When God Needs to Come

There is something in this text that powerfully highlights both God’s appeal and humanity’s growing resistance.

Throughout the book of Malachi, we encounter approximately 25 questions, and the entire message of this book can be summarized by these questions and their answers. We will focus on those contained in the first two chapters.

Questions have a unique way of awakening the heart. Scripture contains roughly 3000 questions, and Jesus Himself asked about 225. Many of these were not asked to gather information but to provoke reflection and conviction. Significantly, God’s very first question appears in Genesis, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). The Lord knew very well where they were, but He wanted them to recognize the new, sad condition they were in after sin.

In many ways, every question God asks in the book of Malachi echoes that very first question in Scripture: Where are you? They all probe the same foundational issue: where we stand in our relationship with God and where we truly are on our journey on this earth.

Of the approximately 25 questions in Malachi, about half are asked by God and the other half by the people. This ongoing dialogue reveals the heart of both parties with striking clarity. On the one hand, we see God’s patience, precision, and unwavering faithfulness. On the other hand, we see humanity’s resistance, defensiveness, and tendency toward self-justification.

What unfolds is almost a psychological portrait of the human heart. Through these questions, Malachi exposes not merely theological disagreements but also a relational distance that God seeks to confront, heal, and restore.

Let us turn our attention to the questions the people themselves asked. I want to bring you to the one that describes this spiritual indifference so vividly that the biblical scribes felt compelled to alter its wording.

This change is among the Eighteen Emendations of the Sopherim, known as Tiqqunê Sopherim, adjustments made to preserve reverence for God. While this desire for change did not justify altering the Word of God, the scribes did not conceal their actions.

This example appears in Malachi 1:13, which reads: “You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the LORD of hosts. Yet the original Hebrew sense is different; it says, “You blow disrespectfully at Me.”  The image here is shocking in its irreverence toward the Almighty. To blow in someone’s face was a gesture of arrogance and contempt. The people understood exactly how offensive this was.

In the Persian court, reliefs show that even high officials covered their mouths when speaking to the king as a sign of respect. In the heavenly court, the contrast is even more striking. In Isaiah 6:2, we read that the seraphim stand before God with six wings, using two to cover their faces, two to cover their feet, and two to fly. By Malachi’s day, that kind of reverence, such awe and esteem for God, had largely disappeared.

We have now reached the end of Chapter 2. Despite repeated calls to return, the human heart did not soften; it hardened instead.

But this is not only the end of Chapter 2: here we stand at the close of the Hebrew Scriptures, with a people who appear to have reached the point of no return. From a purely logical standpoint, God should simply walk away and leave humanity to its own devices. But logic without wisdom and without love is cruel. And God is not cruel.

This is when we reach the highest point in the book of Malachi, perhaps even in the Hebrew Bible, and we read chapter 3, where, in the face of such desperation, God decides to come down to resolve the problem.

This is the moment when the Messiah appears, not for judgment but for salvation. Let us conclude by reading and contemplating the power of Malachi 3:1. We will look at it in greater depth next time. It says: “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.” What God declares here is astonishing. He says He will send a messenger who will prepare the way before Me, that is, before the Lord Himself. In other words, God is coming.

Who is this messenger, and how does the Lord resolve humanity’s deepest problem? Yeshua Himself answers the first question. In the Gospel, He identifies the messenger as a faithful Levite named Yohanan HaMatvil. Do you remember who he is? This is John, the Baptizer, in Hebrew. All four Gospels begin with his ministry because his role is essential: he prepares the way for the Lord. Malachi’s prophecy clearly addresses this when we read, “before Me,” meaning before the Lord.
The Brit Hadasha, the New Testament, reveals the fulfillment in Yeshua Himself.

This is why Isaiah could prophesy centuries earlier in Isaiah 9:6 that a child would be born and yet be called El Gibbor, Mighty God, and Everlasting Father. Beyond our full comprehension, they are One and the same.

When we turn the page from Malachi to the next book, the Gospel of Matthew, we are told exactly why He came, “You shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

This is how humanity’s problem is resolved, not by law, not by ritual, not by reform, but by God Himself stepping into history to save. Imagine a courtroom where the verdict has already been pronounced, Guilty, and the sentence is just. The judge could simply strike the gavel and walk away. But instead, the judge steps down from the bench, removes his robe, and takes the place of the condemned.

That is Malachi 3:1. That is the Gospel. When humanity reached the end of itself, God did not walk away; He came down. His name is Yeshua, Salvation.

Click Here for the Video : Malachi Part 4 – The Day God Could no Longer Remain Silent