Before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord

 

 Read Malachi 4

Creation is moving to some point in the future that we will call the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.  It’s coming.  We can’t mark it on our calendars or register it in our phones, but it’s coming.

For the wicked, it will be worse than they can imagine.

For the righteous, it will be greater than the human mind can conceive.

For the wise, we are to always be ready and live as if that day is upon us.  We don’t wait for the two-minute warning to start living as God has directed.  We are to be known by our love this day and every day.

We are to live our lives in response to the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus and do our best to follow the example of our Lord.

We know God through his holy word—the Bible—and through his Holy Word in the Flesh—Christ Jesus.  The people of Malachi’s time knew God through his holy word—mostly read to them by the scribes and priests—and by their interaction with their priests.

As they looked forward in time, they knew judgment was coming at some point, but they did not fully comprehend a Messiah or a Savior or an Anointed One. They had an inkling of these things but nowhere the knowledge of them that we enjoy today.

The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord was mostly going to be terrible, especially for those who rebelled against the Lord.  We can’t fault them for their thinking.  Malachi promised that before this day, Elijah would come.

The people knew of Elijah.  How could they not?  Think to the encounter of Elijah and the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel some 400 years earlier. 

The kingdom had gone astray.  Elijah was a wanted man but he confronted the king and caused all of the prophets of Baal to meet him on Mount Carmel to settle the matter of who truly is God.

This was not of Elijah’s own doing.  God set this in motion with the promise that he would send rain upon the drought-stricken land, but first the wicked needed to be purged from the land.

You know the story.  Both Elijah and the many prophets of Baal prepared a bull for a burnt offering.  There were 450 prophets of Baal plus 400 prophets of Asherah—those who ate the Jezebel’s table. 

So there are 850 prophets who had led the people astray to worship false gods, and there is Elijah.  Elijah said, let’s settle this once and for all.

Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

Here is how we will sort this out.  We each make an altar on which to burn the sacrifice.  We each prepare our animal and place it on the altar.  Make sure there is plenty of wood.  So they did just that. The prophets of Baal were up first.

No person would like the fire.  Each would call upon their god to light the fire of the sacrifice.  The prophets of Baal called out for hours without response.

Elijah had not yet called upon his God.  He hadn’t even repaired the altar that was in disrepair, but he was not silent.  He mocked the false prophets.  He taunted them.

You had better shout louder.  He can’t hear you.

Maybe your god is busy.  Did he put you on hold?

Maybe he is in the bathroom and he isn’t getting enough fiber in his diet. 

Elijah had to be having the time of his life.  False prophets wanted real fire from a false god.  They started slashing their own bodies to draw blood.  This was sometimes practiced and surely needed now as their god seemed to be taking a long nap.  Maybe he was hibernating.

When evening came, Elijah stepped up and said, it’s my turn now. The people had become bored with the false prophets' futile and frantic efforts to elicit fire from their god.

Elijah addressed the altar that had been neglected. He first surrounded it with 12 stones representing the 12 tribes and took the stones to build an Altar to the one true God.  Then he loaded it with wood

That wasn’t enough.  It was time to taunt the false prophets again.  He dug a trench around this altar.  That wasn’t all.  He had people fill 4 large jars with water and douse the offering and altar.  Once was not enough.  He would have the jars of water poured on the altar twice more until it was soaked and the trench around it was full.

The false prophets were probably thinking that this was going to be a draw.  It would take hours for the wood to dry enough that it might catch fire.  The status quo could continue.  Elijah could say what he wanted and the 950 false prophets could continue spewing their nonsense without fear of ever being held accountable.

But Elijah would not wait for the wood to dry.

At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.  Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

There would be no waiting to see if God would answer.

Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

It burned the offering and the wood and even the rocks. It even burned the dirt.  Have you ever been camping and said, let’s round up some rocks and dirt and start a fire with them.  Every drop of water was consumed. 

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

The people were convinced.  This was crossing the Jordan and the Red Sea on dry land convinced.  This was sweeping through the Promised Land with their enemies fleeing convinced.  This could only be the hand of the one true God.

Elijah seized the moment.

Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

OBTW—the rain came shortly thereafter.

Why do I tell the story of Elijah and the false prophets?  This Mount Carmel encounter was the image seared on the minds of God’s Chosen People.  The wicked were exposed.  They were taunted.  They were discredited and they were killed.

When God told his people that he would send Elijah before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, they were looking for a man who took care of business the way they would take care of business.  Think about it—850 false prophets dead in one afternoon.

The denomination sends me an email every couple of months noting the pulpit vacancies in our denomination.  On rare occasions, all the pulpits in our presbytery are filled.  That’s a momentary celebration.  Across the denomination, there are always two dozen churches searching for a pastor.

Imagine, having 850 vacancies to fill.  Elijah gutted the mechanism for worshiping false gods.

And yes, by way of confession, I do look to see if there is a CP church in need of a pastor in Honolulu. 

The people of Malachi’s day were looking for someone to come and set things right and if wicked people had to die in the process, then so be it.  Elijah would be perfect.

But God had other plans for Elijah.

He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Destruction will come for the wicked but not before there is a chance for people to repent and truly know God.

Elijah would begin the reconciliation that would be completed in Christ Jesus.  For those who rejected the invitation to life, there would be destruction, but God desires that none perish.

Before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, there will be a chance to repent and be reconciled to God.  We live in that time now.

Elijah has come.  We preach that all must repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord. 

There is a Great and Terrible Day of the Lord on the horizon.  Our job is to bring as many as we can to the great side of this day before it arrives.

Elijah has come.

Jesus has come.

Jesus will come again.

We are to be ready and bring as many to him as we can before he arrives!

Amen.