Final Prophecies and the Future of the Family

Everything rises and falls on leadership and Malachi refuses to let Israel dodge that reality. We follow God’s case against a nation whose spiritual guides went corrupt and whose worship turned into a dull routine. What’s striking is where the evidence shows up: not only in public religion, but in private life. Malachi walks straight into the home and exposes covenant unfaithfulness, broken marriage vows, and the chaos that follows when God’s people bind themselves to partners who don’t share faith in the Lord. 

We also talk about the human cost that pastors still see today: spouses trying to pursue God alone, raising kids without a godly example at home, carrying a quiet ache that feels like spiritual widowhood. From there, the conversation widens to God’s larger storyline of justice and mercy, including the promised Messenger who prepares the way, how Old Testament prophecy often compresses the first and second comings of Christ, and why God’s unchanging nature is both a warning to hypocrites and a comfort to those who repent. 

Then comes one of Malachi’s most direct questions: “Will man rob God?” We unpack tithes and contributions in Israel’s context, why withholding them was like refusing taxes owed to the true King, and how disobedience had real-world consequences. The book closes with judgment, joy for the righteous, a call to obey God’s Word, and the promise of a forerunner like Elijah who points God’s people back to Him and restores families. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves Bible teaching, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or question.

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Transcript

Malachi Exposes Family-Level Rebellion

The Coming Messenger And God’s Justice

Repentance And The Sin Of Withholding

Judgment Day Hope And Elijah’s Return

Final Charge Obey And Watch

SPEAKER_00 0:54

There's an old saying that goes something like this everything rises and falls on leadership. In other words, people seldom rise above their leaders in terms of character and ethics and values. I often say that here in my country we tend to elect the leaders we deserve. Now I want to tell you this isn't a new issue or problem. The lack of godly leaders is an age old problem. In fact, all the way back in the days of the prophet Malachi, Israel had no earthly king, but they they certainly had leaders, and their primary leaders were the priests. But from the outset we've learned in this little book of prophecy, the priests who were to set an example of holiness and teach and counsel God's people were doing the opposite. They were corrupt. They had failed miserably. They viewed their duties as a boring, you know, tiring, wearisome burden. They didn't care at all about the people they were supposed to lead. In fact, they were causing people to go astray. Now in our last study, we saw the Lord confront the priests for their rebellion against him. Today, here in Malachi chapter two, God is going to confront the whole nation, reminding them that he's the one they've dishonored. So Malachi addresses now the entire nation here in verse 10. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? In other words, the prophet is asking, are you really going to defy your heavenly father, your creator, God, the Lord, who graciously established a covenant with your forefathers? Are you going to really disregard that covenant? Now, I find it interesting that Malachi shows them their sin here by going into their homes, their marriage relationships, their parenting. It's all giving evidence that they're rebelling against God. Malachi is going to make a threefold charge against them here. First, they've broken their marriage vows. Malachi levels this charge in verse 14. The Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you've been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. See, they no longer considered their marriage vows as binding, certainly not sacred. Now secondly, these men have married women who are not believers in the Lord, verse eleven indicates, these are foreign women who really don't want anything to do with the one true and living God, and now this is going to open the door to idolatry. Third, they've ignored a key purpose of God for marriage and family, and that's stated here in verse 15, to have children and raise them up to understand what it means to follow the Lord. And that isn't going to happen if you marry unbelievers. Now the same warning is essentially repeated over in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14, where the unequal yoke of a believer marrying an unbeliever is prohibited. And I gotta tell you, over my years of pastoring, I've seen the anguish, I've seen the heartache in the lives of many women, especially, who married men who said they believed in God, but really didn't have a heart for God and didn't come out till later. Now many of these women come to church alone while their husbands mow the lawn or play golf. These women are attempting to raise children to follow God without a godly father serving as an example. And I often think of these women as spiritual widows, and my heart goes out to them today. In fact, I I couldn't be more proud of their effort to do this alone. Now, the Lord hints at a promise of restoration for his people here in chapter three, and he says to them here in verse one, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Now this is speaking, it's looking ahead to the coming of John the Baptist, whom Jesus identifies in Matthew's gospel, as this messenger who prepares the way for the Messiah. Now here in verse one, both the words me and the messenger of the covenant refer to the Messiah, Jesus. The statement here, the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple is a reference to the Lord's second coming when he returns. And as we often see in the Old Testament, the two comings of Christ are blended together. They're sort of squished together as if they're happening at the same time. You need to understand many of the prophets didn't quite understand that the Messiah would come first to die and then later on to reign as king. So their writings simply speak of his coming without differentiating between the two advents. Now that'll be explained later in the New Testament. But what Malachi's readers need to understand now is that God's justice is going to be revealed when the Messiah appears. Is God going to keep his word? Is the Messiah going to return? Well the Lord says here in verse six, I the Lord do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. And that's good news, by the way. God's judgment on the nation will not annihilate Israel. God's going to keep his covenant promise. The Messiah is going to return and set up his kingdom, just as the prophets declare. Now let me tell you, this promise doesn't give any comfort to the hypocrites who are defying God here in Malachi's day. God charges the people with turning away from his law here in verse seven. He urges them to repent. He highlights another specific sin here in verse eight, where he asks, Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say how we robbed you in your tithes and contributions. In other words, they've stopped bringing their grain and their food and the animals for sacrifices, which ultimately supported the Lord's temple and fed the priesthood. By the way, I want you to notice, beloved, the word for tithe here is plural. The people are holding back on what would have been around twenty five percent of their annual produce and livestock. The Old Testament tithes were synonymous with taxes. The people were to pay these taxes, these tithes to the Lord, which supported the priesthood, the community, it was their welfare system, the temple system during their days. Well, they're not paying the taxes required by their heavenly king. And because they're disobeying the Lord, he promises here to shut up the heavens. That's literal. It ain't gonna rain. Their crops are going to fail unless they repent. Only when they turn back to God in obedience and fulfill their duties are they going to experience once again material prosperity in their land. Now the last chapter here of Malachi, chapter four, begins with God's affirmation that a day of judgment's coming. But that's not the end of the story. In fact, verse two tells us that the righteous are going to joyfully go out leaping like calves from their stall. Now with that, the Lord closes this book of prophecy by urging the believer to do two things. First, obey God's word, and secondly, be on the lookout for Elijah the prophet. He's going to arrive just prior to the return of the Messiah. Now, interestingly, Jesus refers to John the Baptist as Elijah in Matthew 17. More than likely he means this in the sense that John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, because Jesus is also anticipating a future Elijah. Now, will the Old Testament prophet Elijah literally come prior to Jesus' second coming? Well, there are people that debate that issue. However, we do know this a witness will arrive with the power of Elijah, and he's going to powerfully prepare Israel for their Messiah. In fact, we're told, here's what he's going to do, verse six. Verse six tells us that he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. In other words, the problem that Malachi dealt with earlier about broken families and homes, well, it's going to be resolved. People are going to be reconciled to God. Families are going to be reconciled. Fathers are going to care about their children. This is going to be a wonderful time that speaks ultimately of the restoration of the nation, a revival in the nation of Israel prior to the return of Jesus that'll take place during the tribulation just before Messiah returns. Well, this final encouraging prophecy now takes us to the completion of the Old Testament. And with this prophecy, God's revelation ceases. It'll cease for four hundred years. Judgment upon Israel is coming, but so is the Messiah. And so the nation, as the Old Testament closes, is encouraged to look forward to the coming of the Lamb of God who will die to pay the penalty of sin. Today, we who stand on the other side of the cross, well, we can look backward. And we really need to do the same thing, however, that he's asking Israel to do: obey God's word and watch for the return of our King, our Savior, who's going to rapture the church any day now. And until he appears, well, let me just close the Old Testament by saying what we say at the end of each session. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.