Malachi 4:2 ESV
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
The wheels are turning for my new preaching series on Sunday nights. Malachi has got to be one of the most grace filled books of the greatest grace filled books the literature of the world has ever seen. Who speaks to Judah like God speaks to him here? None of this is expected; though our sinful hearts would demand it. What Judah should have had was immediate disintegration. What Judah should have experienced was immediate Hell at the bottom of the bottomless pit. What did God give them: God gave Judah arguments to show the sinfulness of their hearts in order for them to choose to repent.
God stoops to our need and welcomes us into His private conversation calling us to Himself by whatever means can work. God means to save our soul, and God means to save our soul by showing us the condition of our soul in light of His loving grace and mercy: “I have loved you.” This is the heart rending plea of a husband whose wife ran off to be a prostitute. The past tense of the verb should not make us think that His love has decreased; this plea comes from a heart that made a decision in the past and continues to live by that decision to love again.
Unfortunately, there are those among us who will not be loved. There are those among us who cannot be wooed. Those among us who cannot receive love must be destroyed (root and branch). But those who fear God’s name as a servant does his master, those servants will see the sun of righteousness! This Sun will bring healing in its wings and we shall be healed. Those who fear this Sun will have new unbounding strength like the newborn calves who skip along because they cannot yet control themselves. I see the Farmer, God, looking on with laughter at the uncoordinated leaping all the while knowing that this is exactly what is ‘healthy’ in a calve. This uncoordinated power must be harnessed and directed, but without this exuberant joy of life there would be no future. Let us trust our master Farmer and leap for joy while we fear.
Praise You Father for power.
Praise You Son for peace.
Praise You Spirit for pluck.
Leaping like a calve with you,
Pastor Greg
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