Malachi 4 Devotional

Healing at Sunrise

““But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.”Malachi 4:2 (BSB)

Malachi closes with two pictures of one coming day. For the arrogant and every evildoer it will burn like a furnace, leaving them like stubble with neither root nor branch (4:1). But for those who fear God's name, the sun of righteousness will rise and bring healing, and they will go out leaping like calves set loose from the stall (4:2). What it brings depends on how a person stands toward God.

The final words look both back and ahead. God calls his people to remember the law he gave Moses at Horeb, and he promises to send Elijah the prophet before the great day, to turn the hearts of fathers and children toward each other (4:4-6). Jesus identified John the Baptist as the promised Elijah (Matthew 11:14), who prepared the way for Jesus. The judgment is real, but so is the dawn. Those who fear his name do not have to face that day with dread. Through Christ they can look toward it as the morning when healing comes.

To think about: Do you think of the coming day of the Lord with dread or with hope, and what does Malachi 4 give you to hold onto?