In fact, you might even say, the whole Old Testament is about Christmas, the coming of the Messiah and what He is to accomplish. How do you like that? All that other stuff in there, all relates to the coming of the Messiah. I like that. What a way to make it clear that the Old Testament is really mostly Gospel! Despite all the bloodshed and the anger, it is still all about the Gospel. It is all about the people being free from their enemies. It's all about being reconciled to God. It's all about healing. It's also all about recognizing our need for what He brings so that we want what He gives.
We talked about Jeremiah last week and we saw that the Southern Kingdom was on the way down. The world power was threatening and the people ignored that God was behind those threats. They denied their need for what the Lord wanted them to have. They would not listen, and they found they were on the wrong side of the sentencing. Instead of judging for them, He judged against them.
The people got scooped up and taken away. They no longer lived in the land which had been promised to them. Despite all the promises to live in the land they had squandered those promises and life was going to become different. , and a new thing was coming.
Had the Lord forgotten the Gospel? Was He a liar because they didn't have the land promised to them? Is the Lord a liar when things don't go as we like them? No. He has something better in mind for us. Yes, better. When things happen that are clearly in His control, and not in ours, we can be confident that He intends it for the best for His people.
It's hard to hear this. We want to hold on to what we can do. We want to make things happen. But we don't have that control and yet the Lord, who is our Father because of Christ's death, who loves us because of Christ's death, will bring good out of it.
Learning this lesson is not just good. It is great for us. It is learning to trust by looking at the cross. And it's what God's people were learning when they were taken into exile.
You can imagine how bad it must have been when Jeremiah's prophecy came true. Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was destroyed. They left their homes. Think about what it would be like if it happened to us. We leave our homes. The beds wait night after night for us to climb in, the dishes wait in the dishwasher to be put away. The family pictures hang on the wall for no one to see. All of the memories lived out in the building we are leaving behind stay attached to that building. All the toys, the TV, computer, video games, telephones, books, DVD's, all of the clothes of the latest fashion. All left in that building. That's depressing. Everyone is shooed out. Leaders are killed. You are now being taken into a new land. You will have a different government. You will live around people who don't speak your language. All your friends may be scattered in different places also, and even if they live close by, they won't be the same. The laws will be different, and you won't have the freedoms you used to. How would you feel? How do you think they felt?
Do you think they rejoiced? We can hear St. Paul saying rejoice in these times because the Lord will supply what you need so you will grow, but that's not the first reaction.
And even if we never experience that, you can relate to their feelings of helplessness. No one likes to feel helpless. It's depressing. Learning to rely on God's promises doesn't happen automatically.
So, all these people are scattered around in a country to the east of them. World powers shuffle around. First there's this one, then there's that one. Everyone watches closely to see if they may be able to return home. Still helpless, they pray for something to change the situation.
The day comes. They are allowed to go back. But it's nothing like what they left. The house they left isn't there anymore, well at least no longer recognizable. You've seen pictures on the news of places where there have been wars. They look awful. It's like an area after a tornado has touched down, but the difference is relief work and rebuilding start the next day. Not here, it's been left for 70 years or more. What happens to a house left untended for 70 years? What would your house look like? If most house's roofs have a 30 year life, then by that time, the roofs would be leaking, mildew would be all over the walls, if the walls are even still up. The foundations would probably be destroyed. All kinds of animals would be living there. Plants would be popping up through the floor. Your bed would be the home of all kinds of bugs. If the war had spared the house, time and the elements would have destroyed it. And now your clothes are out of fashion, not to mention, even if they were there, and could be worn, they wouldn't fit anymore.
I bet you could see this happening. It did happen. As you can imagine, some didn't want to come back to the land promised to their fathers. Can you blame them? But others did. They wanted to make a new start, and so they did. How hard do you think that would be? But they felt an obligation to start all over again, because this is the land from which the Messiah would come.
Did they learn? Did they learn to trust the promises of God? Did they learn to receive from Him all the good things He had to give them? Did they become like their ancestors who had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and learned to rely on God's promises? Did they learn to see Him as the gracious giver?
Mmm., not really, as you will soon see. One thing they did learn. When they came back, they wanted to have nothing to do with worshiping the false gods their ancestors kept getting drawn into worshiping. They would not be so crass as to bow down to worship Baal and Ashtoreth, or the gods of the people they left in the East. No, they would be faithful to God. In fact, they would become very careful to obey God's commands. They wanted to make sure they didn't have what happened to their ancestors. They wanted to make sure they stayed on God's good side. Whatever it would take to make him happy. They would follow the letter of His law. No sir, they wouldn't make the same mistake. They wouldn't let the Lord's word slip away. No matter how oppressive it might feel, they would do what it commands. They would constantly talk about what was expected of them. It would be taught in the families. They would keep the Lord commands even if killed them. Even if it killed their souls.
Now, you can see what happened to them. The Lord saw this new attitude doing exactly that. It was killing their souls. They had adopted a new oppressor. The freedom they could have known was exchanged to live under the Law. All of a sudden, it's like they no longer have the freedom that had been so important in all the rest of the Old Testament. "You will crush your enemies." "You will live free in the land." No, the enemy is no longer outside the gate. They had invited it into their hearts. The oppression was more severe because it was constant.
The Law was no longer being used to lead them to repentance. It was not allowed to crush them, because it was being used to rule their lives. What was the purpose of the Gospel if they are being told they are succeeding in obeying God's commands? Their religious leaders began to place heavy burdens on their shoulders, and the people were being crushed and no relief was offered. Their souls were slowly dying
It's interesting to see how that happened, and to see how it could happen to us who are Christians in the 21st century. None of us would worship a false god directly. But the enemy of the Law is always lurking, always knocking on the door of our hearts, always begging admission. And we would hardly know if we welcomed it in. These people thought they were pleasing God, but they wouldn't let the Law do what it was supposed to do. They weren't receiving His gracious favor, because they didn't think they needed it. They were doing just fine without it.
Now, they had a new enemy but it was really hard to identify. Yes, for a while during the time of Malachi, there were people in the land who were presenting problems for those who came back. Eventually that got settled and yet enemies persisted. Greeks became a problem for them too, but these weren't really the ones that was their enemy. Their enemies were and remained always the ones that challenged their souls, to follow false gods, to follow false teachings.
Now it was in their camp. It had become the law. Don't get me wrong, the enemy isn't really the Law, but the improper use of it. Their enemies are the enemies we recognize as Christians-sin, death and the devil. The power of sin is the Law, as St. Paul says. So you can see by making it their goal to keep God happy, thinking they could do it, thinking that by their efforts they could satisfy God, they had invited the enemies in. They had given their enemies the keys to the kingdom.
They had abandoned the teachings of their fathers, and their father had become ashamed of what their children had become. It's not literally first and second generation, father and children. Fathers is referring to the ancestors who had received the promises, the patriarchs, particularly Abraham who received the promises the Lord gave joyfully and looked forward to the promise fulfilled. He would be ashamed of what his descendants had become, and his descendants would have nothing to do with what Abraham believed.
Here comes Christmas. Malachi promises relief. The people felt the oppression of the Law, but did not what it was. They did not know what the Messiah would do. Malachi tells them. Still speaking of enemies, because they could still relate to the people who were around them, he talks about their destruction.
The day is coming. That day. That is when the Messiah comes. He will destroy your enemies. He will destroy them on the cross. They will be set on fire and burned up. They will be like ashes.
Everyone who was feeling oppressed, frightened, cowering in holes and caves will see that day. They will see the victory of the Messiah. It will be like it had been a bleak and dreary day, where it had been raining, but now the sun comes out. The sun rises and its rays, described as wings, dries up the rain and brings healing. Those cowering in fear will see it, and they will come out leaping and dancing, rejoicing to be set free from their enemies. Joyful about being released from the oppression, the burden that had been sucking out their life.
And before that day, will come the one who will announce His coming. He will preach properly. The Law will be spoken as it should. It will kill, but not merely squeezing out life. It will kill swiftly so that the Gospel can raise to life again. It will not be Elijah himself, but it will be John the Baptist, and He will lead the way for Jesus. And in His preaching, people will hear what their Fathers had truly believed, not what they had been told, the false teaching they were given. The people will hear the Gospel once again and live, which in Old Testament terms is the message of Christmas.
AMEN