Advent Reflections: Malachi’s Timeless Call to Hope

It’s hard to believe we are already kicking off December 2025. I don’t know about you, but this year has flown by - and what a year it has been!

As we approach Christmas and reflect on the Advent of our Lord, this seems like an opportune time to examine our faith. This week, a wonderful book to guide us in this reflection is the book of Malachi. Yes, Malachi — a book of Hope. It bridges the Old Testament to the New, foretelling the coming Messiah and anticipating John the Baptist to prepare the way:

• “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts (Malachi 3:1).

• Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).

Though brief, Malachi addresses something vitally important: the error of forgetting the love of God and the hope that awaits us.

Malachi opens with a clear reminder of God’s steadfast love for His people, even when they question it (Malachi 1:2). He then warns that forgetting or doubting God’s love leads to spiritual decay, affecting relationships, worship, and societal integrity. The book portrays a people who questioned the reality of their sin, polluted their holy offerings, and became hardened to accountability. Only the Lord Himself could provide a way forward from this deadlock.

While reading Malachi, I thought, “What a good book to use for self-examination in my own faith during this first week of Advent,” because it addresses critical topics such as:

Religious Complacency — The people of Malachi’s time went through religious routines without heartfelt devotion. They offered flawed sacrifices, dishonored their marriages, and questioned God’s justice. Malachi confronts this complacency, showing that outward religiosity is meaningless without genuine love, obedience, and faithfulness to God.

Moral and Social Corruption — Malachi doesn’t just address personal sin; he highlights systemic issues like dishonesty, exploitation, and neglect of the vulnerable. This makes the book highly relevant for understanding the connection between spiritual faithfulness and societal integrity. True worship, Malachi teaches, impacts both personal life and communal life.

The Coming Messiah — As mentioned earlier, Malachi contains a crucial prophetic link to the New Testament. It anticipates both John the Baptist and the coming Messiah (Malachi 3:1; 4:5–6). John the Baptist prepares the way, calling the people to repentance, and Jesus fulfills the ultimate hope.

Repentance and Renewal — At its core, Malachi is a book about return: returning to God, returning to genuine faith, and returning to holy living. It demonstrates that sin and hardness of heart can only be addressed by God Himself. The prophetic message calls every believer to honest self-examination and to embrace God’s way of restoration through His Son.

A Bridge Between Old and New Testaments — As the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi closes with both warning and hope: warning about spiritual neglect and hope for divine intervention. It prepares readers for the New Testament era, emphasizing God’s promise to send a Messenger, ultimately the Messiah, bridging centuries of expectation to fulfillment in Christ.

Malachi is important because it prophetically points to our Savior, the only One who can save us from ourselves. It reminds us of God’s enduring love, calls us to authentic worship, exposes spiritual and moral failure, points forward to the Messiah, and challenges believers to repentance and renewal. Its message is timeless:

Faith without love and obedience is hollow, but God’s faithfulness offers restoration and hope.

Responding to Malachi means taking deliberate steps to foster pure and holy devotion to our relationship with Jesus Christ. To do that, we must take the time to examine our hearts. Have any of you lost hope…in Him, or in a relationship being restored, or a healing to manifest, a door to open? Are there areas of your life where God’s love has been ignored or questioned? What about devotion? Are we worshipping Him in spirit and in truth? Are we seeking to live out our lives in integrity and holiness, addressing any compromises or patterns of neglect? Finally, are we embracing repentance and renewal, trusting that God’s faithfulness provides restoration and a path forward? In other words, who do you need to forgive, who do you need to reconcile with, where does an offense need to be laid down?

Take time this December to read slowly through the book of Malachi. As you do, set aside moments for self-examination, so that together, we may all participate in, and experience, the hope and calling that Malachi extends to every believer.

May grace and gratitude abound this Advent season.

God Bless You,

Carole