messenger of the covenant

 (Malachi 3:1) 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.

I like it when I discover new things in familiar passages of scripture.

I didnt know, before I started to look into this verse, that Malachi's name actually means messenger.😊  Which just goes to show God's sense of humour don't you think?  He gives a message to a man called Mr Messenger about two messengers who He is going to be sending in the future.  😂😂  Gotta love God.  

The first messenger in the verse is John the Baptist - Jesus Himself quotes this verse in Malachi when referring to John. (Matthew 11 ;10-15) - and we all know what is was that he was proclaiming.  The coming of Messiah.   The second messenger is Jesus who is given two names in this passage.  He is called The Lord - Adonai (meaning someone having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler.”) And then He is called the Messenger of the Covenant.  Which we need to unpack a bit because those four words hold a whole world of meaning.

Covenant is something not much taught about in churches these days.  I was blessed to grow up in a church which loved covenant and taught extensively about it and I consider an understanding of what it means to be absolutely central to understanding the gospel.  To my mind nothing about God really makes sense until you understand that He is a covenant -making and covenant -keeping God.   Bizarrely, having just written this paragraph I set down the laptop to go and do something else which involved me searching through a few drawers to find something I needed for church last Sunday.   And as I was looking I came across a page of notes about covenant which I had obviously acquired from some teaching session in church decades ago and had kept.  That piece of paper has been in a drawer for so many years and then reappears just as I am setting about writing on covenant !   Ha!  I do love this God adventure of a life.

So Im going to reproduce those notes here - cos they are clear and concise and say exactly what I want to say.  And if you have a super good memory and were at church with me in the 1980s it will be a refresher for you!! 😀  Bear with me - hopefully this will make sense by the end 

God makes 3 covenants with His people

1) with Adam - that his sins (and nakedness) will be covered by the shedding of the blood of animals to provide skins for clothing

2) with Noah - that mankind would never again be wiped out by a flood - rainbow

3)with Abram - that God would make of him a great nation which would live in a promised land - God walks between the two halves of an animal sacrifice

4) Jeremiah 31 - God promises that in the future there will be a new covenant which is to do with the heart rather than with customs and laws

What is a covenant?   It is an agreement between two parties. There are two basic types of covenants: conditional and unconditional. A conditional or bilateral covenant is an agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfilment. Both parties agree to fulfil certain conditions. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party has to fulfil the expectations of the covenant. An unconditional or unilateral covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has to do something. Nothing is required of the other party. God makes unilateral covenants with His people.  His people make bilateral covenants with each other.

The word is used over 250 times in the OT.    Here are 9 ways a covenant was expressed in the Old Testament 

1) Take off coat or robe and exchange them - expressing the sense that ' My total being I pledge to you'

2) take off belt and exchange  - I will defend and protect you.

3) Cut an animal in half and both stand between the halves - represents dying to ourselves

4) Raise the right arm and mix blood - representing the idea of two lives becoming one

5) Exchanging names -   Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah ( Gen 17)

6) Make a scar - the scar bears witness.  Represents a sign of protection.  

In the OT the scar of circumcision is required in every male ( Gen 17) 

7) Declaring covenant terms - what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine'

Gen 15:6 - and he believed the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness

8) Eat a memorial meal

9) Plant a memorial - the physical action of leaving a monument as a testimony to the covenant

These were everyday acts of commitment, promise, trust and unbreakable agreements which would have been very familiar to all readers of the Old Testament.  

People listening to Malachi 400 odd years before the birth of Jesus, and people reading his words during the time of Jesus would have had a really good understanding of what a covenant was.  And here was Malachi reminding them of what Jeremiah had said - that the person they were waiting for and longing and hoping for was coming and that He would be bringing with Him a covenant.  This new covenant between God and mankind will be “ not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” ( Jer 31 -31-34)

When Jesus comes, He comes declaring this new covenant - Luke 22;20  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

As we read the list of different types of covenant above it isnt hard to see how Jesus takes all the elements of the old way of doing covenant and moves them up to a whole new level.  Through the shedding of His blood He

1) exchanges garments with us clothing us in righteousness

2) Is our belt of Truth ( I am the way the Truth and the Life) thus ensuring our protection from the lies and deception of the enemy

3)Is our sacrifice for sins

4) Indwells us by His spirit so that we ' become one' with Him

5) Gives us a new name (Rev 2:17)

6) Circumcises our hearts

7) Confers on us all the benefits of sonship

8) Insiitutes the Lords Supper as a memorial meal

9) The cross becomes our memorial stone/altar

There is so much more to know about covenant and how central it is to understanding just what Jesus has done for us.  But hopefully the above gives you a bit of a taster.  The message of the new agreement God was drawing up between himself and mankind was written in Jesus's blood as He hung on the cross for us.   And all we have to do is believe it.   Amazing.  Thank you Jesus.