According to his sister Mona, the last words from Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and legendary tech wizard, are three short, monosyllabic phrases: “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.” Not exactly profound, but terrifically real in their humanity.
For almost as long as people have been dying (i.e. forever), mankind has been infatuated with their last words. To most of us, it offers a glimpse into those final few moments where, at the very least, you understand the temporality of human life and gain some perspective on what really matters.
Most people capitalize on these moments, choosing to say something that either reflects on where they’ve been or where they’re going. On his deathbed, Leonardo da Vinci said, “I have offended both God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have” (that’s debatable). Mozart stated, “The taste of death is upon my lips. I feel something that is not of this earth.”
No matter what you choose to say at the end of your life, it’ll probably be better than what Pancho Villa allegedly said, “It can’t end like this. Tell them I said something.” Kinda disappointing, to say the least.
Jesus’ last words on the cross are well-documented and well-outlined. Nearly every preacher on earth has a “Seven Last Words of Jesus” sermon in their back pocket (though some would argue for eight last words instead).
What we forget is that there is another set of “last words” from God, collected in the book of Malachi, which is chronologically the last prophet of the Old Testament, although Nehemiah and Esther may have actually happened after Malachi was written.
The relatively short book of Malachi is written like a Q&A with God, but not quite as argumentative as Job. In short, the people believe they have a case against God, but they quickly find out that He has a case with them. Forming the last recorded words of God before the 400 years of silence until the New Testament began, Malachi reveals a few things that God wants these people to remember moving forward.
He Wants Reverence For His Name
Though every part of our life should reflect the glory that God possesses (Colossians 3:17), nowhere is that more clearly demonstrated in Malachi than in our worship.Throughout the first chapter, Malachi chastises the people for their lackluster worship and sub-par sacrifices (shameful would be a better word), and argues that it reflects on what they really think of God: “Why not offer it [the inferior sacrifices] to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?” (Malachi 1:8)
It may very well be that the Israelites set out at the beginning of their post-exile life to glorify God in everything that they did, but certainly by the time of Malachi, their worship had degenerated into something that was better left for the vultures to feast on than for almighty God. How we worship – not just in authority but in our heart – should reflect a reverent spirit that we have towards our Creator.
He Wants Respect for the Covenants
Covenants are designed to not be broken. They are contracts between two parties that must be mutually respected in order to be kept; God’s people broke theirs with God when they chased foreign gods. In a similar manner, a spouse breaks the covenant with their other half when they commit adultery.
Both of these are in view in Malachi, and though they’re different covenants, it’s not unScriptural to put them together (isn’t that what the book of Haggai is all about?). The people of Malachi’s time made a habit of “profaning the sanctuary of the Lord” (Malachi 2:11), and treating their spouses with contempt. Both of those showed a blatant lack of appreciation for the respective covenants they were in.
God wants us to respect our covenants with God and with our spouses. In a culture where an overwhelming amount of marriages end in divorce, and people are leaving God at an alarming rate, people have abandoned their responsibilities to God and each other in favor of the self. That defies what a covenant is all about. God wants us to return to them.
He Wants Us to Look for Righteous Judgment
Do we realize that judgment is coming (2 Corinthians 5:10)? Do we honestly believe that God is going to return to judge the world? Though we may pay lip service to it, it’s a question that demands our attention, as it did in their day.
The reason they didn’t believe in judgment is spelled out in Malachi 3:14: “It is vain to serve God; and what profit is that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of Hosts.” What profit indeed! Is there really a point to living for God now, or should we just “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32)?
Instead of sitting in a spiritual stupor, unconcerned about where our souls are heading, God wants us to live with eternity in view. People may think that’s foolish (2 Peter 3:1-9), but it’s the only way to make sure that we’re ready for the Final Judgment. Malachi says that God is coming with a “refiner’s fire” – an allusion to Jesus’ arrival, but absolutely has application to us. When God arrives, He’ll arrive to examine our lives, and we’ll all give account for what we’ve done, good or bad.
It’s remarkably similar to what God says at the end of Revelation 22:18-19: “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
John is happy that Jesus is coming; he even says, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus.” For him, judgment is a welcome respite from the world he lives in, salvation is both sure and desired.
Is that our attitude? Listen to God’s last words at the end of both Testaments, and you’ll find that the way the story ends is with our own beginning. Will we respect His covenants? Will we revere His Name? Will we look forward to His judgment?
