Hebrews Chapter One, Waiting for God

 

Hebrews 1:2b has in these last days

 

Whereas in former times, the ministry of the prophetic office was discharged by God’s servants, in the last days He sent His Son. The writer of Hebrews uses the phrase the “last days.” Christ our Lord cautioned His audience that the coming of the Lord will be as a thief in the night, and we will not know the hour of His coming. His return is ever imminent, and its imminence was meant to inspire action in the service of God’s church. Though 2,000 years have elapsed since Jesus initially uttered those sayings, what is that to us? His coming is ever imminent; what I mean is, nothing prophetic needs to occur between His ascending into Heaven to wait at the right hand of the Father before His return. We are, as it were, in the valley of the church age that looms between the mounts of Christ’s First and Second Coming. The prophecy of the 70 weeks detail God’s relation with Israel and His contention with the Man of Sin, the Lawless One who rises to power in the absence of the church to serve as a witness against his nature and purpose. But I digress about these things, because this topic could lead us down a long detour.

Hebrews Chapter One, The Prophetic Burden

 

Finally, we have Noah. The bridge between pre-Flood and post-Flood worlds, by faith he built an ark when he was warned of things not yet seen, Hebrews 11:7, Genesis 6:13, 17. While Hebrews 11:7 informs us that his act (like Abel’s) demonstrated a faith that made him an heir of righteousness, it also condemned the pre-Flood world. Was Noah’s act evil? No. Noah, unlike his generation, was faithful, Genesis 6:8. It was the unsaved world that was evil and desperately so, corrupting everything and filling the earth with violence. Noah’s act perhaps seems evil in the face of the unsaved that perished, but recall we are considering the prophets right now. Were the peers of Noah warned of the wrath to come? Peter referred to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness,” 2 Peter 2:5.

Hebrews Chapter One, God Of The Prophets

 

Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

 

The writer of Hebrews offers no benediction or greeting. Instead, like a horse breaking right out of the gate for a race, he begins with the object of his letter: God. The Greek word for God is “theos” and simply means “deity” or can more specifically address the supreme divinity. God had spoken at various times throughout history prior to the time of Christ. The literal, original rendering (which can be found in the NASB) is “in many portions and in many ways.”

About Church, Part 2 (0f 2)

 

The church, while intended to be a body of individuals saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, is still peopled with fallible men and women. The writer of Hebrews warns us that sin can ensnare us, Hebrews 12:1. James warns us that, “we all stumble in many things,” James 3:2. He includes himself with the addition of “we,” and observes that “many things” cause us to stumble. The danger is universal and legion. Paul, confronting the Galatian church over the error of legalism tells us that saints can “fall from grace.” Meaning, positionally we have moved away from the simplicity of the gospel and polluted our thinking with additions to salvation’s message that are not necessary, welcome, or Biblical, Galatians 5:4.

About Church, Part 1 (of 2)

 

The church is the representative of the faith it houses. But what is the church? For many religions that may hold a variety of answers, but for the Christian faith, which I am focusing upon, there is but a single answer.

Malachi Chapter Four, The Last Word

 

Christ’s ministry, immediately following John’s, terminates 69 of Daniel’s 70 weeks, to be taken up again when the Great Tribulation begins and the final momentous seven year period brings this chapter of human history to an end. I make mention of this because Elijah’s ministry, by Malachi’s reckoning in both chapters 3 and 4 is followed abruptly or suddenly by the visible coming of Messiah in glory. Verse 6 states, “lest I come…” The Lord will come to strike the earth with a curse. 

Malachi Chapter Four, The Day of the Lord: Good Or Evil?

 

Too many Christians look on the Day of the Lord as a terrible thing, something to be prevented at all costs. It’s like a Hollywood movie where a great calamity threatens to exterminate humanity, only to be stopped at the eleventh hour by some noble sacrifice. Yet Christians must realize that Christ made that noble sacrifice on the cross two millennia ago and any who place their faith in Him have passed from death to life and will no longer be subject to God’s wrath, being sons of the regeneration. Worse, there are those that think passages pertaining to the Day of the Lord are pernicious myths, fabricated Jewish horror stories emerging from the Messiah fever that the Jewish mind was apparently awash in during the centuries surrounding Christ’s first advent. If this is your viewpoint then, like the Jews Malachi speaks of, you need to repent. God will make all things new; Christ’s Second Coming in power and glory will right the wrongs of this world and vindicate God’s name and word forever. Are we like Peter, “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?” 2 Peter 3:12. Or like John, when we read, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20.

Malachi Chapter Four, Making Ready For Messiah

 

Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. [6] And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.

 

Chapter 4 is devoted to what this verse terms “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” In this passage we have something of a chronological progression of events. As already stipulated in Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3-5 Elijah’s coming would precede the Christ’s, and the purpose of his coming would be to prepare for Him. To be more specific, to prepare the people. John the Baptist’s ministry fulfilled the role of Elijah as the forerunner to the Christ. Jesus testified of John, telling us, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come,” Matthew 11:14. John’s purpose was to make the people ready to receive the kingdom through the ministry of repentance. To repent can be transliterated as “change your mind” about a formerly held viewpoint. John taught repentance to the Jews to make them ready to receive their King. In this respect John was certainly the forerunner of Messiah, as Malachi and Isaiah both testified. And for those willing to receive John’s ministry, the Scripture was accomplished in him.

Malachi Chapter Four, Justification By Faith

 

But the fact remains that Moses is recognized as the lawgiver. The Jews weren’t commanded to remember Moses, but the Law. It was for “all Israel,” and the nation was meant to govern itself “with the statutes and judgments,” within its pages. Jesus Himself, in the quotation mentioned above, emphasized the witness of Moses’ writings. The Sanhedrin, when interrogating the man born blind, vehemently assailed him when he asked them if they wished to become disciples of Jesus. They answered, “We are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses,” John 9:28, 29. This was actually a very condemning admission to make. A little later, when the Pharisees asked Jesus if they too were blind, He answered, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains,” John 9:41. The Law made mankind accountable. The Law exposed sin for what it was is; it magnified sin’s nature because the Law magnified or demonstrated God’s holiness and justice. Contrasted against a holy God’s denouncement of sin, the Law only made the hearer guiltier before God.

Malchi Chapter Four, Remembering

 

Malachi 4:4 “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

 

This verse, settled in the midst of two passages dealing with the Day of the Lord, is a final staunch reminder to remember the words of Moses. Moses brought the Decalogue down the mountain to Israel. The fifth and final book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, retells the triumphs and tragedies of Israel’s sojourn as they make ready to enter Canaan. It was repeated in vivid detail again due in part for the youth of Israel who rose up in the wake of their elders that died along the way while they wandered 40 years in the wilderness.

Malachi Chapter Four, The Sun Of Righteousness

 

Here we find the fruit of human works merging into the fruit of the womb, and the traditions the Canaanites passed on to their children, including sorcery (witchcraft), phallic idolatry and sexual practices, and child sacrifice. Believers are commanded to, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them,” Ephesians 5:11. On a smaller scale judgment had come to Canaan, and all the proud, yes, all who did wickedly, were stubble before the day that burned them up. Canaan’s conquest revealed not only God’s judgment upon man’s iniquity and our unwillingness to surrender our sinful pleasures, it concurrently exposed human inadequacy for doling out divine judgment. Judges 1:27-35 demonstrate human bias and partiality for a variety of reasons, leading to compromise. First God’s command is compromised, followed by the people being compromised as they mingle God’s truth with human error. The result of the remainder of Judges was summarized in the verse: “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” Judges 17:6. Malachi 4:1 is God’s answer to the question of “Where is the God of justice?” asked in 2:17, and His remedy to sinful men seeming to escape said justice in 3:15 can be found here. “[God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained,” Acts 17:31.

Malachi Chapter Four, The Day Is Coming

 

Malachi 4:1 “For 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. [2] But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out like stall-fed calves. [3] 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.

 

The lead up in the final verses of chapter 3 has brought us back to what the prophets referred to as the Day of the Lord. Having already touched on this event in Malachi 3:1-5, it is hardly unfamiliar territory. However, the Day of the Lord is expounded upon to reveal a salvific element not mentioned by Malachi previously.

The Purpose Of A Biblical Commentary

 

I have wondered to myself of late, if I were asked to define what a biblical commentary is, what I would say. Commentaries have been around for many centuries, prior to the time of Christ, and many, many capable (or incapable) men and women have sought to expound on God’s word. But this avoids the initial question: what is a biblical commentary? I believe the terms commentary and exposition are identically interchangeable. An exposition means that we are attempting to draw something out of the text, expanding and explaining it in finer detail. In the case of biblical exegesis I would also add using Scripture as the framework for this project, because the Bible answers to itself, being internally harmonious.

Malachi Chapter Three, Biblical Faith

 

Malachi 3:17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels.” And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” [18] Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

 

Verse 17 is a direct lead in from the prior verse, indicating that those Jews who spoke to one another and feared God would be His. He claimed them for Himself, this faithful remnant that actually desired to obey and to reverence God’s word. However, the verse becomes more specific as to the nature of God’s timing. “On the day that I make them My jewels,” Malachi informs us. There is a specific time, the Lord declares, that He will act to make this righteous remnant His own. To discern proper context we look ahead to Malachi 4:1. Verses 17 and 18 talk about the jewels God will take from Israel, those faithful who serve Him, as opposed to the professors that do not. More, His taking of them will be clearly discernable (verse 18) because the coming day (4:1) will bring destruction to the proud and salvation to the remnant (4:3). God’s answer to the proud, and to those who envy the proud and are led astray by the error of the wicked is this: “Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you,” Revelation 3:9.