What’s the most encouraging verse in the Bible? Is it a favorite verse in the Psalms? Some of Jesus’ words from the Gospels? A pastoral reassurance from one of Paul’s letters?

Ask one hundred people that question and you might get one hundred different answers, but I’m betting none of them will mention Malachi 4:6.

Malachi 4:6 is the very last verse in the Old Testament. Here’s what it says:

“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.”

Not really life verse material, is it? And yet, between the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew, this is God’s final word to the nation of Israel before 400 years of silence.

No new prophets, no new visions, no more miracles. Just the warnings of the prophets ringing in their ears.

Imagine being an Israelite during those 400 years, waiting for the promised Messiah to come and longing for news of God’s intervention on behalf of his people. But for so many years – nothing.

It was as if God had turned out the light, and the nation was plunged into darkness.

It’s not easy for us as 21^st-century Christians to understand what that time must have been like. After all, it takes about one second for us to turn the page in our Bibles, moving from God’s declaration about utter destruction in Malachi to the coming of the Messiah in Matthew. We know how the story turned out.

Israel didn’t know, however. They couldn’t see through the darkness to what was on the other side.

But God could.

El Roi: The God Who Sees Me

During this dark, silent period of Israel’s history, it might have been easy to think that God wasn’t paying attention, that he no longer cared about what was happening to his people. It might have been easy to question what God was doing and where He was.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

Israel’s history was full of such moments. In fact, several hundred years earlier, a young slave girl felt exactly this way: cast out, rejected, unseen. Her name was Hagar. When Hagar stumbled out into the desert with her son, unwanted and alone, she had no idea what God was doing. But God met her there, and Hagar called him El Roi, the God who sees me.

In Hagar’s darkest hour, God saw her. God saw Israel during those 400 years of silence, too. And He sees us, even when we can’t see Him or understand what he is doing.

Unlike us, God can see through the dark. He knows what is on the other side, and He has a perfect, sovereign plan.

Light in the Darkness

Malachi 4:6 wasn’t an unusual message during the time of the prophets. If you spend any time reading books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, you know that it’s pretty grim stuff. There’s lots of strange imagery, death, destruction, captivity, pain, and suffering.

Ezekiel 22:30-31, for example, says:

“I searched for a man among them who would build up a wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. So I have poured out My indignation on them.”

No one to stand in the gap. No one to turn aside the wrath of God from His rebellious people.

But darkness doesn’t last forever. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

And it did come, quietly and humbly, to a manger in a little town called Bethlehem. In the presence of Mary, Joseph, some shepherds, and some farm animals, the Light of the World pierced the darkness and broke God’s silence forever. 

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Over the past several weeks in our Sunday morning sermon series in 1 Peter, we’ve been exploring the ways God meets us in our need. God will restore what is broken, He will strengthen and establish us, He will bear our anxieties, and He will vanquish the roaring lion who seeks to devour us.

But sometimes the darkness still feels so overwhelming. Perhaps you’re grieving a death in the family, facing an illness, or working through a difficult relationship. Perhaps you feel a bit like Hagar – alone and lost, facing a desert with no water left.

Perhaps Christmas feels a little too hard this year.

But, my friend, that’s exactly when we need the story of Christmas the most! In that little manger, to a humble mother, among humble shepherds, Jesus came to stand in the gap, turning aside the wrath of God so that we could have life everlasting. Into a dark world filled with sorrow, the joyous good news came. News of hope and love and peace and redemption. News directly from heaven, like an arrow, straight into the heart of the darkness.

This is who our Jesus is, and this is what we are focusing on during this Christmas season through our special Christmas worship services focused on the names of Jesus. He is the Son of God, our Savior, the King of Kings, the Light of the World! In terrible times, He is our joy, peace, and hope!

This is what Christmas is all about! Tidings of comfort and joy, superimposed upon pain and sadness and death and judgment.

This Christmas season, we invite you to join us as we celebrate our Savior. No matter what trials we may endure, we rest in the hope of Christmas, and we look forward to the day when all the broken things will be restored, all the sorrow ended, and all the darkness dispelled! We can find victory because Jesus is the Victor!

Merry Christmas!