Dark Nights, Long Waiting

Comparing the End of the Old Testament to the End of 2020

They say that “All good things must come to an end.” But my question is: what about bad things? More specifically, what about the craziness of 2020?

Fear not, friends, this year too will pass – in just a month! In some ways, this year feels like the end of one era and the beginning of a new one – a “new normal” that should not even have the word “normal” attached.

The Biblical storyline is not unfamiliar with such years – periods of time where everything seems to be changing and nothing seems to be normal. In fact, we are finishing just such a storyline as we conclude the Old Testament series we have been studying in our Sunday Classes. We will also see a similar story as we finish up the “Courageous Faith” sermon series with Daniel.

Talk about a time that’s not normal! During this period after the return from exile, God’s people had:

• A rebuilt Temple, BUT the final result was much less glorious than the original one (see the books of Haggai & Ezra). So much for the promised glorious Temple of Ezekiel!
• A governor from the line of David (Zerubbabel), BUT he wasn’t king. In fact, the whole land was under the domination of the King of Persia. And it wouldn’t get much better – Daniel prophesied that two more empires would rise to power. First Greece and then Rome would control the land of Israel, each with their own way of oppressing God’s people. The future wasn’t very bright for them! What happened to God’s promise to David that his son would reign forever (2 Samuel 7)? What happened to His promise to Abraham that his descendants would have the land of Palestine (Genesis 12)?
• A renewed dedication to serve God, BUT they still had sin-hardened hearts. The exile seemed to “cure” them of idolatry, but they quickly embraced other sins like presenting blemished sacrifices to God, divorcing for no reason, or questioning God’s goodness. The book of Malachi lists all of these in a question-and-response format, with the people questioning God at every turn and God exposing their wicked hearts. In fact, the whole book is like a “Greatest Hits” album of the people’s sins from the whole Old Testament. “How have we wearied you?” they ask God. Apparently, they didn’t remember the entire Old Testament narrative where they wearied God over and over and over! Where was the “new heart” that God promised through Ezekiel & Jeremiah that He would give His people?

It was a “best-of-times, worst-of-times” period. Perhaps no passage better demonstrates this than the very end of Malachi – in fact, it’s the very end of the Old Testament:

“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

-Malachi 4:4-6

What a sobering way for God to end the Old Testament before 400 years of silence!

The In-Between

It’s hard to live in such “in between” times. It’s like the nine months of waiting for a baby to be born, or like waiting on test results for a medical situation. It’s like the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas. You feel so much expectation and excitement, but you’re not quite there yet. The presents are under the tree, but you can’t open them yet!  

That’s what these people were facing, and that’s what we are facing here too on the other side of the cross.

Like them, we have seen some of God’s promises fulfilled for us – Christ has come! Our sins are forgiven! And yet, like them, we are still waiting for full and final redemption, for all sin and wickedness to be destroyed and everything to be set right when Christ returns!

So, we wait. What a hard thing to do! Especially when all of life screams chaos and our heart screams fear. But we must quiet our heart with truth, because God is working. He is doing something good in our days. And, as God instructed Habakkuk (2:3), we must wait for His promise, even if it seems slow in coming. “It surely will come. It will not delay.”

And sure enough, as we close the book on the Old Testament with Malachi’s final words, we open the pages of the New Testament and read about a priest, minding his own business and doing his duty in the Temple…when an angel suddenly appears!

And in these first words from God in 400 years, the angel says this –

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.…And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.”

-Luke 1:13, 17

Wait a second! Didn’t we just read that in Malachi 4? Yep, it is as if God finished telling Malachi, took a deep breath, and then sent Gabriel to Zechariah to say that that prophecy was about to come to pass. A new Elijah was coming – to an old man and old woman who couldn’t have any kids.

The Sunrise

God does everything in His own time. He follows His own calendar. But He WILL keep His promises, even if all goes quiet for a time.

It’s like the darkness before sunrise. You know it’s coming – nothing can stop the sun from rising. But it seems to take forever. Maybe you even doubt it will come up again (especially in these short Daylight Savings Time days!). But sure and steady, like clockwork, there comes the sun!

In fact, that’s how Malachi described the coming of Messiah, earlier in chapter 4, in a verse that this priest Zechariah quotes in Luke 1 after the birth of John the Baptist:

“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall.”

-Malachi 4:2

He did rise! He brought light and life and such joy! But He went back to Heaven and now we wait for His second sunrise, with that same hope, same joy, and same excitement.

So don’t lose heart. Even in the darkness, keep waiting. The “sun of righteousness” will rise.