In this book about the prophecy of Malachi, our journey through the Old Testament comes to an end. In case you missed it, we have had a Bible journaling post just like this one about each book of the Old Testament - bringing us to a deeper understanding and adoration for the Word and the big story of God.

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip:

As we look at this final book of the Old Testament, let’s zoom out and see the whole story. A good idea for something you can create for your Bible is a mindmap with all 39 books of the Old Testament on it. You can maybe categorize this by the following 5 genres / groups: the Pentateuch, the historical books, the wisdom books, the major prophets, and the minor prophets.  You can decide what details you want to include for each book from the following suggestions. Main point, key verse, characters, point to Jesus, etc.

LOOK UP(information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

The name Malachi means “messenger”. Prophets can be understood similar to how a King has a herald, a royal messenger who comes and speaks to the people a message from the King himself. How are you also created to be a herald of the kingdom? What makes a herald unique?

Audience:

This book encourage the people to remain faithful to God. See if you can mark the ways that they are encouraged to do this throughout the book.

History:

Ever since Genesis, we have been reading the great love story of how God pulls His people to Him, but how they continually forget about His faithfulness and get lost again. The Old Testament also ends on this note: Again, the people are called to return to God. Jesus would come to bind the people to God with everlasting cords that are not manmade and that do not fade as easily. How do you understand the Old Testament linking to the New Testament?

Genre:

This is a fairly short book - only 4 chapters, but it carries immense weight as the last book in our Old Testament. This is the last book in the category of the minor prophets. Try to write down and see: can you remember all 12 names of the minor prophetic books?

LOOK IN (revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

Malachi 3:10 NIV

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

Inspiration:

Have you ever heard that you should not put God to the test. It is interesting that about this one thing, God actually says we should test Him. Do you know what the whole tithe means? Do you want financial blessing beyond what you can store? Do you want the floodgates of heaven to be opened over your life? God is clear about what we can do if we want His response in this way.

LOOK OUT (transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Paint the picture of the sun of righteousness rising with healing in its wings that we read about in Malachi 4. You can also see how many other elements from the book of Malachi you can include in your painting. How does this image speak of Jesus - the Son of righteousness?  

Bible Journey with JournalOwl:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the JournalOwl community. 

• What warning did God give in the first five verses of this book? (Malachi 3:1-5)
• How had Israel sinned against God in the past, according to verse seven? (Malachi 3:7)
• How did the Lord respond to those who feared Him in verse sixteen? (Malachi 3:16)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

In Malachi 3 we read that "I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.” 

There is another person who we read about in the New Testament who “prepares the way”. See if you can find who this is, and then write down the similarities between what was prophesied over him / her and how they prepared the way for Jesus to come.

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for this last book of the Old Testament. Would you help me to see Jesus in this book and to become transformed as I read this text? Let my response to this text be worship unto you!