Malachi 4:3 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.    

    When I think of the last lines of books, only two come to mind. The generic, “And they lived happily ever after.” And, “Well, I’m back.” From Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Having never written a book, I don’t know, but it would seem how you end would be vitally important. Malachi likely didn’t know that he was at the end of his book. He was, after all, delivering the ‘Word of the Lord.’ He certainly did not know that he was writing the end of the Old Testament. But he was. 

    The exile had come and gone. The people had returned from Babylon. They had rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem. They had rebuilt the temple. They had celebrated long-forgotten and abandoned religious feasts. And Malachi had prophesied. In chapter three he had exhort-ed them about robbing God by not paying their tithes. He had warned about speaking arrogantly about God by the way they were discussing the futility of serving Him. But now…

    For you who revere My name. There were those who were walking and would walk in  humble submission to God. Those who would be the ‘true believers’ you might say. How would they be known? By revering His name. Jesus would later say that God’s name was to be ‘hallowed.’ 

    The people in Malachi’s day were Israelites. The name signaled an implied connection to God. (The ‘El’ part of the name means God.) Today, God’s people are called Christians. If I am a Christian, I carry around the very name of God. If I am a Christian, I am only so because I have accepted His call on my life and become a committed follower of Jesus. As a Christian, I not only pray “in His name,” but I act, I live “in His name.” 

    My actions either bring glory and honor or shame and dishonor to His name. As I follow my Lord closely, as I live my life in the way He prescribed for me, I hallow His name. I revere His name. There is no reverence for His name in disobeying what He has clearly said. There’s no reverence in walking away from Him. It is only in being a committed follower that I can claim to revere His name.

    Malachi didn’t know he was writing the end of his book. I don’t know when the end of my story on this earth will come. But I do know that He is already a place for me! Not having grown up on a farm, I can’t claim a deep knowledge of the frolicking ways of well-fed calves, but it sounds like carefree abundance to me. I know He has planned good things for the ones who follow Him!

    

Blessings,     

Pastor Russ