Malachi Chapter Three, The Book of Remembrance

 

Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.

 

The apostasy was clearly detailed by Malachi’s final exchange with the disbelieving Jews. Some truly harsh or strong words were leveled against Israel’s God. It appears that a minority of the Jewish community certainly took the prophet’s words to heart. Those who feared the Lord and also meditate on His name spoke to one another. Let it be noted that meditate in the Biblical sense has nothing to do with emptying the mind, as in eastern mysticism. Rather, the Bible’s form of meditation is to fill our thoughts with God and His word. It means to contemplate, to think deeply upon, to ponder.

We know these Jews listened intently because they gathered to speak, or to collectively meditate, upon Yahweh’s name. His name, of course, is a representation of all God is as His word reveals to us. Just like my own name, when referencing me as an individual, represents who I am and all that I do. God commanded a book of remembrance to be written, and it was written “for those who fear the Lord,” (emphasis mine). These devout Jews undoubtedly are amongst the number of the remnant Paul makes mention of. “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace,” Romans 11:5, see also Romans 9:27.

 

We know that God keeps a book, which Paul and John refer to as the Book of Life, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 13:8. Paul defined those who are his “fellow workers” as being found in the Book of Life. John expands upon the nature and title of this book, referring to it as the Book of Life of the Lamb, perhaps subtitled “slain from the foundation of the world.” Two criteria for having one’s name written in the book were to fear the Lord, and to meditate on His name, or the revelation of His person through Scripture. This implies relation between parties: the worshiper and God. Jesus emphasizes intimately knowing the Lord, twice rejecting professors that approached Him with these terse words: “I never knew you; depart from Me,” Matthew 7:23, 25:12, 41. Jesus is saying that those approaching Him were not cast away or somehow lost. They NEVER knew Him, though apparently they deceived themselves into thinking otherwise. But knowing the Lord involves obedience to His will, beginning with the gospel of salvation.

 

God keeps a book, a record as it were, of His saints. The faithful Jewish remnant is written there, remembered by Him always. “I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands,” Isaiah 49:15, 16. God’s word through Malachi did not return to Him void; it accomplished all that He sent it out for. The faithful heard, the wicked were hardened, and God was glorified. Those who listened and feared God, and those who did not, will be contrasted heavily as the book rapidly comes to its close. There are practical ways to differentiate between devout listening and lazy hearing. James spent his entire epistle waxing hot about the practical outcome of a living faith, James 1:22-25. It would behoove us to consider this: if we have honestly and from the heart listened to God’s word, or if we have only heard. Faith comes by hearing, the apostle wrote, but not hearing in the sense of intellectual retention sans any transformative application. Truly hearing, like the Jews who feared Yahweh, impacts the life, upends humanistic thought, and changes who we are in relation to our Creator, and then to everyone else. Obedience from the heart is our individual and corporate witness of our fidelity to Jesus Christ. The remnant, in the midst of a sea of spiritual depravity, congregated and hallowed God, honoring Him to the saving of their souls.