You did it!!!!
YOU REACHED THE END OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!
Pat yourself on the back.
Let’s cut the BS and get right to it…
Haggai
You’re probably wondering why I lumped these two books together…
and it’s because Haggai is only two chapters.
Yup.
You read it right.
Two chapters.
The name Haggai means festival, which probably alludes to when Haggai was born.
“Okay…but who cares?”
You should care because this is a full circle moment.
The main thing Haggai preaches about is bringing back the festivals in the new temple that was built.
Let’s rewind for a second.
Remember when I talked about Babylon plundering and destroying the temple in Jerusalem?
Once the Israelites were able to go back to their homeland (after being exiled…remember that too?), they rebuilt the temple.
So, these two chapters are all about celebrating the holidays in the new temple.
Haggai talks about it through five oracles (or visions…whichever word suits your fancy) in 1:1, 1:15, 2:1, 2:10, and 2:20.
I can’t explain why, but whenever I read this book, I think about that scene from Friends when Ross dresses up as the holiday armadillo. I don’t know. I don’t make the rules.
Malachi
The last book of the Old Testament has a lot of symbolic meaning, and I’ll let you digest it however you want to.
But, fact of the matter is, Malachi is a cool book to end on (and it’s only 4 chapters, so it’s an easy read).
It should be qualified as the “mic drop” of the Old Testament (the “mic drop” of the New Testament would obviously be when Jesus resurrects).
Malachi means “messenger of the Lord,” which makes sense given the prior books.
“What do you mean, Rev. Dr.?”
I mean that this book is the final wake-up call before Jesus comes down to kick some butt.
There are six main things Malachi talks about for this final wake-up call:
“God loves us, like really loves us.”
“Hey, priests? Stop sucking at your job.”
“Marriage is serious. Divorce is serious. You are a joke to society.”
“God is like Batman. Justice will be served.”
“Your gifts suck. Have you tried looking at his wish list on Amazon?”
“Just because your enemy hasn’t been struck down by lightning doesn’t mean God won’t judge them. Their time is coming.”
I think it’s important, especially with Malachi, to read the last verse and contemplate it.
“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.”
One of the main things that Jesus’ ministry really focused on was that there were generations of hopelessness and generations of loveless relationships.
Jesus came into the picture and flipped that upside down.
We will obviously go over that a bit more in later Substacks, but it’s interesting to think about nonetheless.
Considering that this is the last of the main Basics of the Old Testament, I think that keeping it short and sweet is a nice way of celebrating that achievement.
Go read with confidence. Thanks for sticking around.
