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there were those who were loyal, and their portraiture
as given here is very revealing.
Then they that feared the Lord. We halt with the
word Then. It was when form was rampant, devoid
of power, when the people had lost their sense of the love
of God, and His love was questioned, when the nation
was bringing tithes, but not the whole tithe-a very
great when they were saying it was a weari-
ness to wait upon God then there was a Iittle group of
people that are revealed.
Of them we are told
They that feared the Lord spake one with another
and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of
TWELVE HEBREW PROPHETS
remembrance was written before Him, for them that
feared the Lord, and that thought upon His Name.
And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in
the day that I act.
Two things concerning that group are clearly revealed.
The first is that they talked together. They spake
one with another. In the midst of a degenerate age
there were those who were talking together. In passing,
we may say that our Version renders it,
They spake often one to another, but there is no
word often in the Hebrew. The statement as Malachi
makes it reveals a constant habit of life, rather than an
occasional occurrence.
Then we find what they were talking about as he tells
us that they thought upon His Name. The conversa-
tion would be the result of their thinking. We tarry a
moment with the word thought. When Paul wrote,
If there be any virtue and praise, and so forth, think
on these things, he used the word which is found in the
Septuagint Version of Malachi. Quite literally it means
to take an inventory. These people thought upon the
Name. They were taking an inventory of their wealth
in the Name. The kings had gone. The priests were
corrupt. The prophets were silent, but they still had
the Name. To them the Name was Jehovah. This was
variously interpreted at different times by being con-
nected with other words, such as Jehovah-Shammah,
Jehovah-Tsidkenu, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Ropheka.
These, and other phrases help to interpret the wealth
THE VOICE OF MALACHI
of meaning there was in the Name Jehovah. In that
mental activity, resulting in fellowship with others, we
find the secret of loyalty in the midst of decadence.
Then we are told that the Lord hearkened and heard.
Here once more we pause with words, for Hebrew words
are constantly pictorial. In this case the Lord hear-
kened is an animal word, meaning to prick the ears.
The Hebrew word heard is also pictorial, and means
a bending over, with close attention, so that no sound
may be missed. Now our translations would lack final
value if we adopted literal translation, but for the moment
we are warranted in doing so, and by so doing the state-
ment becomes very arresting. The Lord pricked His
ears, and bent down in close attention. Daringly the
prophet was attempting to arrest these people by declar-
ing to them that as the horse they might have been driving,
would prick his ears to catch the sound of any word that
fell from the driver s lips, or as a mother would bend low
to miss no syllable of the infant prattle, so God, when
these people were talking together, as a result of thinking
upon His Name, was listening.
That remnant was the centre of real power in the
national life, when all else was moribund. The con-
ditions ran on for four hundred years, the great mass of
the people formalists, and becoming more and more
formal, until they were throttled with their own tra-
ditions. But we find in the New Testament, Simeon and
Anna, and Joseph and Mary, and others, fearing the Lord,
talking together as the result of thinking upon His Name.
TWELVE HEBREW PROPHETS
God had said through Malachi, They shall be Mine in
the day that I act, and they were His vantage ground at
the coming of the Messiah.
The last movement in the prophetic message called
the people to look on to the coming of another day.
The day cometh, it burneth as a furnace and all
the proud, and all that work wickedness, 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. But unto you that fear My Name
shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in
his wings.
The day is to be the same, created by the sun-rising. Its
effect will depend upon the conditions of The sun
rising will burn up stubble, where there is neither root
nor life. But it will bring healing where there is life and
where there is root. The prophet bade these people
look on to that day, and act in accordance with the vision,
The present condition of Christendom is vividly
portrayed in Malachi. I did not say, of the Church.
I would make a very clear distinction between the Church
and Christendom. The Church consists of all those who
constitute an elect remnant, that gather together to talk
of God, and ever take an inventory of His Name.
Christendom is the outward form, and a vast formalism
curses it. Let us remember that the day is coming, and
when the sun rises, its effect will depend entirely upon
our condition of life and character. Stubble it will
destroy, but it will bring healing to loyal souls.
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