Hope in Times of HopelessnessSýnishorn

Hope in Times of Hopelessness

All over the world, 2022 began with a great deal of optimism. People in many countries saw themselves returning from the exile of the Covid-19 pandemic, with its lock-downs, health crises, death and dying, and unprecedented economic difficulties, to their old, more promising lives.

However, halfway through the year, in a media presentation, most of the people interviewed from around the world spoke of a largely disappointing year. They spoke about the war in Ukraine. They spoke of high energy and food prices. They spoke of how their hardships have increased uncertainty about the future, which is, in turn, creating a growing sense of hopelessness in them.

This is exactly how the people of God in the book of Malachi were feeling. The Lord had graciously allowed them to return to their land in Palestine after decades of exile in Babylon. God did not appear to give them the success and prosperity they were expecting. This had resulted in a growing sense of hopelessness in many of them. They felt let down by God. For this reason, many of these people became nominal in their obedience to the Law of Moses.

As a result of their backsliding and nominal religiosity, God sent the Prophet Malachi to bring His word of hope to these people. The name Malachi means God’s messenger. In the last passage of the book of Malachi, Malachi 3:13-18 and 4:1-6, Malachi seeks to encourage these discouraged and backsliding people by presenting them with a vision of hope for their future.

The people Malachi addressed in his book lived under the Old Covenant. Christians today, however, live under the New Covenant, which was enacted by the costly grace of God in Christ on the cross to make the gospel real and experiential in our lives. So, in our own seasons of hopelessness today, we come to this Malachi text wearing the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Over the course of this Plan, from the last passage of the book of Malachi, which is also the last passage in the Old Testament, through the lens of the gospel, we’ll review how we can either allow our hardships to drag us down into hopelessness or how, in our hardships, we can allow the gospel to lift us up into the New Testament hope we have in Christ.