Malachi 4
Behold the Good News!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, October 28. Behold, today concludes the Seize the Moment daily devotional phone calls. You have now read a devotion on every chapter of the Bible.
The word “behold” declares an announcement of what God has done or is going to do. “Behold” literally means, “Be sure to see,” and it’s used twice in the last chapter of Malachi, heralding God’s final words of the Old Testament in Malachi 4:1, 5-6:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. … Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
The fulfillment of this grand announcement was declared by the archangel Gabriel when speaking with Zacharias in Luke 1:11-20. The angel quoted Malachi 4:5-6 to the old priest when telling him that his wife Elizabeth would miraculously bear him a son and he shall name him John, for he shall prepare the way for the Lord. He then went over to Nazareth to tell Mary in Luke 1:31, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.” Thirty years later, John the Baptist, who, according to Jesus, was the “Elijah who was to come” (Matthew 11:14), heralded the good news about Jesus in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Seize the moment and be sure to see the good news for yourself – “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
YOUTUBE:
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