Prepare the way of The Lord

<p>PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD</p> <p>Twelve years after the rebuilding of the walls and gates of the city at Jerusalem had been accomplished the prophet Malachi wrote the last prophetic book of the Old Testament. God’s people now had all they needed to present themselves to the world as a people of God who would be a testimony to the fact that an all loving, all powerful, just and good God was alive in the Heavens. They had rebuilt the altar of sacrifice, laid the cornerstone and true foundation and rebuilt the temple, then re-established the Word of God through Ezra and the priests, then rebuilt the walls and gates of the city, and everything looked so good. There had been such a lot of ‘rise up and build’ on the outside - but unfortunately there had been very little ‘rise up and build’ on the inside that God wanted from them.</p> <p>Prophets like Haggai and Zechariah’s had been speaking a message of the coming of the Messiah and the completion of the temple (516 b.c). And now a mere twelve years after the completion of all the gates and walls and temple there came the final prophesy of Malachi, who was also prophesying that The Messiah would come to this completed temple. Here is the key verse;</p> <p>Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord (Messiah) whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.</p> <p>You would have thought that now was the time for something wonderful to happen, but nothing wonderful happened – everything stopped, came to a standstill. There Then there was time of silence for four hundred years – a prophetic pause! The next prophet to speak was John the Baptist.  What does a time of silence of four hundred years speak of? What does a prophetic pause like this mean? It speaks of preparing the way of The Lord even in a time of scarceness and insufficiency with a full hope and expectation for something wonderful to happen. I belie