How the Book of Malachi Bridges to the Book of Matthew;
The Book of Malachi summarizes the Old Testament books as a unified story that point to the future. It highlights the spiritual failures of God’s chosen people, Israel. It also speaks of Yahweh’s unfailing love for His people. It was this love that sent Jesus into the world, as noted in the opening of the New Testament.
Where the Israelites had failed, God’s Son, Jesus, would succeed. Jesus knew that the covenant agreement God made with His people at Mt. Sinai (in Old Testament times) had been broken again and again by a disobedient people. After a long line of prophets was sent to call them back to following God, they still failed. In Jesus’ earthly life, He paid the penalty for disobedience by His once for all sacrificial death on the cross. And He lived out and fulfilled the covenant law perfectly so that a new covenant could be introduced on behalf of a new people of God. He would make “one new man” from both Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:15,16). There was a note of urgency with which Jesus began His ministry.
The Gospels — the first four books of the New Testament — confirm this all-inclusive concept of God’s plan to save those who believe in Him — Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus shows that He undertook God’s rescue mission for all mankind through the distinctive title He used for Himself, in the strategy of His ministry and in His teachings.
The Book of Malachi summarizes the Old Testament books as a unified story that point to the future. It highlights the spiritual failures of God’s chosen people, Israel. It also speaks of Yahweh’s unfailing love for His people. It was this love that sent Jesus into the world, as noted in the opening of the New Testament.
Where the Israelites had failed, God’s Son, Jesus, would succeed. Jesus knew that the covenant agreement God made with His people at Mt. Sinai (in Old Testament times) had been broken again and again by a disobedient people. After a long line of prophets was sent to call them back to following God, they still failed. In Jesus’ earthly life, He paid the penalty for disobedience by His once for all sacrificial death on the cross. And He lived out and fulfilled the covenant law perfectly so that a new covenant could be introduced on behalf of a new people of God. He would make “one new man” from both Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:15,16). There was a note of urgency with which Jesus began His ministry.
The Gospels — the first four books of the New Testament — confirm this all-inclusive concept of God’s plan to save those who believe in Him — Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus shows that He undertook God’s rescue mission for all mankind through the distinctive title He used for Himself, in the strategy of His ministry and in His teachings.
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