Last Sunday, I shared with our congregation an important truth regarding Christmas that is often missed. While Christ is the center of Christmas and it is His birth that we celebrate, some of the details of the background add depth and a great deal of significance to His coming if understood properly. The interesting part is that we do not think of the last book of the Old Testament as being relevant to the birth of Christ; it is.

The book of Malachi was written to the nation of Israel. But, they were a different people than the ones who had received the messages of most of the other prophets. They were broken, and discouraged, and anxious. God had promised great things but they were getting tired of waiting for His promises and even though they had just returned from exile 80-100 years earlier and the memory of being slaves was still fresh on their minds, they had forgotten why they were exiled and as a dog returns to its vomit, so did the Israelites return to their sin. God sent Malachi to whip the people into shape. The message God sent is every bit as relevant today as it was then. Listen to some of the sins they were committing:

1:6-10 God rebukes the people for the fact that they present to Him less than their best in their sacrifices. (Giving God less than your best is like shouting in His face that He is not worth it.)

1:12-13 God rebukes the people for their lackadaisical attitude when coming to the house of worship; for thinking and saying worshipping God is boring! (I don’t really think I need to even explain how this is relevant today…)

2:13-16 God rebukes the people for divorce and outright says that He hates it. (1 out of 2 marriages in Christian circles end in divorce today, 2 out of 3 spanish marriages end in divorce.)

3:8-11 God rebukes the people for robbing Him. How? By not tithing what they needed to tithe. (It has been estimated that the U.S. church gives less than 3% of their income. Spain is much worse at less than 1%, but imagine what God could do if we trusted Him enough to give beyond what we think our budget allows.)

You may be asking, what does this have to do with Christmas? A lot.

In the midst of the condemnation of the people’s sin, God gave a message of hope for the people. Malachi 3:1-4 shares God’s plan of sending John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Messiah who would come and who (if the people hadn’t handled their problems) would cleanse and wash their sins.

The Last Christmas Announcement had been given and Israel needed to get ready. The reference to John the Baptist outlines the purpose of John as well as of Malachi, namely: GET READY!!! HE’S COMING SOON!! The nation was to prepare themselves, they were to put into practice the words of Isaiah 40 and prepare a straight highway from God to their hearts, removing sins, addictions, and horrible practices so that when King Jesus would come, they would be ready to receive the great blessings He would bring with him.

Alas, Israel wasn’t ready, and their apathy and sin blinded their eyes and hearts from being able to recognize God living among them. Most did not receive Him and thus Jesus mourned their stubborn decision and said these words in Matthew 23:37-39 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” In essence, Jesus was saying, “You missed out. You weren’t ready.”

Malachi, the prophets, John the Baptist, actually the whole Old Testament was looking forward to the events of Luke 2 that we read every Christmas, and yet they weren’t ready when He came; we must learn from this failure.

The reason I mention Malachi is because those sins are the same sins that plague our lives (and obviously many more). Just as Israel was to prepare for Christ’s coming, by pulling out those sins as weeds in a garden, so we too must prepare; for Christ is coming again!

And so, one of the great lessons of Christmas is this: Israel was prepared for Christ’s coming, they failed to prepare and they missed out on the wonderful blessings He wanted to bestow upon them at that time. We must learn the lesson and just as Christ came the first time, He WILL come a second time and we must be ready. Joy to the World, the Savior came; but Great Joy to the World when He comes again!! Merry Christmas!

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