SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/23/2016 10:30 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: “My Messenger”—John the
Baptist
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Malachi 3:1a
Message of the verse: “"Behold, I am going to send My
messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.”
This
perhaps it the most famous verse in all of the book of Malachi, for this verses
speaks of John the Baptist who came before the Lord Jesus Christ in order to
make the way smooth for Him.
I have
almost forgotten that the name Malachi means “My Messenger,” and so I suppose
that this verse should find itself in the book of Malachi. Jesus said the following about John the
Baptist in Matthew 11:10, also in Mark 1:2, and Luke 7:27 “For this is he of
whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face who will
prepare Your way before You.”
As we look
at our Bible we see that the book of Malachi is placed last as he was the last
writing prophet in the Old Testament, however John the Baptist was the last and
greatest of the Old Covenant prophets.
The following is an endnote from the pen of Warren Wiersbe “Keep in mind
that the Old Covenant was not ended by the birth of Jesus in the manger but by
the death of Jesus on the cross. John’s
ministry took place at the close of the old dispensation; so strictly speaking,
he was an Old Testament prophet.” So John had the unique privilege of
ministering at the close of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New
Covenant, although he died before Jesus died on the cross he was still the last
of the OT prophets. When we were
studying the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel we learned that they were born into
a priestly home just as John the Baptist was also, for his father Zachariah was
a priest serving in the temple when the angel Gabriel spoke to him about having
a son in his later years.
We have
also seen in the book of Isaiah chapter forty and verses three through five
that he also wrote of John the Baptist which is recorded in all four of the
gospels. “3 A voice is calling,
"Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a
highway for our God. 4 “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and
hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged
terrain a broad valley; 5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all
flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."”
Dr. Wiersbe
concludes this section by asking a question:
“But how does this answer the question, ‘Where is God’s justice for His
people?’ When Jesus Christ came and died
on the cross, He completely satisfied the justice of God. He paid the penalty for the sins of the world
and vindicated the holiness of God.
Nobody can ever truthfully say, ‘God isn’t just!’ The cross of Christ is proof that the same
God who ordained ‘the law of sin and death’ (Gen. 2:15-17; Rom. 6:23; 8:2-4)
also ‘took His own medicine’ (to quote Dorothy Sayers) and willingly died for
sinners. Because of Calvary, God is both
‘just and justifier’ of all who trust Jesus Christ (3:26).”
11/23/2016 10:50 PM
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