Links for today’s readings:
Jun 5 Read: Malachi 4 Listen: (1:06) Read: Psalms 92-93 Listen: (2:09)
Links for this weekend’s readings:
Jun 6 Read: Isaiah 1 Listen: (4:36) Read: Psalm 94 Listen: (2:08)
Jun 7 Read: Isaiah 2 Listen: (3:00) Read: Psalms 95-96 Listen: (2:37)
Scripture Focus: Malachi 4.1-6
1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Reflection: Break the Silence
By John Tillman
Christians and Jews agree on some writings that we both call “scripture” or “God’s Word.”
The Jewish arrangement of these texts, which we call the Old Testament, is different. We close with the shorter prophetic books, ending with Malachi. They close with Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (as one united book), and Chronicles. However, Christian and Jewish sources agree that Malachi was the last prophet chronologically. They also agree that prophecy fell silent following Malachi.
No prophets saw dramatic visions. No one said confidently, “Thus saith the Lord.” However, the silence wasn’t total.
People still prayed and God still answered. Wise teachers, scholars, and scribes still wrote new books. But no one held the intertestamental books with the same reverence as Malachi and his predecessors.
God’s people, living between the testaments, recognized a difference in what they and we call “God’s Word” and the other spiritual and religious writings. The scriptures from which God had spoken become all the more important during this period of silence.
Some silences of God might be him politely allowing us to speak first. Some silences of God are him waiting patiently for us to pass on what we already heard. Some silences of God are him asking us to spend the silence by deepening our understanding of his scriptures.
God promised on Malachi’s final page that it would not be the last page of prophecy to his people. God promised to break the silence. Jesus said John the Baptizer was, if we will accept it, the “Elijah” that Malachi promised (Luke 1.17; Matthew 11.14; 17:12). But John didn’t end the silence alone. Through Joel, God promised to pour out his Holy Spirit, not on just one man or even twelve apostles, but on a multitude of sons and daughters who would prophesy (Acts 2.16-21; Joel 2.28-32).
All God’s children are part of breaking the silence.
Are you fulfilling the promises God made through Malachi and Joel? Are you fulfilling the promises made through John the Baptizer and Jesus? Are you participating in God’s promise to break the silence?
Here’s some quick guidance as to how.
Devote yourself to prayer and God’s word. (Acts 2.42-47) Eat this book. (Eze 3.1-4; Rev 10.8-9) Open your mouth. God will fill it. (Psalm 81.10; Eze 2.7-10) Open your mind. God will transform it. (Rom 12.2; 1 Cor 2.13-16; 2 Cor 3.18)
Adjust your life to scripture, not scripture to your life. Trim your life like the wick of a lamp, (Luke 12.35; Matt 25.7-9) then watch the Holy Spirit ignite it, shining the light of truth and salvation.
Break the silence.
Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
The Song of Zechariah
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has visited his people, he has set them free, and he has established for us a saving power in the house of his servant David, just as he proclaimed by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times, that he would save us from our enemies, and from the hands of all those who hate us, and show faithful love to our ancestors and so keep in mind his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant us, free from fear, to be delivered from the hands of our enemies, to serve him in holiness and uprightness in his presence all our days. And you, little child, you shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for him, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us, to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow dark as death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. — Luke 1:68-79
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Destiny of Grass vs Cedars
There are purposes for the flourishing of the wicked and one of them is that one day the world will see them fall.
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