Malachi 1-4

Prophecy fell silent for 400 years, and then an angel of the Lord appeared and spoke: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:13-17).

Jesus confirms the identity of John: “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:10-15).

When an inspired writer says, “This is that which was spoken” and then quotes an Old Testament prophet, we can be sure of the interpretation. Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, began with “This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel,” and ended the quotation with ‘the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Acts 2:16, 20-21).

Perhaps there is no better way to end this thought and our study in the Old Testament than to ask ourselves if we have personally had our awesome day with the Lord, as suggested in the following song by John W. Petersen © 1961: