Today we are finishing our look at the Book of Malachi. The final chapter ends with another prophetic look at the advent of Christ. Prophecy tends to be wide in its scope, non-linear in its timeline, and from a perspective which sees the significance of events as God sees the significance . In other words, it sees things in terms of an ultimate point of view which is sometimes so different from what we as humans expect to see that we come close to missing the event entirely. In addition, some prophecy has an element of “already, but not yet” in it, which is to say sometimes we can see the prophecy as fulfilled, but there are elements where further fulfillment of the prophecy yet to come. This is how the Book of Malachi ends.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”