment of his words—for the messianic age to begin.
Let’s look at several elements in Malachi’s message that increased the suspense of the pregnant pause.
God’s Name Among the Nations
Malachi’s book closes the Old Testament’s revelation of redemptive history. Adam had plunged the race into sin and spiritual darkness, but God had promised that a Satan-crusher would come. Men gave themselves over to the worship of false gods (demons). God judged man’s wickedness through the flood, but preserved his promise of redemption through Noah. He called Abraham and covenanted with him. Moses led Israel in the Exodus and established the theocracy. Then came the times of Israel’s judges and kings, of division and failure, of exile and restoration. Israel seemed never to learn to serve God, even after such a long period of learning!
Malachi opens with more of the same. God gives a catalog list of the ways Israel has failed, concluding with this: “‘I have no pleasure in you,’ / Says the LORD of hosts, / ‘Nor will I accept an offering from your hands’” (Mal 1:10).
Shockingly, God changes the tenor of his speech in the next verse:
For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, / My name shall be great among the Gentiles; / In every place incense shall be offered to My name, / And a pure offering; / For My name shall be great among the nations,” / Says the LORD of hosts. (Mal 1:11)
The word “for” seems remarkably out of place! How can the conclusion of verse 11 follow from the statements in verse 10? It is as if God is telling Israel that they will never get his worship right and that the temple they were rebuilding would never please Him. Something else must restore man to the favor Adam lost. But what? and when?
This is an example of protensive language; the Lord moves from His displeasure with the Jews of Malachi’s day to the glories of the messianic-age kingdom with only a three-letter word. He places the situation at the beginning of the pregnant pause alongside the results of the future (to him) messianic age.
The prophets often projected Mosaic-age worship into the New Testament era. The Apostle John describes how this incense-offering occurs in the messianic age as he looks into heaven:
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. (Rev 8:3–4)
That the rebuilding of the temple would not immediately produce a golden age may have discouraged the Jews. They should not have despaired; this temple would witness the coming of Christ, through whom the Gentiles would enter the kingdom of heaven to worship God in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:24; Acts 15:7; 28:28).
This process would begin in Peter’s generation.
The Nations Bless God’s People
The pregnant pause would end with a series of rapid-fire events: God would 1.) send His messenger to prepare the way before Him; 2.) come suddenly to the temple; 3.) purify His people (Mal 3:1–3); and 4.) destroy Jerusalem. I will discuss the last event in the next section.
From our messianic-age perspective, we know the messenger was John the Baptist. Speaking of him, Jesus said, “This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You’” (Matt 11:10).
Regarding the coming of the Lord to His temple, I could refer to many passages, beginning with the nativity (e.g., Luke 2:11, 21–32, 38, 46; 7:19, 20; 19:47). I will use one that shows Jesus’ desire for pure worship:
He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2:14–16)
The Lord came to His temple to purge and cleanse it; it was His Father’s house!
Malachi also made a positive prophecy about the temple’s future: those who would offer sacrifices there would be pure. He said the “Messenger of the covenant” would “purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver” (Mal 3:3).
The New Testament tells us who these members of the Levitical priesthood are:
Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth … [has] loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. (Rev 1:5–6)
John the Baptist would prepare the way for Christ; the Lord would suddenly come to the temple, and He would purify His people in Peter’s generation.
The Temple’s Destruction
Malachi speaks of Peter’s day in one other powerful way: he foretells God’s judgment against His Mosaic-age people:
“Behold, the day is coming, / Burning like an oven, / And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. / And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” / Says the LORD of hosts, / “That will leave them neither root nor branch.” (Mal 4:1)
John Gill says the subject of this passage is
not the day of judgment … but the day of Christ’s coming in his kingdom and power, to take vengeance on the Jewish nation … when the wrath of God … came upon that people to the uttermost; and when their city and temple were burnt … and this being so terrible, as can hardly be conceived and expressed.1
Jesus would also speak of this judgment, saying,
When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.… Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. (Luke 21:20–21, 32)
Malachi described the glories of the messianic age that would follow God’s judgment of Israel:
To you who fear My name / The Sun of Righteousness shall arise / With healing in His wings; / And you shall go out / And grow fat like stall-fed calves. / You shall trample the wicked, / For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet / On the day that I do this,” / Says the LORD of hosts.” (Mal 4:2–3)
These images depict the kingdom victory that the prophets so often mention. We should interpret them in light of New Testament revelation, where the apostle Paul says,
Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Cor 10:3–6)
This prophecy refers to a conquest fought with spiritual weapons (cf. Eph 6:10–18).
Conclusion
The book of Malachi completes the first act in God’s redemptive drama—the Old Testament revelation. As the pregnant pause begins, he emphasizes themes that recur throughout the prophets: God would exalt His name among the nations; they would bless the people of God; and this would occur after God judged Israel and the temple. All these events would occur during Peter’s generation. Following them, God would glorify himself throughout the earth during the messianic age.
This order of events fits well within the inmillennial model of prophecy.2
Footnotes
- John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments 9 vols. (1809–10; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 6:772.
- Please consider becoming familiar with the inmillennial view of prophecy. You can read a summary version here or tackle the full book-length version here. The title of the book—Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days—hints at the reason for my suggestion. This model says the “last days” are identical to Peter’s “these days”; both terms refer to the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This perspective will shed light on the prophets as we work through them.
