MALACHI 3:1
“‘Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear a way before Me. And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says the LORD of armies.”
Do you know what OTW means when you get a text message? It means On The Way. I have used that a few times, in fact, just the other day when a friend I was meeting texted me to find out where I was. Now OTW doesn’t tell anyone where you are. It is just a nice way to say that you will get there when you get there. Right?
Guess what? God told the people in today’s verse that He was OTW. He did not reveal when. He just said He would suddenly come to His temple. This verse is full of images and references to John the Baptist and Jesus Himself. But for the sake of staying in the context of Malachi, let’s stick with the fact that God did come, and judgment did fall on the people. The temple was destroyed, was rebuilt and then destroyed again.
APPLICATION
Do you believe Jesus is returning? He is OTW. We don’t know when, but He is. He told us so. In Luke 17:34-35 Jesus said, “‘34I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. 36 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.’” We just don’t know when He is coming.
That should not put us off from preparing for His arrival. Just like John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus’ first arrival into ministry, we need to be preparing the world for Him to return. Jesus told his disciples, “And He was saying to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” (Luke 10:2) That is still true today.
In the ministry I serve, we are constantly looking for men who have a passion to disciple other men. We believe strongly the way to change a culture for Christ is to reach the men. Would you pray with me for more men to be called to full-time ministry to men? We want to reach the world for Christ and prepare it for His coming.
Father, we know Jesus is going to return. Give us direction to prepare the way for Him.