“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 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. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” – Malachi 4:1-6 (ESV)
David Strain comments:
So John the Baptist came preparing the way before the Lord Jesus with a powerful preaching ministry. He proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He preached Christ, and as he preached Christ, people were reconciled to God through faith in Messiah Jesus. And as they’re reconciled to God, a spiritual thaw began to happen in their hearts. Thomas Watson, famous Puritan once said, “Grace dissolves and liquefies the soul causing a spiritual thaw.” When grace breaks in, it reconciles us to God, it ends our alienation with Him, but it also begins to end, undo our alienation with one another. There’s a reconciliation that is vertical between ourselves and our God and it always, always appears to have happened in our hearts when we see reconciliation beginning to take place between ourselves and our most intimate relationships signified here in Malachi chapter 4 by the relationship of a father with his children and of a child with their father.
MEMORY WORK – Shorter Catechism Q/A 59
Q. 59. Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?
A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian sabbath.