December 14th

Although Bibles do not put the Scriptures in chronological order, the last book of the Old Testament is the last book for a chronological reason. Of the prophetic messages in our Bibles, it is the last message we have before the first Christmas. After Malachi’s voice, we hear nothing else about the coming Immanuel, until the year of His birth.

Malachi said: 

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:1

Malachi was speaking to Jewish people who had returned to the land of Israel from exile. Yet the promises of God’s glory filling the temple had apparently not materialized. To a discouraged audience, Malachi prophecied that God will indeed come to the temple. But this awesome move of God would be preceded by a “messenger.”

In Isaiah 40, God had already told the people that this messenger would be the “voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ ” 

Malachi reminded this next generation of people that the messenger would prepare the way the coming One. We know from Matthew 3 that this “messenger” was John the Baptist. John was the earthly cousin of Jesus who was born just months before Jesus. 

Christmas is all about Jesus. And yet, John played a pivotal part in the Christmas story. In some ways, John’s birth was the last domino to fall before the long-awaited Messiah could come. 

Take a moment now to consider that last idea of a last domino. Could there be a last domino in your life? That one step of faith. That one final rejection of a secret sin. That one act of self-control. That one sacrifice. Is it possible that the long-awaited movement of God has not yet happened because of that one last domino that must fall? 

Consider praying this psalm today. It is from Psalm 139.

Search me, God, and know my heart;
  test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
  and lead me in the way everlasting.