What a contrast between Malachi 1-2 compared to Revelation 21, in Malachi the people are being severely rebuked for spiritual apathy and indifference toward God...sound familiar? I'm thinking of the church in America, I'm thinking of myself...if I am not very careful. Peter warns us to be "sober minded" to be "alert" because of our enemy the devil prowls around like a lion seeking whom he may devour. In America I believe that the attack, at least for now, is more likely to come in the form of causing us to be indifferent and to wander into spiritual apathy, to be lukewarm as described in Revelation 3.
Malachi is a powerful warning to you and I today to pursue God with a white hot passion to know HIM, to love HIM, to become like HIM...for HIS glory and our joy.
Malachi, whose name means “My messenger,” has a word from God to the Jewish community in Judea. Yet when God announces His love His people scornfully respond, “How have You loved us?” (1:1–5) When the Lord complains that He is not being honored by His people, they bluntly deny His charge despite clear evidence that the priests are indifferent and worse than careless in performing their ministry (vv. 6–14). God sternly rebukes His priests, whose apathy and distorted teaching have corrupted the nation (2:1–9).
But God has a dispute with the people too. Their marriages to foreign wives and their quickie divorces, motivated by passion, reflect their disloyal character (vv. 10–16). It’s because they are a people who break faith, with one another and with God, that the Lord no longer hears or answers their prayers.
Richards, L. O. (1991; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996). The Bible readers companion (electronic ed.) (585). Wheaton: Victor Books.
Revelation 21 is another glorious picture of our future with our heavenly Father...another opportunity to get an idea of how to live in the light of our future instead of living and making decisions based on our past.
There is something interesting in verses 6-8. Verses 6 & 7 are very encouraging, we hear the same words that we heard Jesus speak from the CROSS, it is finished, HE acknowledges that HE is the Alpha and the Omega, and basically that HE will satisfy our craving human hearts...and we learn that HE has adopted us as HIS sons and daughters...awesome! Now in verse 8 notice the list, some things you expect others are surprising...at least they were to me. The cowardly are rejected...
6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
Holy Father, by your indwelling Spirit enable us to be lionhearted for you, for your glory and our joy