Steve Webb 0:00 Go ahead and try me. Steve Webb 0:03 This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California and podcasting since 2004. My name is Steve Webb. and I'm your OG Godcaster. It's prophecy Friday, and we will read the book of Malikai. For chapters. Today is September 1, the pilot is throttling back to fuel he's about to begin our final approach. and this is the first day of the last month of season 13. Be sure to listen all the way through this episode, because I do have an important announcement to make. Before we read, though, let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we love you. and we thank you so much for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, for revealing yourself to us for sharing your thoughts for telling us Lord, how we should live in order to please you. and not only that, Lord, how we can spend eternity with You. Teach us today as we read, touch our hearts. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, are you ready? Let's begin. Steve Webb 0:55 Malachi chapter one. This is the message that the Lord gave Malikai to tell the people of Israel. The Lord says to his people, I have always loved you. But they reply, how have you shown your love for us? The Lord answers, Esau and Jacob were brothers. But I have loved Jacob and his descendants and I have hated Esau and his descendants. I have devastated Esau as Hill Country and abandoned the land to jackals. If he saw us descendants, the Edomites say, our towns have been destroyed, but we will rebuild them. Then the Lord will reply, let them rebuild, I will tear them down again. People will call them the evil country and the nation with whom the Lord is angry forever. The people of Israel are going to see this with their own eyes and they will say the Lord is mighty even outside the land of Israel. The Lord Almighty says to the priests, children, honor their parents and servants honor their masters. I am your father. Why don't you honor me? I am your master. Why don't you respect me? You despise me? and yet you ask how have we despised you? This is how, by offering worthless food on my altar. Then you say? How have we failed to respect you? I will tell you by showing contempt for my altar. When you bring a blind or sick or lame animal to sacrifice to me. Do you think there's nothing wrong with that? Try giving an animal like that to the governor? Would he be pleased with you or grant you any favors? Now you priests try asking God to be good to us. He will not answer your prayer and it will be your fault. The Lord Almighty says I wish one of you would close the temple doors so as to prevent you from lighting useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you. I will not accept the offerings you bring me people from one end of the world to the other honor me. Everywhere they burn incense to me, I'd offer acceptable sacrifices, all of them honor me. But you dishonor me when you say that my altar is worthless. and when you offer on it food that you despise, you say how tired we are of all this, and you turn up your nose at me. As you're offering to me you bring a stolen animal or one that is lame or sick? Do you think I will accept that from you, and a curse on the cheater who sacrifices a worthless animal to me when he has in his flock a good animal that he promised to give me for I am a great king, and people of all nations fear me. Steve Webb 3:26 Malachi chapter two. The Lord Almighty says to the priests, this command is for you, you must honor me by what you do. If you will not listen to what I say then I will bring a curse on you. I will put a curse on the things you receive for your support. In fact, I have already put a curse on them because you do not take my command seriously. I will punish your children and rub your faces in the dung of the animals you sacrifice and you will be taken out to the dung heap, then you will know that I have given you this command so that my covenant with the priests the descendants of Levi will not be broken. In my covenant I promised them life and well being and this is what I gave them so that they might respect me. In those days they did respect in fear me. They taught what was right not what was wrong. They lived in harmony with me. They not only did what was right themselves, but they also helped many others stop doing evil. It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them and learn my will because they are the messengers of the Lord Almighty. But now you priests have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has led many to do wrong. You have broken the covenant I made with you. So I in turn will make the people of Israel despise you because you do not obey my will. and when you teach my people you do not treat everyone alike. Don't we all have the same father didn't the same God create us all? Then why do we break our promises to one another and why do we despise the covenant that God made with our ancestors? The people of Judah have broken their promise to God and done a horrible thing in Jerusalem and all over the country. They have defiled the temple which the Lord loves. Men have married women who worship foreign gods. May the Lord removed from the community of Israel, those who did this, and never again, let them participate in the offerings our nation brings to the Lord Almighty. This is another thing you do. You drown the Lord's altar with tears, weeping and wailing, because he no longer accepts the offerings you bring him. You ask why he no longer accepts them? It is because he knows you have broken your promise to the wife, you married when you were young. She was your partner, and you have broken your promise to her, although you promised before God, that you would be faithful to her. Didn't God make you one body and spirit with her? What was his purpose in this? It was that you should have children who are truly God's people. So make sure that none of you breaks His promise with his wife. I hate divorce says the Lord God of Israel. I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to his wife. Make sure that you do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife. You have tired the Lord out with your talk. But you ask, How have we tired him by saying the Lord Almighty thinks all evil doers are good? In fact, he likes them, or by saying, Where is the God who was supposed to be just. Steve Webb 6:28 Malachi chapter three. The Lord Almighty answers, I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me, then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple, the messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant, but who will be able to endure the day when he comes? Who will be able to survive when he appears? He will be like strong soap like a fire that refines metal, he will come to judge like the one who refines and purify silver, as a metal worker refined silver and gold. So the Lord's Messenger will purify the priests so that they will bring to the Lord the right kind of offerings, then the offerings which the people of Judah and Jerusalem bring to the Lord will be pleasing to Him as they used to be in the past. The Lord Almighty says, I will appear among you to judge and I will testify at once against those who practice magic against adulterers, against those who give false testimony, those who cheat employees out of their wages, and those who take advantage of widows, orphans and foreigners, against all who do not respect me. I am the Lord and I do not change. and so you the descendants of Jacob are not yet completely lost. You like your ancestors before you have turned away from my laws? and if not kept them turned back to me and I will turn to you. But you ask, What must we do to turn back to you? I asked you, is it right for a person to cheat God? Of course not. Yet you are cheating me how you ask? In the matter of tithes and offerings. A curse is on all of you, because the whole nation is cheating me. Bring the full amount of your ties to the temple so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test. and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you the abundance of all kinds of good things. I will not let insects destroy your crops and your grape vines will be loaded with grapes, then the people of all nations will call you happy because your land will be a good place to live. You have said terrible things about me says the Lord. But you ask what have we said about you? You have said it is useless to serve God. What's the use of doing what he says are of trying to show the Lord Almighty that we're sorry for what we have done. As we see it proud people are the ones who are happy, evil people not only prosper, but they test God's patience with our evil deeds and get away with it. Then the people who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard what they said in his presence that was written down in a book a record of those who feared the Lord and respected him. They will be my people says the Lord Almighty. On the Day when I act, they will be my very own. I will be merciful to them as parents are merciful to the children who serve them. Once again, my people will see the difference between what happens to the righteous and to the wicked to the person who serves me and the one who does not. Steve Webb 9:24 Malachi chapter four. The Lord Almighty says The day is coming when all proud and evil people will burn like straw. On that day they will burn up and there will be nothing left of them. But for you who obey me my saving power will rise on you like the sun and bring healing like the sun's rays. You will be as free and happy as calves lead out of a stall. On the Day when I act you will overcome the wicked and they will be like dust under your feet. Remember the teachings of my servant Moses the laws and commands which I gave him at Mount Sinai for All the people of Israel to obey. But before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, I will send you the prophet Elijah, he will bring fathers and children together again. Otherwise I would have to come and destroy your country. Steve Webb 10:16 Malachi is another Old Testament prophet about whom we know very little. Here's what we do know, his name means my angel. and that's about it. Judaic Tradition holds that Malikai was from the tribe of Zebulun, and that he did not live a very long life. The message of the book of Malachi contains Gods charges against the people for the neglect of the rebuilt temple. You'll remember that the prophets Haggai and Zechariah brought reproof for the neglecting to build a temple and in Malachi's time the temple had been rebuilt, but now it's neglected. Also, in this book, God charges them with profaning the temple by their behavior while they were there. Now, there was a period of 400 years between Malachi and the birth of Jesus. and before beginning this period of silence, God used Malachi to speak more about the coming Messiah. and he told the people that his coming was close. 400 years might sound like a long time, but really in the scheme of things. It's not, is it? Now the second chapter of Malachi ends with this verse. You have tired the Lord out with your talk, but you ask how have we tired him by saying, The Lord Almighty thinks all evil doers are good? In fact, he likes them? Or by asking, where is the God who is supposed to be just? God's answers to these questions is in the first verse of chapter three? Here's what it says, The Lord Almighty answers, I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me, then the Lord you're looking for will suddenly come to His temple, the messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant, who was the messenger of the Lord Almighty sent to prepare the way? You got it? John the Baptist, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all quoted this passage in pointing out that John's coming was prophesied, and that it was to prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah. and notice again, the words of the verse I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me, who was speaking, the Lord Almighty, I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me, not another prophet, God Himself would come to the temple, fulfilling the old covenant and establishing a new covenant, a new covenant, that covenant was what we call the good news. and then right after that, verses two through five speaks of the second messenger judging and refining. This is referring to the Second Coming of Jesus. You see, most of the Old Testament prophets didn't see the separation of the two Advents, or comings of Jesus. I've used this analogy before. In looking at a mountain range from a distance, you can't see the valleys between the peaks, the peaks are easy to see. and from a distance, they look as if they're the same distance away from you, you can't see the difference between them. Oftentimes, usually, as a matter of fact, there are miles between peaks with a valley separating them. and this is how the ancient prophets saw the coming of the Messiah. They just looked at the whole picture and didn't see that there was a separation between His first coming at His second coming. We Beloved, we live in the valley, the first peek, that of Jesus first coming is behind us. and His Second Coming is still ahead. Also, in chapter three is a very unique verse. God tells the people that they're guilty of cheating or robbing from him. That's in verse eight. and then in the second part of verse a, God says, how you ask, in the matter of tithes and offerings, a curse is on all of you, because the whole nation is cheating me. Bring the full amount of your ties to the temple so that there will be plenty of food there, put me to the test, and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you and abundance, all kinds of good things. I will not let insects destroy your crops and your grape vines will be loaded with grapes. So what was unique about that, God said, put me to the test. and not only that, the way he said it, it was a command. He said, test me, bring your ties to the temple, give us a command, and I will pour out my blessings in abundance. Go ahead and try me. Beloved, there is no other place in Scripture that compares to this. Now moving on to chapter four. Finally, in this chapter, the people are reminded to keep the Mosaic law as they watch for the Messiah. St. Maya wrote the following couple of paragraphs in his commentary on Malikai. In verse two is said, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings at the end of the Old Testament. it is appropriate that the sun should break out. The morning that broke on Paradise was clear enough it was without clouds. But the sky soon became dark in at last veiled with only here and there a chunk of blue sky left. All through the dark succeeding centuries there had been gleams of sunshine, to let men know that the sun was shining still, every precious promise, every solemn type or foreshadowing, every holy life that was bathed in supernatural beauty, was like a shining forth of the sun through the bars of human darkness and sin. But evidently more was in store than the Old Testament saints had dreamed. and the time was coming when the rain of type symbol and parable would be succeeded by the clear vision of the face of God. We live in the days of open vision, let us go forth and exalt. We are to rejoice in every good thing he gives us, as the young calves of the early spring manifest their exuberant life in their caterings and Gamble's and the pastures. So let us give expression to our joy. Exalt because of the clear, shining of God's love, exalt because the darkness is past, in the true light now shines exalt because he is coming again, as surely as he came once, wake up my soul, take psaltery and harp and sing, the bridegroom is at hand, hark, are those his chariot wheels reverberating through the air, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. So yes, in Malachi, God gave a vision of the coming Messiah. In his first coming, he established the good news. and he's given all these years between then and he is Second Coming to bring all the people into the Kingdom who will come. Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Do you have thoughts or questions about what you've just heard? Let me hear from you. Send to Boostagram or call the Lifespring family hotline or go to the comments page or write an email so many ways to contact me. I'll tell you how to do all those things at the end of the show. Tomorrow we'll be gospel Saturday and our reading will be Acts 19 and 20. Steve Webb 17:20 Kevin Schneider is our associate producer today he came in with $133.33. and he had this note attached finally made some time to donate. and if the 133 33 isn't obvious, season 13 Episode 333 13333 He said thanks. Well, thank you, Kevin. Much appreciated. God bless you. I love these show number donations. Very cool. Announcer 17:47 And now, as the French say, it is time for le boost. Steve Webb 17:54 316 SATs came in from fountain user bereanbitcoiner and they said are you reading from the God's Word translation? Thanks for the question, bereanbitcoiner. Sometimes I do use the God's Word translation, but on that episode he was by the way, he boosted on the Psalms 137 through 139 Episode God's unfailing love on that episode debris and Bitcoin are always using the ESV, the English Standard Version. Now on each day show notes page, I always tell you which translation or translations I used on that day, so it's right at the top of the page. So if you ever wonder, that's how you can find out how beloved This is episode 335 There will be 364 episodes of this season. That means there are 29 days left. Let me ask you something has the show helped keep you on track to read through the entire Bible in a year. What is staying in the word done for you? If you're thankful for the show, then please do consider a value for value donation to show your appreciation. Pray about it, would you and then do as the Lord leads Jingle 18:58 Lifespringmedia.com/support Steve Webb 19:07 beloved, bringing God's word to you via this humble little podcast is a tremendous privilege. and sharing my thoughts with you about what we've read each day is in my mind anyway, an awesome man I mean that in the literal way as in all inspiring, it's an awesome responsibility. and I've always taken that responsibility very, very seriously. I've shared on the show how God called me to create what will become the very first Christian podcast way back in 2004. I didn't begin the podcast because I thought it would be cool or because I wanted to make a name for myself or anything like that. and I certainly didn't do it for money. He you hear the donations believe me. I appreciate every donation that comes in truly but they will never be what Adam and John call an exit strategy. The show has always been a labor of love and obedience to the Lord for me. He called me I am a servant and really, it's as simple as that, but as you might imagine, doing a seven day a week show is more than a little work. A lovely lady Leanne will attest that it's a way of life. Literally, my entire life revolves around this show. before I make any plans, my first thought is, will this affect the show? Do I have the time? How can I make it fit into my schedule. and as you know, if you've been listening this past year, and part of last year, I've had a few health issues. I'm at the age where I just can't assume that I can power through hours of the computer with no long term ill effects. I have to prioritize taking care of myself, I'll soon be the grandfather has six wonderful grandkids, I've got like five and three quarters grandkids right now. So I would like to do all that I can to stick around as long as possible. But as I said, I am God's servant. I've prayed often with that in mind. I've told the Lord that I will do this show for as long as he wants me to do I want to serve him until I draw my last breath. and I will have that I have no doubt. Now in my prayers, I have asked him to make it clear whether or not he wanted me to do another year of the show once this season is over, or if it would be okay to make this the final season. On one hand, I would like to do one more season that would make 20 years behind this microphone 2004 to 2024. There's something kind of special about that, I think. and if you have any questions, yes, this is season 13 of the show. But I didn't start this show until a few years after I started the Lifespring podcast. and I took about two or three years off before the Lord made it clear to me that I needed to get back to work doing this show specifically this show. Well, anyway, this has been a matter of prayer for some time. I've agonized over it. I've talked to trusted godly friends. I've lost sleep over it. and Liana and I have talked about it more times than I can remember. I've asked Is it selfish for me to want more time to do other things? Will I be disobeying or dishonouring God's call if I bring the show to a close. So I asked the Lord to let me know if it was okay. I was completely prepared and willing to continue the show. Unless he let me know that I could close it. Well, without going into details, I have a hobby that I love to do. It's a hobby that takes a fair amount of time. and it feeds another hobby of mine. and about two and a half years ago, I was about to take it to another level but to do it required that I get some additional equipment. So I placed the order for that equipment. and shortly after I set the order in, I was notified that this thing was on backorder. Well, month past, still on backorder more months past still on backorder. and on and on. Well guess what? The part came in just a few weeks ago while I was wrestling with the decision for the show. and to me, this was God telling me that it's okay to take some time for myself. It's okay to make season 13 The final season. and he's given me a piece about it. Now, does that mean I'm through with podcasting? Well, to be honest, I'm not sure. I am sure that another seven day a week show is not in my future, but a weekly or bi weekly show that could happen. I love talking with you. and I love serving the Lord. and there are some exciting things happening in the podcasting 2.0 world right now as it relates to music. So there might be something there. and I will always love sharing God's love and the good news. So what I'm saying is I'm open to suggestions if you'd like to tell me what you would like to hear me do. In the meantime, we're going to finish this season strong and I will joyfully continue to share my thoughts with you on each day's reading. and I hope you'll stay with me right up to the last day in September Saturday the 30th. Now why am I telling you this? I'm making this announcement today because I respect you and I didn't want to spring it on you at the last minute. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Steve Webb 24:00 So here's how to contact me, call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus 1-951-732-8511 I would love to hear your voice as you give me your ideas, or go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com if you have a praise report or a prayer request, and for comments or questions, go to comment.lifespringmedia.com If you'd like to send an email to me, I'd love to get that to steve@lifespringmedia.com or send to Boostagram that you can get from a modern podcast app from podcast apps.com. Steve Webb 24:40 Thanks to Sister Denise Michael Haner and Scott Snider, Jason Paschall and sister Brittaney for their donations of time and talent. and thanks to Jason Paschall, for today's show art, and thank you, beloved, for making me a part of your day. Thank you for making me a part of your life. Will they see you tomorrow? I hope so. Until then May God bless you richly. I'm Steve Webb. Bye. James Cooper 25:05 all the programs in the Lifespringmedia.com family are made possible by the generous gifts of people like you Transcribed by https://otter.ai