#DailyDevotion Do You Remember?
Malachi 4:4-6
4“Remember the instructions I gave My servant Moses at Horeb as laws and decrees for all Israel. 5“I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the LORD’s great and terrible day comes. 6He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise I will have to come and destroy the whole country with a curse.”
Zakar, that is the Hebrew word for remember. The LORD is calling on Israel to remember the instructions he had given Moses at Horeb. I find it interesting, the whole book of Malachi, in that the LORD is still calling his people to repentance. It is interesting because the LORD had just brought the Jews back from exile, an exile he imposed upon them because of their previous disobedience. It appear in Malachi, they have forgotten and returned to their old ways without the blatant idol worship they were involved in before the exile. From Jesus’ encounters with the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees, it does not appear they remember anything.
Yet the LORD is patient, kind, merciful, gracious and forgiving. So he calls them to remember. Four hundred years later he fulfills what he has spoken here. He has sent Elijah the prophet before the LORD’s great and horrible day to restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, at least some of them. In Matt. 11 Jesus says, “3All the prophets and the Law prophesied up to the time of John, 14but he (are you willing to accept it?) is the Elijah who has to come.” Then again in Matt. 17 he says, “’12But I tell you Elijah has already come, and people didn’t know him but treated him as they pleased. In the same way they’re going to make the Son of Man suffer.’ 13Then the disciples understood He was talking about John the Baptizer.”
John the Baptist is the fulfillment of this prophesy. You need not look for a second appearance of John in some future time. As we see in the Gospels, John indeed came and called many to repentance, turning them back to the LORD, reminding them of the instructions the LORD had given them at Horeb. Those who received John had their hearts turned back to their fathers and their fathers to their children. Those who received John and his message also received Jesus and his message. Indeed, a number of Jesus’ apostles were John’s former disciples. Unfortunately, as we see in Matthew 17 above, not all of Israel received John or Jesus. Because of this, the land was destroyed with a curse in 70 AD when the Romans were sent by the LORD to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. The LORD though remembered those who remembered him and his instruction given through his Son Jesus Christ. They departed the land before the Romans fulfilled the LORD’s bidding upon those who rejected his only begotten Son.
So now we are called to remember (zakar) all that Jesus has taught us and done for us. We remember when we turn from our sins and turn to him for salvation. When we believe what he has done for us and then start living what he has instructed us we fulfill what was spoken to God’s people in Malachi. So don’t be like those people. Turn from your ways and remember Jesus, his life, death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins, a new clean and washed heart that trust God our Father and wants to please him.
Gracious God and Father, you sent John to fulfill Elijah’s mission, to point us to Jesus our savior and have faith in him. Help us to remember all you have taught us through Christ and then live out his life in our own. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.