The Day Of The Lord

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” Malachi 4:5

Today you will read the last of the 929 chapters, 23,214 verses in the Old Testament. Congratulations! You’ve reached a significant milestone in your Christian walk … you’ve read through the entire Bible!

Malachi the prophet and Nehemiah the builder were contemporaries, and the problems Nehemiah faced became the basis for the sermons Malachi preached. Years after the restoration from exile, the spiritual condition of God’s people had deteriorated. Again they lapsed into the same sins that brought about their captivity and exile to Babylon. They tithed sporadically, ignored the Sabbath, and intermarried with unbelievers. Their hearts had grown hard and their love for God had grown cold.

Malachi came to remind the people of God’s love for them. Using a question-andanswer approach, Malachi probed deeply into their problems of hypocrisy, infidelity, divorce, false worship and arrogance. For 400 years after Malachi’s ringing condemnations, God was silent. Malachi’s final warning was about the Day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5). The Day of the Lord is a common theme of the prophets. That day signifies the final judgment of God on the earth and the eventual time of blessing and peace. It’s not a literal 24-hour day, but a culmination of God’s plan—including the return of Christ, the final judgments, and the end of history as we know it.

Both aspects—judgment and salvation, punishment and peace—are contained in the Day of the Lord. The Bible says that those who desire the Lord’s coming must know that He requires clean hands and a pure heart (Ps. 24:3-4). The Day of the Lord may be frightening to some, but for the believer who loves God, it’s a day of great rejoicing.

In 2 Timothy 4:8, Paul says, “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.” As Christians, we should be longing for the Day of the Lord to come. Jesus says, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work” (Rev. 22:12). Are you ready for the Day of the Lord? Jesus may not return tomorrow, but we should live our lives as if He is. We must seize every moment of our lives and make it count for the Lord.

As Malachi brings down the curtain on Old Testament prophecy, God’s silence is broken in the New Testament with John the Baptist declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2)! On this last day of the year, search your heart before the Lord to see if there are any areas that you need to repent from. Rededicate your life to Jesus, so that He may continue to use you greatly in the days to come!