Malachi 3:1 (NIV)
‘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.
Through Malachi God tells his people that he will first send someone to prepare them. That was John the Baptist. Then the Lord himself would come. That was Jesus. Do we underestimate John’s importance? Would the ministry of Jesus have been impossible without the Baptist’s preparation? “Suddenly … [he] will come to his temple.” Malachi probably thought God was speaking about the actual temple in Jerusalem. Of course that was true, Jesus did go the temple. But I wonder if God was hinting at something beyond that – at the new temple which Paul describes the church as, in 1 Corinthians 3. God comes not just to Jerusalem but to us!
Spirit, what do I need to do to prepare to meet Jesus today?
Leave a Reply