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4 Let that
day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine
upon it. 5 Let
darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the
blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As for that
night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the
year, let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Lo, let
that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. 8 Let them
curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. 9 Let the
stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none;
neither let it see the dawning of the day. (Job 3:4-9)
26 With
the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew
thyself froward. 27 For thou
wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. 28 For thou
wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. (Psalms 18:26-28)
The darkness was so heavy one could cut it with a knife. Despite the torches of
Light born by the prophets from Abel to Zacharias, the Light had finally been
extinguished – it seemed, FOREVER! God had taught His people through
long-suffering and patience. The Law was given as testimony of man’s inability
to be righteous in and of himself. Something far greater was needed to satisfy
the righteous indignation of the Lord arising from our dreadful sins and
shortcomings. Of course, God was not surprised at the Fall of Adam eastward in
Eden. He was not surprised at the great wickedness of Noah’s Day, nor of the
pridefulness of desire of man to build a one-world government at Babel. Abraham
was a man of faith, but even Abraham failed of righteousness despite his close
walk with God. The Law and Commandments given to Moses on the heights of Sinai
were first broken, in toto, by Moses himself. God was not surprised at
this failure of character in Moses, either. It was all a part of His
foreordained plan to draw men by the unbreakable cable of LOVE to Himself
through the sacrificial death of His only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the close of the age of the Kings, including the failures of Saul, David,
and others, the people of God were demoralized. They were also in bondage now
both to sin and to the despotic rule of Babylon. Cyrus the Great, an anointed
and benevolent minister of God to free national Israel once more (as He had
done in Egypt) from harsh alien bondage, rose to power and was empowered by God
to defeat the mighty walls of Babylon and enter the city. There he met Daniel
the prophet who revealed to the great King the parchments of Isaiah and others
which prophesied specifically the triumph of Cyrus, and even called him by name
two hundred years before his birth. This prompted Cyrus to issue a proclamation
of prayer to the people of his conquered provinces:
1 Now
in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the
mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus
king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put
it also in writing, saying, 2 Thus saith
Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of
the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is
in Judah. 3 Who is
there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to
Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel,
(he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. 4 And
whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place
help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside
the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. (Ezra
1:1-4)
Still, being liberated from Babylon, national Israel could not prove faithful
to God. Those among Israel who were believers of the Promise made to Abraham
were a tiny remnant of what we could term ‘Spiritual Israel’ which exists today
in those who believe in that Promised Seed of Abraham – the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s last torchlight of prophecy in the person of Malachi now stands up to
utter the last Light and Hope of prophecy that would precede four hundred years
of abject darkness and silence from the Throne of God. Having murdered and
horribly mistreated the prophets across the ages of the Law and Prophets, God
would now deprive the people of the voice of prophecy – for four hundred dark
years. Imagine the darkness and despair of those who trusted in the secular
power of Israel as one sand castle after another was washed away by the waning
tides of unfaithfulness. Only those who KNEW God by heart, and believed all
that He had promised for His people in a Redeemer, were able to grasp the dimly
lit cinders of hope in the devastation of the dreams of a corrupt Israel.
God promised His people to wait with patience as His Mighty Hand endeavored to
fulfill the Promise made to Abraham. Patience is the fruit of Faith. God even
promised to endow us with an altogether New Language (the Gospel): 9 For then
will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name
of the LORD, to serve him with one consent. (Zeph 3:9)
Though the shadows gather in ever-increasing darkness, the Promise of a
Redeemer was closer now than ever before: 6 For
thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake
the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 7 And I
will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will
fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. (Hag 2:6-7 )
Zechariah prepares for the salient prophecies of Malachi in making a number of
completely descriptive points concerning the coming Lord:
8 Hear
now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for
they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. (Zech 3:8)
9 Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King
cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an
ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (Zech 3:9)
. . . and the house of David shall be
as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. (Zech 12:8) Of course, our Lord is called, in his
Incarnated Body, the Son of David, but is truly God as well.
9 For
behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven
eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and
I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. (Zech
3:9)
Jesus Christ is the Stone the builders rejected, but has become the Chief
Cornerstone!
12 And I
said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So
they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the
LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at
of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in
the house of the LORD. (Zech
11:12-13)
This was the going price for a servant. (see Matthew 26:15 & 27:3-10)
. . . . and
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zech 12:10)
1 In
that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. (Zech 13:1) 34 But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out
blood and water. (John 19:34) This was
the Rock cleft by Moses at Mount Horeb.
Now
on the heels of this long and dark night of four hundred years comes the
fulfillment of Malachi’s prophetic utterance. 1 Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. (Mal 3:1) (The ministry of John the
Baptist here) For a fuller understanding, read all of Chapter 3. 1 For,
behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto
you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his
wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3 And ye
shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your
feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. 4 Remember ye
the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all
Israel, with the statutes and judgments. 5 Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the LORD: 6 And he
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Mal 4:1-6)
. . . weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning. (Psalm
30:5)
How true! The long, dark night is coming to an end as God has prepared, from
the Foundation of the World, a Great Light symbolized by a Star (literally as
great Sun which every star is). That Star heralded the fulfillment of God’s
promise and ended the silence of darkness. It was not seen by the royalty or
priestly class of Israel, but by distant strangers of the East – the Magi of
Persia. They sought, and found, the Promised Seed of Abraham. It was the
promised Advent which we observe in the church – the Coming of the Promised Seed
of Abraham symbolized in the Star of Bethlehem. The last word of the Old
Testament is the Word ‘CURSE’ for the Law is a curse unto us; but the last Word
of the New Testament is, Even so, Come Lord Jesus. The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. AMEN (Rev
22:21)
